Gedankenspiel (Weapons Discussion)

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discord
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Re: Gedankenspiel (Weapons Discussion)

Post by discord »

damn, necroing a bit here, but still.

dahak: are you seriously saying that 3x3m rooms are that uncommon where you live? damn, where would that be, hobbitville? dwarfhome?

overkill engine: electrolaser is a interesting idea, and really useful for high tech stunguns too, but electro zaps strong enough to reliably kill would be some serious wattage, and since all you would need to defeat it is a wearable faraday cage, which actually exist, and looks kinda badass, but it makes the weapon sorta useless for military applications.

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cacambo43
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Re: Gedankenspiel (Weapons Discussion)

Post by cacambo43 »

I don't have anything substantive to add to this discussion (heck, I've not really been reading it), but I wanted to say that whenever I see this topic in the discussion list, I think it says "Glockenspiel"!

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saint of m
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Re: Gedankenspiel (Weapons Discussion)

Post by saint of m »

What kind of cooling systems would be used for the weapons.

My limited knowledge of weapons and space, I know this:

Would most of the atmosphere based be air cooled?

In the case of Machine guns/scifi equivalent would liquid cooled or quick exchange barrels be an option (I am using the Military definition which is able to 1. Shoot Riffle Rounds, though the full auto grenade launcher can count 2. Able to do continuous fire, generally done by belt fed. 3. Ability to keep barrel cool. Usually means liquid cool or able to quickly exchange barrels).

As for space, they would need a way to keep the heat from distorting the barrels after a while. To be blunt, what ever is looking at the sun gets roasted, whatever is away from it gets colder than your ex's heart.

Overkill Engine
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Re: Gedankenspiel (Weapons Discussion)

Post by Overkill Engine »

discord wrote: since all you would need to defeat it is a wearable faraday cage, which actually exist, and looks kinda badass, but it makes the weapon sorta useless for military applications.
There's a bit more nuance than that to that interaction; after all, personal body armor and vehicle armor exists, yet we still use kinetic rounds. And chemical/biological weapons exist despite the use of specialized suits to defeat and/or temporarily mitigate their use.

If anything, merely *having* another type of weapon available means your opponent must either invest in a countermeasure or they will have disproportionate casualties inflicted.

Sweforce
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Re: Gedankenspiel (Weapons Discussion)

Post by Sweforce »

Overkill Engine wrote:If one has sufficiently solved the power supply issue well enough to deploy antipersonnel scaled railguns or lasers, then other types of directed energy weapons should be viable as well which would also allow bypassing some of the issues of the prior mentioned weapon types.

Directed Energy Weapons

Of particular interest are the microwave and electrolaser types. Neither should require much in the way of moving parts, nor kinetic rounds. Both would work against organics and insufficiently shielded electronics; and are unlikely to put an unexpected hole in a ship hull, which is of understandably immense concern in shipboard combat. Also, neither should have any notable recoil since they do not use kinetic energy. The electrolaser may be more power efficient than a standard laser weapon due to only needing a laser powerful enough to ionize a path for an electric charge to travel.


Came to think of the fact that in the defending role during a boarding action, defenders could simply use local power outlets and let the ship provide the power. As such the defenders would not need to reserve energy the way an attacker would have to do.

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