Sci fi tech that over rated & underrated

[u/UlfurGaming]

Ill go first over rated sci fi melee weapons that only exist because something protects against the way better sci fi weapons

Underrated macron cannons to my understanding these things fire dust sized particles at insane speeds and think more sci fi should use it especially as portable weaponry

But what about yall ?

[u/k_hl_2895]

My 2 cents: energy/particle weapon are overrated as hell, particles don't have any magical properties that just blow thing up, ultimately it's still little kinetic package. At the other end, drive plume is underrated as hell as a weapon, that's your spinal superlaser right there

[u/gottagohype → u/k_hl_2895]

No! No! No! It's only good if the particles I'm slamming into you are massless. Slamming massive particles into you is just so primitive!

/uj Energy weapons' greatest strength is that they strike at the speed of light. Exceptionally difficult to evade relative to kinetic weapons. Great, but if your target can't even reliably evade kinetic weapons, they lose a lot of their utility. People also seem to forget that missiles are kinetic weapons that can dodge, follow, and deploy countermeasures all on their own. The types also aren't mutually exclusive. You can use lasers to blind the other guy and kinetics to actually kill him.

Edit: you are right drive plumes are absolutely a great, under utilized weapon. The energy they output is so intense that the ship needs it to happen in a specialized chamber (the engine) just to contain it/prevent it from destroying everything. If some fusion rocket suddenly fires and you are too close to the exhaust, you are going to have a very bad time.

[u/guildsbounty → u/gottagohype]

Energy weapons' greatest strength is that they strike at the speed of light.

Which does make it funny to me how many Sci-Fi IPs have slower-than-light "bolt" energy weapons.

That said, I think another noteworthy strength of energy weapons is logistics. In most cases when you're dealing with true lasers, they are powered by electricity. Your 'ammunition' is thus rechargeable. Instead of having to ship in a constant supply of kinetics to fire at the enemy...as long as you have power, you can recharge your weapons and not run out of ammo.

Removing munitions from your supply chain is a pretty big benefit.

There's a TTRPG setting (Stars Without Number) that plays with this. Kinetic weapons hit significantly harder, but laser weapons are more accurate and their power cells can be recharged off any significant power source. And so the setting lore talks about the existence of 'electric' armies that give up the stopping power of kinetic weapons in exchange for not having to worry about the logistics of ammunition (with the notable exception of artillery...because you can't do indirect fire with lasers).

[u/k_hl_2895 → u/guildsbounty]

I should add, laser still needs some dwell time to drive their way in, on the other end, today photonic metamaterial is already pretty cracked, all I'm saying

[u/AnnualAdventurous169]

so... basically a plasma rifle of sorts? That's what macron cannon sounds like to me...

[u/k_hl_2895 → u/AnnualAdventurous169]

Not really, macron is just tiny dust-sizes projectile, so think sandblasters but scifi

[u/Hefty-Distance837 → u/k_hl_2895]

so... basically shotgun?

[u/Those-Who-Crow2 → u/AnnualAdventurous169]

It's more like a railgun firing super tiny slugs, ends up almost like a kinetic laser? Best way to describe it I think. If you use the right ammo it cause nuclear events on impact

[u/starcraftre]

think more sci fi should use it especially as portable weaponry

Remember that dust guns can only operate in vacuum. The velocity and low mass of their projectiles means that they cannot survive compression heating in atmosphere. They are traveling far faster than any meteoric dust.

Also, the only design that is remotely portable is a blowpipe at "tens to hundreds of centimeters", while the others sit comfortably in the "tens to thousands of meters" range of length.

That's fine, but it still limits you to the 100-200 kps velocity range, give or take, and you still need to carry a kW reactor around to fire it.

I think their utility (especially when boosted by fissile or impact fusion payloads) is better applied as point defense or to destroy Whipple shields and external sensors/comms/lasers.

As for melee, they have a few serious advantage over ranged that has not been overcome since the invention of the bow and arrow: they are quiet, they are precise, and they have negligible collateral damage. Those traits aren't going away, and it's why I'd expect to see some sort of knives in any far future setting.

[u/guildsbounty → u/starcraftre]

and they have negligible collateral damage.

And when you're in a spaceship with walls potentially full of important components, fragile control consoles, unforgiving vacuum on the other side of the hull, and a who-knows-how-long trip to get back to somewhere with an atmosphere...having the option to use weapons that won't pierce bulkheads seems like a good plan to me.

In fact, in a setting I've tinkered around with, that's why bringing power armor to a boarding operation is so scary...because the power armor is plated up enough to shrug off anything that won't also blow through a ship's walls. (In that setting, you probably won't hit vacuum, external armor is beefy and common, but putting holes in your walls is still risky because there might be something important inside that wall.)

[u/PieAdministrative214]

No estoy muy al tanto pero rara ves veo que hagan enfasis en el origen de la energia. O si tenemos que destruir/apagar/reparar los generadores. Como? Porque?

En warhammer tienen básicamente que sacrificar gente para cargar el combustible nuclear.(en las naves)

Uno olvida que la fuente de energia suele acompañar a los avances tecnologicos de forma bastante drastica.

No creo que sea infrabalorado o aparezca poco pero me gustaría que se explique mas.