OTU is 3000 years in the future
- Thread starter ady
- Start date
It's little things like this that make me think that the plasma rifle (not PGMP) should be TL13 instead of TL16.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
I agree, and a pistol by TL15...
I never felt like I needed that, I just wanted the laser weapons to be less clunky - so I waved away the battery packs after a level, and introduced various bits of tech that tweaked them and/or beefed them up to something that felt significantly more effective than a slug-thrower.
Beam-splitter - increases ROF / creates a "burst" effect
Hi-Intensity Beams - increased damage and penetration
Adaptative tuning - negates degrades usefulness of reflec and/or aerosols
Maser capability (short range) - generally used for anti-tech rather than anti-personel
etc
D.
You do appreciate how spectacularly terrible The F/PGMP weapons are, right?
It's like the D&D Fireball spell.
It looks great on paper, at a glance, but actually using it -- well, that's something else entirely. (40 feet in diameter? Really? Light that sucker off, and there goes the Prancing Pony -- all of it.)
Imagine running around just tossing White Phosphorus grenades every which way. Only, now add some real, actual, explosive penetrating power to the grenade. Perhaps a shaped charge WP grenade.These things punch holes AND light things on fire.
While, yea, perhaps, a person can wield and fire such a weapon without BD at higher tech levels, you really, really, don't want to.
It's like using a flamethrower in your living room.
"Collateral damage" is the default, not the exception.
You wear BD while using these in order to survive simply using them.
Imagine a fire fight (perhaps I should say FIRE fight) in a random forest. Every hit or miss lights another tree or bush on fire. (Save, perhaps, in a jungle). Imagine hitting a tree with one of these, the energy breaks the thing open and lights the tree sap on fire, with all its sticky goodness flinging on everything. Then, of course, the wind kicks up. A small infantry engagement lights up a fire that burns down 200,000 acres. "Oops"
You can barely use these things outside. You certainly can't use them inside, not with any subtlety to be sure. At least RAM grenades are HEAP, and less tendency to light everything on fire.
Energy weapons are designed for attacking BD troops, notably outdoors, preferably surrounded by concrete.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
It's when your heavy support team member starts speaking in tongues.
Radius.
The trick in the day was to make use of that huge volume - in AD&D1/2 the spell's volume conformed to the available space, so if the ceiling was only 10' high it spread out accordingly. So you had 33.5 thousand cubic feet of fire, and those kobold warrens people used to go on about - well if they were 5-foot square in cross-section (and that's generous - GMs liked to make them very cramped for human-sized PCs), the explosion would fill 1240 liner feet of tunnels. Bye-bye warren.
But that's why Lightning Bolt was a spell of the same level - in dungeons it had similar utility because it was easier to use without frying yourself (but even it could reflect back if you were careless). The modern Fireball is just a simple spherical effect. The old one was a decent sized thermobaric warhead.
Or combat armour if you've got one of the gravitic compensated models.
Or for boarding actions where you don't care about the ship, which probably suits Imperial Marine attitudes just fine - go on the attack, leave nothing standing.
If you use the Striker or MegaTraveller stats, TL-13 lasers have plenty of performance while leaving a niche (mass-murder of under-armoured cannon-fodder) for the gauss rifle.
ady
SOC-11
Using the weapon design rules in Striker, if you go smaller, it is possible to design some pretty horrific hand weapon plasma and fusion guns. At TL15, you can make a battery powered Rapid Pulse Fusion Pistol (less than a kg), with the damage of a gauss rifle and a ROF greater than a chaingun (16 targets a round). It seems there is a reason why slugthrowers are only produced up to TL12.
I wouldn't mind a man portable pulse lasers weapon, myself. And I agree.
I actually picture something that emits a much smaller pulse, eventually to become something like the weapons in Babylon 5.
So something that is usable against BD, but doesn't destroy the nearest terrain
Woah, don't blow up on us!
Yes THIS.
The PGMP is more in the role of an Infantry Support Weapon. A much lower powered Plasma Weapon (call it a "blaster" or PPG) that is in the 5D-6D range would work well - Smallarm size.
Have it be cartridge based and flash-heat a small metal spheroid from its magazine up to plasma temperature as part of the cartridge function in conjunction with the firing chamber.
I don't mind it being "battery" or energy cell powered instead of firearm like cartridges, but otherwise yes.
Edit: though your description does make sense as well. I'm sure there's several ways to do it.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
Woah, don't blow up on us!
They have plasma grenades in that armory book I mentioned. Nasty business.
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I always looked at the various energy MPs as less fireball chucker (generally no area detonation/effect) and more a high tech version of HEAT jets that can maintain their form over a much longer time/distance.
Although perhaps a flamethrower effect could be a model. In which case it’s as much EVA thruster as weapon.
Although perhaps a flamethrower effect could be a model. In which case it’s as much EVA thruster as weapon.
Looking at Striker's design sequences, the FGMP-14 and FGMP-15 have an effective burst at effective range. The others lack the energy. So while you'd not want to be standing, unarmoured, beside the impact point, the PGMPs aren't effective area weapons.
As for fusion gun handguns. At TL15 a 0.35kg weapon (assuming not meaningful extra weight for sights, recoil systems, etc. is needed) will have Pen 6 and a 300m effective range. However, the size of the battery to power it is likely to be an issue - Striker assumes continuous power to a weapon, and that means this 'pistol' (which probably recoils like the 'Little Cricket' of Men in Black) needs 0.12kg of battery per shot. If it's to have that 160+ shots per 30s turn that gives 16 targets, it needs a 19.2kg battery. The gun might be tiny, but the power system is not.
For what it's worth, you can build energy weapons of handgun size using Fire, Fusion, & Steel as well. However they run into problems too - but in this case it's with recoil. Because of the way it's calculated recoil goes up as an energy weapon gets less powerful, because the lower weight more than compensates for the lower power.
As for fusion gun handguns. At TL15 a 0.35kg weapon (assuming not meaningful extra weight for sights, recoil systems, etc. is needed) will have Pen 6 and a 300m effective range. However, the size of the battery to power it is likely to be an issue - Striker assumes continuous power to a weapon, and that means this 'pistol' (which probably recoils like the 'Little Cricket' of Men in Black) needs 0.12kg of battery per shot. If it's to have that 160+ shots per 30s turn that gives 16 targets, it needs a 19.2kg battery. The gun might be tiny, but the power system is not.
For what it's worth, you can build energy weapons of handgun size using Fire, Fusion, & Steel as well. However they run into problems too - but in this case it's with recoil. Because of the way it's calculated recoil goes up as an energy weapon gets less powerful, because the lower weight more than compensates for the lower power.
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
Looking at the big picture, I'd say this is where you should focus:
Human nature isn't likely to change much in 3,000 years. It hasn't in the last 3,000. What has primarily is technology.
There are four great periods of technological development to date:
Ancient. A lot of stuff is invented, lost, reinvented. All the basics are in place, even if often crude. Documentation is often spotty and poor. Crude water power, the first factories, organized agriculture, are major inventions.
Scientific. The Renaissance in Europe. This period is where standardized principles, good documentation, and widespread knowledge occurs. The inventiveness is marginal. What really matters is the group memory isn't going down a hole to be forgotten now. The printing press, movable type, the scientific method are typical major inventions.
Industrial. Basic systems of energy use are applied to previous mechanical systems. Crude computers become common. Humanity is far better organized to mass produce. The skyscraper (a manual computer for record keeping and control of factories), mass production, steam and water power, and the railroad (mass land transportation for the first time) are major inventions.
Electronic. Harnessing electricity and the digitization of information. Harnessed to industrial age technology things now move faster and more accurately than before. The digital computer, radio, laser, and electronics in general are major inventions.
What's next? Hard to say but, I can guess,
AI. The AI age sees much of humanity replaced by a computer that can make decisions and process information. How far AI can go in terms of inventiveness, creativity, or out of the box thinking is yet to be seen.
Robotics. This is where machines can do what humans do virtually all of the time. We make great pets.
Something beyond that.
What the timeline is, no idea. I can say that the ancient period lasted something like 20,000 years. The scientific like 200 to 300 years. The industrial about 500. The electronic has been going on for about 100 to 200 now. The AI, where it really makes a difference, for about 50 to 75.
One thing is for sure, that technological revolutions are getting shorter between each cycle.
Human nature isn't likely to change much in 3,000 years. It hasn't in the last 3,000. What has primarily is technology.
There are four great periods of technological development to date:
Ancient. A lot of stuff is invented, lost, reinvented. All the basics are in place, even if often crude. Documentation is often spotty and poor. Crude water power, the first factories, organized agriculture, are major inventions.
Scientific. The Renaissance in Europe. This period is where standardized principles, good documentation, and widespread knowledge occurs. The inventiveness is marginal. What really matters is the group memory isn't going down a hole to be forgotten now. The printing press, movable type, the scientific method are typical major inventions.
Industrial. Basic systems of energy use are applied to previous mechanical systems. Crude computers become common. Humanity is far better organized to mass produce. The skyscraper (a manual computer for record keeping and control of factories), mass production, steam and water power, and the railroad (mass land transportation for the first time) are major inventions.
Electronic. Harnessing electricity and the digitization of information. Harnessed to industrial age technology things now move faster and more accurately than before. The digital computer, radio, laser, and electronics in general are major inventions.
What's next? Hard to say but, I can guess,
AI. The AI age sees much of humanity replaced by a computer that can make decisions and process information. How far AI can go in terms of inventiveness, creativity, or out of the box thinking is yet to be seen.
Robotics. This is where machines can do what humans do virtually all of the time. We make great pets.
Something beyond that.
What the timeline is, no idea. I can say that the ancient period lasted something like 20,000 years. The scientific like 200 to 300 years. The industrial about 500. The electronic has been going on for about 100 to 200 now. The AI, where it really makes a difference, for about 50 to 75.
One thing is for sure, that technological revolutions are getting shorter between each cycle.
