Toby Haynes Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Having harnessed the awesome power of the Ion Cannon enough times, I think we could push for some better physics on these weapons. I've been digging around looking for the underlying principles of laser beams and I came across this article on Wikipedia about Gaussian beams. Now there are a lot of scary equations on there but essentially it all boils down to this: </font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">power/ square metre = P0 exp (-k*r*r)</pre> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poesel Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Aaargh, he blinded me with science. Isn't blinding with ions enough for you? Although I applaud your applied math here I doubt it will make it into the game because its a 'costly' calculation. My guess is that the typical game developer sees a perfect straight line through all these points. Which translates into BeamDistLossAtmo and BeamDistLossWater tags which hold the distance a beam can travel before it looses one point of ablation Ablation reduction = distance to target MOD BeamDistLossAtmo There you go. Now you know why I am only an engineer and not a scientist - always the cheapest solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperial Grunt Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 What about photon torpedoes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperial Grunt Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 What about photon torpedoes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
__Yossarian0815[jby] Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Originally posted by Imperial Grunt: What about photon torpedoes? bleh, star trek proton topedoes! (and wump rats for target practice) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperial Grunt Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 How come the ions make noise? And even if the beam does somehow make a noise as it burns through the air, how is the beam reduced to the speed of sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toby Haynes Posted May 22, 2007 Author Share Posted May 22, 2007 Originally posted by Imperial Grunt: How come the ions make noise? And even if the beam does somehow make a noise as it burns through the air, how is the beam reduced to the speed of sound? I assume you are talking about DropTeam? High-power lasers would heat (superheat?) the air along the waist of the beam. That could make a noise like thunder. Similarly, the laser beam would not make a noise striking the hull of the tank, but the heat build-up would be audible as the armour expands under the onslaught. And, of course, the subsequent explosion as the IC penetrates the subsystems would be ... err ... loud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperial Grunt Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 OK, I can buy that. But wouldn't you first see the flash and then hear the noise later? Like lightening and thunder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
__Yossarian0815[jby] Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Originally posted by Imperial Grunt: OK, I can buy that. But wouldn't you first see the flash and then hear the noise later? Like lightening and thunder? you would have to be away far enough to make the speed difference between light and sound noticable (a few miles) of course since this is a gaussian ion laser you shouldn´t be able to see the beam at all unless its a foggy or dusty day. actually this could be the solution to our "problem": a much weaker continous ion beam, but inaudible (except a small thunderclap when you stop shooting) only visible when there is dust in the air. What would be visible would be a bright spot where the beam hits the armor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaytoniousRex Posted May 30, 2007 Share Posted May 30, 2007 Only seeing the spot where the beam is hitting, getting brighter as heat builds to a final catastrophic level, would be much more interesting than the current beams. And it would fix most of the things that are currently annoying about them. My guess is that the typical game developer sees a perfect straight line through all these points.LOL. True, but we didn't do that with penetration falloff did we? So I think we can do it right with this, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caseck Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 What ever happened to teh pulse lasers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted August 13, 2007 Share Posted August 13, 2007 Originally posted by ClaytoniousRex: Only seeing the spot where the beam is hitting, getting brighter as heat builds to a final catastrophic level, would be much more interesting than the current beams. And it would fix most of the things that are currently annoying about them. Hey! Go look at the tech forum and tell me how to get my joystick working correctly...LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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