Why are there no nuclear weapons in Elite?
- Thread starter Zer0cool
- Start date
Deleted member 110222
D
Multi-player.
Good point, but with the all stuff being unbalanced now anyway...
Nuclear weapons are not very exciting in space where everything is trying to kill you with hard radiation anyway, and not useful in close quarters.
"Multi-player."
This.^
And the fact that we have far more orbits in the Galaxy than we have nukes - so making/selling nukes makes no sense at all
MFG
CMDR WER NUR
This.^
And the fact that we have far more orbits in the Galaxy than we have nukes - so making/selling nukes makes no sense at all
MFG
CMDR WER NUR
The old super weapon (if that was the nova-bomb, I fail to recall) was all about doing something funky with ship jump drives causing them to overload and detonate while keeping your own drive safe. So less a nuke and more some sort of specialised emp/feedback weapon.
For normal ship to ship I imagine actual nukes would perhaps be less great, you're either close enough that you are going to get yourself fried along with your target or far enough away the other ship can dodge or shoot them down.
Still, versus stations or capital ships it sounds like a reasonable plan. Then we have to hand wave "it's a game" and probably leave it at that. We could perhaps argue something with point defence or something or maybe say shields are for some reason specifically good against nukes but we don't see that long range point defence (still I said this before with small ships so, hmm) and when the shields come down why wouldn't you?
Perhaps there is a treaty against it like with AI's...
But versus Thargoid sites? Seems like an obvious win, like wise dropping asteroids on them - probably harder to stop that!
So, "it's a game" then
For normal ship to ship I imagine actual nukes would perhaps be less great, you're either close enough that you are going to get yourself fried along with your target or far enough away the other ship can dodge or shoot them down.
Still, versus stations or capital ships it sounds like a reasonable plan. Then we have to hand wave "it's a game" and probably leave it at that. We could perhaps argue something with point defence or something or maybe say shields are for some reason specifically good against nukes but we don't see that long range point defence (still I said this before with small ships so, hmm) and when the shields come down why wouldn't you?
Perhaps there is a treaty against it like with AI's...
But versus Thargoid sites? Seems like an obvious win, like wise dropping asteroids on them - probably harder to stop that!
So, "it's a game" then
Nuclear weapons pack a lot of energy into little mass - that's the problem. In an atmosphere that energy is transmitted to the matter around the explosion - making it devastating.
The only effective way to transmit energy in a vacuum is radiation and in Elite Dangerous ships are extremely resistant to radiation. This radiation protection makes fuel scooping from stars and getting anywhere close to a neutron star possible or most parts of the galaxy possible.
In short nuclear weapons are ineffective in space.
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Yes, but I bet surrounding a nuclear warhead in meta alloys, driving it into a Thargoid base, and detonating it would do a nice job of removing that threat.
Yes, but I bet surrounding a nuclear warhead in meta alloys, driving it into a Thargoid base, and detonating it would do a nice job of removing that threat.
So long as you're doing it from orbit. Just to be sure.
Because people frustrated by grind and weapons of mass destruction don't go well together.
Yes, but I bet surrounding a nuclear warhead in meta alloys, driving it into a Thargoid base, and detonating it would do a nice job of removing that threat.
What would surrounding a nuclear warhead with meta-alloy do? The nuclear reaction will probably destroy the meta-alloy and just give you a nice generic plasma.
And there you have it. Plasma weapons are the way to go.
(It's just that they are extremely nerfed in this game for obvious gameplay reasons or the PAs use only a tiny bit of matter to create the plasma).
But to be honest, low tech is still the best method. Just accelerate a lot of mass to high enough speed and hit the target you want to wipe out.
If you want to go high-tech, enter the wonderful world of relativistic weapons.
Nuclear weapons are plasma weapons if you want to be pedantic.
verminstar
Banned
If one were to judge it based on the tech we have a thousand odd years in the future, chances are we simply forgot how to make them as our species devolved when they took to the stars. Thats based on simple stuff we take fer granted in the world today that simply doesnt exist in the future...its like we stopped making useful stuff fer no apparent reason...like nukes and mobile phones and all the nice things we have today ^
You are right. That's why I mentioned it. In space a nuclear weapon is just a plasma weapon, probably with a lot more mass than the usual plasma accelerator weapon.
Edit: and since "we" can generate plasma without big problems, why use a technology that destroys itself? A huge plasma accelerator can use easier to obtain matter with the same result without destroying itself. Only the matter that gets turned into plasma has to be replaced. Making it more cost-effective.
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Is it because in the future all weapons will have maximum ranges of 1 - 1.5Km because (stuff) so you wouldn't want to go letting off a Nuclear Weapon just outside your spaceships canopy...