[New Weapon] Particle Beam Cannon

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Yes, I stole the name from I-War. :p
(Feel free to rename it)

Anyhoo, I fancied a cross between an energy weapon and ammo based weapon.
So I came up with an idea similar to the PBCs in I-War, but mixed up for ED.

The PBC, is a fairly slow firing, non-hitscan weapon. Projectile speeds, are initially around 1500m/s, but trails off after 1.5km.
ROF is around 60 rounds a minute.
Effective range is around 2km, and damage falls off rapidly after that.
It is similar to PAs, where damage is absolute on shields. Hull damage is ok at close range too, but it has very poor penetration. Beyond 2km the weapon is almost incapable of damaging hull.

Unlike all other weapons, it's neither ammo based, or energy based, but a new mix of both.
The PBC has unlimited overall ammo, but a limited clip size, of 30.
The weapon actually requires very very little WEP energy to fire.
However once those 30 rounds are gone, it will begin draining your WEP energy to create more.
The PBC can not reload while firing, or for 5 seconds after the last shot, but reloading can be interrupted to fire again.
WEP drain stops when the PBC clip is full.

Visually, the PBC fires a short streak of charged particles, clustered together. Basically a thick orange line.

Available in all classes, from 1-4, however, class 4 is simply two class 3's bolted together, for a combined ROF for 120 rounds per minute, and 60 rounds in the clip.
Heat generation is starts off quite low, but continued fire will build up heat in the weapon quicker, and needs to cool before reloading can commence (hence 5 seconds after last shot).

Thoughts?

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

DocLooshkin

DocLooshkin
Hello, CSH. :)

Well, now, there's a terrifying idea. The weapon you've described and the name you've given it are entirely at odds with each other.

The weapon you describe sounds a lot like the game's existing Plasma Accelerators. It seems like a fair enough idea. I'd call it a Plasma Cannon.

As for the weapon you've named...

Holy Hell.

For some reason, much of the SF world tends to treat it's weaponry with surprisingly little attention to detail. Everything from particle beams to LASERs to disruptor weapons are all treated as vague, interchangeable magic guns. ED does these things with a bit more awareness, however, so what we'd get...

The particle beam weapon is a real thing. If implemented in ED's usual terms, it looks monstrous. If some evil sod brings one of those to the party, I don't think anyone's going to care what colour the beam is.

In ED, I'd expect a weaponised Particle Beam to work much as it does in the real world: by accelerating a material - uncharged hydrogen or helium, most likely - to incredible speed and firing it out of a gun. Against shielded targets, I'd expect a lot of damage (FD has been careful not to disclose the nature of our shields, but they are certainly somewhat porous). Against unshielded targets, I'd expect even more damage.

The closest thing to a Particle Beam currently in ED is the Railgun - but whereas that weapon fires a slug, a Particle Beam would presumably be firing a stream of super-accelerated hydrogen. Like a Railgun, the Particle Beam would just go straight through anything. Such weaponry would automatically confer substantial heat damage. I think it would have to be a fixed weapon, with a very long charge time, purely for survivability's sake.

Given the nature of the weapon, FD might want to implement this as a modification to existing Railguns. It might be wise to knobble it a bit, with an additional mandatory modification to the FSD needed to operate the thing. It presumably wouldn't need ammo, but it would use fuel and take the FSD offline when deployed. Once the weapon is retracted, the subsequent FSD reboot time might be extended significantly. A single shot would presumably drain the weapons-cooling capacitor in one go, with further heat problems being a major issue.

That's all concerning a conventional, single-shot Particle Beam, by the way. A Particle Cannon, on the other hand, would presumably sit somewhere between all the above and a Frag Cannon. So, potentially very like a Railgun, but with unlimited ammo, extra heat damage and the spread of a Frag Cannon. You can see why I'm concerned about applying some limits.

I've no idea if this weapon is a good idea or not. I am quite sure I wouldn't want to be shot with one. :)
 

CMDR Ahab

CMDR Ahab
Isn't this basically what inertial impact is on burst lasers? A perfected form of that minus jitter would be truly terrifying.:eek:
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
StiTch said:
Railguns.

Also, PAs.

... ;)
Click to expand...

True, but neither satisfy my pew pew needs. Lol


DocLooshkin said:
Hello, CSH. :)

Well, now, there's a terrifying idea. The weapon you've described and the name you've given it are entirely at odds with each other.

The weapon you describe sounds a lot like the game's existing Plasma Accelerators. It seems like a fair enough idea. I'd call it a Plasma Cannon.

As for the weapon you've named...

Holy Hell.

For some reason, much of the SF world tends to treat it's weaponry with surprisingly little attention to detail. Everything from particle beams to LASERs to disruptor weapons are all treated as vague, interchangeable magic guns. ED does these things with a bit more awareness, however, so what we'd get...

The particle beam weapon is a real thing. If implemented in ED's usual terms, it looks monstrous. If some evil sod brings one of those to the party, I don't think anyone's going to care what colour the beam is.

In ED, I'd expect a weaponised Particle Beam to work much as it does in the real world: by accelerating a material - uncharged hydrogen or helium, most likely - to incredible speed and firing it out of a gun. Against shielded targets, I'd expect a lot of damage (FD has been careful not to disclose the nature of our shields, but they are certainly somewhat porous). Against unshielded targets, I'd expect even more damage.

The closest thing to a Particle Beam currently in ED is the Railgun - but whereas that weapon fires a slug, a Particle Beam would presumably be firing a stream of super-accelerated hydrogen. Like a Railgun, the Particle Beam would just go straight through anything. Such weaponry would automatically confer substantial heat damage. I think it would have to be a fixed weapon, with a very long charge time, purely for survivability's sake.

Given the nature of the weapon, FD might want to implement this as a modification to existing Railguns. It might be wise to knobble it a bit, with an additional mandatory modification to the FSD needed to operate the thing. It presumably wouldn't need ammo, but it would use fuel and take the FSD offline when deployed. Once the weapon is retracted, the subsequent FSD reboot time might be extended significantly. A single shot would presumably drain the weapons-cooling capacitor in one go, with further heat problems being a major issue.

That's all concerning a conventional, single-shot Particle Beam, by the way. A Particle Cannon, on the other hand, would presumably sit somewhere between all the above and a Frag Cannon. So, potentially very like a Railgun, but with unlimited ammo, extra heat damage and the spread of a Frag Cannon. You can see why I'm concerned about applying some limits.

I've no idea if this weapon is a good idea or not. I am quite sure I wouldn't want to be shot with one. :)
Click to expand...

So much science!

Forget the name, I just don't have the imagination or science knowledge to come up with a fitting name for this weapon. :p
And I chose PBC because PPCs are in MechWarrior. And PAs already exist. Lol
(And I love I-War)

Feel free to name the weapon based on how I described it. Lol

It could be Plasma or Particle Burst Cannon. Or it could just be a ship version of the Plasma Repeaters from SLFs. Although, it has a much slower RoF than a Plasma Repeater.
Or whatever.

It's more about how it works, which is quite different to the current choice of guns.

They'd be powerful, because you can fire them along side other weapons. But when you stop firing, you're going to be losing capacitor energy rapidly while they recharge, preventing you from firing other weapons.
A funny kind of balance, and completely different to the current weapons.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom