It makes no sense to me from a scientific and lore stand point why the Laser Rifle has a minimum effective range. I'm assuming the beam is either made up of high energy particles or protons. Given this assumption, I would assume that more of them would be able to hit the target at closer ranges and less would be able to hit the target at longer ranges due to the effects of scattering. How is it that the DUST 514 Laser Rifle doesn't exhibit this behavior?

I understand that the Laser Rifle needs to have this property for balance reasons in game. Say goodbye to the Assault Rifle if the LR didn't have a minimum range. I can understand that it needs time to warm up as well. What I'm having a hard time grasping is the actual New Eden reason the Laser Rifle exhibits the formerly mention property.

If any of you EVE lore geeks out there could enlighten me, I would be greatly thankful.

Balance

I imagine it being justified by the laser rifle consisting of multiple beams that are already clustered very close together to look like one intense beam, but they are very slightly angled in towards each other so that the point of intersection is the hottest and most concentrated point in the laser's effective range, and the multiple beams being slightly scattered at close range makes the heat buildup on that spot substantially less effective.

or something.

Why doesn't the sniper rifle work the same way.

sniper rifle is a portable railgun so shooting a projectile at high speed, thus from moment it leaves the barrel it does full damage.

The laser starts at a frequency too high to resonate with it's target substance while giving it good impact power at range. It attenuates its energy through the atmosphere (where there is a visible 'beam', it's using the air to lower it's energy to a state that will be able to react with the enemy drop suit's shields and armor.) Had it started out at the targeted resonance frequency energy level, it will fizzle out at about shotgun range.

The laser starts at a frequency too high to resonate with it's target substance while giving it good impact power at range. It attenuates its energy through the atmosphere (where there is a visible 'beam', it's using the air to lower it's energy to a state that will be able to react with the enemy drop suit's shields and armor.) Had it started out at the targeted resonance frequency energy level, it will fizzle out at about shotgun range.

Most induction based lasers in eve are multi-beamers with focal points however in large star ships the beamers are able to adjust the beam focal on the fly up to a certain distance where electronic war fares of defending ship's get's too good to no longer be effective.

Lasers in eve are free 'energy' based with tunable frequency crystals able to shift the original photon beam into various wavelengths from radio to ultravoilet.

While overall the laser looks like its a plasma weapon, this is not the case as the air is just getting over excited into a plasma state, the directed energy at the optimal point however is extremely intense and able to defeat even our level of defenses.

Realistically though, impact point of these beams should be causing atomic explosions, and not melting.