Kai
Retired Staff
Moonman
Doshii Jun
Zakalwe
Moonman
vesper
Moonman
Zakalwe
Moonman
Andrew
A new non-powered-armor weapon, for use of the Cirrus Station Security personnel in the upcoming Nepleslian plotship, The Cirrus Station. Although the plot itself isn't slated until post-Kennewes Offensive, I wanted to get this out into the water and looked at, possibly approved so that I can include it quickly without a hitch when the Cirrus DOES kick off.
So, here we are.
stararmy.com/wiki /doku.php?id=cs ... ble_weapon
Doshii Jun
Andrew, I'll go through this later, say, tomorrow night. S'okay with you?
Zakalwe
My only issue from my casual over-view is that ionizing tungsten is an EPIC task. It's pretty much the least easily ionizable element you could have chosen. There is a reason why the Atromos rifle simply turns a light gas into plasma.
Moonman
Zakalwe wrote:
My only issue from my casual over-view is that ionizing tungsten is an EPIC task. It's pretty much the least easily ionizable element you could have chosen. There is a reason why the Atromos rifle simply turns a light gas into plasma.
Is it really too impossible to happen by the standards of Nepleslian technology, though? The FIRE powered armor uses a multitude of plasma weaponry, most of which relies on ionizing tungsten in the same manner this weapon does. If it is too far of a stretch for the setting, I don't see why I couldn't change it...the Atromos fires plasma nearly three times as far as the CSS:VW does anyway.
vesper
Remember, though, that the FIRE is a full-fledged power armor and its power draw (due to the plasma weapons you mention) are so great that the fusion core has to operate beyond safe limits. Also note that only the PAL-01a (the huge plasma cannon) uses tungsten, the plasma Gatling gun apparently uses some sort of gas to generate its plasma.
Assuming a 3:1 length/width ratio for the round (fairly standard for rifle rounds) the round will mass 40.23 g. To turn this round into a plasma (first ionization state) will require a minimum of ~30 MJ of energy (roughly the energy potential of 16lb of TNT) per shot. Note that this is the energy just to turn it to a plasma, and has nothing to do with how fast it is going to go.
Compare this to the kinetic energy of the projectile, a mere 1,801 J and you can easily see that this thing is hideously inefficient. The plasma generator component of this thing is outputting nearly 16,600 times more energy than the accelerator. Now according to a run through in the 3G3 system (which I have used to make pretty much all of my weapons, it gives good specs for things) the accelerator for this weapon is going to weigh 1.6 kg by itself (only the accelerator, not including batteries or ammunition). Even if you assume the plasma generator is vastly more efficient than the accelerator, that still means it is going to be much more massive than the accelerator and will commensurably increase the weapons mass by a good margin.
One thing you should realize is that, despite its large round size, this things damage capability is not going to be very good thanks to its comparatively low muzzle velocity. Compared to the .50 BMG this thing fires a round only slightly less massive (40g v ~45g) at less than 1/3rd the velocity and it will have only 1/10th that rounds energy. This means that, despite its large round (and partly due to it in fact) its penetration is going to horrible against armor.
Also, the recoil from this thing is going to be very large. The solid shot will have a recoil about 2/7th the .50 BMG (just the raw projectile momentum, ignoring the effect of any muzzle blast), which is quite large (as I understand). The plasma shot’s recoil, however, is going to be immense. While I could not find it for tungsten, not for lack of trying, metals expand hugely when vaporized. Essentially, your gun here will be firing a jet out one end of superheated metal.
On the range here, due to the very low velocity of the round I doubt the solid one is going to even get close to 1km effective. 3G3 gives a effective range of ~230 meters, because of this small velocity. Because of the incredibly low muzzle velocity of the plasma bolt, it will dissipate extremely rapidly, it would probably be better as a ranged plasma torch than as a round.
In summary, I would strongly recommend reducing the round size to something like 5-6mm and greatly upping the muzzle velocity (which is the whole reason for using rail guns in the first place). This would give it better range and much, much better armor penetration, also reducing recoil somewhat (though it is still going to be large). With the plasma feature, I would strongly, strongly recommend dropping it altogether. Not only is it quite inefficient, it requires very different systems than the rest of the weapon (which have no advantage for its other fire mode).
,
Vesper
Moonman
Uh huh...
Well, I'm not going to pretend that I understand most of the things you posted. I do thank you for the summary at the end, though...made things a bit clearer.
vesper wrote:
In summary, I would strongly recommend reducing the round size to something like 5-6mm and greatly upping the muzzle velocity (which is the whole reason for using rail guns in the first place). This would give it better range and much, much better armor penetration, also reducing recoil somewhat (though it is still going to be large). With the plasma feature, I would strongly, strongly recommend dropping it altogether. Not only is it quite inefficient, it requires very different systems than the rest of the weapon (which have no advantage for its other fire mode).
The low penetration, muzzle velocity and overall weakness of the weapon is an intended feature. If the weapon were any more powerful, stray shots fired within the station will most likely bounce off walls, penetrate systems and basically wreck the station from the inside out. This is something the designer of the weapon wanted to prevent...she basically only designed this weapon and gave it to her security teams because her superiors demanded that she arm her security staff. Otherwise, the designer would not have given them weapons AT ALL.
Thus, I am wanting to keep these flaws, mostly for story reasons. This weapon isn't being made to take strides in Nepleslian war technology...if I wanted to do that, I'd made powered armor weapons, or starship weapons.
The plasma issue, I suppose I can understand. I would rather keep the function in there, however. Thus, I made a few changes:
-The plasma function has been changed and separated from the main use of the gun. The process has been changed to simply ionizing hydrogen molecules and propelling them out of the barrel through the means of changing the polarity of an electrode they gather around. The means to fire plasma have also been separated: In order to use this function, the Variable Weapon needs both an ionized gas canister and a hydrogen cartridge, which replaces the solid round cartridge.
-Upped the muzzle velocity a bit.
Are these satisfactory, or are there other problems with the weapon I should be concerned with.
Zakalwe
If you wanted a weapon 'safe' for use in the interior of a station I would personally recommend some form of high-powered Maser weaponry. This is partially because you won't be able to design something which is capable of destroying power armour without destroying parts of your station, and against infantry something like a Maser, Laser or Electrolaser are all very effective. Coherent microwaves are a bugger for the skin.
Moonman
Zakalwe wrote:
If you wanted a weapon 'safe' for use in the interior of a station I would personally recommend some form of high-powered Maser weaponry. This is partially because you won't be able to design something which is capable of destroying power armour without destroying parts of your station, and against infantry something like a Maser, Laser or Electrolaser are all very effective. Coherent microwaves are a bugger for the skin.
Err...I never intend for this gun to be of any threat to a power armored foe...or enemy infantry, for that matter. It's part of the mentality that went behind this submission: the designer of this weapon, who also happens to be the Head Administrator of the station that it will be used in, does not expect the weapon to have to EVER be used...she believes her station is perfect in all respects. Thus, why spend extra time giving it an actual kick behind each shot? And I did consider that Maser-type weapon you suggest, when somebody else ran the idea by me...but decided against it, for plot-reasons.
That's kind of the big thing behind this submission, really. It's more for plot purposes, and I never really planned on letting it leaving the Cirrus plot unless people JUST WANT IT to.
Andrew
Doshii Jun wrote:
Andrew, I'll go through this later, say, tomorrow night. S'okay with you?
Doshii, reminder to look at this
