The first thing I would recommend is reducing the magazine size to 1. In my earlier post I had assumed that was already the case (the "4 shots in reserve" point was meant to indicate reloading a one-shot weapon four times), but seeing as it's not then the very first thing to do when reducing its anti-infantry capability is to make it a one-shot weapon.

For one thing, it brings the Lascannon closer to what it is in lore: it expends its entire energy cell every time it fires. A lascannon without an external power source (such as a generator or vehicle engine) uses disposable one-shot cells that burn out when fired.

The other thing is that this vastly reduces its effectiveness against infantry, since that way if you miss your one shot you won't be able to try again until you finish the reload cycle.

I would argue that it should probably hold 2 or 3 shots per clip, and 4 also sounds fine depending on the numbers. I don't see them having an easy time balancing the weapon around a 1 shot wonder mechanic.

Thanks for the answer Brent . I have just one more question concerning lascannon dmg against vehicles: how many shots are required to destroy a rhino and a predator right now (lets assume we're hitting the front armour)?

Well, reducing the magazine size to 1 is ALMOST the same thing as giving infinite magazine size and increasing the cooldown significantly. The only difference is that the cooldown happens no matter what you do, while you can't finish a reload if you roll or sprint. That might make a big difference though, so we're certain to give it a try.

Right now it's 2 shots for a rhino and 4 to kill a Predator, but yeah there's some significant tweaking to do.

Thanks for the answer. Huh, that's pretty fast, actually faster than I had thought it would be. Personally I'd see them a bit tougher, especially predator as EC is a team work game and we can expect whole tank hunter teams going around together. I was thinking more like 3\4 shots for the rhino and about 6\8 for the pred but I'm sure there will be a lot of testing before it's settled anyway. Thanks for the answer again .(sorry for the bold, I can't control it)

Where's this from?
I ask as I've never come across this bit of Fluff before.

Personally, I always thought that Lascannons had to literally cool down between shots.

I think that the real problem from balancing don't come from a single weapon but for a squad or bigger number use of a certain weapon or weapon combination.
For example a squad with 5-6 lascannon that cover a certain spot with constant lascannon fire and annihilate all the infantry.

Blade said:

Will vehicles have modular armor? Versus going with an oversimplified "flat damage" model?

Simply stating a certain number of shots will take out an armored vehicle doesn't really properly represent how any armored vehicle works, whether IRL or even in the 40K universe. Granted, the weapon type doing the damage also plays a role.

Two to Five shots to a road wheel from a man portable Lascannon shouldn't impact a vehicles performance/status/HP the way 2 to 5 direct hits to the fuel tank or ammunition stores would. Hits to the track or road wheels should be working on a vehicle mobility damage threshold(1 module), while hits to the crew compartment, engine, or fuel tanks should be working on 3 totally separate modules.

"Mobility kills" per say, several hits to the engine or tracks shouldn't result in catastrophic damage to the entire vehicle. The vehicle should be immobile, but still capable of fighting. If a shot ruptures the fuel tank, a follow on shot in the same area should ignite the fuel. A random dice roll would determine whether or not the vehicle starts burning or if the fuel tank explodes instantly.

Simply hitting the vehicle anywhere shouldnt be enough to score a lethal hit or catastrophic kill, rather a bit of player skill and luck should also factor in. Some shots should also be able to wound or kill crewman, while not effecting the vehicles performance... that's where a modular damage model comes into play.

Being an fan of tank sims since M1 Tank Platoon back in the late 80s, I'm hoping to see some aspects of those type games brought to the arena in EC. There's a metric $@! ton of quality tank sims out there to draw information from.

Yeah this sounds kinda yikes. I'm assuming the Lascannon is hitscan? You'll get whole squads of 30+ people camping on hills, group-sniping vehicles. It's what we did in PS2, and we did it with a rocket launcher that took 10+ hits to kill a tank! If you made the lascannon that powerful, I'd hope you give it some kind of requisition cost or something. You gotta factor in how this is going to scale to entire coordinated guilds.