Plasma Launcher

T9Plasma.png

Type	Hardware, Weapon
Purpose	Mid-range combat, Area-of-denial
Tier Available	3

The Plasma Launcher is a type of hardware cube that fires explosive plasma shots that detonate on impact. Plasma Launchers are available from Tier 3 to Tier 10, and can be unlocked after acquiring the Top Mount SMG T3 or the Top Mount SMG T4.

Overview

Unlike the SMG or Rail Cannon, all the Plasma Launchers on a robot fire plasma bolts in simultaneous volley. The reloading period that follows the volleys is three seconds with one cannon, with each additional cannon adding roughly half a second to the reload time. The plasma bolts are affected by gravity and will arc toward the ground as they travel. Upon impact with solid matter (such as [:Category:Terrain|rocks, dirt], or robots) the bolts detonate in an area-of-effect explosion, dealing damage to any enemy robots within a certain radius.

Plasma Launchers can only be placed on the ventral and dorsal surfaces of a robot, that is they cannot be placed sideways on the front, rear, left, or right faces. They can be placed on the top (top gun position) and underside (belly gun position) of a robot.

Plasma Launchers are slow to traverse and take approximately one second to rotate 90 degrees, tough there seems to be no lag in elevating or depressing plasma launchers.

As Plasma Launchers become progressively higher-tier, their damage, and explosion radius all increase, as well as size, mass, price, armor, robot ranking, and CPU requirement. Plasma Launchers increase in size on T5, T7, and T9, requiring more clear space around them to place. Plasma launchers from even tiers (T6, T8, and T10) remain the same size but receive improved stats.

When a Plasma Launcher fires, it generates significant recoil. This is magnified by the volley fire nature of plasma launchers. Low mass robots are particularly sensitive to recoil effects and can be uncontrollable for several seconds after a plasma volley. Although wheels, thrusters and hoverblades can compensate for recoil, the best method of mitigating it's effect is to make more massive robots. It is possible to limp a crippled robot short distances when it has no remaining movement cubes with the recoil from plasma launchers.

Pros

• Heavy damage
• Projectile arc allows for indirect fire
• Area-of-effect damage
• Good for airborne robots
• Good for ambush tactics
• Good for base defense
• Good for area denial
• Best for engaging multiple targets in a confined area
• Easy to intimidate foes with
• Team-friendly

Cons

• Not ideal for long-range combat
• Slow traverse speed
• Slow reload time
• Slow projectile speed
• Requires patience to effectively use
• Very poor accuracy versus airborne enemies
• Very poor versus targets in cover at range
• Heavy recoil

Mechanics

Limiting Volley Damage

On hit, plasma gives brief invulnerability frames to cubes damaged by its splash, this prevents subsequent hits by other bolts in a plasma volley from causing more damage to the area. This means at close range, robots with multiple plasma cannons are at a disadvantage due to a long reload time and no additional damage capacity, since all the plasma will hit the same point on the target.

Splash Radius Increases with Time

Plasma splash damage radius expands over the first 0.8 seconds of its flight, going from very small, to the maximum available. Long-range volleys that have at least one second of flight time will have maximum splash radius compared to shots fired at shorter range.

Simulated Shrapnel

Plasma simulates splash through a shrapnel model, generating 16 rays along random vectors from the impact point, which may or may not strike the target. Simplified, plasma volleys may do anywhere from zero to maximum damage through splash damage.

Damage Transfer

Plasma have 80% damage transfer effect, and if they hit a weapon or hardware block they transfer 80% of their damage through it to the blocks below, allowing multiple blocks and hardware to be destroyed in a single volley.

Strategies

Using Plasma Launchers

Robots armed with Plasma Launchers (PL) benefit the most from teamwork. While the long reload time can be bothersome in close combat, having teammates, especially electroplated SMG robots, draw enemy fire all but negates this downside. Alternatively, PL robots may take cover behind boulders or walls if teammates are absent. In conjunction with allies, PL robots have the option of either blowing off enough enemy armor to allow SMGs to make short work of the weakened enemy, or waiting until teammates have exposed the enemy's pilot seat and then firing a volley to end the enemy in one fell swoop.

In the event a plasma robot is caught in a close exchange with no backup, the it is best not to fire a premature volley without accounting for the slow traverse speed and wasting the shots. It pays to exercise patience and spend time allowing the accuracy indicator to contract and fire an accurate volley (with whatever plasma launchers than remain) rather getting shot to bits while they reload.

Highly mobile plasma robots such as plasma hovers and speeders are very good for ambush tactics, even without the support of their team mates. Combining with high speed, high turning rates, and multiple jammers can make them unexpectedly close agile in close quarters.

Counter-Strategies

While plasma robots are not unable to fight at long ranges, forcing them to do so puts them at a disadvantage. The plasma bolt's arc and travel time become issues at long distances, not to mention that targets become harder to spot and may have opportunity to move out of the way.

When assaulting plasma robots, instead of aiming to disarm all cannons on the robot, aim for movement cubes and immobilize them, or better yet, cause them to destabilize/spin out. Stability is key to all PL robots, especially airborne bombers, and not being able to aim properly due to losing control of movement renders the guns useless apart from desperate, last-minute shots.

Pay attention to the plasma launcher cooldown, after a plasma robot fires a volley there's a few seconds to act freely without retaliation. Use this time to run away, return fire or get a better position.

When in close and medium range with a plasma robot, keep moving, and move quickly. The slow traverse time and slow projectile speed means that rapid movement may exceed the ability of a plasma launcher to track a target. Though this strategy may not prevent a robot from being hit, it can significantly reduce the damage taken.

Statistics

Image	Tier	Damage	Blast (m)	CPU	Armor	Ranking	Price	Price
	3	1571	15.8	18	1084	109.51	982	55
	4	2775	17.24	20	2003	316.37	2226	80
	5	4546	18.72	22	3431	904.81	4835	125
	6	6967	20.16	24	5501	2,566.38	9534	185
	7	10038	21.64	26	8298	7,223.68	17729	295
	8	13624	23.08	28	11809	20,240.16	34472	490
	9	17433	24.56	30	15871	56,383.31	61341	820
	10	21024	26	32	20146	156,369.71	111851	1355

Trivia

• Plasma in real life as a high energy ionized state of matter, and will not stay in a ball without some form of containment.
• Plasma cannon was added at 11/03/2014
• The only non-hitscan weapon.
• It seem like the plasma projectile entity is parented to the launcher, so a plasma bolt in flight can vanish if the parent cannon that fired it is destroyed. This behavior is inconsistent and may change in upcoming updates.