[deathfun]

Well, if the beam cannon was effective in dogfights, wouldn't it have penetrated the hull of the vessel he was in? It was never shown, so the assumption in this case would be that the beams they have on their bodies is more anti-person than anti-ship.

[rscaper1070]

Well, if the beam cannon was effective in dogfights, wouldn't it have penetrated the hull of the vessel he was in? It was never shown, so the assumption in this case would be that the beams they have on their bodies is more anti-person than anti-ship.

I think he means if you can make a beam cannon small enough for your shoulder why can't you put one on a fighter or bomber? It's a good question, Inferno will probably answer it.

[Mongoose]

We also don't really know if it was a true "beam" weapon, or just something like a finite blast of plasma, similar to a primary weapon on a fighter.  The screen fades to white pretty quickly as it fires.

[karajorma]

Most FS2 ships can survive ridiculous amounts of damage.

The simple answer is probably just that while the Shivan beam is good against fleshy humans it would simply be laughed at if you hit a ship with it.