This thread is an attempt to properly define and explain the various weapons seen on Laser Wars ships!
Actual stats can be found here.
LASERS
By far the most prevalent weapon system in the known galaxy, these lasers are not true laser weapons, but are used by most factions due to their simplicity and ease of use.
Lasers come in five colour-coded variants - Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.
Assault Lasers
This variant/sub-type of Laser was first sighted on NZA warships, but observation of the system in action has lead other factions to consider deploying their own.
The Assault Laser is built on a Medium Laser chassis, but uses banks of modified heatsinks and capacitors operating in parallel circuits to provide a constant stream of fire - as opposed to the conventional series-circuit design used by most factions that allows for a barrage of shots before cooling off. Assault Lasers also sacrifice range and a little rate of fire for slightly improved damage. Many are mounted on fast-tracking wide-flex mounts that are ideal for engaging agile but lightly-armoured craft such as gunships and corvettes.
PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
Part kinetic, part thermal, part energy - all mean. Particle Accelerator weaponry is presently fielded exclusively by the Miora Colonies.
Particle Accelerators have exceptional range and firepower, but tend to have slightly longer recycle times than equivalent lasers. Additionally, unless the weapons are properly fitted and secured, the recoil generated by the particle acceleration process leads to poor accuracy. In ships and mounts that cannot spare the space for proper shock absorbers, the loss in accuracy compared to properly-fitted accelerators can be very noticeable indeed.
More data required.
ROCKETS/MISSILES/TORPEDOES
Whether fitted with kinetic penetrators, explosive warheads, or small-scale nuclear charges, rockets, missiles and torpedoes are amongst some of the deadliest weapons currently available, capable of penetrating the heaviest armour to deal significant damage to their target. As a result, they are often mounted on small and highly agile ships to make dedicated capital-killers.
Prominent users of rocket, missile, and torpedo technologies include the Sovereign Aurelian Republic and Miora Colonies. The PACIV also makes use of MIRV/MWM payloads.
KINETIC WEAPONRY
A low-tech weapon system, kinetic weaponry is extremely simple and easy to manufacture, being even simpler than red lasers. Most use simple chemical propellants to accelerate a solid metal projectile, dealing damage through raw kinetic energy. More advanced versions may incorporate magnetic acceleration, or small explosive or nuclear charges in shells for increased damage. While now rendered obsolete in most faction's arsenals thanks to the proliferation of energy weapons and looked down upon by some due to their 'crude' nature, they can still be found in the hands of some pirate groups who favour them for their availability, low heat emissions, and simplicity.
The Ratai are notable for being one of the few major factions known to rely heavily on such weaponry.
BEAM WEAPONRY
Data pending. A few factions are experimenting with beam-based emitter weaponry, but for the most part these weapons have not been fielded in significant numbers, or taken part in any major fleet engagements.
PLASMA BLASTERS
Employed exclusively on NZA warships, plasma blasters are believed to use magnetic containment and compression to condense a charge of high-energy plasma. When the magnetic containment field generated around the charge is interrupted by the presence of other magnetic fields or dense matter (such as bodies of water, an asteroid, or a ship's hull) then the field collapses, releasing the compressed plasma charge in a violent dispersal of hull-melting ionized gas and crew-scorching radiation.
Though they are fired from structures that look like standard torpedo tubes, these plasma blasts are always unguided. Like torpedoes, plasma blasters deal full damage to even the most heavily-armoured targets.
Like standard Laser weapons, Plasma Blasters come in Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet variants. The NZA uses Green Plasma Blasters almost exclusively.
ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT
Weaponry is not the only important design consideration in warship design. Many other factors and systems are involved, including engines, armour, communications, sensors and more.
STEALTH SYSTEMS
A number of ships are diesgned with stealth features, referred to as passive stealth. Utilisation of emmision reduction and sensor fooling technologies can produce ships with significantly reduced sensor footprints, making them much harder to detect. This system is hardly parfect; such designs require more exotic materials than normal craft thus raising costs, while design concessions given to stealth can hinder combat performance in other areas. Furthermore, a sufficiently powerful or sufficiently close sensor can still stand a good chance of detecting such craft. Such systems can be more effective with friendly ECM support spoofing hostile sensor systems, or where local conditions (like in nebulae or around stars) hinder sensor systems.
Full active stealth systems, often refered to as 'cloaks', were widely regarded as merely a theoretical exercise - at least, until the now-infamous Anarr raid, which revealed the existence of the Sovereign Aurelian Republic's advanced stealth warships. The precise workings of such systems are currently unknown, as whatever information is highly classified. The most popular theory are that it bends space-time around the user, causing sensor signals to simply flow around the cloaked ship. The effects, however, are well known. Stealth cloaks can allow a ship to elude detection with ease, and prevent accurate targeting when in combat when coupled with the ECM mounted of Aurelian stealth craft. The only hope for effective detection is the most advanced and powerful sensor systems mounted on dedicated electronic warfare craft like the Mioran Ossuary, and even then only at close ranges.
End Note
More weapons and data pending. If you have anything you'd like to see covered, corrections to make, or a section of your own to submit, just post!