Outerra forum
Anteworld - Outerra Game => Game & gameplay discussion => Topic started by: ZeosPantera on March 03, 2011, 04:43:48 am
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The first concern is time. If it is truly 1500 years AFTER the year 2200, what the hell are weapons going to look like? What will they fire and how hard will they be to reload?
I personally don't like the idea of laser or ray guns. As seen on a documentary of "future wars" they would most likely emit a silent long lasting invisible beam capable of burning a target at an almost infinite range. BORING!
(http://www.stungunweapon.com/images/laser.jpg)
Stepping back in time to gunpowder is tempting but a bit unbelievable. So I move on to an only slightly futuristic concept of rail guns which is more my style. Those are cannons or handheld guns that fire a metal projectile with electro-magnets, as demonstrated here by the US Navy...
[youtube]UBTbhSFfuNM[/youtube]
That projectile was fired at Mach 7 and didn't hit the ground for ~120 Nautical Miles because it followed the curvature of the earth! I presume the bigger ships in OT may have that kind of thing but the concept can be applied for a rifle application.
The benefit of this type of weapon is the familiar reloading characteristics where a magazine of projectiles will need to be supplied and that mag could also contain the ______ fuel/energy required to charge the weapon. It could retain a standard-ish design characteristic and it also makes a hell of a sound!
I have always liked my guns short and stockless with the ability to either fold out a stock or screw on an extended barrel for those hard to reach radioactive spiders. Simple designs like this with some slight modifications such as bigger magazines to accommodate the energy pack should suffice.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/airsoft_JG_SR25_Ax3.jpg)
Going entirely electromagnetic is a good idea because I can see plenty of scrap, able to be turned into ammunition whether it be from parts of the landing ship or wreckage from the civilization's past. The weapons will require this magical energy we are all trying to harvest and it is a concept not too far out for current gamers. In most future shooters the rail gun is the last weapon obtained and is the most powerful so giving it to them strait away would be awesome in anticipation of the gun that shoots bee's to be released later that year.
Any vehicle mounted guns can be larger but instead of a standard projectile they could fire handful's of shrapnel at longer intervals sort of like a massive shotgun.
The variety of weapons will be non-existent at first I am sure. A single type of rifle on the landing craft and none equipped to vehicles. Those sort of upgrades can occur later on.
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Note that during those ~1500 years after launch the technology practically didn't evolve at all, not aboard a ship where your primary concern is to preserve what you have got.
Me, I'd move the launch earlier than 2500. How soon can humanity assemble a such ship on the orbit from now?
I guess that more exotic weapons will require exotic materials, that won't be easily available right after landing the base. But the default weapon could be something more modern .. an electromagnetic one, or a plasma firing .. thing.
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Me, I'd move the launch earlier than 2500. How soon can humanity assemble a such ship on the orbit from now?
That's been my thought too. I'd say late 22nd century is a good starting point.
On the note of weapons, I like the rail gun idea.
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That's been my thought too. I'd say late 22nd century is a good starting point.
On the note of weapons, I like the rail gun idea.
As do I. Perhaps the railgun could be combined with a projectile frame that generates a magnetic field that holds super-excited plasma?
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I think conventional ammunition, for the most part, should be the normal. Energy based weapons should be heavy upgrades that will take awhile to build.
Lasers should also be in game, but more like current lasers used in the field (what little there is). I imagine by the end of this century, laser-based platforms (whether on-board aircraft or in tank-like vehicles) will be a lot more commonplace as it becomes easier to develop smaller "batteries" for lack of a better word.
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I guarantee Kel-Tec would pay you to put some of their weapons in-game. I just love this new shotgun they are debuting. (American's love new guns)
(http://www.keltecweapons.com/uploaded_files/tinymce/images/KSG_3357web.jpg)
http://www.keltecweapons.com/news/preview-kel-tec-shotgun-ksg/
It's a pump shotgun that expels used shells below the stock and has a lever to choose which of the two, seven round tubes it feeds the ammunition from. So you can load Shot and Slug and choose between them.
I would put a 12" barrel extension and bi-pod on with a 3-6X scope and make a 12 gage sniper rifle.
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Hmm, some kind of a plasma pistol could be useful too:
(http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8554/gcx01.jpg)
relatively small railgun with current technology:
(http://www.cnccookbook.com/img/OthersProjects/Toys/Coilgun.jpg)
electromagnetic weapons:
(http://futurich.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/electromagnetic-gun.jpg)
(http://www.weirdworm.com/img/misc/5-weird-modern-day-military-weapons/electromagnetic-personnel-interdiction-control.jpg)
or, when everything else fails:
(http://loscuatroojos.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/hello-kitty-assault-rifle.jpg)
;)
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+1 for the pink hello kitty gun =P
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I would put a 12" barrel extension and bi-pod on with a 3-6X scope and make a 12 gage sniper rifle.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/KSG_3357web3.jpg)
Sometime we need to make our own dreams come true.
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lazors are ineffective, the borg can adapt to them.
somethings dont have a better alternative and all you can do is improve on it.
(http://www.srizone.net/wallpapers/data/media/42/Bullet%20Closeup.jpg)
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The sub-forum called "Building/Transportation/Driving Game" gets a thread with weapons... why?
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If you read the other threads, you'll realize that combat will eventually be part of the game. This thread gives the developers some ideas of what the community would like to see in the game, and see if it would be potentially possible.
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I tried to make threads for all the possible ..."things" you find in a usual game. Each subject may be expanded if a subject gets too crowded with sub-topics. IE Transportation and vehicles may need to break down to land air sea..
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Rail guns would be great weapons for the future setting. EMP- type weapons would also be a nice addition. You could equip combat vehicles and defensive structures with laser-based active defensive systems. We have these currently in use against mortar and artillery projectiles. They detonate the ordinance in the air before it reaches it's target. In the future, they could also be effective against missiles and rockets. In this case, I'd make them ineffective against rail gun projectiles. For the really heavy stuff, you could use large rail guns similar to the United States Navy's current project. At higher tech levels, perhaps you could implement orbiters that fire kinetic rods (currently being researched) as well as weapon systems for destroying the orbiters. This could beget countermeasures on the orbiters that give it a chance of survival as well.
Love this whole concept. Keep up the good work.
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I have two points. First is that as weapons get more powerful, so will the armor and I think armoring against laser based weapons will be easier than with kinetic or plasma types.
Secondly I don't think that too far ahead in the future people will carry guns at all. In fact I think the whole combat thing will be more remote with smaller more compact drones going in and rocket / antigrav type platformed arrays of drones will do the actual work of targeting. You could track the incoming projectile and assuming that your not a single target getting wiped out, you could return the fire right back to the shooter. With remote drones it might not be possible. Certainly less possible. In the same vein, a persons eye will not be the main targeting sensor and a human reaction will be too slow in the not so distant future anyway. I think ground troops will become Apaches with pilots and gunners which will become man controller remote Apaches which will become autonomous which will get smaller, faster then cheaper and more swarm like in time.
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My view on this is that humans will not focus at all on weapons if they are all living in a colonizing ship. Weapon's will play a very small role in the first part of colonization of a planet, a gun would most likely be a compact medium caliber weapon with the main purpose of protecting explorers from animals. I personally think that the humans that are active on the ship will focus their studies on how to effectively colonize a planet; shelter, food and transportation will be their primary concerns not killing each other.
It does make sense after a planet has been colonized that there will be conflicts however the weapon technology will be very similar to what we have today. I think guns will resemble modern day weapons such as the STK CPW, P90 or the steyr AUG para variant. They are light weight and small, the P90 in particular has rounds that would be sufficient to penetrate any Thitawatokiya and continue doing your job.
You guys have to remember according to the back story many humans were stored away to be revived when planets were ready to be colonized, they weren't wandering around a space ship figuring out the best way to blow each other up; that comes after they colonize the planet and even then the technology will not be much more advanced than what it is today. These are just my opinions, sorry if I seem a bit pessimistic, I'm just trying to keep things believable. :)
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It does make sense after a planet has been colonized that there will be conflicts however the weapon technology will be very similar to what we have today. I think guns will resemble modern day weapons such as the STK CPW, P90 or the steyr AUG para variant. They are light weight and small, the P90 in particular has rounds that would be sufficient to penetrate any Thitawatokiya and continue doing your job.
Your statements regarding weapons philosophy, I agree with, but I'm not sure either of those weapons would be sufficient, the P90's and CPW's penetration value comes at the cost of bullet diameter and range, which would limit the effectiveness of the gun. The concept of "stopping power" is complicated like you wouldn't believe, but I also don't think 5.56mm as used by the AUG para variant would do the job either: people are already looking for a replacement. I personally would base the main rifle off the EM-2; it was a brilliant idea decades ahead of its time that got shelved because of NATO standardization.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Enfield_bullpup_prototype.jpg)
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I do like the more eclectic firearm. Bullpup snipers for sure.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Forums/ARESdsr1G.jpg) (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Forums/SRS_308_with_flashhider.jpg)
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Well, small arms, there will still be no significant change in their principles for a long-long time indeed. The only change will be in the systems itself (like the upgrade of AK-74 to AK-74M to newly Abakan AN-92 and so on). As for science-fiction weapons (it may be a late cold-war time, butt all the newly designs globaly are their ideas given to reality), any laser/plasma weaponry are from physics limit to the energy-capabilities of our sources, so as small arms, no way by my opinion ... butt, there are many projects from the soviet union:
- Mobile anti-aircraft laser instalation - as just one of them on a MZKT-75165 chasis http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1443/pic02gh4.jpg (http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/1443/pic02gh4.jpg), even as a Topol-M looking like laser wehicle (cant find that photo now).
- Laser-tank - as a test of capabilities of that time and technology http://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/3/2074/979e867973fc958638a309f921c.jpg (http://media.moddb.com/images/groups/1/3/2074/979e867973fc958638a309f921c.jpg)
- plasma technology in aerial and balistics TOP SECRET - PLASMA WEAPON (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY1mn1IxFs8#) - actually plsma emitters on the front-edge of planes to make a plasma-buble to eliminate the air-drag and open the possibility to fly beyond the limitations of airframes (something like gavitation for russian underwater shkval torpedoes to make it fast as a rocket underwater) + at the end of the film - mobile plasma emitters fousing on a certain place to make balistic projectiles (like in the video of MSTA-S) add/or aircrafts to loose wing-lift capability (because plasma has similar capabilities in balistics as vacuum).
Some interesting stuff has been build behind our backs : ) .. butt still, the laser weapons are now in Moscow museum, because it has a significant problem - the need of uninterrupted beaming of the object for to 10 min. !! (because it function is based on heating the warheads or airplane-frames and it acts somewhat lice in a microwawe - just said that to not opening the whole physics about it :)) The mass and dimensions comes so from the need of an werry eficient powersource and needed energy-capability of the lasers (thats why the tank has so many focussing lenses) to do it even in 10 minute time.
Railgun project of the US NAVY has its big limitations too .. the system needs way to many el.-mag. emittors and an enormous powersource to run it, whyle the dimensions of it would take a half aircraft-carier to fit - not to mention, that it would be fixed !! (another tech. broblem whyte balancing the ship in other positions and during the shoot) Cant shoot much times whyteout changing the railguns components and my favorite - its energyconwerters cant survive sea-water :) .. so much to a NAVY-Program. Butt still, it gives enormous potential energy to small objects.
As for the russian plasma-project, is still running both of them :)
And ad the end - EMPs Russian Bomb (EM) Electromagnetic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAcnb2peDB4#) - from the 50-ties ... a low-voltage wire, durinng exposion around it makes to change the el.-mag. field of the wire, changing its wavelength frequency making an enormous energy-boom burning el. circles all around. A good way to think about in the game EMP designs for realism and to make people a little more interested in sciences. : )
So my opinion would be in futuristic designs of small arms of various calibers as in our time, witch works well in the space too. (thus the fact, that the vacum-caliber-eficiency should be taken in mind) And in lots and lots of variants of them as in our time : )
(Of course whyte enormous laser and plasma vehicles in mind :D)
P.S.: Sorry for the English and the theories, just like to play whyte the head in games.
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OMG ... what a 12,7 mm robocop-cannon ... needs to be in OT :D
(http://s7.uploads.ru/Npkyf.jpg)