A headshot with a V29 Laser Pistol deals 20-30 damage on headshot.
A reflex recurve bow with 15 strength deals 40-70 damage on headshot. Regular “wood arrow”.
I’m not sure on physics but I’m pretty certain being shot in the face with hot plasma would do more damage than being hit by an arrow.
Edit: I’m also dealing slightly more damage in unarmed combat. My fists are stronger than lasers.
Well, you have 15 strength.
The niche for lasers is that they’re very accurate and have no recoil, so you can fire them extremely fast.
Comparing them “per shot” is kind of pointless, you need to be comparing per unit of time.
I whipped up a survivor with 15 str*, good-ish stats otherwise (10) the same skill levelss across the board (6), and the listed weapons, then attacked 3 zombies with each at short range.
Bow data:
53 moves/shot
crit/56
crit/48
106 moves to kill
good/26
crit/49
headshot/77
159 moves to kill
crit/45
crit/48
106 moves to kill
349 damage over 371 moves
0.938 DPM
Laser data:
20 moves/shot
crit/20
good/12
crit/20
good/10
headshot/31
100 moves to kill
crit/18
crit/21
good/14
crit/18
good/12
100 moves to kill
crit/22
good/18
good/13
headshot/30
good/19
100 moves to kill
278 damage over 300 moves
0.926 DPM
Outcome: the overall damage output per move from the laser pistol is about 1% lower than from the bow.
When using the bow, the zombies were able to take several steps toward me, with the laser I killed each of them before they had a chance to move. This is because the high firing rate of the laser gives the hits a chance to average out better, making it more reliable.
We don’t have a good way to depict this in game, but when you kill something with a laser, you’re firing a continuous beam that burns it to death, we just parcel out the damage in small chunks, because that lets you react faster.
Also it’s a laser, there’s no plasma involved.
*This advantages the bow from the start.
Only problem with laser is that they can easily reflect from zombie skin afaik.
Which considering its a laser beam makes no sense at all.
Yeah, lasers aren’t worth the effort. Eats up the ol’ UPS too fast, which can take some significant effort to fill up.
Might as well use a regular gun.
Lasers reflecting off of skin is a bad description, all it means is it did no damage, which you can get with the high armor zombies, and possibly at long range?
I’m not trying to convince you it’s the best weapon around, just that it’s not ridiculously underpowered as the OP was indicating.
Also they’ll be getting an effective buff (less of a nerf?) with the aiming system.
It’s not just the bow; 9mm rounds are capable of out-damaging the laser, even with a suppressor. And I get 50 ammo per 9mm drop Vs 5 shots for every battery drop. And it takes multiple critical hits to kill a zombie. Speed firing doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the ammo to back it up.
Not to mention laser weapons have few applicable mods, I can make my 9mm hit like a magnum round with the right mods.
The V29 is a top-of-the-line laser weapon and it’s weaker than a regular pistol. The LACP is even weaker than that.
The A7 isn’t that much better either. It eats up 40 battery power regardless of whether it’s single-shot or burst mode (i’m guessing that’s a limitation). In either case, I get enough power to kill two zombies for each pickup. That’s ridiculously inefficient.
well laser weapons are just prototypes
just compare plane of wright brothers with F-22 Raptor old aircraft is weak and slow while modern planes are fast and strong with missles radar and more
alslo today weapons with cased bullet are better than caseless because caseless weapons like to overheat and case of weapon is not too damage resistant so new things are less efective than something what we know but later we learn how to use new technology and make it better
Ways to optimize lasers would be nice. More bang for your buck, as in same ammo cost, more damage.
Gives techies something to do.
Are you still comparing per shot? It’s not at all clear whether you are or not. For comparing to 9mm, you have to also account for the time spent recovering from recoil.
It should also be stated that if a creature type has a weakness to sunlight it should also suffer extra damage from a laser weapon. Not that such things exist, as far as I know, but it should be considered in the scope of things.
I’m comparing the time spent looking for more ammo :V
Now, a vehicle-mounted laser that draws from the battery? Yes, please!
There are.
I’m comparing the time spent looking for more ammo :V[/quote]
So they aren’t “weak”, they’re “expensive”? Yes, the are.
I find them both weak and expensive. If they were expensive and strong or weak and cheap it would be fine.
Considering I pointed out that they’re equal to one of the best bows in the game in damage output, I’m confused why you’re still calling them weak.
I never bothered with the actual laser guns. Couldn’t see the point of burning UPS AND ammo.
Now, the CBM laser pistol, install that sucker and never look back. 
Maybe you’re thinking fusion or plasma guns? lasers only use power. (another reason the damage is balanced where it is)
Edit: Misread the post.
I’ll concede the point that they’re equal to bows in terms of DPS but they absolutely lose in almost everything else.
Availability: Lab finales Vs Craftable. No contest.
Ammo Usage: More shots needed to accomplish the same amount of damage and you get 5 “shots” per pickup. One zombie, according to your tests. No contest.
Ammo availability: Ammo literally grows on trees Vs random drops or boiling acid water. No contest.
Also, higher ammo availability means your skill goes up faster; meaning more crits overall.
Plus we’re talking about the BEST (V29) laser pistol, so you saying it’s equal to the best bow is kinda redundant.
Ah well, I’m just going to edit the json raise beam damage to be at least equal to 9mms.