Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: dragonsniper on June 15, 2009, 09:32:51 am
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Just a quick question. What would the Vasudan's use for ground combat weaponry?
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Hand-held projectile weapons. Or really, whatever you want as long as you can back it up reasonably.
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I'm just not sure if I can see a Vasudan holding a futuristic rifle.
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Well they have two arms and two hands like us. The typical rifle shape has worked pretty well for hundreds of years. If I could think of a better design I'd be off patenting it instead of talking about it here.
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I imagine something more like this:
(http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/f/f3/SC_Ghost_Zealot2.jpg)
"My life for Aiur Vasuda!"
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I also like the idea of Energy blades. Most 'cause they're cool.
Like Protoss Zealot Psi Blades or Sanghelli (sp?) Energy Swords :D
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Somehow I see Vasudans using chainguns... Or huge, vasudan-versions-of-gta-rifles with blades underneath.
That said, isn't there any Vasudan soldier in the Vasudan mainhall?
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I'd imagine Vasudans would do like they did in Freespace 2, and take cues from Terrans and/or modify Terran hand weapons to suit their own needs.
It's really up to the writer, as there's very little if any canon information about Vasudan handheld weaponry.
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Because ground-based weapons are terribly numerous and so standardization benefits them more, I tend to think the GTVA has standardized their infantry weapons. Based on the ones used in Hallfight, I picture a magnetic-based weapon that fires a subcalibur round fed, suspended, and accelerated in the barrel entirely by magnetics; the round never actually comes in contact with the barrel at any point. This poses problems in accurate fire but offers a lot of versatility in the ammo load.
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Because ground-based weapons are terribly numerous and so standardization benefits them more, I tend to think the GTVA has standardized their infantry weapons. Based on the ones used in Hallfight, I picture a magnetic-based weapon that fires a subcalibur round fed, suspended, and accelerated in the barrel entirely by magnetics; the round never actually comes in contact with the barrel at any point. This poses problems in accurate fire but offers a lot of versatility in the ammo load.
:wtf: :eek2: You can come up with all that based on a cutscene? You have got to explain how you do that.
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:wtf: :eek2: You can come up with all that based on a cutscene? You have got to explain how you do that.
The weapons used in Hallfight have several salient characteristics.
Extremely large apparent calibur.
Abnormal lack of noise for a gunpowder weapon.
No apparent shell casings.
No apparent ammunition supply.
This leads to several conclusions. They are not (with one possible exception, apparently a squad-support grenade launcher) chemical-propellent weapons as we know them, else they should be significantly louder in a confined space like that. The are not lasers or other directed energy weapons, because such weapons would not strike sparks from something they were unable to penetrate. Since they must be firing physical rounds, the rounds they are firing cannot possibly be the same size as their muzzles because then they should have fired about once each and they clearly fire much more than that.
This leaves us with a weapon that must be firing physical rounds significantly smaller than the size of its barrel, which are not discarding-sabot ammunition. Force-field based craziness is out of the question since it was only a little while ago that anyone developed relatively undirected fighter shields. Gravitics are, I suppose, possible, but we've never seen the GTA/PVN/GTVA use any gravitic-based weapons so I doubt they have the technology or the fine control. Magentic suspension and acceleration is pretty much the only option for doing such a thing.
The lack of physical contact with a barrel and the sheer complexity of attempting to spin a round for stability via magentics means that some kind of rifling effect is probably out the window, but on the other hand extensive computer aiming support is almost certainly a given so it's possible the weapon would be quite accurate...if not for the fact you have a crapload of magnets in the thing and it's being used shipboard amidst all kinds of magnetic fields and electrical currents. Given all these, it's probably no more accurate than a modern assault rifle and with the amount of computer support you could build into a similar projectile weapon, not very accurate at all by the standards of the time.
The interchangeable and versatile nature of ammunition is easily divined. There are two main bottlenecks in such a thing: size and and rifling. This is why shotguns have a much greater number of ammunition types then rifles. The GTVA's materials engineering and miniaturization has doubtless advanced so that they can produce rifle-caliburish rounds of many different types, and the weapon I propose would be ideal since, lacking physical contact with any part of the barrel, you could get away with a variety of different shapes.
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While we're posting pictures of StarCraft, does anybody know anything about this promotional image?
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l77/Aardwolf001/starcraft5.jpg)
Edit so it's not completely off-topic: Didn't the Hallfight squad's guns make a whirring sound?
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I was thinking of Vasudans throwing HEADZ.
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I would assume some kind of energy gun. I would find it very odd if they attacked Terran forces with melee weapons and if they did, that they didn't get slaughtered.
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Since when is a coilgun innacurate?
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Since when is a coilgun innacurate?
Since when did you not grasp I'm referring to something vastly more advanced then such a design with a totally different method of operation? (And besides, coilguns are notorious for their inability to generate high velocities.)
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Well... It was a boarding party.. so presumably their task was to capture and secure the ship, not blast it to pieces - being a proud owner of a smoking hulk with everything blown to bits inside aint exactly the goal when boarding a ship... Also lets keep in mind that traditional designs (not sure of alien thinggies) are relatively unarmored from the inside.
Now then do you really want to send in troops with biggest guns you have got? Cause single miss with the big gun and there is significant chance you either blast something nasty apart (ammo magazines, fuel lines, cut high voltage cables, etc. list goes on) or simply blow a whole into the ships hull.... with luck its fast non-explosive decompression... well.. if it aint... too bad...
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Now then do you really want to send in troops with biggest guns you have got? Cause single miss with the big gun and there is significant chance you either blast something nasty apart (ammo magazines, fuel lines, cut high voltage cables, etc. list goes on) or simply blow a whole into the ships hull.... with luck its fast non-explosive decompression... well.. if it aint... too bad...
Your chances of piercing the hull with anything you could actually use at close quarters like that are minimal with a FreeSpace craft. Even a transport can withstand multi-kiloton abuse. Given that, your chances of piercing most bulkheads are probably low too. The loss of a few compartments to take the ship is probably viewed as an acceptable tradeoff.
In any case, this was the first significant effort; they were more likely to have erred on the side of firepower and if that proved to be overkill (though it manifestly wasn't) they could adjust future strategies to suit. A successful first capture, in any condition, would give you a much better idea how to take the next one relatively intact.
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Now then do you really want to send in troops with biggest guns you have got? Cause single miss with the big gun and there is significant chance you either blast something nasty apart (ammo magazines, fuel lines, cut high voltage cables, etc. list goes on) or simply blow a whole into the ships hull.... with luck its fast non-explosive decompression... well.. if it aint... too bad...
Your chances of piercing the hull with anything you could actually use at close quarters like that are minimal with a FreeSpace craft. Even a transport can withstand multi-kiloton abuse. Given that, your chances of piercing most bulkheads are probably low too. The loss of a few compartments to take the ship is probably viewed as an acceptable tradeoff.
In any case, this was the first significant effort; they were more likely to have erred on the side of firepower and if that proved to be overkill (though it manifestly wasn't) they could adjust future strategies to suit. A successful first capture, in any condition, would give you a much better idea how to take the next one relatively intact.
Possibly... however hitting something akin to modern warships ammo magazines or fuel tanks (given the colorful booms we see :P) - or even some sort of reactors - might trigger something which would take out both the ship that is being boarded as well as the boarding ship in addition to the boarding party.
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I kinda imagine a massive tank hovering into a ship wielding a huge ML-16. Rapid-fire cannon with an enormous damage.
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That would be awesome.
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Even a transport can withstand multi-kiloton abuse.
Multi-megaton. A single Fury is 7kt.
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I think weapons that are multi-megaton are more like bombs, IIRC. If they are, a transport doesn't survive that.
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The Argo does - It can take one or two cyclops and live to tell the tale.
Though it's pretty much the exception of the transport line, being tougher than a Fenris.
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Multi-megaton. A single Fury is 7kt.
Quoth the wiki: 3kt. (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Fury) Not quite the same.
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Strangely enough, I find that Vasudan weapons sacrifice damage for increased refire rate.
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meaning increased hit rate.
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Pretty good for starting panic attacks on multiplayer. :drevil: