Is there a way to create a giant beam cannon?

[Tentacule Un Seigneur]

A way to create a massive energy beam that can hit multiple enemies or such?

[Climhazzard]

When I built this ship, I was going for a main cannon sort of deal and decided to use antimatter cannons, if you wanted a beam instead you could simply layer up some proton beams, to be fairly destructive you need to lair them 5 or more deep and 4 or 5 wide.

http://i.imgur.com/OA2oHHY.jpg

You could also use race 4, you'd have a much longer range and a much more destructive cannon, but imo they aren't fitting for "capital ships" because the weaponry they can use is very limited, in other words you'll have a big gun and not much else.

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by Geeves:

A wide beam is a wide beam and functions the same whether in 2d or 3d. A wide beam assures constant effect on the target area while allowing for less pinpoint accuracy. If you want a wide beam in the game it is quite simple to achieve: Stack those lasers side-by-side. Whether to put one in the game or not is irrelevant, as it is already there....

And as to your "better options due to advanced tech"...

You should probably know that shining lasers on planets in other solar systems is entirely within our current technological limits. With that in mind, to say that an antimatter powered laser is further off than, say, faster than light propulsion is quite silly in my opinion. It's just a question of how much energy you can produce to power such a device. So please, explain what would be more efficient at attacking another planet than a beam weapon fired from your own solar system. Oh, and it has to not take several thousand years to get there.

You keep going on and on with these wildly exaggerated examples with beams wide enough to fill the screen, dynamite and doorknobs, and other such nonsense... Not sure what you're trying to get at with all that.

Originally posted by Mytheos:

The OP and topic is about WIDE energy beams.

So I assume thats what you are talking about...since thats the topic and you didnt state otherwise.

And then you went on to assume that "WIDE" meant "The entire screen".... OP clearly stated that "Wide" meant "Hitting multiple ships". In-game this is quite possible and effective, just not with a single weapon.

....

You really have zero clue what you are talking about.

Sure we can shine light on other planets...who cares?

Can we shine one strong enough to destroy a flipping planet? NO, not even SLIGHTLY close.


If we could do that, do you even have the slightest concept of how much energy that'd take?

Why the hell would you do that when you'd have to have other tech that would be superior to do the same task?

A species is NOT going to have nuclear technology and NOT be able to make a bottle rocket.

[Geeves]

You sure are prone to wild assumptions and selective reading. I'll just leave it at that.

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by Geeves:

You sure are prone to wild assumptions and selective reading. I'll just leave it at that.

Whatever makes you feel like your insane point has any validity.

Maybe you could make a mod for giant wide beam weapons....and the race could also have antimatter cooking appliances...because that makes as much sense.

[Alva au Lune]

My god this got off course fast

[Tentacule Un Seigneur]

Originally posted by Mytheos:

Originally posted by Geeves:

You sure are prone to wild assumptions and selective reading. I'll just leave it at that.

Whatever makes you feel like your insane point has any validity.

Maybe you could make a mod for giant wide beam weapons....and the race could also have antimatter cooking appliances...because that makes as much sense.

Umm, did you read my post before, on how it didn't have to be a laser?

It would be entirely possible to use a high energy reaction to create a mass of super heated plasma contained in a powerful magnetic field, then direct that mass of plasma forward in a controlled manner, like a artificial solar flare.

The range and velocity would be lower than a laser, but it would essentially create a beam (or stream if you would) of intense heat and energy that could cover a broad area and envelope multiple targets.

So in the end I suppose what I am talking about would be more of a plasma stream weapon rather than a laser beam weapon.

But again.......this game is hardly realistic in a large variety of ways, why you seem so focused on how "unrealistic" a thicker energy beam that could envolope 2 or 3 close together foes is strikes me as somewhat odd. I think it is fair to assume you could ask the creator of this game about it and he would say that Scientific Realism wasn't the most important aspect of it.

[Nadlug]

Originally posted by gentlemanintacta:

Remember the tenet of science, "Nothing is impossible, merely improbable" all things are measures of probability rather than absolutes.

And I never said the giant beam had to be a laser, why not a spread out stream of super heated plasma, like a solar flare but of artificial origin that was released in a steady forward stream, engulfing everything in it's path in immense heat and energy.

And bringing realistic science theory into a game like this is kind of redundant in and of itself wouldn't you say?

Superheated plasma beam would require the same supersized housing Power supply and coolant device as the laser Probably bigger too because youl also need something to generate the magnetic field to keep the plasma beam coherrent. Otherwise youl wind up with a plasma flamethrower.

It is a bit silly yes, but science fiction has always had its feet firmly planted in real life theoretical sciences, otherwise it would be fantacy. And as previously stated, a touch of realism really adds to it by making things plausable.

TBH this whole topic is redundant. Lasers are all ready absurdly overpowered as is. A single one that is wide enough to hit multiple targets probably woudlent work in the game currently because its a single projected beam and would be blocked by the first thing it hit. It would only add to the problem of uncreative players making nothing but f-off walls of lasers.

If you want a "Wide" beam just build an array of smaller beams side by side.

[Geeves]

Originally posted by gentlemanintacta:

Originally posted by Mytheos:

Whatever makes you feel like your insane point has any validity.

Maybe you could make a mod for giant wide beam weapons....and the race could also have antimatter cooking appliances...because that makes as much sense.

Umm, did you read my post before, on how it didn't have to be a laser?

It would be entirely possible to use a high energy reaction to create a mass of super heated plasma contained in a powerful magnetic field, then direct that mass of plasma forward in a controlled manner, like a artificial solar flare.

The range and velocity would be lower than a laser, but it would essentially create a beam (or stream if you would) of intense heat and energy that could cover a broad area and envelope multiple targets.

So in the end I suppose what I am talking about would be more of a plasma stream weapon rather than a laser beam weapon.

But again.......this game is hardly realistic in a large variety of ways, why you seem so focused on how "unrealistic" a thicker energy beam that could envolope 2 or 3 close together foes is strikes me as somewhat odd. I think it is fair to assume you could ask the creator of this game about it and he would say that Scientific Realism wasn't the most important aspect of it.

Just use multiple weapons side by side. Proton beams from the starter faction for a "beam", or you can use faction 4 (purple ones with modular cannons) and just stack ubercannons side by side. Using faction 4 is incredibly unwieldly though, as you are likely to shoot backward accross the universe every time you fire.

[Nadlug]

Yeah i hate how much firing projectile cannons impacts your momentum, its as if your a 50 tonne ship firing 25 tonne shells from a cannon that weighs 5 tonnes. One of those situations were a touch of realistic fine tuning would really help.

[Climhazzard]

You could probably make a wide area beam with proton beams too, but to make it destructive enough to actually destroy the ships it's hitting would probably take all 8000P of your budget, leaving you nothing for different kinds of capital ship type things, side mounted guns, drones, missiles, etc.

[Mytheos]

Originally posted by gentlemanintacta:

Originally posted by Mytheos:

Whatever makes you feel like your insane point has any validity.

Maybe you could make a mod for giant wide beam weapons....and the race could also have antimatter cooking appliances...because that makes as much sense.

Umm, did you read my post before, on how it didn't have to be a laser?

It would be entirely possible to use a high energy reaction to create a mass of super heated plasma contained in a powerful magnetic field, then direct that mass of plasma forward in a controlled manner, like a artificial solar flare.

The range and velocity would be lower than a laser, but it would essentially create a beam (or stream if you would) of intense heat and energy that could cover a broad area and envelope multiple targets.

So in the end I suppose what I am talking about would be more of a plasma stream weapon rather than a laser beam weapon.

But again.......this game is hardly realistic in a large variety of ways, why you seem so focused on how "unrealistic" a thicker energy beam that could envolope 2 or 3 close together foes is strikes me as somewhat odd. I think it is fair to assume you could ask the creator of this game about it and he would say that Scientific Realism wasn't the most important aspect of it.

Notice how I specifically say Giant Beam Weapon vs Laser Weapon.

I understand and read your previous mention of using plasma.

However as Nadlug pointed out you are still using a system in a way that is a bit past reasonable.

Sure its neat to watch TV characters in The Big Bang Theory use a 500 kW oxygen-iodine laser to heat Ramen Instant Noodles...

But obviously you can understand that is insanely impractical as a cooking device...


OP - why you seem so focused on how "unrealistic" a thicker energy beam that could envolope 2 or 3 close together foes is strikes me as somewhat odd.

Because I would think if you wanted to hit multiple targets you'd work on a better targeting system before you just up and decide to throw a star's worth of energy at something.


Its like you're shooting a projectile weapon at something...but its too fast....so you make a weapon that shoots more projectiles, has a higher rate of fire or perhaps explosive shells with shrapnel.

You dont say...hmm this .50 caliber single shot isnt working my target is too fast to hit, or I want to hit multiple targets so I'm going to just make a MASSIVE projectile 10 miles wide...

[Dahak]

If you pile on the velocity, damage and range mods you can make a beam cannon of sorts. You DO have to be careful not to put too much velocity on it or it fires in a single ridiculous blast, but with the right balance you can do it. You need lots of generators and engines though as the recoil is nuts and the energy demand is silly. That said, I built a ship that can blast through just about anything in one shot. The hard part is I have to get up to speed before firing or I end up out of range (and my range is greater than visible range) before the shot is over. The travel time is really short too so it functions alot like the buster rifle (just with silly recoil). Of course my ship looks somewhat like an enormous phallus due to the length of the gun and the need to armor the back end due to recoil slamming you into things. You break the gun base and it takes a LONG time to rebuild the gun. Several minutes. That said, 8000P devoted to making a doomcannon works pretty well. It has no shields or other weapons though so without a fleet to protect it it is pointless. Really, it is pointless anyway since it manuvers rather poorly and isn't vary effective versus the numerous small ships unless they are fairly close together. Works wonders against agents though!

[Tentacule Un Seigneur]

Originally posted by Mytheos:

Originally posted by gentlemanintacta:

Umm, did you read my post before, on how it didn't have to be a laser?

It would be entirely possible to use a high energy reaction to create a mass of super heated plasma contained in a powerful magnetic field, then direct that mass of plasma forward in a controlled manner, like a artificial solar flare.

The range and velocity would be lower than a laser, but it would essentially create a beam (or stream if you would) of intense heat and energy that could cover a broad area and envelope multiple targets.

So in the end I suppose what I am talking about would be more of a plasma stream weapon rather than a laser beam weapon.

But again.......this game is hardly realistic in a large variety of ways, why you seem so focused on how "unrealistic" a thicker energy beam that could envolope 2 or 3 close together foes is strikes me as somewhat odd. I think it is fair to assume you could ask the creator of this game about it and he would say that Scientific Realism wasn't the most important aspect of it.

Notice how I specifically say Giant Beam Weapon vs Laser Weapon.

I understand and read your previous mention of using plasma.

However as Nadlug pointed out you are still using a system in a way that is a bit past reasonable.

Sure its neat to watch TV characters in The Big Bang Theory use a 500 kW oxygen-iodine laser to heat Ramen Instant Noodles...

But obviously you can understand that is insanely impractical as a cooking device...


OP - why you seem so focused on how "unrealistic" a thicker energy beam that could envolope 2 or 3 close together foes is strikes me as somewhat odd.

Because I would think if you wanted to hit multiple targets you'd work on a better targeting system before you just up and decide to throw a star's worth of energy at something.


Its like you're shooting a projectile weapon at something...but its too fast....so you make a weapon that shoots more projectiles, has a higher rate of fire or perhaps explosive shells with shrapnel.

You dont say...hmm this .50 caliber single shot isnt working my target is too fast to hit, or I want to hit multiple targets so I'm going to just make a MASSIVE projectile 10 miles wide...

My primary reason, only reason really, for wanting to be able to utalize such a weapon, because it's cool. Giant Beam Weapons are kind of a Staple of Sci Fi, from the Death Stars Super Laser, to Ion Cannons in C&C, Even to the Prometheus Driver from Project Sylpheed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyxvOZosIjY Go to 37:00

A large scale beam, be it of plasma, a giant laser, a mass of charged protons, or a vortex of anti-electrons, such oversized beams made to take out multiple small units, or even fleets, is a long running staple of science fiction when it comes to space battles. It would take a while to name all the Movies, Shows, and Anime that make use of large beam weapons capable of engulfing multiple targets.

This game is science fiction, it involves ships with energy weapons engaging in potentially large battles, thus I have the desire to create a ship that would have a large scale beam weapon, it's as simple as that.

[Nadlug]

Well to be more direct about it.

Q: Is there a way to create a single giant beam cannot that is wide enough to hit several ships.
A:No, but you can do it with multiple beam type weapons lined up side by side. But dispite the appeal a giant doom laser naturally has, building such an array ingame is terribly lame because it is an absurdly overpowered approach to ship design that has so far resulted in ugly bricks that arnt fun for anyone else to encounter.

Building such a ship will make Nadlug very sad and its not nice if you deliberatly make Nadlug sad.

If there were a feature that allowed playesr to filter ships they do and dont encounter this wouldent be a problem but somehow the developers overlooked the posibility that their spaceship designer game would have two year olds creating giant space phaluses like they did in Spore.

[Mytheos]

@gentlemanintacta

Yes, I understand you want it because it'd look cool.

But in turn others dont want it because it'd be a difficult thing to balance and thus would be pointless...and its poor design to add pointless things to a game.

And if not pointless...it'd be overpowered.

Also from a realism and aesthetic point of view I dont think it fits well.