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Speed of Aether
- Thread starter Rizzo
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- question technology
Zack
Inactive Member
Aether is a place.
Aether weapons either pull stuff from the aether and use it to power a weapon (meaning it shoots at whatever speed the non-aether branded version shoots at) or the weapon is a shock cannon style device.
Shock cannons fire a light-speed pulse that causes the energy of the aether to show up. The wave propogates at light speed, the blast explodes outward from the wave at normal blast speed. This has some very special properties, like being able to travel past armor without losing weapon strength, or being able to evenly bake the entire planet all the way through from all directions at once.
Aether weapons either pull stuff from the aether and use it to power a weapon (meaning it shoots at whatever speed the non-aether branded version shoots at) or the weapon is a shock cannon style device.
Shock cannons fire a light-speed pulse that causes the energy of the aether to show up. The wave propogates at light speed, the blast explodes outward from the wave at normal blast speed. This has some very special properties, like being able to travel past armor without losing weapon strength, or being able to evenly bake the entire planet all the way through from all directions at once.
The following is merely my own unofficial headcanon, and does not represent an "official" answer by any means.
Although @Fred (or @Wes, of course) would be able to offer a far more "official" figure and/or explanation, I've always envisioned Aether Shock Weapons as essentially being the equivalent of the SDF-1 Macross's main gun, given that @Wes has stated in the past that the Ki-V1 "Hoplite" Variable-Configuration Fighter is a direct clone of the VF-1 Valkyrie and that the Yamatai Star Empire is "partly inspired by 80s anime," according to this this page - therefore including The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which was originally released in 1982.
So, to answer your original question, @Rizzo: Unlike @Zack above, I believe that aether projectiles fired by aetheric weaponry travel at slower-then-light velocities, however, I do not know their exact STL speed.
I'm also fairly certain, @Zack, that Aether Shock Arrays cannot "travel past armor without losing weapon strength" or "evenly bake the entire planet all the way through from all directions at once" ; instead - to the best of my knowledge and based upon my interpretation of the aforementioned article - they simply unleash an unholy amount of energy over a vast area (via "scalar energetics") in a fashion similar to the primary armament of the variable gun destroyer mentioned earlier.
Lastly, before I'm accused of being "toxic" or "cancerous" by certain individuals: I'm posting this because I, too, am curious in regards to what the muzzle velocity of aetheric weapons is, due to planning on incorporating them into Elysian starships at some point in the future.
Here's an example of the Macross firing its main gun.
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Fred
Retired Staff
So far as I'm concerned, aether weapons fire at the speed-of-light. They're effectively beam weapons.
I don't put much stock in ack's aether powered weapons. Everything on a Mindy would end up aether powered, but its forearm projectors (on the Mark II, anyways) don't erect pretend aether energy projections (called for ease of reference as 'blades of energy' or whatnot).
I personally believe most aether weapons actually behave the way Zack describes the aether shock cannon. Except Zack's description is an extreme outlier, again, from my point of view.
My take on it has consistently been throughout the years that the scalar radiation used doesn't always have the full capability of piercing entirely through barrier and armor. It kind of behaves the same as anything else against barrier (save that aether weaponry tends to have a lot of kick too), but against armor it usually ends up doing surface-level disintegration. So, with an anti-armor rated saber-rifle that fires of rapid bolts, I might be able to penetrate a power armor's breastplate if it's on the thinner side. On something thicker, I'll end up disintegrating parts of its surface with those same aether bolts.
Bigger aether weapons emit scalar radiation better able to get through the interference armor causes - and materials do cause interference. There are reasons why aether generators keep the aether inside rather than spilling out all over, and it's thanks to application of our setting's supermaterials also used to plate our power armors, mecha and ships.
Now, barring the inevitable "this is wrong" from Zack - because I know we're on opposing schools of thoughts on this - my disclaimer is that it is how I've seen it applied, how I've applied it, and how I've heard Wes explain 'shielding' in aether generators.
I don't put much stock in ack's aether powered weapons. Everything on a Mindy would end up aether powered, but its forearm projectors (on the Mark II, anyways) don't erect pretend aether energy projections (called for ease of reference as 'blades of energy' or whatnot).
I personally believe most aether weapons actually behave the way Zack describes the aether shock cannon. Except Zack's description is an extreme outlier, again, from my point of view.
My take on it has consistently been throughout the years that the scalar radiation used doesn't always have the full capability of piercing entirely through barrier and armor. It kind of behaves the same as anything else against barrier (save that aether weaponry tends to have a lot of kick too), but against armor it usually ends up doing surface-level disintegration. So, with an anti-armor rated saber-rifle that fires of rapid bolts, I might be able to penetrate a power armor's breastplate if it's on the thinner side. On something thicker, I'll end up disintegrating parts of its surface with those same aether bolts.
Bigger aether weapons emit scalar radiation better able to get through the interference armor causes - and materials do cause interference. There are reasons why aether generators keep the aether inside rather than spilling out all over, and it's thanks to application of our setting's supermaterials also used to plate our power armors, mecha and ships.
Now, barring the inevitable "this is wrong" from Zack - because I know we're on opposing schools of thoughts on this - my disclaimer is that it is how I've seen it applied, how I've applied it, and how I've heard Wes explain 'shielding' in aether generators.
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Zack
Inactive Member
https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=aether
Aether is a place.
All aether weapons work by either powering a weapon by drawing energy from the aether, or by opening up a path to the aether and letting that energy dump out.
In the instance of Shock cannons: scalar waves are not affected by stuff as they pass through it. A strong enough scalar wave releases aether into the universe as it passes through. So an aether Shock cannon's blast is equally as powerful across its entire field of fire.
This is how it has always been portrayed.
Scalar fields are only stopped by anti-gravity. If your anti-gravity field is up then the scalar wave is nullified. In the instance of a shock cannon this means that your ship's shields will stop the shock cannon beam, but they will still be right next to the blast from the beam. This is why things aren't insta-gib'd by ASC style weapons unless they are either unshielded or damaged already.
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Saying "Aether weapons fire at the speed of light" is an incorrect statement in the same way as saying "European weapons fire at the speed of light."
The actual answer is more in depth and depends on the weapon.
Aether is a place.
All aether weapons work by either powering a weapon by drawing energy from the aether, or by opening up a path to the aether and letting that energy dump out.
In the instance of Shock cannons: scalar waves are not affected by stuff as they pass through it. A strong enough scalar wave releases aether into the universe as it passes through. So an aether Shock cannon's blast is equally as powerful across its entire field of fire.
This is how it has always been portrayed.
Scalar fields are only stopped by anti-gravity. If your anti-gravity field is up then the scalar wave is nullified. In the instance of a shock cannon this means that your ship's shields will stop the shock cannon beam, but they will still be right next to the blast from the beam. This is why things aren't insta-gib'd by ASC style weapons unless they are either unshielded or damaged already.
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Saying "Aether weapons fire at the speed of light" is an incorrect statement in the same way as saying "European weapons fire at the speed of light."
The actual answer is more in depth and depends on the weapon.
Aether is basically energy and/or an energized matter/anti-matter plasma that starts reacting as shortly after it's pulled out of the aether. Aether energy (e.g. white beam) moves at light speed, and aether plasma moves however fast you can push it with your coil gun, although if you are producing enough aether plasma, you won't have to push because it'll push you (e.g. aether plasma engines). I always figured aether energy consists of a wide mix of energy types (basically a full EM spectrum) rather than any particular type (e.g. gamma rays). Scalar waves travel at light speed and cannot be blocked by anything that doesn't block the force of gravity.
No, I think EM shields would be good at blocking EM radiation.
Armor can help protect against aether energy and aether plasma, but aether shock weapons have to be defended against with shields or anti-gravity systems.
Fred
Retired Staff
Then... @Wes , is generating beams from the blade of the Sakura/Plumeria's blade array, through now seldom-used projection via the CFS bubble, or from a Mindy's Aether saber-rifle a different application than the Aether Shock Array?
Because, reading up on the description, both appear to be phased-pulse weaponry.
Do all the firing mode of the Plumeria shock array actually count as an 'aetheric shock attack'? i.e.: the rapid pulse mode.
Because, reading up on the description, both appear to be phased-pulse weaponry.
Do all the firing mode of the Plumeria shock array actually count as an 'aetheric shock attack'? i.e.: the rapid pulse mode.
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Aether shock arrays only come in the form of large starship-based weapon systems.
The aether saber (in sword and beam modes) is an energy weapon.
Rapid pulse mode is a normal aether energy attack, not an aether shock attack.
The aether saber (in sword and beam modes) is an energy weapon.
Rapid pulse mode is a normal aether energy attack, not an aether shock attack.
Fred
Retired Staff
I know this steers a little clear of the threads topic, but we incidentally got there, so I'd like to further ask:
You say 'aether energy attack'. What is that? Are you actually going toward "powered by aether, but does plasma damage"? or "does damage via aether, just not as release of energy potential when striking the target" (which would then beg the question "what/how then?")
According to your descriptions, I always thought you were trying to convey that aether weaponry were somekind of disintegration beams/projections (on top of heat damage), but that matter density was capable of blunting/stopping it - for instance, you made infantry sandbags capable of protecting unarmored infantry from fire from aether saber-rifles (to a degree, anyways).
Just like how an aether generator is a faucet to bring in aetheric energy - and the better the generator, the bigger the faucet - it seemed like for aether weapons there was a finite amount of matter they could 'eat' while in use (a saber-rifles rapid-fire bolt, or the stronger beam) explaining why sometimes it did damage on the surface but didn't necessarily go through.
You say 'aether energy attack'. What is that? Are you actually going toward "powered by aether, but does plasma damage"? or "does damage via aether, just not as release of energy potential when striking the target" (which would then beg the question "what/how then?")
According to your descriptions, I always thought you were trying to convey that aether weaponry were somekind of disintegration beams/projections (on top of heat damage), but that matter density was capable of blunting/stopping it - for instance, you made infantry sandbags capable of protecting unarmored infantry from fire from aether saber-rifles (to a degree, anyways).
Just like how an aether generator is a faucet to bring in aetheric energy - and the better the generator, the bigger the faucet - it seemed like for aether weapons there was a finite amount of matter they could 'eat' while in use (a saber-rifles rapid-fire bolt, or the stronger beam) explaining why sometimes it did damage on the surface but didn't necessarily go through.
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Navian
Inactive Member
The impression I get is that aether weapons are never matter conversion or disintegration beams. They don't work by breaking things down in a subtle, nucleonic or molecular level, they do it relatively conventionally, by heating things up until they denature the old-fashioned way, the same as nuclear and antimatter weapons, lasers, or just plain old fire.
The difference is in the way the energy from the aether is conveyed. Sometimes it's indirect and relatively conventional; it's conveyed by photons, protons, and/or neutrons. This includes 'aether energy weapons'. For 'aether shock weapons', though, the target is exposed to the aether directly, which means the energy is conveyed by more exotic means, which might include a mix of normal particles with their antimatter equivalents, or more exotic particles that I don't really know about but am pretty sure I wouldn't want to be immersed in.
If they work this way, they don't eat matter, they just burn it or blow it up... though for an unshielded target shot by an aether shock array it'd be hard to tell the difference unless you had some way to count the particles left over after it was atomized.
I think there's a lot of other ways to explain the effects, (anti-)particle beams and pulse lasers can already produce some less than intuitive results, since most people's 'intuition' treats all directed energy weapons like beam lasers, in much the same way most peoples' understanding of animal behavior is based on dogs.
The difference is in the way the energy from the aether is conveyed. Sometimes it's indirect and relatively conventional; it's conveyed by photons, protons, and/or neutrons. This includes 'aether energy weapons'. For 'aether shock weapons', though, the target is exposed to the aether directly, which means the energy is conveyed by more exotic means, which might include a mix of normal particles with their antimatter equivalents, or more exotic particles that I don't really know about but am pretty sure I wouldn't want to be immersed in.
If they work this way, they don't eat matter, they just burn it or blow it up... though for an unshielded target shot by an aether shock array it'd be hard to tell the difference unless you had some way to count the particles left over after it was atomized.
I think there's a lot of other ways to explain the effects, (anti-)particle beams and pulse lasers can already produce some less than intuitive results, since most people's 'intuition' treats all directed energy weapons like beam lasers, in much the same way most peoples' understanding of animal behavior is based on dogs.
