Particle Beam Blaster Technology

[Grim]

​

Affiliation: Any, though most common to Republic

Ownership: N/A

Intent: Creating this to clean up the old legacy tech and to make it fit better with this timeline. It is also created to give those who prefer blasters to other weapons a more fair chance when fighting someone with a lightsaber while not making it unfair for those using lightsabers. It is so anyone who wants to make a similar weapon can see what it can do and hopefully lay down some guidelines for using this exotic tech.

Model/Name: Particle Beam Blaster

Type: Blaster Technology

Power Supply: Powerpack and blaster gas

Size: Light Carbine and up

Composition: N/A

Description: Particle beam blasters started out life as a way to try and improve heavy cannon weaponry by creating a blast that could in theory deliver a more explosive and thermal blaster bolt compared to more contemporary designs of the time. This was however a failure as the beam when scaled up actually was worse than all other types of same size power supply. The technology was dropped for some time until 150 or so years ago when a unknown weapon designer stumbled upon the design.

The designer didn't have the capital to make a large factory and need to make something unique to try and get his idea out the door. What he tried was the nearly forgotten tech of the particle beam. He was able to after some tinkering to adapt it to a smaller weapon while his plan was to have it save energy he found it had the opposite effect.

He was able to get the interest of a manufacturer who studied the tech a bit more. During these tests what made the tech special was found, the beam itself couldn't be deflected by deflector shields or even by the venerable lightsaber. Instead it was found that the weak field instead broke down and released almost all of the energy as various forms of EM radiation. Further testing found that in a single shot mode it was next to impossible to get the the containment field to hold, instead they found using some work arounds that they could get it to work on burst fire and full auto weapons.



Features: (TL;DR)

• Loose containment field that makes it so the bolt can't be deflected, otherwise the same as a blaster bolt.
• Due to the complex firing system it only works in light carbines and larger
  
• Generally 60% of the range of a comparable standard blaster as well as about the same loss in rang
• Due to the containment of the beam it is a slightly slower in velocity than a standard blaster bolt, coming in at about 80% of that speed.

 

[Outlander]

The thing about this tech is that, essentially, it's straight up better to regular blaster bolts. What are the drawbacks? Why haven't these taken over as the predominant weapons?

 

[Oreus]

It's basically just an excuse to be lazy about combat and say you can just shoot forcers. Not sure how that makes things fair. Already plenty you can do in a fight. It isn't about trying to out tech the enemy. As we've said many times already. I feel this goes against that idea and the tech forum is already fuller than it should be with stuff. Personally I believe these weapons will be denied but feel free to use explosives and other things with creative writing rather than trying to make tech to win.

 

[Outlander]

It's basically just an excuse to be lazy about combat and say you can just shoot forcers. Not sure how that makes things fair. Already plenty you can do in a fight. It isn't about trying to out tech the enemy. As we've said many times already. I feel this goes against that idea and the tech forum is already fuller than it should be with stuff. Personally I believe these weapons will be denied but feel free to use explosives and other things with creative writing rather than trying to make tech to win.

To be fair, and this has been admitted by @Green Ranger , fighting a Force User is inherently unfair as a Non-Force User.

That being said, it's not an excuse to make something straight up better than what's already available.

 

[Grim]

The problem is, Forcers have more insta wins then the average user and the force and the lightsaber as much as people don't want to admit it are lazy ways for people to not have to write better. This at least will make a force user actually want to try and dodge blasterfire instead of being like lolnope I deflect them.

 

[Phoenix]

It's basically just an excuse to be lazy about combat and say you can just shoot forcers. Not sure how that makes things fair. Already plenty you can do in a fight. It isn't about trying to out tech the enemy. As we've said many times already. I feel this goes against that idea and the tech forum is already fuller than it should be with stuff. Personally I believe these weapons will be denied but feel free to use explosives and other things with creative writing rather than trying to make tech to win.

To be totally honest, I couldn't disagree more. This doesn't mean that FS can "just be shot" with no skill, this is just presenting a weapon that can't be hit back at you. It's not unstoppable, but atm the only real firearms available are blasters, and all a FS has to do is say "he deflected the bolt back at him" and all of a sudden with 7 words your weapon is not only ineffective, it's actually a far greater threat to the user than the FS. That's way more unfair than a weapon that can still be blocked. And i say this as a person who has majority FS characters. But that's just my two cents

 

[Grim]

@Outlander Generally speaking just because something is a bit better doesn't mean it will replace everything. Most Hybrids are a bit better then fully gasoline cars yet not every car is a hybrid. in the military world there are cartridges that are better then the 5.56 yet every still pretty much uses the 5.56. You have to think most manufactures are going to be tooled to make blasters. It costs lots of money for something that they would have to charge more for, and while they are doing that their competitors would be selling the old blaster for cheaper.

 

[Outlander]

@Outlander Generally speaking just because something is a bit better doesn't mean it will replace everything. Most Hybrids are a bit better then fully gasoline cars yet not every car is a hybrid. in the military world there are cartridges that are better then the 5.56 yet every still pretty much uses the 5.56. You have to think most manufactures are going to be tooled to make blasters. It costs lots of money for something that they would have to charge more for, and while they are doing that their competitors would be selling the old blaster for cheaper.

Then let me rephrase that:

Why would any player equip their characters with anything but one of these, as I see it as a fairly straight upgrade?

 

[Grim]

I did see your point and I noticed I left that part out. It has less range and less accuracy

 

[Outlander]

I did see your point and I noticed I left that part out. It has less range and less accuracy

Still. The way I see it, you have a weapon that can fire more times and disorientate an enemy. The drawbacks don't really matter, since most engagements on the site happen very close, and accuracy matters less when each shot can temporarily blind your enemy. Not only that, but it is also effective against both Jedi and regular people, meaning it's better to have in both circumstances.

 

[Grim]

If you were shooting at standing still targets then yes it wouldn't be much better. In a fight your moving, jumping, dodging not really taking aim but to just sort of line up the body with the sights. All the while your target is doing the same. This makes it even less likely that your shots will land even at close range since it isn't faster then a blaster bolt, if you dodge a blaster bolt you can dodge this.

 

[Andrewza]

@Outlander Generally speaking just because something is a bit better doesn't mean it will replace everything. Most Hybrids are a bit better then fully gasoline cars yet not every car is a hybrid. in the military world there are cartridges that are better then the 5.56 yet every still pretty much uses the 5.56. You have to think most manufactures are going to be tooled to make blasters. It costs lots of money for something that they would have to charge more for, and while they are doing that their competitors would be selling the old blaster for cheaper.

they have draw backs

Hybrids don't have the power and cost more than a normal car and they really not worth the cost when there are convictional powered car can produce batter mileage.

5.56mm was chosen because it is lighter and a better anti personal round that the heavier options. What a 5.56mm FMJ does in side a body is not nice, a 7.62mm leg shot will go through a through a 5.56mm leg shot could come out the knee. All about pro and con.





A good draw back is to make it less powerfully. This is due to the fact it is complicated and a rifle sized particle weapon is in fact only pistol strength. This explains why armies don't have them since they suck vs armour.

all so what's this about

Severely affected by diminishing returns making it useless as anything larger then a light repeater/rifle

This is not a advantage or disadvantage. It just means I cant put a particle beam cannon on a tank or ship. Now limiting it to rifle sized and up means it is a good disadvantage.

 

[Green Ranger]

So, I admit I only really looked at this because I was tagged, but: Did you ever contact Clayton about this or get a reply from him? I only ask because I know you PMed us together about this exact thing and he never responded to that particular conversation (though that doesn't mean he didn't respond at all, just that I haven't seen it.)

Since you've posted this, I'm just going to quote my position on it from that conversation, which is pretty much what other people have said so far:

I'll defer to Clayton on this one, but just giving my opinion on the matter:

I'd probably say that particle beam blasters probably fly in the face of the general thrust of the new approach to technology - since even slugthrowers now more or less have the same properties as blasters now, introducing particle beam blasters more or less returns us to the issue of gaining an advantage through technology write-ups. Since the general thrust of the technology announcement is that tech is more for flavour than for gaining an advantage, I'd personally assume that particle beam blasters wouldn't be allowed, otherwise we'd more or less be inviting people to move from slugthrowers onto particle beam blasters rather than the more typical technology of the Star Wars galaxy that we'd like to see instead.

But again, this is a tech thing, so it's Clayton's call at the end of the day, and this is just my personal opinion.

 

[Phoenix]

Did you ever contact Clayton about this or get a reply from him? I only ask because I know you PMed us together about this exact thing and he never responded to that particular conversation (though that doesn't mean he didn't respond at all, just that I haven't seen it.)

Since you've posted this, I'm just going to quote my position on it from that conversation, which is pretty much what other people have said so far:

I hope what I'm about to say comes across as completely sincere and non-combative because that's genuinely how it's intended and I know that doesn't always translate into text.

My question: Is there just not going to be any firearms this TL that aren't a liability when fighting FS then? I totally understand (and personally kind of like) that slugthrowers are being reduced since they really aren't star warsy. But without those and without particle beams (which for the record, I'd just like to see as the equivalent of "disperse-on-contact" blasters) the only weapon available that isn't a liability is sonic weapons, which imo tend to lead to more arguments and are even more unbalanced because 1) it doesn't seem like there's as good of an understanding of how they work and 2) they aren't blocked by armor I don't think (but I'm not sure because see reason 1 lol) So unless redirecting (not deflecting/blocking, but actual redirection back at the gunman) blaster bolts is made off limits there really aren't any weapons to fight with.

And i'm not saying make a "kill-everything-in-one-hit-super-jedi-killing-weapon" because I think that's as stupid as the next guy. By no means! As someone that really likes PvP, I like having to strategize and work to win. But if you're in a fight and are for all intents and purposes unarmed, then regardless of how good you are at out-strategizing, you're not going to be able to win.

Perhaps an alternative (that people might hate, we'll see) is that blasters on the site simply disperse on contact? No explosion, no flash, no kinetic transfer, but also no redirection either. From my perspective that doesn't seem to give any unfair advantages/fly in the face of the new tech rules. They can still be blocked and don't do damage, but aren't an instant liability. Just a thought, and my attempt to give genuine input. Hopefully that was all coherent, it's late here and I'm tired.

Edit: I also forgot there are shotguns as well (which is another option in combat)

 

[Green Ranger]

Perhaps an alternative (that people might hate, we'll see) is that blasters on the site simply disperse on contact? No explosion, no flash, no kinetic transfer, but also no redirection either.

That's how slugthrowers are handled, FWIW. Same as blasters for all intents and purposes, minus the deflect back property.

I mean, between that, some of the other stuff you brought up in your own post and the edit, I think it more or less answers the question, but I'll say this say this:

Ultimately, if the goal is to be able to make a techsheet that you can refer back to and go 'this says I beat you', then it's generally the kind of approach we don't want you guys to use anyway, and this seems like the kind of tech that's trying to achieve that. Ultimately we want battles to be determined by writing quality, not techpeen. And a good writer with a blaster will still be able to run rings around a Force user if they're clever enough. Not to deny that there's certainly a challenge factor involved in such a scenario, but it's absolutely still doable in the right circumstances.

 

[Krajin]

The thing people are missing is that Force Users are and always will have an advantage in combat in some form or another. The force alone gives an advantage, the lightsaber is really just the back up to it. Having a lightsaber and the force you still need to write creatively to defend or use force techniques, much like using any other tool or weapon. Course some people may not be able to simply out write others but still.

Particle weapons as exotic as they are take more energy rather than less to use as you are accelerating particles to high speed and working to keep them contained within a field that keeps it as a ball or bolt rather than a coherent beam like a Blaster bolt from any Blaster weapon or ship mounted Laser Cannons. In terms of ammunition capacity and use, I could see this tech being highly situational. What else does it offer that makes it useful to be adopted aside from being a potential counter to a lightsaber? (Mind you, Tutaminus or other forms of energy control could counter this weapon very easily.)

As for the Sonic weapons, here's a link from Wookiee detailing how they work and fit well.

 

[Kiro]

The thing people are missing is that Force Users are and always will have an advantage in combat in some form or another. The force alone gives an advantage, the lightsaber is really just the back up to it. Having a lightsaber and the force you still need to write creatively to defend or use force techniques, much like using any other tool or weapon. Course some people may not be able to simply out write others but still.

Particle weapons as exotic as they are take more energy rather than less to use as you are accelerating particles to high speed and working to keep them contained within a field that keeps it as a ball or bolt rather than a coherent beam like a Blaster bolt from any Blaster weapon or ship mounted Laser Cannons. In terms of ammunition capacity and use, I could see this tech being highly situational. What else does it offer that makes it useful to be adopted aside from being a potential counter to a lightsaber? (Mind you, Tutaminus or other forms of energy control could counter this weapon very easily.)

As for the Sonic weapons, here's a link from Wookiee detailing how they work and fit well.

Actually, look at the Gunslinging thread Boli just put up. As long as you stay at RANGE, you, the non-FS, have the advantage. At best, the Jedi can move towards you and try to deflect your bolts. And even if they do bounce one back at you, that's why you've got armour.

Also, as for sonic guns, they're Legends now, aside from those guns used by the Geonosians, and they behaved rather differently than most sonic guns depicted in the EU. So we'll have to get @Clayton to make a ruling as to whether they're decent or not against Jedi/Sith.

 

[Outlander]

Actually, look at the Gunslinging thread Boli just put up. As long as you stay at RANGE, you, the non-FS, have the advantage. At best, the Jedi can move towards you and try to deflect your bolts. And even if they do bounce one back at you, that's why you've got armour.

Also, as for sonic guns, they're Legends now, aside from those guns used by the Geonosians, and they behaved rather differently than most sonic guns depicted in the EU. So we'll have to get @Clayton to make a ruling as to whether they're decent or not against Jedi/Sith.

Has anyone ever actually beaten a force user by using range though? I mean, It probably could happen. But has it happened?

This isn't me taking away from the point of Boli's post or yours. I fully agree with both.

 

[Kiro]

Has anyone ever actually beaten a force user by using range though? I mean, It probably could happen. But has it happened?

This isn't me taking away from the point of Boli's post or yours. I fully agree with both.

I don't think anyone's genuinely TRIED without a bucket load of idiotic OP tech. They've always fallen back on lightsaber resistant armour and weapons and OP tech.

 

[Green Ranger]

I can't give any specific references (since it was like ten years ago), but it wasn't unheard of in the First and Second timelines.

That said, we were all cheap assholes then, so y'know, hard to use it as a good example. But I'd suggest taking this to a different topic or something, since we're getting pretty far off track at this stage IMHO.