Galactic Travel and Information Help Desk (RP help)

[stellarmagic]

Quote:

But slugthrowers are even slower than blasterbolts.

lol lol lol lol lol lol rofl rofl rofl rofl

Must stop laughing... Ahem. Sorry but thats not true. A bullet travels between 700 and 1000 meters a second (Faster if its caseless or a railgun). A handheld blaster bolt travels between 400-600 meters a second (The DC-15 has a painfully low muzzle velocity, probably around 250 meters a second) and a laser cannon goes probably at twice that velocity.

As for production and ammo, yes ammo is heavy and cumbersome but at least it doesn't loose all its lethality at 120 meters (For Blaster Pistols, 300 for Carbines) from bolt dissipation. I don't know of any blaster that has enough range to use as a long range sniper weapon (1000 meters +) except maybe Zam Wessel's rifle.  

[Nelowulf]

700-1000 is somewhat fast as well.

A lot of bullets fall short of that. Remember, we measure bullets in feet per second, not meters per second.

1200 feet per second is a decent speed. 2000+ is outrageously fast, and usually faster than that will make any bullet less than 700 grains wobble. Divide that number by 3.

So you've got to quit laughing, as you forgot the conversion.  

[Nina Halford]

Nospai Deathous

what do you mean?

i'm making the point that, a smuch as we try to squeeze star wars into the realm of science and physics, it's futile. it's not meant to be a thesis on alternate galaxies. it's a myth, a fantasy, an opera. Lucas based most of his ideas off of non-science based influences than not. the only major science-fiction influence was flash gordon which... well, i won't even touch that. leia's hair in ANH: 'nuff said.

the point of star wars, or rather, the point lucas set to make from the beginning, was to exhibit a kind of special, inner power that we have, while making the message universal through the use of common mythical archtypes. that's part of the reason it's enjoyed by so many different kinds of people; it incorporates typical myth archetypes that are common among most, if not all, cultures.

the 'science' only came in after the nerds tried to apply physics to the star wars universe. it can't really be done, but they try pretty hard anyway.

i've come to be tired of it. it's a magical space movie, not an analysis of future types of military technology.

*claps* Heartily agreed.
And, with that, let's enjoy suspending disbelief. ^_^  

[stellarmagic]

Quote:

700-1000 is somewhat fast as well.

A lot of bullets fall short of that. Remember, we measure bullets in feet per second, not meters per second.

1200 feet per second is a decent speed. 2000+ is outrageously fast, and usually faster than that will make any bullet less than 700 grains wobble. Divide that number by 3.

So you've got to quit laughing, as you forgot the conversion.

Um... I was talking about rifle rounds and that was in meters a second. The M16 has a muzzle velocity of 975m/s for example. The AK74 has a muzzle velocity of 900m/s. The SVD has a muzzle velocity of 800m/s. Almost every military rifle falls into the range I named.

I did mention railguns and caseless ammo didn't I? For a weapon that uses caseless ammo take the muzzle velocity of a conventional weapon and double it. For a railgun, a low velocity rail gun would be 4-5 times the speed of a conventional bullet.  

[Nospai Deathous]

and the STEYR ACR (cased flechette rifle) can shoot projectiles at speeds more than 1200 ft/s

to tell the truth, "slugthrowers" are much more efficient than blasters, especially if they're caseless or electronic.

much of the blaster's energy is released as heat; this is canonical and establishes its similarity to a laser weapon. it is the reason they have cooling measures, and the reason turbolasers' firing scycle is so slow. as we now see, little in the way of cooling is needed for bullets. after all, a strengthened barrel seemes to do the job well if you don't use too many prolonged bursts, and even then you can easily change the barrel.

however, the irony is that a lot of the cooling measures are along the barrel: note the E-11, the DLT-20A, and a few variations of the MG-34 design. while the strength of the enhanced beam makes this slightly necessary, cooling measures are most needed around the chamber where the beam is actually formed. if blaster designs in star wars were to be used today, in real life, you'd burn your hand after about 5 shots, if the weapon didn't melt in your hand first. i think the only reason cooling vents are along the barrel is that the real-world weapons used had them; again, the MG-34, the Sterling (E-11 and DH-17)

blaster weapons are complicated. it's pretty much impossible to contain the laser in the Xciter, so it is projected out the front, and focused in a next-gen form of fiber optic cables (which are commonly used for lasers today). for all of its components, blasters work very similarly to lasers. just big, beefy ones. there's nothing present in the blaster's components to form anything other than a beam of light, and the speed of light is always constant. but again, if blaster bolts on screen moved at the speed of light, your eyes would explode trying to follow the exchange.

but the lightsaber is the clincher. it is essentially a contained blaster bolt. if the inner beam moved at 600 m/s you would be able to see it bouncing back and forth from the end of the magnetic field to the reflecting disk at the top of the lightsaber.

also, if this were true, the beam could not be along the whole length at once, and so a blaster bolt or lightsaber strike at the exact spot could pass through (though the blaster bolt would have to be fairly powerful to not be rendered useless by the magnetic field).

to my knowledge, that has never happened.

Jamie Kirkpatrick

Nospai Deathous

A bunch of junk

*claps* Heartily agreed.
And, with that, let's enjoy suspending disbelief. ^_^

indeed.  

[Nelowulf]

I keep finding those numbers as FPS on the military websites.  

[stellarmagic]

Really... I guess you're just going to the wrong web sites.

As to how blasters work.... blasters utilize the ionization, compression, and ejection of a plasmatic gas (Tibanna in Star Wars probably a mixture of gases like Oxygen, Neon, and Hydrogen in real life) The gas is transfered first to an Xciter where it is ionized and heated and then to the barrel where it is further heated by the laser and both ionized and compressed by the galven circuitry (A series of electromagnets) which then propel the ionized bolt from the chamber and into the atmosphere.

Once outside of its barrel the bolt begins to loose its strength through atmospheric dissipation and heat loss thus resulting in a quick drop in effectiveness the further the bolt travels and a rather poor maximum range.

A blaster bolt delivers both an electrical shock to the target (This can be rather mild) as well as heat (This can be very severe).  

[Nelowulf]

Its amazing what comes out of a question on foreign technology.

Though at least i know how to defeat the plasma rifle. Throw master chief at it.  

[FrozenPhoenix32]

Good lord...  

[stellarmagic]

Lets see... slow rate of fire, low ammo capacity, short range...

BUT VERY DESTRUCTIVE!!!

The Plasma Carbine... for all your combat needs.

Note: Defeating said carbine is easy, Lightsabers block all but one setting (Wide-Beam), Blaster Carbines have greater range, ammo supply, and rate of fire. Really it's sort of like a disruptor taken to the extreme. If you're really worried about it bring a shoulder fired Blaster Cannon to the party. wink  

[elvisnake]

You know, in all reality, we should move this discussion to the weapons thread.  

[Nelowulf]

stellarmagic

Lets see... slow rate of fire, low ammo capacity, short range...

BUT VERY DESTRUCTIVE!!!

The Plasma Carbine... for all your combat needs.

Note: Defeating said carbine is easy, Lightsabers block all but one setting (Wide-Beam), Blaster Carbines have greater range, ammo supply, and rate of fire. Really it's sort of like a disruptor taken to the extreme. If you're really worried about it bring a shoulder fired Blaster Cannon to the party. wink

According to your post, the lightsaber did not block the middle setting either.

My ref:

Quote:

The woman stood and smiled, a heavy blaster pistol in her gloved hand and lightsaber in the other, then a golden bolt of plasma flashed toward her, she lifted her lightsaber to block the bolt, but it seemed to distort as it touched the blade, enlarging itself and glowing transparent, then it struck the woman burning through her dark blue cloak and scorching the armored vest underneath which was smoking in a dozen places where the plasma had burned through. The woman fell back from the counter and struck her head against the wall, knocking her cold.

And since when did a jedi ever bring a blaster cannon? Use reasoning. They'd die with their lightsaber before toting crappy weapons.  

[AFK Masturbating]

So yah ... how exactly does one explain "evil" to the AI of a self-described predator?  

[Nelowulf]

Evil could easily be described as any action which creates entropy in a system, with no intention of creating enthalpy unless the result is beneficial to the agitator.

My definition.  

[Aanika_Phaeton]

Now, don't laugh at me, this may be a really stupid question...

At what age are children usually admitted to the Academy? And then about when do they get masters? I really feel stupid asking questions that I should proabaly know, but I'm too lazy to look on Wookiee. sweatdrop

I don't know much on the subject of the Academy anyways. So, i figured this would be a good time to learn.