[blowfish]

Does the fire wait for beams include the warmup and warmdown times?  For instance the BGreen has a fire wait of 30 seconds, and a warmup and warmdown of 3.5 secs each.  So would it actually wait 37 seconds between shots, or are the warmup and warmdown part of the fire wait?

[Wanderer]

IIRC (could be wrong though) only the firing time and firewait time count. The warmup and warmdown times are just there 'for the show'.

[eliex]

 It'd be great if Alpha 1 goes over to knock out a Hecate's forward beam turrets and then WHOA a beam blasts him out of nowhere . . .
with no warning at all . . . 

[Man-Whore]

It'd be great if Alpha 1 goes over to knock out a Hecate's forward beam turrets and then WHOA a beam blasts him out of nowhere . . .
with no warning at all . . . 

It'd take some serious skill to actually get hit by an anti-cruiser beam.

[Retsof]

Trust me, being insta-vaped by a beam out of nowhere isn't much fun, especially when you're about a second from completing the mission!  

[Dark Hunter]

It'd be great if Alpha 1 goes over to knock out a Hecate's forward beam turrets and then WHOA a beam blasts him out of nowhere . . .
with no warning at all . . . 

It'd take some serious skill to actually get hit by an anti-cruiser beam.

What, that's never happened to you? I've gotten vaporized by anti-capship beams occasionally when I forget that I'm between the ship and its intended target.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Never hit by a cruiser beam?  Man I bet you've never had a cap ship jump in on top of you either.  Someone's either extremely lucky or not playing on a high enough difficulty level. Try insane. 

[Gamma_Draconis]

Seriously? I've gotten fitted by friendly fire beams so many times. It's so annoying, you think the gunner would be able to aim a bit below your fighter.

[Prophet]

"Avoid the beam and you won't get hit, pilot!" -Insight from Command

[Man-Whore]

Seriously? I've gotten fitted by friendly fire beams so many times. It's so annoying, you think the gunner would be able to aim a bit below your fighter.

Actually, when I'm around corvettes (damn them!) it happens quite a bit. It's amazing how they often completely miss their target (something BIG) and swat me straight out of the sky.

[Man-Whore]

Never hit by a cruiser beam?  Man I bet you've never had a cap ship jump in on top of you either.  Someone's either extremely lucky or not playing on a high enough difficulty level. Try insane. 

Oh, no. I get popped by anti-fighter beams all the time. I meant the big inaccurate ones that, if they do hit you, take you down in one hit.

[Prophet]

I once saw a slash go trought a formation of bombers...

[Wanderer]

Yeah.. without modding in the normal beam-freed situation all beams prioritize bombs above all other targets. This means that even mighty BFred will aim at the first bomb it sees if it just can and only if there are none then it might shoot at enemy cap ships. If there happens to be bombers behind the bomb that the beam targeted... well.. tough luck.

[Prophet]

Honestly, I never saw that all that much... And I did quite a lot of fiddling and spent much time just ""observing" battles. And the beams firing on bombs phenomena I'd say was rare. Then again, my bobs used to be a bit faster than stock FS "little-more-than-useless-snail" class bombs...

[Dark Hunter]

I've seen anti-fighter beams shoot bombs a lot, but never slashes or anti-capship beams...

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Never hit by a cruiser beam?  Man I bet you've never had a cap ship jump in on top of you either.  Someone's either extremely lucky or not playing on a high enough difficulty level. Try insane. 

Oh, no. I get popped by anti-fighter beams all the time. I meant the big inaccurate ones that, if they do hit you, take you down in one hit.

The big ones don't always kill you.  I've been hit several times and ended up really damaged and very far away from the battle.  Might as well have died.

[Desert Tyrant]

I've seen anti-fighter beams shoot bombs a lot, but never slashes or anti-capship beams...

It's rare, but it happens.  I tried shooting a Stilletto at the Hawkwood in The Sixth Wonder and it used its slasher beam to shootdown the stilletto (and me in the process)

[blowfish]

I doubt that it intentionally shot down the stiletto, it was probably just in the beam's path (as well as you), though I have seen heavy weapons target the player occasionally (like fusion mortars and the Beleth's LRed in Bearbaiting ( I can't think of any other reason why I was consistently being hit by it).

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I was working on a mission a few months back.  Had the cap ship battle all done.  Added some bombers on both sides and all of a sudden all cap ship beams went after the bombs.  So much for that cap ship battle.  That was even with retail FS2

[Wanderer]

Yeah. Its called 'beam jamming'. Friendly bombs (but not bombers) can buy a lot of to friendly cap ships in heavy beam-freed combat.

This helps with it though... http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Ai_profiles.tbl#.24huge_turret_weapons_ignore_bombs: