Tremulous Forum
Media => Other Tremulous Media => Topic started by: zybork on November 14, 2008, 08:04:52 pm
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(What if Trem's weapons were real? How would they work? How could their function be explained? I'll give it a try.)
The Blaster:
The blaster emits a weak plasmaburst that moves through the air by attaching itself from one molecule to the other. Because of the ignition of aeral oxygen molecules in the first place, this weapon is self recharging, making it an ideal backup weapon, altough it is relatively weak.
The Rifle:
This is a more oldfashioned assault rifle loosely based on the later versions of the famous AK-47. Being of this ancestry, it fires rapidly in any medium and does never jam.
The Painsaw:
The painsaw is related to the blaster for it uses the same self recharging effect, but the plasma does not leave the weapon but is kept on its front end. The cycles of charging and recharging cause a humming sound that gives the weapon some similarity to chainsaws, giving it its name.
The plasma not having to move through air without a supporting surface, it can be concentrated much higher, making the painsaw maybe the most powerful self recharging weapon possible.
The Shotgun:
The shotgun is an old fashioned but very effective weapon using buckshot projectiles. Shots having a dispersing effect, it is extremely effective on short ranges, but does not much damage on a longer range.
The Laser Gun:
In contrast to the other energy weapons of the arsenal, this one does not use plasma, but a laser beam. Altough lasers cannot deliver that much energy to the target like plasma based weapons can, the beam has one major advantage: It is fast as light, giving the wielder the advantage of being able to hit anything in his sight instantly. In combination with a jetpack, this weapon is the ultimate support for any fighter on the ground and perfect for hunting down aliens in the end after the last alien structure is gone.
The Mass Driver:
The mass driver is the technical realization of something known to be a moreless theoretical construct, the Gauss Cannon. Gauss cannons accelerate a small amount of mass using oscillating electromagnetic fields in the barrel, causing several single accelerations, each in strength compareable to a single ignition of a projectile in a traditional gun, so you fire the same mass with a much higher velocity. Following the physical law of cinetical energy increasing by the square of speed, any mass driven that way is highly penetreable. Altough the mass driver uses depleted uranium bullets for projectiles, it is considered to be an energy weapon because of the high amount of energy it uses and because its bullets are recharged from the still slightly radioactive byproducts of a reactor or repeater.
The Chain Gun:
The chain gun is a Gatlin gun modified for single man operation. Being so, it is not belt fed, but uses an internal magazine, limiting the number of rounds to 300. Also, the gun is pretty heavy, making it uneasy to wield, the recoil of its powerful firing mechanism literally shaking the wielder unless crouching or wearing a battlesuit the weapon can be mounted on.
In spite of all this, the chain gun has enormous firepower and is a serious threat to even the biggest aliens and the only means for an unarmoured human fighter to effectively take down a tyrant.
The Pulse Rifle:
The pulse rifle is the ultimate big brother of the blaster. It uses plasma too, but at the highest concentration that is technically possible, making it a very powerful weapon. Having bursts that are immensely bigger and also get a physcial impulse to move fast in air - giving the pulse rifle its name - the pulse rifle cannot be made self rechargeable. It uses a primary battery to deliver power to its bursts, which reloads from a secondary battery, serving as ammo pack. Battery voltage and therefor capacity can be increased using an additional battery pack.
The Flame Thrower:
This one earned its nickname "bugspray" due to its excellent capability of getting rid of hoards of small aliens, namely dretches and basilisks. It is an oldfashioned flame thrower, igniting an inflammable liquid spray. Altough this weapon is a serious threat to most aliens opposing it, it is also one to its wielder, who can easily damage himself when moving forward while pulling the trigger or standing too close to walls reflecting the clowds of burning spray back to himself.
The Lucifer Cannon:
Now to the most extraordinary and also most powerful weapon, the famous and infamous Lucifer Cannon, a mixture of plasma and electric charge weapon. The details of this technology being kept secret, this weapon has slowly moving bursts which can be charged, delivering an amount of destruction that can instantly kill any single alien when hit directly - except a tyrant - and causes damage even nearby its point of impact by its fallout. The power of a burst is depending on how long the burst is being charged, but if overloaded, the internal barriers of the weapon fail and the energy burst breaks through to the wielder, causing significant damage.
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The pulse rifle is the ultimate big brother of the blaster. It uses plasma too, but at the highest concentration that is technically possible
But both deal similar (if not same) dmg.
This is a more oldfashioned assault rifle loosely based on the later versions of the famous AK-47. Being of this ancestry, it fires rapidly in any medium and does never jam.
immortal m4 sounds more realistic :police:
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
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I like the idea of what this thread has, its obvious that zybork thought about this topic and dug in some research.
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I always thought the lucifer cannon used nuclear energy, thus "fallout".
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
Probably because it is far more radioactive than fresh uranium.
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Really? Looks like I need to brush up on my chemistry. You'd think fresh uranium would be more powerful...
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I always thought the lucifer cannon used nuclear energy, thus "fallout".
That's not what fallout really is. Fallout is just radioactive junk or dust. Fallout is what kills you the days, weeks, months, years after the initial blast.
The lucifer has splash damage possible because of the force of impact causing massive pressure around the blast site.
The plasma and electricity explanation, while improbable, makes more sense due to the extra forces needed to keep the blast centralized or the structure of the blast 'contained' in its shape.
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Hey, nice try, but almost every single weapon is wrong and inaccurate. You sound like a 13 year old who just learned about plasma in his chemistry class.
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plasma plasma plasma gun plasma energy fire plasma damage plasma cannon plasma plasma weapon plasma plasma battery plasma
Not to be harsh, but I think Zybork went a bit overboard on the plasma.
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That's not what fallout really is. Fallout is just radioactive junk or dust. Fallout is what kills you the days, weeks, months, years after the initial blast.
In fact it's called fallout because it falls out of the atmosphere (hence the name). Can you be sure that the use of the term isn't by analogy?
Anyhow, I think it would be prudent to take the terminology in tremulous with a grain of salt.
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That's not what fallout really is. Fallout is just radioactive junk or dust. Fallout is what kills you the days, weeks, months, years after the initial blast.
In fact it's called fallout because it falls out of the atmosphere (hence the name). Can you be sure that the use of the term isn't by analogy?
Anyhow, I think it would be prudent to take the terminology in tremulous with a grain of salt.
Still makes no sense. Good job with reading wikipedia though.
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
Probably because it was made famous (originally) with WH40K. The boltgun fires depleted uranium rounds (or "deuterium", as it is mentioned in the rulebook).
Also, depleted uranium > enriched uranium for economical purposes. You really expect a galactic corporate entity like Haos Redros would issue live uranium to its clone marines, when it could go into reactors and bombs?
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M1A1 and M1A2 battle tanks use depleted uranium in their armor.
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Deuterium is hydrogen, about as far away from uranium as you can get.
And depleted uranium isn't radioactive. Its toxic, but not due to radiation. According to wikipedia its even used as radiation sheilding.
Its used a lot in armour piercing rounds, especially anti-tank weapons. Tyrants will have very different armour to a tank, so there's got to be something better to use against them.
Also, the MD looks a lot like a rail gun, not a coil gun. Could be a hybrid or something, but not a straight coil gun.
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I actually write things like this while sitting in a tramway.
The trouble I had was to find reasonable explainations for everything. How can you explain any self-recharging effect, for there IS NONE in real life physics - this would be a perpetuum mobile, and thus, impossible.
Depleted uranium is now a material where the fissile uranium has been moreless removed. The result is an only slightly radioactive material that is very heavy, dense and hard, making it a perfect bullet material for Gauss cannons. Also, depleted uranium remains the only thing that makes sense for a "radioactivity" sign to be the icon of the mass driver.
Btw, I see I made a mistake, the massdriver is without doubt a railgun. I did not know the concept of a railgun before, I only was familiar with Gauss Cannons, because of Descent II ;) I will change that later.
I use the word "plasma" that often because it remains the only reasonable explaination for many weapons, the blaster, the painsaw and the pulserifle. The pulserifle is recharged from a reactor, but what does a reactor provide? Electric energy, plasma, and radioactive stuff. Except maybe small portions of depleted uranium, it does not provide any bullets or so. Not being a radioactivity based weapon, also not emitting electric sparks, plasma pulses where the only explaination remaining.
Radioacitivity btw was also the only chance to get that fallout-thing of the Luci done, just by saying that the technical details of the Lucifer Cannon are being kept secret ;)
If all else fails, try wildcards :)
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Still makes no sense. Good job with reading wikipedia though.
It looks like you misunderstood.
"In fact it's called fallout because it falls out of the atmosphere (hence the name)." [The term has already moved from it's original meaning]
"Can you be sure that the use of the term isn't by analogy?" [It could have done so again]
"Anyhow, I think it would be prudent to take the terminology in tremulous with a grain of salt." [Don't take it too literally]
You['d] really expect a galactic corporate entity like Haos Redros would[n't] issue [enriched] uranium to its clone marines, when it could go into reactors and bombs?
Depends what shielding they use and who they want to irradiate in the process.
And depleted uranium isn't radioactive.
It is. It's only about 60% less radioactive than natural uranium.
Also, the MD looks a lot like a rail gun, not a coil gun. Could be a hybrid or something, but not a straight coil gun.
How can you tell that just from it's appearance?
The trouble I had was to find reasonable explainations for everything. How can you explain any self-recharging effect, for there IS NONE in real life physics - this would be a perpetuum mobile, and thus, impossible.
I always figured that since this is the future, they've got fantastically efficient energy storage. For all we know they're managing to convert matter to energy on an extremely small scale.
The result is an only slightly radioactive material that is very heavy, dense and hard, making it a perfect bullet material for Gauss cannons.
Perfect so long as we are able to get such a damn heavy material moving fast enough in such a short space of time.
Btw, I see I made a mistake, the massdriver is without doubt a railgun.
Strictly speaking, a 'mass driver' is a gauss cannon on a much larger scale which is used for interplanetary conveyance of 'packages'. As this is clearly not an interplanetary weapon, the name shouldn't be taken as a strict indication of what it does. Also note that gauss cannons (or 'coilguns') have come into a lot of trouble over their development but this is the future and such problems might have been overcome.
I use the word "plasma" that often because it remains the only reasonable explaination for many weapons, the blaster, the painsaw and the pulserifle. The pulserifle is recharged from a reactor, but what does a reactor provide? Electric energy, plasma, and radioactive stuff. Except maybe small portions of depleted uranium, it does not provide any bullets or so. Not being a radioactivity based weapon, also not emitting electric sparks, plasma pulses where the only explaination remaining.
How do you know that's what the reactor provides? Bear in mind that these weapons don't necessarily have to receive the projectiles they fire. For all we know they could have millions of extremely small projectiles stored within such that you only need to recharge the weapon's energy store.
If plasma is involved, I doubt it would be the only material in the projectile. This would be more difficult than firing air at a long range target (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KH3lqTNHtZM). It's more likely the projectile gives out plasma as it travels.
On a final note, I'm happy to see tremulous get the nerdy attention it deserves. :D
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Depleted Uranium is used in projectiles because it has a high density.
Other materials like gold or lead are unsuitable because they are much too soft. Tungsten is not used because it is expensive to obtain and process. Osmium is both toxic and volatile in its pure form. Iridium is much to rare to be used in ammunition.
Also:
On more properly military grounds, depleted uranium is favored for the penetrator because it is self-sharpening and pyrophoric. On impact with a hard target, such as an armoured vehicle, the nose of the rod fractures in such a way that it remains sharp. The impact and subsequent release of heat energy causes it to disintegrate to dust and burn when it reaches air because of its pyrophoric properties. When a DU penetrator reaches the interior of an armored vehicle, it catches fire, often igniting ammunition and fuel, killing the crew, and possibly causing the vehicle to explode.
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And depleted uranium isn't radioactive.
It is. It's only about 60% less radioactive than natural uranium.
60% of "not very" is very little radiation indeed. You can safely handle Uranium with just a sheet of paper for protection. The problem comes when you inhale or eat it and get long term effects. Like say having a shell made of it blow up near you...
Also, the MD looks a lot like a rail gun, not a coil gun. Could be a hybrid or something, but not a straight coil gun.
How can you tell that just from it's appearance?
Look at the barrel. It has slits down it, and no magnets around the edge. Were the magnets all within the body then the barrel would be solid.
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i like this thread very much since i'm visually "researching" the weapons. i'm looking forward for more in-depth stuffs for this!
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You['d] really expect a galactic corporate entity like Haos Redros would[n't] issue [enriched] uranium to its clone marines, when it could go into reactors and bombs?
Depends what shielding they use and who they want to irradiate in the process.
I was pointing out the costs and risks that enriched uranium would pose to a company, who would no doubt have enemies, if it fell into the "wrong" hands.
Also, you corrected my sarcasm? What the fuck? It sounds better that way. (The "enriched" correction, however, is much appreciated.
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hmm what about the low speed of some projectiles hmmm
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Only some energy weapons have low projectile speeds. Everything else hits almost instantly.
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How do you explain that the luci is slow (therefore it can't be made of pure energy, there has to be matter in it) and yet it is not affected by gravity?
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Honestly: I don't know. That's why I write "details of this technology being kept secret"n ;)
But I guess it may be something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
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How do you explain that the luci is slow (therefore it can't be made of pure energy, there has to be matter in it) and yet it is not affected by gravity?
I'm guessing you mean that since it doesn't travel at the speed of light, it must therefore be massless. Though this is true for a single particle we shouldn't rule out the possibility that this is a wave phenomenon and that the observed velocity isn't in fact the Group velocity.
Also we can't assume that gravity isn't having an effect. The effect could be negligible or counteracted by other forces.
Ball lightning I'd say is a very good explanation for most of the energy weapons in tremulous, mainly because it is still so largely unexplained itself (the future scientists have figured it out and recreated it). That way, it's hard to dispute! :>
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This tribute to the Clones of Ked Ambrit has been moved here (http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=9645.0).
Querulous: The Juddering - A Ked Ambrit Adventure!
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How do you explain that the luci is slow (therefore it can't be made of pure energy, there has to be matter in it) and yet it is not affected by gravity?
Helium is a lighter-than-air gas that is a byproduct of nuclear fusion... Perhaps if you retool your explanation of the Lucifer Cannon around that core concept, it would have more credibility?
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The lucy seems to send out some very hot plasma. As such its speed is limited. And, since it does not travel too far before hitting a wall, an alien or a friend ;-=) gravity shouldn't do too much (gas plasma f.e.).
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afaik plasma is not something you can shoot but rather an attribute of a matter. and aggregate.
( @player1 wtf was that? :-D )
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@+OPTIMUS+: Some people do science, some people do pictures, I do words. :)
On Topic: I believe the year is sometime after 4025 AD (http://tremulous.net/about/).
Discuss.
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You can shoot a solid projectile, or spray a liquid, why not launch a volatile ball of plasma? (somehow contained, of course; see Blooming)
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No matter how heavy/light the projectile is, it will always have a downwards acceleration of 9.81m/s. In order to move forward, the projectile would need to produce an upwards acceleration of 9.81m/s, which would cancel out the effect of gravity.
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The relevance of the mass is not directly associated with the downward acceleration but the ease of countering it (F=MA). We have the problem that a slow and suspended round entity should only have such a perfectly straight path in the most unlikely of cases. Things that might help maintain such motion are:
-A small, dense projectile 'leading' the ball (to explain the 'forward' motion)
-A complex but sustained process which generates a pressure difference agianst gravity (to explain the lack of 'falling')
-A consequence of the effect being a specially generated wave pattern (to explain any lack of air resistance + small velocity, this could prove too unlikely to generate)
-Batman?
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It really fires a small self propelled projectile full of anti-matter. The yellow glow is just to make it more scary.
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Hey, I have an explaination for a force to compensate gravity of a luci-fireball: That ball is hot. The heat alone should do the trick, heating up the air around (and first of all: above) the fireball, the lighter air at the top of the ball ascends and pulls the fireball with it.
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Unfortunately if the lucy ball is so light that the wind generated by its heat can compensate gravity it would be very sensitive to air drag.
<thinking mode>On the other hand, if a basi+ could just blow the luciball back to the attacker, that might stop the annoying lucispammers.</thinking mode>
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Maybe it accelerates in time as well as space, that would explain it. ::)
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If the lucy ball was hot enough for that to work, then one shot would wipe out the map.
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Maybe it's a miniature sun generator...it combines gases inside of it into a compressed form and the projects it out :laugh:
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You're all wrong. It's full of magic newts.
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I think they are magikal cheetahs. They are more yellow-y.
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I more and more succumb to that "stick with 'secret technology'"-thing...
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
Probably because it is far more radioactive than fresh uranium.
i know this is a delayed post but just want to say that its because its heavier then lead and cheaper new then uranium. They use it in modern day armor piercing tank shells because its heaver then lead.
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
Probably because it is far more radioactive than fresh uranium.
i know this is a delayed post but just want to say that its because its heavier then lead and cheaper new then uranium. They use it in modern day armor piercing tank shells because its heaver then lead.
I'll reiterate: Depleted uranium gives 60% the external radiation dose of that from natural uranium. When Taiyo.uk said 'fresh uranium' if he meant natural uranium he was wrong.
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
Probably because it is far more radioactive than fresh uranium.
i know this is a delayed post but just want to say that its because its heavier then lead and cheaper new then uranium. They use it in modern day armor piercing tank shells because its heaver then lead.
I'll reiterate: Depleted uranium gives 60% the external radiation dose of that from natural uranium. When Taiyo.uk said 'fresh uranium' if he meant natural uranium he was wrong.
Which is much more deadly since it is used in shells that burst into nebulas of nano/micro particles which enter your lungs and result in lung cancer. It's like mines. Just worse.
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Which is much more deadly since it is used in shells that burst into nebulas of nano/micro particles which enter your lungs and result in lung cancer. It's like mines. Just worse.
Also note that there are other ways a bullet can enter your body. I'd say the 'bleeding out of the gunshot wound' part is far more deadly since your body will filter out most (98%) of the depleted uranium you take in.
EDIT: Also I'd like to mention how the luci shot moves a lot faster in mgdev and in the supposed 1.2 release, so in this case it can be explained in a similar way to any of the fast moving projectiles (the high speed doesn't give it time to drop).
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All your luci ideas fail. This should drop, but never does.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3030/3053502321_9b5daf0731_o.jpg)
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Why should it drop? Since the force is being applied upward in this case, all it takes is sufficient impulse and the projectile will move upward till it hits something or escapes entirely.
Unless you're talking about the slow luci balls. In this case the balls aren't going fast enough to continue upward without further force. This is why I mentioned the faster balls of MGdev (and supposedly 1.2).
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Okay: Two ways of doing this:
1) "secret technology"
2) weird science fiction explaination
Someone a good idea for 2)?
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weird science fiction explaination
2)
The Lucifer ball is basically a concentrated packet of atomic light, gas that is un-bound by gravity because it is light in weight. Artificial skeleton cells creates the ball shape of the luci, the skeleton cells are created inside the Lucifer before it is shot, and as the gun fires the ball, the skeleton cells comes out of the "tube" like front of the gun and snaps to its ball shape. Particles of atomic waste are dispensed as the ball is launched or when the ball its a solid object, and since the dead skin cells are the very things that holds the ball together, they break up on contact (because they are very sensitive and can break easily) and the pressured gas releases high levels of toxin on the area of contact, heating the area it hits, before disappearing into the air. This effect can cause major damage to any biotic structure and can damage internal organs or conscience brain cells.
You might argue SOMEBODY was lazy modeling the ball shape of the Lucifer ball, because it doesn't look like much of a ball, but it appearance to the human eyes assumes so. But I say they probably couldn't do much and/or it was the best they could possibly do.
Remember, this is just my made-up opinion of the Lucifer, so take it lightly people. ;)
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I always thought the luci blast looked like the Gimp distant sun gradient flare.
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weird science fiction explaination
2)
The Lucifer ball is basically a concentrated packet of atomic light, gas that is un-bound by gravity because it is light in weight. Artificial skeleton cells creates the ball shape of the luci, the skeleton cells are created inside the Lucifer before it is shot, and as the gun fires the ball, the skeleton cells comes out of the "tube" like front of the gun and snaps to its ball shape. Particles of atomic waste are dispensed as the ball is launched or when the ball its a solid object, and since the dead skin cells are the very things that holds the ball together, they break up on contact (because they are very sensitive and can break easily) and the pressured gas releases high levels of toxin on the area of contact, heating the area it hits, before disappearing into the air. This effect can cause major damage to any biotic structure and can damage internal organs or conscience brain cells.
You might argue SOMEBODY was lazy modeling the ball shape of the Lucifer ball, because it doesn't look like much of a ball, but it appearance to the human eyes assumes so. But I say they probably couldn't do much and/or it was the best they could possibly do.
Remember, this is just my made-up opinion of the Lucifer, so take it lightly people. ;)
That made absolutely no sense... so we're on the right track. Now all you need to do is invent a couple of hypervestigial terms such as "semilucid abscondrion" and "multiprotractive pteredaction reaction" and stick them all over that explanation you just gave.
Edit: If you ever need more technobabble you can always come to me!
We must take action against this infraction; the reaction's contraction belongs to no faction!!!
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Laser Ultra-Capacitance Infrared Frequency Energy Reaction (Cannon)
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How about:
A luci cannon contains a mini blackhole of microscopic proportion. Blackholes no larger than electrons line the inside of the cannon. The blackholes are held in place by a magnetic field. The blackholes draw the hawking radiation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation) from the main "core" blackhole, then dissipate from there tiny size when the magnetic field is switched off, much like a gauss system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun). This causes a larger amount of hawking radiation to be released and built up, which then gets drawn into the next blackhole. This goes on until the mass of hawking radiation is released from the cannon, thrown forward by momentum, of being thrown forward from one blackhole to another. The light caused by a blackhole is light being distorted by the radiation (although the inner core of a luci ball is black).
This system works the same as a gauss rifle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coilgun) except instead of magnets, it uses micro blackholes
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Plasma is a gas that is so hot electrons are ripped away from atoms
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The problem with the plasma theory is that plasma doesnt travel in 'balls', any gas would be flat, or spread out, not spherical
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There is no reason why it shouldn't assume a spherical shape. Furthermore in many situations this is the most natural form to take (e.g. Stars). The notable problem here is the extreme rate the plasma would dissipate and so it would require some stable feed of energy to maintain an excited state within the specific region. This may be accomplished through some dense 'burning' core to the projectile or a delocalized energy input such as a laser!
Edit: It should be noted that it would require the laser to be continually projected at the target.
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There is no reason why it shouldn't assume a spherical shape. Furthermore in many situations this is the most natural form to take (e.g. Stars). The notable problem here is the extreme rate the plasma would dissipate and so it would require some stable feed of energy to maintain an excited state within the specific region. This may be accomplished through some dense 'burning' core to the projectile or a delocalized energy input such as a laser!
Edit: It should be noted that it would require the laser to be continually projected at the target.
Name 1 gas that in earths atmosphere forms a spherical shape...
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This isn't earth, now, is it? ;D
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Name 1 gas that in earths atmosphere forms a spherical shape...
How about air in a balloon? Or sparks from a sparkler? Or a little flame? Or these little plasma balls (http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/02/aist-develops-3d-image-projector/)?
A gas can take many shapes. A sphere is one of the shapes it can take. It's visible shape is something seperate from it's actual distribution. In the case of a firey ball you're only seeing the light emmiting portion which can very naturally be focused at one point and the aura can account for the overall ball-shape.
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This isn't earth, now, is it? ;D
Then how do marines breathe and gravity affect them the same way ;)
Name 1 gas that in earths atmosphere forms a spherical shape...
How about air in a balloon? Or sparks from a sparkler? Or a little flame? Or these little plasma balls (http://www.pinktentacle.com/2006/02/aist-develops-3d-image-projector/)?
A gas can take many shapes. A sphere is one of the shapes it can take. It's visible shape is something seperate from it's actual distribution. In the case of a firey ball you're only seeing the light emmiting portion which can very naturally be focused at one point and the aura can account for the overall ball-shape.
Flames arent spherical, they are elongated because the burning gas weighs less than the surrounding air. Airballoons are round because the object material is shaped to be round. Balloons are round due to the same reason, and gas spreads out in (relatively) equal direction in free space (vacuum). The plasma 'balls' were created very momentarily and require constant heat (by laser) to be formed. Also, with all of those theories, the luci ball should keep expanding, not maintain its constant shape :) Yes gas can *temporarily* create a sphere, but it will always expand or shrink in an atmosphere. Remember gas is formed by heat, therefore the theory of thermodynamics state that heat must be in a constant state of motion, and seeing as gas is one of the last forms of mass before turning into pure energy, there is alot of expansion and movement. Not just a constant shaped ball flying through the air :)
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Flames arent spherical, they are elongated because they weigh less than the surrounding air.
This is why I said 'a little flame'.
When a flame is small enough, there is insufficient heat generated to create a strong convection current which would cause the elongation.
Airballoons are round because the object material is shaped to be round. Balloons are round due to the same reason, and gas spreads out in (relatively) equal direction in free space (vacuum).
Perhaps bubbles would be a better example. This example was meant to make it clear that the gases distribution is dependant upon external forces. Note the other extreme: If gas is released into outer space from a sufficiently small hole it will travel outward in a spherical shape.
The plasma 'balls' were created very momentarily and require constant heat (by laser) to be formed. Also, with all of those theories, the luci ball should keep expanding, not maintain its constant shape :)
The gas does keep expanding:
"The notable problem here is the extreme rate the plasma would dissipate and so it would require some stable feed of energy to maintain an excited state within the specific region." "It's visible shape is something separate from it's actual distribution. In the case of a firey ball you're only seeing the light emmiting portion"
The visible part (the glowing ball fired from the cannon) is all that concerns us. The lucifer ball could be like a sparkler and the ball shape is due to many little 'sparks' shooting out in a ball shape (http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&q=sparkler). Otherwise the shape could be the glare from the bright burning part in the middle (http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n77/youbelieved/candleflame.jpg). Either way, a sphere is a very natural shape for it to assume. It simply requires the pressures/emissions to be equal in all directions.
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If it wasn't yellow I'd say it is a little white hole, but maybe there will be yellow holes too in the future. :laugh:
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This isn't earth, now, is it? ;D
Then how do marines breathe and gravity affect them the same way ;)
2000 years have gone by.
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The gas does keep expanding:
"The notable problem here is the extreme rate the plasma would dissipate and so it would require some stable feed of energy to maintain an excited state within the specific region." "It's visible shape is something separate from it's actual distribution. In the case of a firey ball you're only seeing the light emmiting portion"
The visible part (the glowing ball fired from the cannon) is all that concerns us. The lucifer ball could be like a sparkler and the ball shape is due to many little 'sparks' shooting out in a ball shape (http://images.google.co.uk/images?um=1&q=sparkler). Otherwise the shape could be the glare from the bright burning part in the middle (http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n77/youbelieved/candleflame.jpg). Either way, a sphere is a very natural shape for it to assume. It simply requires the pressures/emissions to be equal in all directions.
I just find it unrealistic for any type of gas to maintain constant shap after flying through the air. If anything, a pulse rifle would be more like a plasma stream
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I'll say this one last time. In my example, the gas ISN'T maintaining a constant shape. You're only seeing the energetic material.
Imagine a fuse burning in the dark. You can't see the fuse where it isn't burning. The ash and the unburnt fuse is still there (and very much non-spherical) but it's not giving out light, so all you can see is the sparky point.
If this explanation isn't good enough, how about we say that the chainreaction is occurring on the string-level and it is actually distorting spacetime through the conversion of baryonic particles to exotic matter. The photons produced are merely a byproduct of the conversion (which accounts for the majority of the energy output and the actual destructive nature is due to this distortion of spacetime. The velocity is given to the projectile via partial dislocation of the ergosphere generated by the exotic conversion. This is achieved by using a multitude of positron-guns which are synergetically associated with a strong eigenfield with a conformal bias toward the vector norm of the exotic mapping.
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Ok, i could be a pessimist and say String theory states that matter moves in ransom motion and distortion of space cannot occur on such a minute level to produce light, it would absorb it :D
To be perfectly honest, there is no realistic or scientifically feasible explantation for a luci cannon. All explanations so far would potentially destroy the planet in a single shot.
P.s about the burning fuse, i never said you could see the gas or that the gas was causing the sperical shape, i was stating that there is no gas that could create and maintain the appearance, whether the visual by products or material that would keep a spherical shape for the journey through open air. In other words, there is no visual appearance on this world you will ever see like a luci ball that doesnt have a constant energy stream applied to it from an external force.
I think a better one could be, a luci cannon launches a small magnetic probe which flys along the air at constant motion. The magnetic probe polarises at different points drawing iron and other metals from the air to be drawn in and spin at a furious rate, heating the surrounding air and causing the white/yellow light. The damage caused is by super heated mettalic shrapnel
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Ok, i could be a pessimist and say String theory states that matter moves in ransom motion and distortion of space cannot occur on such a minute level to produce light, it would absorb it :D
That's not pessimistic. It's unverifiable. I intentionally alluded to a situation which is far too complex to be able to study with the severe lack of empirical evidence we're likely to have in the near or far future.
To be perfectly honest, there is no realistic or scientifically feasible explanation for a luci cannon. All explanations so far would potentially destroy the planet in a single shot.
Now THAT'S pessimistic.
P.s about the burning fuse, i never said you could see the gas or that the gas was causing the sperical shape, i was stating that there is no gas that could create and maintain the appearance, whether the visual by products or material that would keep a spherical shape for the journey through open air. In other words, there is no visual appearance on this world you will ever see like a luci ball that doesnt have a constant energy stream applied to it from an external force.
So why not an internal energy source like in the examples I gave?
Also, bear in mind that strangely Symmetric/complex shape of a mushroom cloud might have just as easily been dismissed if the energies/mechanisms involved weren't known.
I think a better one could be, a luci cannon launches a small magnetic probe which flys along the air at constant motion. The magnetic probe polarises at different points drawing iron and other metals from the air to be drawn in and spin at a furious rate, heating the surrounding air and causing the white/yellow light. The damage caused is by super heated mettalic shrapnel
This, like many of my earlier explanations, uses the idea that there is a denser 'core' to the projectile. No matter the specific mechanism, I think we can agree that this projectile needs a core and it needs to be travelling fast.
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with lasers!
w/ caveat
where LASER stands for Levitric-Apergic Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation*
*at least according the IG17's Interzaibatsu Concordance Report on Omniversal Picodestruction, after the damning evidence presented by Lord Brightness during the Council's Proceedings on the Rhubarb Ridge Incident, see Eno Reyalp, A History of Brindus and other Hellholes of Outer South Nowhere OR Tales of the Bug Wars: A Note for the Tremulous, tightcast from SVQ Trinity Station, weekends on the graveyard shift, aimed at willing recipients, New South Haldonia; cf. Anfidgean, Flovat, et al (http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=9645.msg148817#msg148817), Levity, Apergy, and a Great Big Ball of Plasma: A Discussion of Natx Shift and the Dernon Paradox, HR Research Publications, 4023 ICE, NSH FZ BIIIb
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Why does everyone use the phrase "depleted uranium"?
Probably because it is far more radioactive than fresh uranium.
because its easy to pronounce, and it kills you faster
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A powerful electromagnetic field would be able to hold the Lucifer ball in check (assuming it's made of plasma; think Tokamak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak)). I'm no physicist, but could a blob of superheated matter generate its own?
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What's to say it's not just simple combustion? A small amount of light weight, fairly slow-burning fuel is ignighted and projected into the air, if it shares a similar density to the atmosphere the effects of gravity on it in relation to the air will be minimal, allowing it to stay aloft for long periods of time. The fuel burns only where it can come into contact with oxygen, so from the outside inwards, giving it a long burn-time while traveling, but when it impacts a target it spreads out, increasing the surface area for oxygen to reach it. If the fuel was in two stages; a highly energetic fuel on the inside, surrounded by a less energetic "fuse" material, that would explain the sudden, explosive release of energy on impact.
As for it being an "energy weapon" if the amount of fuel it small, it could have a single high density ammunition supply contained inside, but requires an electric current to separate individual particles to carry them into the barrel of the weapon. The longer the electric current is applied for, the more molecules are able to break off from the supply.
I'm using some pretty hefty chunks of pseudo-science in that, but hey, we're fighting half-insect half-dinosaur 8 foot tall aliens for crying out loud!
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half-insect half-dinosaur
Arthrosaurs (jointed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropod) reptiles)?
They can't be Arachnosaurs, 'cuz they're six-legged.
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My explanation:
Blaster: Firing small pulses of molecular energy, the blaster does minimal damage. The design is based off the old technology "Pistol" Always carried by marines as a backup weapon, the Blaster's ammo regenerates giving it unlimited ammunition.
Rifle: A standard projectile weapon, this is a good choice for killing small aliens, Dretch mostly. It has a rapid firing rate, but this means that the ammunition is used up fast, and it takes a long time to reload.
Pain Saw: An interesting piece of technology, this weapon got its name from Soldiers in the field, noticing its adept power for destroying Alien structures, and doing massive damage to anything, from Granger to Tyrant. Some Marines even specialize in that one weapon alone. Using a combined melee attack with a jumping electrical arc, when activated the blades spin like a classic saw, but the blades are charged with electricity. These two combined powers make it a formidable weapon.
Shotgun: Classic weapon. Firing heavy Rantshot©, this gun carries 8 shells at a time, and is VERY effective at close quarters. Unfortunately, it is not good at long range, so its capabilities are limited.
Lasgun: The first high-power weapon at close and long range, the Lasgun fires Photon bursts at a rapid pace. Doing moderate damage, this gun can be upgraded with the Battery Pack to increase its ammo to 300 rather than 200.
Mass Driver: An almost completely sniper-oreinted weapon. Effective at long range and close, the mass driver is almost imposable to use at close range because of its unwieldiness. Despite these drawbacks, the advantages of this weapon are considerable. It fires on a completely straight course, firing high speed antimatter particles that do massive damage. It is also compatible with the Battery Pack, and is commonly used with the Jetpack.
Chaingun: A very good weapon for taking down larger aliens, this gun is effective at close and medium range. It works on the same solid-projectile principle of the rifle, but it contains 300 bullets in a large container. The drawback is that the weapon is very heavy, and will jerk around spasmodically because of the heavy firepower. Fortunately, when equipped with a Battlesuit, the kick is reduced to almost nil, and it is a common combo choice.
Pulse Rifle: Another clip weapon, this gun is completely different than the other guns so far. Another energy weapon, this gun fires concentrated Electron Plasma in very rapid bursts. A very powerful weapon, it is also compatible with the Battery Pack and is also a common Jetpack combo choice.
Grenade: A small explosive with a short timer.
Flamethrower: Known as the "Flamer" to most marines, it is a very good weapon for taking down small to medium alien classes. It uses a highly flamable liquid napalm formula ignited by a propane torch at the end of the emitter. If the wielder is careless, he may end up toasting himself.
Lucifer Cannon: It got its name for the Hell it gives the aliens. Using a Nuclear Reactor technology at the back of the gun, it fires concentrated blasts of radiation that travel slowly, but do INCREDIBLE damage at ANY range. Another interesting feature is the charge ability it has. it can charge for about 3 seconds, and that's enough to kill a Tyrant if it makes a direct hit. It also has an interesting fallout effect in the way that if it misses its target, it will still damage it to a certain extent. This is good for killing large clusters of structures. The drawback is that is it misses and hits near a friendly or structure, it will most likely kill or hurt it. It is also compatible with the Battery Pack.
This is my definition of the Trem Weapons.
And I did NOT use the phrase "Depleated Uranium"
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luci does 295 damage max, rant has 400 hp fully healed. therefore, it can't kill it in one shot. :helmet: :tyrant:
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Levity (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/levity) and Apergy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apergy). And a Great Big Ball of Plasma (http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=9645.msg147706#msg147706).
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I have an idea! You won't be able to argue this.
The Lucifer cannon runs on Magic.
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I have an idea! You won't be able to argue this.
The Lucifer cannon runs on Magic.
...or strange, controversial and quasi-magickal devices like the Lucifer Cannon (http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=9645.msg147623#msg147623), said to steal the souls of its victims to power its inexplicable metaphysical functionings, rumored to possibly harness apergic or levitric forces.
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Nah nah nah...
I mean, like, full blown magic. World Of Warcraft style (yeah you'll hate me for that, won't you).
Shoots balls of flaming hot mana. They can keep it in glass bottles, can't they?
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Lucifier running on magic? Nahhh....
Most likely through divine power. Let the power of Christ spam you. :angel:
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Spy: The idea of this thread was to try to explain HOW they work, not WHAT they do.
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Okay, I'll come up with one soon.
And you are correct, the fully charged luci does do 295 DMG. My bad.
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265, actually.
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I always thought Lucidi would be light related, as it directly translates into "Light" in latin.
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I always thought Lucidi would be light related, as it directly translates into "Light" in latin.
Not really, since it's "Lucifer" and not "Lucidi" as you spelt it.
So, yeah. Lucifer. It's Satan see?
The Luci is probably powered by Black Metal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cqKafnUrk).
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Well the words are in fact related as 'Lucifer' is actually latin for 'Light-Bringer'.
Makes sense, donut.
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The Luci is probably powered by crap (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cqKafnUrk).
I strongly disagree. It is powered by deathcore :P
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Lucifer Cannon:
1) The helium is spun around a central point in the lucifer cannon's chamber in the form of a sphere.
2) Light photons are then frozen into the electrons of the helium while being spun.
3) During all this, the air within the sphere of "helight" is siphoned out and ejected into the atmosphere causing the current sphere of "helight" to collapse on itself due to the vacuum of air in the center of the sphere.
4) As the sphere collapses, a new sphere of "helight" is created in it's place almost instantly by the inner workings of the Lucifer Cannon, which are classified as top secret. This new sphere quickly collapses on itself too. If we freeze time here and look at the process so far, there is a very small sphere in the center of the lucifer cannon's chamber. This is not one sphere, but two because the first sphere is directly in the center and the next sphere is wrapped around it. This is held intact by it's constant spinning while more and more layers of "helight" are created and collapsed around the central sphere.
All this happens very quickly, building up the size of the central sphere until it is as big as a human skull.
5) Before being released, the cannon inserts several pellets of very non-depleted uranium into the center of the sphere and then releases it through the barrel. The inside of the barrel has a very grippy substance on one side of the inside barrel. This one substance is meant for the ball of "helight" to catch on to and roll onto and accelerate itself a bit because of it's torque.
[The effect doesn't work as well as calculated causing the released sphere to be quite slow. A new version is being worked on that releases the "helight" spheres faster than it's soon-to-be predecessor.]
The current version's helight sphere buzzes along happily in whatever direction it was released until it collides with a solid object. Whatever the object may be, massive damage is incurred to it since the pellets of uranium have mixed and are, by now, a massive molten mass.
This mass (located at the center of the sphere) is activated as soon as it leaves the cannon barrel triggering an explosion that is very similar to that of an atomic explosion in the sense that it in itself begins a chain reaction with its members. This explosion is contained inside the cage of "helight" until an object pierces the cage. When the cage is pierced, all the energy from the explosion is released through the hole where said object pierced the sphere. The helight sphere then dissipates in several seconds. One main problem during testing was that the explosion would always spread from the target when released, creating a splash effect where even if the intended target was missed by several meters, the spread of the explosion would reach and damage the target anyway. Because of the rush of the war however, the lucifer cannon was released without the mending of this problem. Scientists believe it serves marines well regardless.
Addendum by Professor Chris. Robin Ph.d.
It seems that marines have been abusing the system of the Lucifer Cannon by disabling the safety lock. This safety lock stops the Helight sphere from being overcharged. Such an action means the layers of helight would build upon each other until too large for the cannon chamber to contain. In such a case the cage would break it's order, diffract into many small pieces and slip through the vent intended for extracted air to leave, thus damaging the user himself. It is possible to do this carefully and thus create a much larger projectile than intended for the Lucifer Cannon to eject before the helight sphere overcharges. Sources say it is working much more efficiently against the alien force. We have added a sound vent so you can hear the sound of the helight ball being constructed. As of now, the sound vent connects to your earpiece so only you can hear it; but on unreleased models, the sound vent no longer connects to your earpiece but vents directly from the cannon chamber so it is possible for other marines to hear you overcharge your cannon and make a run for it before you irriadiate yourself.
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Not to spoil your fantasy, BUT, you can not "freeze" photons. At least not with helium. You can slow down photons with certain meta materials, but that is all.
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Not to spoil your fantasy, BUT, you can not "freeze" photons. At least not with helium. You can slow down photons with certain meta materials, but that is all.
Actually, it is possible:
http://tinyurl.com/d9vzc2
http://tinyurl.com/cd7tj5
But you're right, I haven't seen it in happen in helium.. I just used it so that it could be lighter than air.
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Actually, it is possible:
http://tinyurl.com/d9vzc2
http://tinyurl.com/cd7tj5
http://tinyurl.com/5v5nrd
But you're right, I haven't seen it in happen in helium.. I just used it so that it could be lighter than air.
Really? I thought that it was impossible/very difficult to freeze light, due to it being a massless EM wave and all. But this discovery should have been publicized more.
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Yeah it's pretty cool. Did anyone actually read my entire post? Please do.
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nice post winnie
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[Fri May 15] (6|0) rozen:~ solar% perl bin/checkroll -tinyurl 5v5nrd
- loading url http://preview.tinyurl.com/5v5nrd
- tinyurl directs to sourmath.com
- loading url http://sourmath.com
! malicious javascript detected on sourmath.com [utilizes window.moveto, window.resizeto, document.onkeydown, window.onkeydown, ]
>:(
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ZOMG it's resizing the browser window!!11 HAXZORZ!!
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[Fri May 15] (6|0) rozen:~ solar% perl bin/checkroll -tinyurl 5v5nrd
- loading url http://preview.tinyurl.com/5v5nrd
- tinyurl directs to sourmath.com
- loading url http://sourmath.com
! malicious javascript detected on sourmath.com [utilizes window.moveto, window.resizeto, document.onkeydown, window.onkeydown, ]
>:(
I had to do it.
Somebody had got me with it the same day and I decided to use tinyurl.com for evil and not for good.
I've had my fun though, so I'll take it out.
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I like the idea of what this thread has, its obvious that zybork thought about this topic and dug in some research.
In Sins of a Solar Empire, there is a giant orbital cannon that delivers a nuclear payload in the form of a blast, which made me think MASSIVE lucifer cannon. Though....I don't know if you can energy reacting like that can just...be propelled...but...whatever...
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(late post)
but here's a good one. explain why a bsuit (which is heavy) helps you hold a chain gun steady?
if you're just in light armor, you should be more able to hold it steady; at least more steady than when you're in a suit of metal
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bsuit = robot with supernatural strength
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Hydraulics in the inner casings of the arm.
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Pretty much, think of it that the chaingun is firmly attached to the arm of the bsuit, eliminating shaking, and the suit is not just a mess of metal, but is powered so that the slightest movement inside the suit translates to movement of the suit itself by electronics connected to the wearer.
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Just like Iron Man!
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/__ZFAJUHOogg/SjT6katXRhI/AAAAAAAADDw/21f2iDJq67Q/s800/ironman21.jpg)
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Except that a bsuit makes you look obese. Iron Man's suit is slim and athletic.