Elite: Lore
04 Jan 2018, 11:35pm
05 Jan 2018, 11:54am
I think that Expanse-like wrist-mounted "miniguns" would be a thing there. And rear-mounted heat-seaking/laser-lead missiles.
05 Jan 2018, 4:49pm
That being said, would you really want to fire a projectile weapon in an enclosed space where a ricochet could send a bullet pinging back in your direction at faster than the speed of sound (would be if you were on Earth)? I can imagine how this conversation goes in my headcanon: "Oi, let's take the SMGs!" "For the last time, no. That's why your MOS is mess crank and not infantry."
On the other hand, kinetic weaponry is great for orbital bombardment. You drop a tungsten rod the size and shape of a telephone pole from orbit. No warhead to worry about failing, no nuclear fallout, no energy concerns, just gravity. Kinetic orbital bombardment is a common sci fi trope, and is far more scary than a nuclear weapon or a laser beam when you sit and think about it with interstellar space travel in mind: kinetic bombardment, relativistic kill vehicle
05 Jan 2018, 5:11pm
Damon8r351Yes, that's the kind of talk I like seeing in my sci fi.
'No credit for partial answers, maggot!' still slays me.
05 Jan 2018, 5:16pm
As far as nuke vs kinetic bombardment, kinetic is far cheaper and more destructive, but for terror? Nuke all the way. The fallout's not even the bad part, an atmospheric burst generates an EMP that knocks out a huge area's electronics (a great precursor to invasion).
tl;dr
I really don't see a huge issue with firearms for military (or even civilian in ship/in station use). Depending on the goal, both kinetic and nuclear weapons seem viable (but nukes will be vilified).
05 Jan 2018, 5:37pm
The limited amount of environment (air, space) on a ship would probably make aerosols like pepper bombs a problem.
Any weapon that would do significant damage to a person would also be a risk to ship interiors. I'm not talking about bulkheads between module slots, but all parts of the modules. Unless you have reinforced the module (grade B) it would be designed for less weight and that means no built in protection.
Long range weapons (and the range is probably short on player ships) would be kinetic with rubber or plastic bullets. The bullets would impart part of their energy and momentum to the target (the one you were really aiming at, not the one you thought you were aiming at) and the rest to deforming the bullet and preventing ricochet.
I think most combat would be at very short range and the chosen weapon would be the cutlass.
Or maybe I don't appreciate how big some of the large ships would be.
05 Jan 2018, 5:41pm
Last edit: 05 Jan 2018, 6:03pm
05 Jan 2018, 5:47pm
06 Jan 2018, 12:41pm
Damn, this is actually pretty tricky subject here. There's no weaponry, except for non-lethal one, which wouldn't make mess inside interiors of the ships. Lasers can make holes in hull (you do not want that unless ship is depressurised already), kinetics can kill you with ricochet and plasma... plasma burns and heats and burns stuff. Pretty much you don't want all that oxygen go on fire.
06 Jan 2018, 1:01pm
Your outer ship hull and it's supporting structure can take hits from thermal and kinetic weapons far larger than anything you can possibly carry around by hand. Breaching the hull with them would be nearly impossible.
As Phelbore already said, ricochets lose a lot of their kinetic energy + deform. A boarding team equipped with suitable armor, which is pretty much necessary when EVA boarding, shouldn't have a problem with them.
Plasma, idk. One should probably refrain from setting things inside a spaceship on fire, but on the other hand, if you have your own life support, why should you care?