[Actius]

I have a little question that's been sort of rattling in my brain for the last long while.

Does the capacity exist in FSO to have a beam weapon, let's say on a fighter (ala a phaser or a neutron beam like Babylon 5's White Star) that begins firing when you press down on the fire button and then ceases when you release the button? Thus allowing to control the "duration" of the beam.

And if it doesn't, just where might one start trying to remedy this situation?

[Dragon]

It's possible, though by a sort of exploit. Check out The Babylon Project. Any fast-cycling (no warmup/warmdown and ROF the same as beam lifetime) beam on a single firepoint would appear to fire continously, but it can be done with multiple firepoints, too.

[niffiwan]

Eh? Fighter beams have been possible for ages.  For example, see WoD andJAD:XA, and probably heaps of others (although I haven't got around to flying in Nial or Whitestars in TBP to confirm exactly how they did it).

For how to set it up, see type 2 beams here (I did this for the 1st time only a few weeks ago as part of creating a test case)

I am a fool who cannot read. Ignore the useless tripe I previously wrote.