Weapons Systems/Equipment

Just a few ideas for equipment for characters roaming the countryside, or other terrain that may be useful, and could plausibly be available from weapons vendors in places like Negav:

Warp Grenade:
A small, fist-sized device that upon detonation, creates a "hole" in space for a fraction of a second. This "hole" consumes everything in the blast radius (3 meters) One easy way to tell when warp grenades have been used is the eerily spherical chunks they take out of anything close enough to be caught in the blast radius. Most preds fear these because the make no sound when they explode, only the "CLAP" of air filling the consumed space. (Super Rare/Legendary)

MIRV/MIIV Missile:
MIRV: Multiple Independent Reactionary Vehicles
MIIV: Multiple Independent Interceptor Vehicles
Used in defensive missile emplacements, the missile has two modes: Offensive (MIRV) and Defensive (MIIV). In MIRV mode, the missile, after launch, will shed it's outer shell, revealing eight smaller missiles, which then launch, and home in on a single target, with the "parent" missile providing guidance data. By spreading multiple powerful impacts over a wide area, the weapon serves a force multiplier, octupling the destructive potential of a single shooter per shot. In MIIV mode, instead of targeting a single target, the interceptor vehicles each target a separate opponent, good for downing swarms of smaller ememies. There is a man-portable version as well, similar to a javelin missile launcher. The missiles use a randomly cycling targeting method, using Infared, Ultraviolet, Radar, LASER, Sonar, and Electromagnetic targeting, and they are homing.

Fusion Cannon:
Used primarily as a fixed point defense, the fusion cannon is powered by its own internal reactor, and fires a magnetically confined beam of superheated plasma at its target. Additionally, due to it's size, Fusion cannons come with their own shield generator. It's large size, and fantastic energy requirements make it mainly a fixed weapon only, but it can be mounted to a hover platform, and used as a mobile turret, but you only need two or three of them to defend a good-sized base. It's vanishingly rare, but there are handheld Fusion-Guns out there, with exceptionally equipped adventurers being known to carry one.

Spider-Bot:
A small, football-sized robot, with eight articulated legs, a camera relay, and a minigun, the spider-bot is used by explorers to scout large labyrinthine structures, and as a point scout when trekking through jungle areas. Their relatively low expense, and simple design make it practical to field them in groups. They can also be used as sentries when camping, as they also pack a 120-decibel alarm, and a flashing blue strobe, that can disorient, and temporarily blind preds.

Hexa-shield:
Hexa-shields are energy shields that range from small, gauntlet-mounted units, to large arrays that can protect entire installations. they are distinctive from other shields in that their energy barrier manifests as a regular geometric shape, composed of smaller hexagonal "plates". this design makes it possible for the shield to protect the user even if several of the plates become compromised.

Coil Gun:
A weapon that fires metallic needles through a series of electromagnetically energized coils at very high speed. Their rate of fire is relatively fast, and the needles shape allows them to punch through most types of armor easily. Coil Guns come in a variety of sizes, from man-portable, up to fixed artillery, although the larger designs are rare. They make a distinctive, flat CRACKCRACKCRACK when they fire. This sound is the needles breaking the sound barrier.

Chainsaw Knife
As the name implies, these knives have a power source in the hilt that spins a chainsaw fitted into a groove on the cutting edge of the knife. Sizes range from small hand-knives, up to large sword scale. They require an expert to wield, as they can be just as dangerous to the wielder as they can be to the target.

Dragon's Breath:
A flamethrower using pressurized, jellied fuel, enriched with powdered aluminium, and magnesium, the flames burn at 15000 degrees. The operator is protected by a thermal barrier, and any allies need to stand well back when this weapon is in operation. It is capable of burning through solid rock, and most barriers in a matter of minutes. Usually this isn't an issue, as the barrier's occupants are usually flash-cooked before their barrier wears out.

Multitool:
The most common piece if equipment to see an well prepared adventurer with, the multitool is a marvel of miniaturization. Tools include a mini chainsaw knife, laser welder (Adjustable intensity), plasma torch, cryo-gas dispenser, magnifying glass, pliers, hammer, regular knife, screwdriver (Variable heads) tweezers, and a toothpick.

Grapple Gauntlets:
Metal gauntlets worn over the hands, that are twice as long as normal gauntlets, the user's hands are actually in the "forearm" of the gauntlet, and the fingers are moved by remote feedback. The user can fire the "hand" portion if the gauntlet on a retractable monofilament line using rechargeable thrusters, and latch onto surfaces a far as 30 meters away, and then pull themselves up through the simple expedient of retracting the cable. Alternatively, the "Fist" can deploy a metal shield in front of the fingers, and be fired as a reusable missile on it's cable, as a kind of "Powered Punch" attack.

Excuse me for saying that these ideas dont sound very creative.

Warp Grenade: like the Scrin's super weapon in Command and Conquer 3. Rift Generator.

MIRV: standard military weapon here, reminds me of the Javelin from a particular COD game.

Fusion Canon: I think of the Hydrans from Star Trek

Spider Bot: reminds me of the Terror Drones from Red Alert 2

Hexa-Shield: The Bubble Shield from Halo

Coil Gun: I imagine a gauss weapon combined with a needler

Chainsaw Knife: Chainsaw sword from WH40k

Flamethrower

Crazy swiss-army knife.

I don't know if this is where you got your inspiration from, but whatever the reference for the items, they just don't fit too well with Felarya, Adventurers dont have this sort of equipment at their disposal for a regular basis. Even should they be on the Negav Market, they'd be too expensive for an average adventurer's wages. They'd need to save up for like 200 years or something.

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Warp Grenade:

Blackhole grenade.

How would this work? There's no way you could fit something like that into a handheld device. Blackholes require intense mass and gravity to form. Even if it is based on dimensional tech/magic, those take massive amounts of energy, and often required specialised structures (dimensional gates and the like).

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Fusion Cannon

Considering the huge power costs required to generate and maintain a fusion reaction, I just can't see this being self-contained within a weapon. Any kind of mounted fusion cannon would need a large power source off to the side.

Also, from a tactical standpoint, putting it in the gun is a bad idea. A giant cannon is a very visable, very vulnerable target. It would be much safer to use a seperate reactor, off to the side in a reinforced position, and just have it feed power to the gun through some kind of cable or other kind of transport system.

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Hexa-shield

I could see a stationary shield generator, if you could work out the power issues that come with something like that. Personal units though, not so much, not small enough to fit in a gauntlet. Personal shielding is even semi-rare among mages, and takes a bit of skill and a lot of magic to actually use and maintain.

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Coil Gun

Once again, large-scale versions should work fine with the right kind of power-grid. Man-portable versions, not so much. There's a reason that man-portable energy weapons and railguns/coilguns are not practical. You can't strap a powerful enough energy source onto a person to make it worth the extra cost and equipment. You probably COULD make a man-portable laser, railgun or coilgun...but the energy source would be so small that its performance would not be significantly better than a standard firearm, which is cheaper and simpler to use and maintain.

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Chainsaw Knife

Completely impractical.

Chainsaw weapons look cool, but they made for terrible weapons when looked at in any kind of semi-realistic way. All those moving parts are way too complicated for what you need a knife to do. They get gummed up when you actually kill someone with them, and each of those moving parts is something you'd have to worry about breaking or malfunctioning.

When it comes to melee weapons, its often best to keep things as simple as possibile.

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Multitool

Miniature chainsaw knife, plasma cutter and laser? Those don't work. You can't realy miniturize things like that.

Other than those, its kind of neat.

Thanks for the input, guys, but I have one point to make: We're assuming, for simplicity's sake, that if these weapons are readily available, the little difficulties you mentioned have already been worked out. In regards to power sources, nanotech, or "Lost Technology" can easily explain those, and some of the mineral and crystal resources on Felara are REALLY powerful in very small amounts. Regarding the issue that all these ideas are not original, you're right, they aren't. Their usage in this setting is completely original, but the basic concepts for these ideas have been around longer than any of us have been alive. I've never even played Command and Conquer: RA3, COD, Halo, or WH40K. Regarding Coilguns... Check Youtube, I've seen three designs already that are handheld, clip-fed, and could potentially kill someone. Just search for this: "Portable 1.25kJ Coilgun" to get you started.

Unit ZERO! I thought you'd never come here. Make sure you introduce yourself later, will you? There's a thread for that on the General Discussion forum. Oh, my, you catch me unprepared. I still have to read your story...

Unit ZER0 wrote:

Thanks for the input, guys, but I have one point to make: We're assuming, for simplicity's sake, that if these weapons are readily available, the little difficulties you mentioned have already been worked out. In regards to power sources, nanotech, or "Lost Technology" can easily explain those, and some of the mineral and crystal resources on Feylara are REALLY powerful in very small amounts. Regarding the issue that all these ideas are not original, you're right, they aren't. Their usage in this setting is completely original, but the basic concepts for these ideas have been around longer than any of us have been alive. I've never even played Command and Conquer: RA3, COD, Halo, or WH40K. Regarding Coilguns... Check Youtube, I've seen three designs already that are handheld, clip-fed, and could potentially kill someone. Just search for this: "Portable 1.25kJ Coilgun" to get you started.

...and you still have to learn how to spell Felarya. It's not called Feylara, it's called Felarya. F-E-L-A-R-Y-A. Got it memorized?

You do have a good point about the technology issue. Now allow me to introduce you to a different issue. We can assume anything we want, that's correct, about technology, which is why we don't. If we cared to we could assume that there's metals that can never be damaged, we could assume that there's gravitational particle pistols like the ones in BLAME! capable of laying waste to a small city as long as they have ammo, we could assume anything.

Bringing us to the reason we don't- because we're aiming to keep Felarya pretty dangerous. If you could see all the discussions about how much a bullet or a rifle round should hurt, about how antitank rifles can take down anything, about whether predators should withstand a rocket or not... I think you can figure. In the end, there's not really all that much need for anything more dangerous than what exists at the moment on Earth.

I'll be level with you; most of your ideas do seem to be just about right for someone aiming for the sci-fi flavor- except you should be more careful about the overkill. That's troubling me about the warp grenade, which you portray as a swift kill that seemingly allows for no countermeasures.

Nice thinking about the toothpick too, I can never seem to find one when I need it. Is it a wooden toothpick?

Stabs, you're absolutely right about the Warp Grenade, hadn't thought about that one. There are really no counters for that one, are there? Better make it a Super Rare/Legendary item... Yes, the toothpick is wood, because people who own a multitool, myself included, always lose the original. Fortunately, there's a "toothpick stamp" included with the multitool, to manufacture replacements.