ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beam

The ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beam is a beam weapon used by the Terrans and Vasudans in FreeSpace 2. The primary purpose of the ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beam is to protect the ship it is mounted on against attacks from smaller vessels such as fighters and bombers. It is also capable of intercepting incoming bombs in addition to ships. Against smaller objects, the ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beam discharges three beams per pulse. The ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beam can also target larger warships—it will fire a single, continuous pulse—although the damage dealt is much less compared to dedicated anti-warship beams such as the BGreen.

Weapons in Descent: FreeSpace

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS1

Weapons in FreeSpace 2

Primaries Secondaries Turrets Weapon Comparison Table, FS2

Performance

Statistics

Name	ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beam
Range	4 000 m
Recharge time	2.2 s
Beam lifetime	2.5 s
Type	Anti-fighter
Number of shots	3
Damage	30
Damage	165 s-1
Damage (sustained)	188 s-1
Damage per pulse	413

Additional properties

• Weapon is a beam cannon (beam)
• Weapon cannot be mounted on small ships (Big Ship)

Notes

Veteran Comments

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Very deadly AAA beam, more effective than the AAAf or AAAh, not usually used, and never by default. Powerful enough to destroy most fighters in one pulse. In the main FS2 campaign, it is used by the GTCv Warspite in "A Game of TAG" to balance the player's lack of any proper missiles.

Also used by the Colossus in High Noon.

Unlike other beam weapons, this appears to be the only one that does not need to recharge in between shots. Once, I replaced all the AAAfs on the Colossus with this in a user-made level; I could hear them firing over and over again like nobody's business.

Another thing worth noting about the ULTRA, apart from having almost no recharge delay on all difficulty levels, is that it has more than twice the effective range of any other AAA in the game. While the AAAf, AAAh and SAAA all have a range of 1500 meters, this one can comfortably hit any enemy, including warheads, 3000 meters from it and still pose a threat up to a further 1000 meters away.

The AI fires this beam on hostile warships when there are no spacecraft in range and is capable of inflicting considerable damage for an anti-fighter beam.

Because the usage of this beam implies high energy levels (like reactor overloads, as can be seen in High Noon), don't use it if you don't have anything justifying the presence of such weapon. Arming, without any explanation, anything smaller than a destroyer with ULTRA Anti-Fighter Beams is extremely weird. Even a non-plausible reason is better than nothing.