Try of a realistic explaination of Tremulous' human's weapons

[player1]

@+OPTIMUS+: Some people do science, some people do pictures, I do words.

On Topic: I believe the year is sometime after 4025 AD.

Discuss.

[techhead]

You can shoot a solid projectile, or spray a liquid, why not launch a volatile ball of plasma? (somehow contained, of course; see Blooming)

[Amanieu]

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.

[Nux]

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?

[David]

It really fires a small self propelled projectile full of anti-matter.  The yellow glow is just to make it more scary.

[zybork]

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.

[gimhael]

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>

[mooseberry]

Maybe it accelerates in time as well as space, that would explain it. 

[David]

If the lucy ball was hot enough for that to work, then one shot would wipe out the map.

[Chess guy]

Maybe it's a miniature sun generator...it combines gases inside of it into a compressed form and the projects it out 

[Syntac]

You're all wrong. It's full of magic newts.

[mooseberry]

I think they are magikal cheetahs. They are more yellow-y.

[zybork]

I more and more succumb to that "stick with 'secret technology'"-thing...

[cactusfrog]

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. 

[Nux]

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.

[Bissig]

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.

[Nux]

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).

[mooseberry]

All your luci ideas fail. This should drop, but never does.

[Nux]

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).

[zybork]

Okay: Two ways of doing this:

1) "secret technology"
2) weird science fiction explaination

Someone a good idea for 2)?

[Hendrich]

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. 

[your face]

I always thought the luci blast looked like the Gimp distant sun gradient flare.

[Nux]

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!!!

[player1]

Laser Ultra-Capacitance Infrared Frequency Energy Reaction (Cannon)

[nubcake]

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

[Amanieu]

Plasma is a gas that is so hot electrons are ripped away from atoms

[nubcake]

The problem with the plasma theory is that plasma doesnt travel in 'balls', any gas would be flat, or spread out, not spherical

[Nux]

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.

[nubcake]

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...

[your face]

This isn't earth, now, is it?