beam collimator upgrade is useless now #204
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7883688onmain.What changed, and a decision worth checking
The Collimator is a BEAM WIDTH upgrade now (+22 half-width per level, 38 -> 104) rather than a range one. That is not what the name implies, so here is the reasoning.
It went stale because the beam's base range doubled and the upgrade's flat +300 did not: 10% of a 2900-unit beam, three times over. The obvious fix is to scale the range instead - but range is now the wrong axis entirely. The aim view frames twice the distance to the chosen target (#203), and the zoom floor already sits where a 2900-unit aim only just fits a phone screen. Any range increase pushes the thing you are aiming at off the screen, so buffing the number would have made the upgrade look useful while quietly breaking the aim view.
Width has no such conflict, and it gives the upgrade something to buy: the beam catches enemies it visibly passed before.
How
Beam width was a constant shared by the hit test and the drawing. It is now a vessel stat carried per shot, with the drawn width still derived from the hit width by ratio - the effect's own comments record those two numbers drifting apart once before and the beam killing things it visibly missed, and a growing width is exactly how that would come back.
If you would rather have raw range and accept the aim-view cost, say so - the plumbing now supports either.
Verification
test_laser_vessel.gdgains a case: three Collimators widen the component, and a beam at the researched width strikes a flanking enemy that the same shot at base width misses.