Can we please get a longsword?

[Omnires]

The problem with heating memory-shape materials is that you're basically heating them to a point where they're not just bendy, they're outright soft. It'd be even worse than having a sword made out of gold, and it wouldn't even be *that* warm. You might as well just put an induction coil on a regular blade, that would be much more effective when warming things.
As for the whole glass weapons things, those aren't in use anymore for two main reasons. 1) the Geneva convention is a thing and 2) they're just not practical. One-use throwaway weapons are not cost-effective, are a pain in the ass logistically, and are situational weapons.

Yes, but remember the setting of the game we are in. We in the future terraforming a planet and we can use nanotechnology, molecular printing (building things atom by atom), spaceships with things the super computers and A.I.s, not counting the ancient alien technology we find on the planet that we are fighting over. The suspension of disbelief comes in as part of the gap in time and evolution of technology, the belief that with enough time and resources any problem can be overcome with science. And I know for a fact that there many types of metals that can only form in the right environment, that includes the fact that some types of metals and rocks can't form within things like gravity wells and others can only from in high gravity.

Hell, in real life we have not even found all the elements and participates yet. It toke like what close to 40 years for them just to find the Higgs Boson.

 

[Caconym]

Yes, but remember the setting of the game we are in. We in the future terraforming a planet and we can use nanotechnology, molecular printing (building things atom by atom), spaceships with things the super computers and A.I.s, not counting the ancient alien technology we find on the planet that we are fighting over. The suspension of disbelief comes in as part of the gap in time and evolution of technology, the belief that with enough time and resources any problem can be overcome with science. And I know for a fact that there many types of metals that can only form in the right environment, that includes the fact that some types of metals and rocks can't form within things like gravity wells and others can only from in high gravity.

Hell, in real life we have not even found all the elements and participates yet. It toke like what close to 40 years for them just to find the Higgs Boson.

As a physics student, I really, really don't like relying on techno-bullshit, no offense intended. Still, I will admit that we don't know what kind of materials will exist in the future.

 

[Omnires]

As a physics student, I really, really don't like relying on techno-bullshit, no offense intended. Still, I will admit that we don't know what kind of materials will exist in the future.

As a student of various sciences myself I completely understand. This why sometimes before I go to deep into the rabbit hole, I have to take a step back and remember it is a game. I feel that part of my role in the gaming community is to help add that layer of realism and plausibility when needed to make the world of the game feel a little more alive without going too overboard with it. So when it comes to real life things that are paralleled in the game I can go really deep into those things, but if there is a lot of gaps in what we know about the game world my role switches from informing on how something works to is it possible it could work. This why you'll see me bouncing back and forth on the forums between science fiction and science fantasy in some topics.

For the people who don't know the difference between science fiction and science fantasy.

 

[TankHunter678]

Honestly speaking any size changing weapon should be pure energy based because then the size can be explained by output and energy fields. Those are also a staple of Scifi due to their explain-ability.

Inventing magic physical materials that change size without severe downsides to usability just does not sit right. It can work in Fantasy because magic is an acceptable excuse due to being able to subvert or outright go against the physical laws of the universe.

You would be better off with a physical blade, and any "size change" be a projected energy field around the blade. The idea being that if a low power state is needed the weapon is still usable due to having a physical blade as essentially the backup.

Over Engineering things leads to headaches. Especially for Lore Hounds.

 

[Omnires]

Honestly speaking any size changing weapon should be pure energy based because then the size can be explained by output and energy fields. Those are also a staple of Scifi due to their explain-ability.

Inventing magic physical materials that change size without severe downsides to usability just does not sit right. It can work in Fantasy because magic is an acceptable excuse due to being able to subvert or outright go against the physical laws of the universe.

You would be better off with a physical blade, and any "size change" be a projected energy field around the blade. The idea being that if a low power state is needed the weapon is still usable due to having a physical blade as essentially the backup.

Over Engineering things leads to headaches. Especially for Lore Hounds.

True there is a big downside to energy weapons and energy shields that lot of people forget. That being that energy can be easily absorbed, block, and/or deflected. Ray shields, rayleigh scattering, retard waves (retard is a scientific term), thermodynamic heat dispersal, the skin effect, and EMPs just to name a few. In both a lot of science fiction and in especially science fantasy the treat energy weapons as if they are magic because they are viewed as being so much better than solid weapons. When in fact, both have their pros and cons that any real warrior would need to think about before using them, be is on defense or offense. A friend of mine would sometimes make an overly simplified joke "What is the point of having a badass energy weapon if you can't use on a rainy day?" pointing out the fact that water can protect you from energy weapons because it can both bend light and disperse heat.

Personally, this is why in both science fiction and science fantasy when I make up my own characters I tend to use hybrid weapons. That way I get the best of both worlds as I can counter the defenses of most other things with a combination of physical attacks and energy based attacks. For example, as a joke in one science fantasy world, I made a character who used what amounted to as an oversized variable tuning fork as one of their weapons. This was because I could use the sound waves like radar to find things (echolocation), I could use some sound frequencies to affect the minds and bodies of living beings (things like infrasound can make you feel dizzy and sick), and when I want to destroy inanimate objects I would use resonance frequencies to make them shatter apart. It was a physical weapon that my character used it like a hammer for blunt damage and energy weapon because of the soundwaves (when most people talk about "energy" weapons they seem to forget that sound counts as energy).

 

[NoahDVS]

retard waves (retard is a scientific term)

Now I'm imagining mothers making their children wear tin foil hats to prevent mental retardation.

 

[Omnires]

Now I'm imagining mothers making their children wear tin foil hats to prevent mental retardation.

Lol, yea, maybe I should clear that up a bit just in cause their people reading this who refuse to look it up. The word "retard" in scientific terms basically means anything that goes against the flow of something or to moves backward in relation to everything else around it or impedes something as a form of resistance.

Think about water for example. A retard wave or retard current in a body of water is one that moves counter to the flow of the rest of the water either slowing down or canceling out the movement of water it is going against. If you work with things like electricity and electromagnet field this also called "impedance" and is how things like inductors work.

 

[Caconym]

But there's also the fact that to "cancel out" a properly build plasma blade, you'd need a shitton of water, simply because of the incredibly high temperature of the blade; raindrops would vaporise well before coming into contact with the plasma itself. "Dispelling" energy isn't as simple as it seems. For example, the only way to completely negate a laser weapon would be to 1) use a perfectly reflective material (which doesn't exist) or 2) somehow refract the laser without it burning through whatever medium is used to refract it (maybe an energy field?). Physical weapons can also easily be deflected, mind you. If I had to choose between using armor to stop a metal sword and using armor to stop a plasma blade, I'd go for the metal sword any day.

 

[203]

A plasma blade is merely a hollow magnetic field filled with gas overheated to the point of ionization, when the atomic make up begins to break down. If you're thinking light saber, you're on point. It's the only way those light sticks can work - and it explains why you can block them with another saber, too!
As such, a magnetic field rapidly changing direction (by rotating) or inversing the polarity will cause a "torch out" similar to a plasma welder.
Coincidentaly, nitrogen is rather easy to contain (and shockingly, it makes up most of earth's atmosphere!) as an ion with a -3 charge, so you need a positive field for that.
Hit it with a strong enough negative field and your oponent has a face full of plasma burns.

 

[Omnires]

But there's also the fact that to "cancel out" a properly build plasma blade, you'd need a shitton of water, simply because of the incredibly high temperature of the blade; raindrops would vaporise well before coming into contact with the plasma itself. "Dispelling" energy isn't as simple as it seems. For example, the only way to completely negate a laser weapon would be to 1) use a perfectly reflective material (which doesn't exist) or 2) somehow refract the laser without it burning through whatever medium is used to refract it (maybe an energy field?). Physical weapons can also easily be deflected, mind you. If I had to choose between using armor to stop a metal sword and using armor to stop a plasma blade, I'd go for the metal sword any day.

True, but again remember what reality we are in. The game starts off on Em-8er but the idea is to also go to other worlds. And there many things that exist on other worlds that don't exist on Earth. For example, within our own solar system, there are lakes of liquid natural gas on some moons (Lol, I would love to see people try and use energy weapons on worlds like that just to see if they set the whole planet/moon on fire), cryovolcanos (there are places so cold that the hottest things the volcanos can shoot it is ice and frozen stuff), worlds with super-sized rain drops that fall down in slow motion (a combo of gravity and atmospheric pressure). Water is not the only thing that can take away heat from objects, is just one of the most common things that people run into on Earth-like worlds.

Plus to make a plasma blade keep its shape you need to also be able to control the magnetic field that is keeping the plasma in place. So anything I do to effect the magnetic field would also affect your blade. What if I know the frequency and polarity of your plasma weapon uses? One of the things I can do to protect myself is to basically make a magnetic field to shield me that matches the one your weapon has but more powerful. Now your plasma bullets and plasma blades can't even get close to me because alike magnetic fields repel each other. And because my magnetic field is more powerful you and your attacks will be the ones who is pushed backwards, not me.

As for laser weapons, there are types of energy fields that do block light. But why just block the laser when I can use the power of the laser to give me more energy to use against you? I can absorb the energy of your laser and use it to help power somethings else on my mecha, like say giving extra power to my railgun/coilgun/mass driver so I can blast an even larger hole into something.

There is a reason why some of my friends say they hate me sometimes. I'm a sci-fi fan who knows about real science and the art of war, so I can end many fights before they even start by out thinking enemies based on the data I have on them. This why I also like to make characters who are proficient in things like data gathering, infiltration, espionage, and tends to use hybrid weapons that also act as multi-tools based on how they are used.

edit: grammar

 

[TankHunter678]

As for laser weapons, there are types of energy fields that do block light. But why just block the laser when I can use the power of the laser to give me more energy to use against you? I can absorb the energy of your laser and use it to help power somethings else on my mecha, like say giving extra power to my railgun/coilgun/mass driver so I can blast an even larger hole into something.

A minor adjustment to the frequency could result in the energy absorption field not functioning properly. Also, the energy absorption field would have a natural overload limit to it. If you are diverting absorbed power into a weapon like a coilgun I can just increase output, cause then I overload your coilgun and cause it to explode, taking your mech's arm and the side torso with it.

Its better to deflect the laser then give the enemy an easy way to blow up your weapons, or fry your shield emitters.

 

[Omnires]

A minor adjustment to the frequency could result in the energy absorption field not functioning properly. Also, the energy absorption field would have a natural overload limit to it. If you are diverting absorbed power into a weapon like a coilgun I can just increase output, cause then I overload your coilgun and cause it to explode, taking your mech's arm and the side torso with it.

Its better to deflect the laser then give the enemy an easy way to blow up your weapons, or fry your shield emitters.

This is only true if there is no overload protection on the technology and that can be stopped in a number of simple ways. Like when one system it getting close to its limit just divert the extra energy into another system and while that is happening I can use the other system. In a game setting, this effect would be shortening my cooldown times on abilities and overcharging them to make them powerful. As long as I can discharge the extra energy before all my systems hit their limit there is no way for me to overload my mecha or weapons. There is also things like simply grounding myself or discharging the extra energy into the surrounding area in some way (like discharging extra heat and/or electricity into enemies and objects near me). Hmm... converting the extra energy of a laser attack into heat and electricity that I can discharge into surrounding enemies and objects near me... *Hears an announcer with deep voice say* "On this day a hybrid of the Firecat and the Electron was born, able to simultaneously burn and electrocute all nearby enemies in an AOE sphere around itself."

Remember one of the basic laws of nature is that; energy can neither be created nor destroyed but rather it only move from one place to another and/or transforms from one form to another. This is true of all forms energy. And combat is no different, be it energy weapons or solid weapons you should always keep that in your mind no matter if you are defense or offense. Combat is both an art and a science. And the one who can control the flow of energy controls the flow of battle.

 

[Friggin]

Hello everyone!
That is just my personal wish Can we please get a european longsword (with normal proportions, it could be an energy sword though)? We have katanas everywhere, but no longswords

We can have swords but you are only allowed a board with a nail in it. And a slingshot for ranged attacks

 

[0V3RKILL]

Hello everyone!
That is just my personal wish Can we please get a european longsword (with normal proportions, it could be an energy sword though)? We have katanas everywhere, but no longswords

I personally hate melee weapons. Please no.....Swords like Inuyasha look ridicules. I love anime Japanese stuff. My favorite cartoon of all time is Voltes V and Mazinger... but I hate those big swords you find in final fantasy for example....ehh

 

[NoahDVS]

I personally hate melee weapons. Please no.....Swords like Inuyasha look ridicules. I love anime Japanese stuff. My favorite cartoon of all time is Voltes V and Mazinger... but I hate those big swords you find in final fantasy for example....ehh

Cloud's sword isn't european, nor is it a longsword. It's what you would call a "fantasy sword" because it's completely unrealistic, probably even useless IRL, unless you drop it on someone's foot.

 

[ZeroGrav]

what if the sword started off short and could extend to long sword mode?

What about something like the sword from pacific rim, like gypsy danger had?