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[Parsely]

I was thinking more the way our spacesuits are designed to handle micrometeoroids. Armor won't do shit against railgun slugs or whatever, but it's certainly useful for gravel and chunks of shrapnel.

You're thinking of whipple shields. Micrometeoroids are moving very fast (about 10km/s), much faster than a bullet (muzzle velocity of guns can be around 0.3km/s), but bullets have so much more mass that the damage doesn't really compare.

[Amperzand]

I wasn't, actually, but you're right, and that does invalidate my argument. Welp.

[wierd]

The very idea of space opera space combat is silly. If you are at war with another planet, and have FTL, just fly a drone operated ship into thier home planet at full speed.

Game over in a way that makes Ender seen quaint.

This has several things going for it:

1) Being FTL, NOBODY will see it coming. All the energy from the engines will arrive AFTER the ship impacts. That means no defenses can exist against it.

2) It's much cheaper than space opera combat

3) it is asset denial on a global, if not solar-system scale. (The energy of the explosion could destabilize orbits of other objects in the system, causing general chaos of unbelievable degree.)

[Amperzand]

Spoiler: This, basically (click to show/hide)

And honestly, you don't even need an FTL ship. Your standard magical engines-with-fuel-forever, a-la Star Wars or every space opera ever, could get you up to planet-killer speed pretty fast.

[uber pye]

it seems to me that the most efficient ways to kill things is to put something with a high enough momentum on a collision course with the target.

[Amperzand]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Sheb]

Someone sent me a 500 page pdf history of the Soviet Biological weapon program, it's full of good stuff if any of you is interested.

[Jimmy]

I'd hit that. Bioweapons are where it's at. Leave the hard science to the engineering neckbeards, give me the squishy stuff instead. Sure, your lasers are impressive and all, but it doesn't have nearly as much nightmare value as an invisible plague that leaves you vomiting blood.

[Grim Portent]

The very idea of space opera space combat is silly. If you are at war with another planet, and have FTL, just fly a drone operated ship into thier home planet at full speed.

Game over in a way that makes Ender seen quaint.

This has several things going for it:

1) Being FTL, NOBODY will see it coming. All the energy from the engines will arrive AFTER the ship impacts. That means no defenses can exist against it.

2) It's much cheaper than space opera combat

3) it is asset denial on a global, if not solar-system scale. (The energy of the explosion could destabilize orbits of other objects in the system, causing general chaos of unbelievable degree.)

The problem with that is that you may want/need the planet you are at war with for something (elements/molecules that are rarely found on planets/space debris without an ecosystem, hydrocarbon compounds maybe) and using a weapon more destructive than the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs may destroy it.

[Tack]

I am personally far more in favor of the kaboomies.
I'd rather kill people with a neutron bomb than a neurotoxin. (This being the effective sci-fi versions, not the shit modern versions.)

That being said, was body armor the current thing up for debate?
I feel like modern composite armor could be turned into something pretty effective against lasers, etc.

Re: Composite Armor.
It's armor which is designed to powder and shift as it gets hit, causing irregular movement of whatever hits it. It's currently used to snap tank-penetrators, and therefore is only ever found on tanks, as it's usually made of some sort of ceramic and is balls-heavy.

However if the future-soldier were to be wearing some kind of ceramic-sand vest I feel that could get some work done.

[Amperzand]

We do actually use composite body armor for people. Basically a plate of ceramic backed by a fuckton of kevlar. Ceramic breaks up the impactor, kevlar catches the chunks.

I'd hit that. Bioweapons are where it's at. Leave the hard science to the engineering neckbeards, give me the squishy stuff instead. Sure, your lasers are impressive and all, but it doesn't have nearly as much nightmare value as an invisible plague that leaves you vomiting blood.

Invisible lasers that make you vomit blood are a thing.

[Jimmy]

Sure, but can that vomit then make every other person in the room start vomiting blood, causing exponential growth in mortality over time?

I DIDN'T THINK SO.

[Catmeat]

I heard they are trying to perfect a bodyarmor that uses some gel like cornflour paste that absorbs higher impacts and so on. Maybe you could add a laser disrupter or reflect the beam.
Maybe it could double as a battery further charging ur sheilds?

Yeah but cabin damage is damage and it should be avoided

[wierd]

extremely fast onset of symptoms is scary, but not ideal for wmd use.

ideally, you want an actively infectious but otherwise asymptomatic window of about a month. That allows the infected to mingle and spread the pathogen throughout the population, allowing pandemic infection to occur.

THEN, in the last week or so of infection, cause horrible disease symptoms that are crippling and horrific.

By the time the first few show symptoms, the next few days will show incidence all over the population, and the society will be ill equipped to deal with the outbreak.

[Jimmy]

You're assuming the vector is via sputum or bodily fluid contact. If it's properly aerosolized and stable enough, it can spread over significant distance without losing potency. Perhaps a dual phase system, with provirulent aerosol delivered infection and subsequent progression to hypervirulent close proximity transmission? Tricky but possible.