Clever Future Weapons

[SteveZilla]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Heh. As a Shadowrun player' date=' it got so that every adventure had to have some bit right at the outset to take away the rigger's toys so that she didn't just shred the opposition at the outset and, other than the guardian spirit (against whom only the mages could do anything) it'd be strictly a walkover. Rigger, mage, face guy, and decker. No one else was needed.[/quote']

 

 

It's almost like the A-Team!

[The Weapon]

Re: Clever, but not futuristic

 

Now THAT is interesting. Imagine a futuristic version of that, using blood from a clone of the victim! Of course, if technology is advanced enough to produce illicit clones, there will probably be easier ways to kill someone without getting caught.

 

DGv3.0

 

You only need to clone some bone marrow cells, not the whole victim.

[Maelstrom]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

This thread was almost dead, but I remembered something from Dickson:

 

Essentially, the more complex the weapon, the easier it is for the enemy to mess with it. That's why his futuristic space army was armed with spring-firing rifles -- best possilbe alloys pushing bullets through the air.

[SteveZilla]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

If you want to make it as difficult as possible for the enemy to mess with your weapons, you have to go back to throwing rocks at each other.

[CorpCommander]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

If you want to make it as difficult as possible for the enemy to mess with your weapons' date=' you have to go back to throwing rocks at each other. [/quote']

 

Ok kill him as soon as possible.

 

I've been rather interested lately in the TDI Kriss Super V which takes the biggest problem automatic weapons have (muzzle climb) and turns the forces around in the weapon to keep it steady. While subguns are losing favor excepts for special forces I don't see why this can't be applied to a great range of weapons.

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Microscopic remote controlled bugging devices.

 

When these things are first described you think that you are witnessing a space battle, but then certain details begin to destroy that illusion and you realise that the pilots of the 'fighter ships' are in fact using VR tech to personally fly these little devices into a room in which a hostage is being kept. The kidnappers have sprayed some clouds of tiny robotic drones into the air of the room to try and keep the bugs out but one of them manages to get through anyway.

[tkdguy]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

If you want to make it as difficult as possible for the enemy to mess with your weapons' date=' you have to go back to throwing rocks at each other. [/quote']

Rocks thrown from gigantic mass drivers?

[Shadowsoul]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Rocks thrown from gigantic mass drivers?

 

Asteroids thrown from immensely gigantic mass drivers?

[Nyrath]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

This thread was almost dead, but I remembered something from Dickson:

 

Essentially, the more complex the weapon, the easier it is for the enemy to mess with it. That's why his futuristic space army was armed with spring-firing rifles -- best possilbe alloys pushing bullets through the air.

 

From DORSAI by Gordon Dickson

 

Each man carried a handgun and knife in addition to his regular armament; but they were infantry, spring-rifle men. Weapon for weapon, any thug in the back alley of a large city had more, and more modern firepower; but the trick with modern warfare was not to outgun the enemy, but carry weapons he could not gimmick. Chemical and radiation armament was too easily put out of action from a distance. Therefore, the spring-rifle with its five thousand-sliver magazine and its tiny, compact, non-metallic mechanism which could put a sliver in a man-sized target at a thousand meters time after time with unvarying accuracy.

 

Yet, thought Donal, pacing between the silent men in the faint darkness of pre-dawn, even the spring-rifle would be gimmickable one of these days. Eventually, the infantryman would be back to the knife and short sword.

 

From STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein

 

This leaves you with your whole mind free to handle your weapons and notice what is going on around you . . . which is supremely important to an infantryman who wants to die in bed. If you load a mud foot down with a lot of gadgets that he has to watch, somebody a lot more simply equipped - say with a stone ax - will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a vernier.

[SteveZilla]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

From Magic: the Gathering:

 

"Good ol' rock. Nothing beats rock." —Rhirhok, goblin archer

 

"Nothin' beat surprise—'cept rock." —Anon. goblin

[Maelstrom]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Well done, Nyrath!

[Zeropoint]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Heinlein's statement about complex UIs is particularly relevant to the United States' current "future warrior" program. Military hardware has a bad track record in that department.

[Maelstrom]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

It's a good indicator that Heinlein's most famous piece of military hardware doesn't require a UI at all -- " . . . the armor, you just WEAR."

[SteveZilla]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't read much Heinlein. What's a "UI"?

[Nyrath]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't read much Heinlein. What's a "UI"?

Ah, that is not a Heinlein term. UI means "user interface." It is a term generally used by computer programmers.

 

So the programmers who made your web browser said "for the User Interface, let's put the page-back button in the upper left hand corner, followed by the page-forward button, and so on".

 

In the context of weapons, compare the few simple controls of an ancient 35mm film camera to the bewildering profusion of controls on your average digital camera.

 

So a soldier armed with a laser rifle, with dozens of settings for range, focus, pulse rate, frequency, and whatnot will be at a severe disadvantage to a soldier armed with an M-16 that just has a safety and a trigger.

[Vulcan]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

In a situaton where the soldier has that most luxuirous of things in combat - time - the laser rifle with all the whistles and bells could very well be superior. But the vast majority of the time, yeah. The guy with the M-16 is at an advantage.

 

And I'd say much of the time the guy with a M-1 is at an advantage over the guy with an M-16, but that's me.

[Kristopher]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

This thread was almost dead, but I remembered something from Dickson:

 

Essentially, the more complex the weapon, the easier it is for the enemy to mess with it. That's why his futuristic space army was armed with spring-firing rifles -- best possilbe alloys pushing bullets through the air.

 

And how, exactly, does an enemy "mess with", say, present-day gunpowder weapons?

[Nyrath]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

And how' date=' exactly, does an enemy "mess with", say, present-day gunpowder weapons?[/quote']

With the patented Acme Chemical Reaction Damper, of course.

 

The original post was referring to something in a science fiction novel that was, well, science fictional.

 

In reality, if you can interfere with the chemical reaction in a rifle shell, you probably could just as easily kill enemy soldiers dead by interfering with the chemical reactions in their bodies.

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

With the patented Acme Chemical Reaction Damper, of course.

 

The original post was referring to something in a science fiction novel that was, well, science fictional.

 

In reality, if you can interfere with the chemical reaction in a rifle shell, you probably could just as easily kill enemy soldiers dead by interfering with the chemical reactions in their bodies.

 

Unless they have a Chemical Reaction Damper Damper.

[SteveZilla]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Ah, that is not a Heinlein term. UI means "user interface." It is a term generally used by computer programmers.

 

So the programmers who made your web browser said "for the User Interface, let's put the page-back button in the upper left hand corner, followed by the page-forward button, and so on".

 

In the context of weapons, compare the few simple controls of an ancient 35mm film camera to the bewildering profusion of controls on your average digital camera.

 

So a soldier armed with a laser rifle, with dozens of settings for range, focus, pulse rate, frequency, and whatnot will be at a severe disadvantage to a soldier armed with an M-16 that just has a safety and a trigger.

 

Ah. I thought it was Heinlein because Zeropoint said "Heinlein's statement about complex UIs...". What with Starship Troopers in my mind I was thinking alont the lines of "Universal Infrantry?".

 

The thing about simplicity of use made its way into a ST:DS9 episode where Major Kira was giving a comparison between phaser rifles of Federation (all the bells & whistles & 11 settings, IIRC), and Cardassian (IIRC 5 settings, no B & W).

[Nyrath]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Unless they have a Chemical Reaction Damper Damper.

But if you spend your points on that, you won't have enough to put the Armor Piercing advantage on your laser rifle.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Unless they have a Chemical Reaction Damper Damper.

 

 

 

Shhh! Make sure you're covering your internet connection with a Trace Buster before you say stuff like that!

 

 

 

 

(Points to anyone who can cite the reference)

[Nyrath]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

The thing about simplicity of use made its way into a ST:DS9 episode where Major Kira was giving a comparison between phaser rifles of Federation (all the bells & whistles & 11 settings' date=' IIRC), and Cardassian (IIRC 5 settings, no B & W).[/quote']

Though only a few of the settings make sense.

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3l.html#dally

[Maelstrom]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Shhh! Make sure you're covering your internet connection with a Trace Buster before you say stuff like that!

 

 

 

 

(Points to anyone who can cite the reference)

 

Cover that with a Trace Buster Buster, and you'll be a Big Hit.

[Markdoc]

Re: Clever Future Weapons

 

Amusingly despite the paens of praise in terms of simple weapons, it's the guys with the fancy complicated weapons who seem to dominate the battlefield. To quote the world-conquering victorian soldiers "Whatever happens we have got, the Gatling gun and they have not"

 

cheers, Mark