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[Radio Controlled]

Also the mini psl (or 'testament', dammed be its name  ), which has high ammo and great rate of fire, and some armor penetration to boot.

[Comrade P.]

PSL?
More details on that or a linky to read?

[Radio Controlled]

PSL?
More details on that or a linky to read?

http://einsteinianroulette.wikia.com/wiki/Piezoelectric_Shard_Launcher

Testament seems to have no page on wiki yet. Ask syvarris for details.

[Sean Mirrsen]

PSL is the Piezoelectric Shard Launcher. Grows two-foot-long crystals out of liquid solution, and launches them. The crystals are piezoelectric, and very sharp, so they first impale whatever they hit, and then literally explode into electricity.

The Testament is just a smaller, rapid-fire version of that.

[Comrade P.]

That's nice. But expensive. Like a lot of nice things.

[Toaster]

I thought the energy equivalent of the LESHO was the Fission Instigator?  It's basically a sniper weapon because it's hard to miss the target with it.

I really hope I don't have to tell you how not-serious this post is

[syvarris]

 The UWM actually does have gauss assault rifles, although they seem to prefer using semiauto battle rifles.  I've been wanting to make an entry-level automatic for us, as a replacement for our current gauss rifle.  Specifically, I wanted to make it use a russian 9x39 equivalent (You guys have some awesome guns), in a P90's body.  Should be workable, since the dimensions of a 9x39 projectile aren't too different from a 5.7 cartridge.

Despite that, and the fact that I designed the Testament, I'm actually not much of an advocate for automatics.  They aren't really much better at killing things, even in close quarters, so their only real role is in suppression.  Lasers, being continuous fire weapons with potentially infinite ammo, are far better at that role.  I'd restrict the Testament to volley fire, if I thought it would actually mean anything.


And yes, Piezoelectric shard weapons are expensive.  They also have amazing ammo economy, amazing ballistics, the second best energy density behind blurad shards, and versatility of power.  They are, in every sense of the word, over-powered.

_{But they shouldn't be nerfed.  No.  They're not really that good, I just like them because shiny crystals.  I'm biased, you see.  Yeah, please don't nerf them.} 

[Comrade P.]

Okay, so the laser weaponry is ERs' ultimate answer to handheld weaponry question. This is the leading trend, along with Gauss-accelerated lines, but generally the idea of throwing a solid projectile towards the target is kinda archaic at the time.

[syvarris]

Nyeehh.... kinda-sorta.  Lasers have advantages, primarily the fact that they're continuous fire and run purely off of  electricity, but they also have disadvantages.  Sean made a Spektr FEL laser rifle, which has infinite ammo, and can vary the wavelength (and therefore is actually capable of suppression), but it costs five tokens, and takes a second or two to actually do significant damage.  While PW will sometimes describe low-power lasers lopping off limbs, that's just cinematics- in laboratory conditions, lasers need to be slowly and deliberately swept to sever things.  Also, lasers are practically worthless against heavy armor, like battlesuits.  A Raduga heavy FEL takes several minutes of being held on the exact same spot to get through a Battlesuit's armor, and costs eleven tokens. 

On the other hand, a Testament has 180 rounds, which is more than you should really need.  It can instantly kill a man with one shot, and can get through most infantry armor with a large volley (although it won't ever kill a battlesuit without several spare clips, and a lot of time).  On top of that, it only costs four tokens, slightly cheaper than Sean's FEL.


Now, once you get into stuff like the PEW, then yeah, energy weapons are the best thing against the UWM, since they're all infinite-ammo.  But the PEW is bleeding edge tech- we literally haven't finished the design, and the concept itself is a few weeks old.  If we had people working on equivalent ballistic tech, then we'd likely have something even better than it.  Also, to be fair you have to compare it to the armor which was just developed, and then you realize it isn't an end-all weapon: Hexsand is immune to it.

Really, if the UWM starts copying our tech, heavy weapons like the PSL and PEW will die off.  It will be impossible to one-shot anything heavily armored, so you'll need a combination of kinetic and energy weapons.  Heavy weapons, if they exist, will likely end up like Nikitian's three year old combi-weapon designs: literally a laser strapped to a gauss rifle.

[Comrade P.]

Well, I can see a way to undergo the multi-layered hexsand/hexbug things: special cumulative munition rounds for solid projectile throwers. Those will combine energy impact with kinetic impact, delivering them in such order in which they do most damage to armor and target.

[Sean Mirrsen]

The PEW was more of a random breakthrough than a part of any actual concerted improvement effort though. Anton is just more focused on energy weapons so far, so that's where his musings took him.

As far as ballistic weapons go, I think we're reaching the top limit of what we can accomplish so far. The PSL is the top-of-the-line ballistic weapon we have, in terms of cost-to-power ratio, and it does exceptionally well on pretty much all fronts. Damage, usability, cost. I don't have any brilliant ideas on how we could feasibly top it. Where do we go from there? Nano-plague projectiles? Relativistic kill projectiles? Neither seems like they'll be either as cost-efficient or as accessible.

I have some curious ideas for the PEW, mind. What Anton will end up doing is going to depend on whether he can reverse-engineer a HEP with conventional tech. Because once you have a conventional, scalable HEP... all sort of things can be possible.

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Hey, quick question, how large is a Gauss pistol?

[Radio Controlled]

Hey, quick question, how large is a Gauss pistol?

Small enough to fit in one hand. Large rl pistol I'd think.

Why'd you ask?

[Execute/Dumbo.exe]

Oh, I just had the thought of a really powerful gauss pistol, kinda like a magnum in design, made to be cheap, easy to use and still dangerous at range.
Unless a gauss pistol is already like that in which case You know I'm just an idiot no one needs to listen to meeeee.

[Toaster]

Civilian gauss pistols will still drop a target; just not blow a hole in them like our standard rifles.