You can tell I've been busy lately... the recent discussion on weapons
technology is one that sits smack-dab in one of my two favorite areas
of Traveller (technology in general and character development/interaction)
and I haven't had time to post anything. Drag. Well, time for my two
credits' worth....
My experiences: As a shooter, I've handled everything from .22 target
pistols (rapidfire, not slowfire-- BIG differences in design) up to
.44 Magnums (you should have seen me stagger! |->) in casual shooting,
and have fired rifles, shotguns, and semiauto weapons in the lighter
calibers. I don't shoot competitively or hunt, nor do I currently own
a gun: Mrs. Metlay, whose parents spent WWII in concentration camps
and whose aunt fought beside Begin in the Irgun in the 40's, regards
shooting, like false ID, as a useful skill to have for when the next
batch of anti-Semites take power, but would rather not have a deadly
weapon around the house until things start turning sour.
But I digress....
As a physicist, I work with lasers on a regular basis, and know enough
quantum optics to know how most of the standard designs work... the
patent for rare-earth chelating for use in solid state lasers, a technique
used primarily by GE these days, was in my father's name. I may also be
the only person on the TML who's handled the ancestor of the PGMP: the
hydrogen-plasma torch, an amazing gizmo for cutting stuff that doesn't
want to be cut.
Anyway, it's my opinion that anyone who hasn't handled both types of devices
and who only comes at this question of recoil and control from a shooter's
standpoint would suffer from a fundamentally "recoil-oriented" mindset; it's
damned difficult to think clearly about what lasers, as weapons, would be
like, if one doesn't start essentially from scratch.
The laser is not a gun with no recoil. It's a flashlight that can kill.
As I run them in my campaign, lasers are used (in all but sniping cases) in
a two-fingered manner: pressing the aiming stud actually fires the laser at
approximately a 0.1 mW level, and "primes" the lasing material (not necessary
at all, but it sounds good to the non-technical |-> ). This has the usual
effect: it paints a red dot on the target, without generating enough wattage
to "draw a line" to the firer except in very smoky conditions. This dot is
always perfectly on target, BY DEFINITION; it can't be misaligned. It would
also be easy, with tuning, to have the dot lie in the low infrared, so as
not to be visible under normal conditions, but when one's opponents use IR
goggles it's moot. The technique becomes simple: wave the laser around until
you touch something you like, then press the other trigger, and in a few
microseconds the laser's power output ramps up by a factor of about a billion,
holds there for a moment, and ramps back down again. Zap, you're dead.
This brings back the entire question of why fiberoptic cables aren't used
to make lasers where the tube is clipped to the belt and the aiming lens,
which weighs nothing, is held in the hand. The primary reason only holds
at lower TL, and could conceivably go away at higher TL: the fiber optic
cables available to us now are either too fragile for combat use (fused
silica, glass, crofon, etc) or have much too much attenuation (plastic).
This makes lasers potentially VERY dangerous close-in weapons: whip up
your gun hand, see, FLASH, scratch one opponent.
A bigger question, one which has never been settled to my satisfaction, is
exactly how dangerous a laser bolt would be. Would it cauterize the hole
instantly? Or would it flash-heat the user's body water to steam? That's
the difference between 2D of damage and 4D....
Plasma weapons have not been handled properly by Traveller. Ever. They obey
the 1/r**2 law, unlike lasers: a laser carrying enough power to melt steel
can pass within a centimeter of your hand and you'll never feel it, but a
plasma flare radiates ENORMOUS heat in all directions. They simply cannot
be used without massive heat shielding and protective eyewear; they're too
hot and bright for an unprotected man to fire. Period. And there's some
question of why they have such massive recoil; the plasma flare shouldn't
have that much mass to it.
Gripe, gripe, gripe. Comments?
metlay