Guns, Firearms, and Boomsticks

[Dusty]

Interesting thoughts but we're drifting away from personal weapons. Anyone have any more ideas on more ballistic weapons?

The ever present smart bullet.... We got the fin-stabilzing part down kinda with the grenade rounds for the real life AA-12 but giving it a computer chip and getting it to steer is another thing entirely. You would need a way for the bullet to track the target on its own. Thermal possibly, another way would be a laser painting the target like smart bombs of today but that would require the soldier to expose himself in order to keep the laser on the person. It would be bad if he's firing an entire clip and the laser drifts off to a wall 6 inchs to the right of the person. And then why bother with smart bullets in the first place?

[Rick Canaan]

The ever present smart bullet.... We got the fin-stabilzing part down kinda with the grenade rounds for the real life AA-12 but giving it a computer chip and getting it to steer is another thing entirely. You would need a way for the bullet to track the target on its own. Thermal possibly, another way would be a laser painting the target like smart bombs of today but that would require the soldier to expose himself in order to keep the laser on the person. It would be bad if he's firing an entire clip and the laser drifts off to a wall 6 inchs to the right of the person. And then why bother with smart bullets in the first place?

Not the mention the high-speed ballistics involved in close-quarter combat. A bullet, traveling at 700-feet-per-second, would draw long, parabolic curves - not be able to flit around corners or obstacles. The only situation in which a smart bullet could really work, would be in use for sniping targets from long distances. One wouldn't need to account for things like gravity, windage and such. Just lock onto your selected target and fire; the bullet would then direct itself directly to its target.

[Fenryx]

I have seen a few ideas with personal projectile weaponry that I have liked. Like the gyro-jet weaponry where you are basically firing a small missile/rocket at a target. Improvements with fletchettes and automatic shotguns might prove rather interesting especially if you were to combine penetrating power of fletchettes with sheer brute force of a sabot round. Maybe integrate some of the high velocity inducing properties associated with rail guns with enough miniaturization to be actually feasible for a man portable weapon.

[Silver]

I know I've had characters wield their fair share of odball ballistics weapons. The standard tends to be the smoothbore charge pistol. Caseless ammo with solid block propellant. Electrical charge ignites the propellant; the same charge lights the magnets that stabilize the bullet.

[Fenryx]

Interesting points, Silver, your Furcadia icon reminds me I need to eventually get a Noble Canine for life.

[Psion]

I know I've had characters wield their fair share of odball ballistics weapons. The standard tends to be the smoothbore charge pistol. Caseless ammo with solid block propellant. Electrical charge ignites the propellant; the same charge lights the magnets that stabilize the bullet.

Interesting idea. My most common design tends to be a more advanced version of the rifled barrel. Caseless ammo, magnetic stablizers. Admittedly, most of my characters try to find other solutions to their problems or are dangerous in different, less obvious, ways. As a result, most of my weapon design comes from other science-fiction I've read. Something I will probably work on now.

[Kesslan]

Hmm just to wade in with my own personal favorites for sci-fi weaponry. At least as far as technological ones goes.

Coil/Gauss guns.

Mass drivers which are really just a larger version

Railguns (Somewhat similar concept, but ultimately completely different from Coil guns/Mass drivers)

Lasers. Their making smaller and smaller weaponized versions of these things as time goes on. So far most I've read about seem to have anti missile defense in mind but that could turn around given enough development.

Plasma is kinda iffy short of some sort of energy fed flamethrower like weapon. I generally stick this sort of stuff to small portable cutting/welding tools.

Particle beams: Still not fully up on the theoretical viability of this but I tend to take it into account.

Ion weaponry: Arguably for some of the larger 'cannon' type guns it could work.

Sonic weapons: Not quite up to snuff on the theoretical potential of these vs potential armor types. Against unarmored targets though given sufficient technological advancement, they would probably be quite nasty.

Ammunition:
Miniature HEAP rounds. You can already make explosive bullets in this day and age. Boost the tech far enough and you could potentially make some very nasty ammo indeed.

Gyrojet: Proven to be possible to make back in the 1960's. The issues with most of these, from what I've read of them however was that the jet nozzles etc were often improperly made so that they were partially or completely blocked off, leading to varied results. Sufficient quality control and modern micro construction techniques could potentially make these more viable.

Grenades vs Rockets vs Missiles:
I cant see grenades being totally pushed out given that they are comparatively cheap to make, can be fitted with assorted payloads and are capable of indirect fire. I also still see hand grenades having assorted uses, along with det packs and other portable demolitions.

Miniaturized Rockets (Such as Gyrojet ammo) could arguably be quite useful in space settings for CQB combat where you might not have the time to 'lock on' with a guidance system.

Missiles. Great if you can lock on, not so great if you cant. Also bound to ultimately be more expensive than rockets or grenades due to the necessary costs for guidance package and additional systems required to get and sustain a lock. Can be potentially sent off course by assorted countermeasures. However, under other circumstances you could do things with missiles that you couldn't ever pull off with grenades or rockets so their here to stay.

Stun rounds:
Shadowrun has a good example of some potential scifi style non lethal rounds. From rubber to 'gel' rounds to capsule rounds filled with assorted chemicals. Hell if you have the cash in SR, you could even make capsule rounds filled with nanites that are capable of eating flesh or body armor. In settings I'd write about however, such things would still be quite rare and extremely expensive, and generally reserved for assassination tools for times when you don't mind spending $100,000+ to kill just one person.

That said any sufficiently advanced setting could have WMDs that are nanite based. Make them self replicating and they could even be on the scale of planet killers.

That said using a really big mass driver might be cheaper and then simply fire down a bunch of very large projectiles at key spots and you'll have more or less the same effect. The ammo would arguably even be free if you could fire off asteroids.

[Psion]

Grenades vs Rockets vs Missiles:
I cant see grenades being totally pushed out given that they are comparatively cheap to make, can be fitted with assorted payloads and are capable of indirect fire. I also still see hand grenades having assorted uses, along with det packs and other portable demolitions.

Miniaturized Rockets (Such as Gyrojet ammo) could arguably be quite useful in space settings for CQB combat where you might not have the time to 'lock on' with a guidance system.

Missiles. Great if you can lock on, not so great if you cant. Also bound to ultimately be more expensive than rockets or grenades due to the necessary costs for guidance package and additional systems required to get and sustain a lock. Can be potentially sent off course by assorted countermeasures. However, under other circumstances you could do things with missiles that you couldn't ever pull off with grenades or rockets so their here to stay.

Hmmm, interesting. Never gave much thought to explosives, thank you for the nice read.

[Slate]

Hmmm, interesting. Never gave much thought to explosives, thank you for the nice read.

Another explosive that I don't -think- has been mentioned is mines. Small craft could probably weave around them easily enough in space, but larger frigates and cruisers would probably find it near impossible.

However, proximity mines that explode when a craft gets close to them, or magnetic mines that will follow a craft until it makes contact can also prove very deadly.

[Adonisus]

Magnetic mines that will follow a craft until it makes contact can also prove very deadly.

I second this one. I'd also have it so that each mine would (before being armed and in use) have a scan function that would analyze and store away your ship's unique chemical and material structure, that way it won't accidentally attach itself to your own ship.

[Brome Teks]

Mines might not be viable on the basis that space quite frankly is huge. Magnetic mines might be possible, but the range would be so limited that the only effective way to block someone would be to use billions of mines in a field. Perhaps surrounding a planet? Otherwise, there's plenty of space to just go around the mines in any of three dimensions.

My personal favorite weapon: Dr. Device from the Ender's Game series. While it may not be feasible now, with all the research into particle physics we may soon know a way to cause matter to destroy itself like that described in the books.

[Rick Canaan]

Oh but a cluster of mines dropped out a back hatch in the path of a pursuing ship...?

And even especially nasty would be EMP mines. They give off horrendously powerful electromagnetic pulses that disrupt the enemy's electronics? After which you just swoop around and take their ship in tow, with the enemy crew sealed up inside like pigs to the slaughter.

[Brome Teks]

Granted, that could work, assuming the ship is directly behind the ship it is pursuing.

Also, I would imagine most ships would be designed to be able to deal with heavy EM fields, to handle solar flares and the like.

[Kesslan]

In a space setting, Mines are really only effective for setting up planetary blockades/protective zones and for dropping in the most likely path of an approaching ship.

That said quite a few Sci-Fi settings have had mega gigantic minefields that surrounded key critical ship construction facilities and the like. But these fields would have taken up a few hundred billion mines.

[Rick Canaan]

Drone mines, then.

The mines sit in a dormant state, bristling with passive sensors. As soon as an enemy ship approaches within a set, pre-programmed distance from the mines, the mines activate and chase down/cluster towards the target.

Even if the mines were never able to catch the enemy ship and destroy it, they would most certainly act as a very effective deterrent.

[Fenryx]

In other words suicide commando robots

[Rick Canaan]

In other words suicide commando robots

Pretty much. :3

[Psion]

Drone mines, then.

The mines sit in a dormant state, bristling with passive sensors. As soon as an enemy ship approaches within a set, pre-programmed distance from the mines, the mines activate and chase down/cluster towards the target.

Even if the mines were never able to catch the enemy ship and destroy it, they would most certainly act as a very effective deterrent.

I am vaguely reminded of a short story my father told me about once, in the future we used smart-bombs controlled by crude AIs in space demolitions. One day a bomb got stuck in his tube and the crew had to talk him out of wanting to fulfill his programming (which was to explode in the most violent fashion possible.) Funny story and certainly a thought-provoking one.

[Rys]

There are some settings where simple stationary mines would work pretty well, I think. You might not be able to build a wall of mines around your system, but if your ftl technology relies on specific "jump points", even one powerful mine right next to the point could devastate a ship coming through.

[Brome Teks]

Drone mines, then.

The mines sit in a dormant state, bristling with passive sensors. As soon as an enemy ship approaches within a set, pre-programmed distance from the mines, the mines activate and chase down/cluster towards the target.

Even if the mines were never able to catch the enemy ship and destroy it, they would most certainly act as a very effective deterrent.

In that case, wouldn't it be considerably more effective to have a automated sentry posted, which would fire missiles, torpedoes, or other weapons at passing ships?

[Fenryx]

Sentry bots at key points are an interesting idea, but then you get the idea of what happened if somebody hacks the programming? I can just see it now...the equivalent of a bus load of nuns in space being blasted into space dust by some nutjob with a beef against that particular faith. Or something similar.

[Rick Canaan]

Sentry bots at key points are an interesting idea, but then you get the idea of what happened if somebody hacks the programming? I can just see it now...the equivalent of a bus load of nuns in space being blasted into space dust by some nutjob with a beef against that particular faith. Or something similar.

Nutjobs and terrorists are a universal constant, though. The weapon they use/steal/take over is the only thing that differs.

[Fenryx]

Nutjobs and terrorists are a universal constant, though. The weapon they use/steal/take over is the only thing that differs.

QfT unfortunately.

[Brome Teks]

Sentry bots at key points are an interesting idea, but then you get the idea of what happened if somebody hacks the programming? I can just see it now...the equivalent of a bus load of nuns in space being blasted into space dust by some nutjob with a beef against that particular faith. Or something similar.

Could said terrorists not just do the same with the mines laid out by another government?

[Psion]

Could said terrorists not just do the same with the mines laid out by another government?

Exactly... actually, it would actually be easier to hotwire a field of enemy drone mines then it would be to take over an automated sentry wouldn't it? If a smart mine's programming is limited to "This IFF is an enemy vessel, activate. All other IFFs, stay dormant." couldn't you just switch the variables around once you cracked the countermeasures suite? That way, instead of frying pirate scumbags (who the universe can do without); it actually harasses navy vessels and friendly travelers?
It ultimately comes down to an axom fairly true now as it would be in the future; no matter how nice you are as an empire, someone will want to take you down. No matter what your strength is, there will always be someone who can work around or manipulate your strength.

[DigitalEcho]

I have to say, even though practically every good concept (Rail guns, Bolters, Pulse/Plasma Rifles, etc) has been thought up, there is always a new weapon design out there, it just boils to a bit of ludicrous imagination and some fundemental thinking, but there is gun that has yet to be portrayed.

[Fenryx]

A lot of ideas have done before and virtually anything we can come up with now has already done at least once by someone somewhere. Sometimes the question becomes how do we use the material in a new or interesting manner?

[Psion]

The question becomes how do we use the material in a new or interesting manner?

That's a question a good writer should always ask himself, how do I make the story interesting or entertaining?

[DigitalEcho]

You have a point, yes it does matter on how you use that material to make something interesting, but it relies on one's imagination and how they use it to make the story entertaining .

[Rys]

What about a titanic "conventional" gun (a long tube, closed at one end, from which a projectile is propelled by an explosion) using a neutronium shell and matter/antimatter propellant?
It's not the most practical of weapons, but as far as I know it certainly counts as novel.