Why not magnetic weaponry? Wouldn't assault-rifle sized rail guns be far more devastating and effective in combat? The projectiles of magnetic weaponry are pretty close to being as fast as lasers, and are better at piercing armor; not to mention most magnetic rounds have a farther effective range than laser weaponry. Overall, magnetic weapons are better than laser weapons unless you have a highly advanced laser weapon that fires ridiculously powerful blasts; and without a compact power source capable of containing ludicrous amounts of energy, that ain't happening.
TL;DR: Magnetic weapons > Laser weapons
Thoughts? Opinions?
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If projectiles ever fired anywhere near the speed of a laser (the speed of light), then its mass would become infinite and it'd create a singularity. Lasers don't really have an effective range, since they go in a straight line until they hit something, or they attenuate after a certain point (which never seems to be an issue in sci-fi). Although Halo is a good example of the two, since the UNSC held their own for a while with MAC's and missiles rather than lasers or plasma.
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Because if we have rail guns in games too many people will bitch and complain so go to 40k look at the bolter and behold it's beauty
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[citation needed] the post. I realize you're just going off of what you see in Sci-Fi, but one thing should be made clear: The Navy's fastest rail gun shoots projectiles at 2,520 m/s. That's 0.00084% of the speed a laser weapon's photons would travel at. The hand-held rail guns in Mass Effect shoot at significantly less than 1% of light speed, and the Dreadnaught guns are said to fire at 1 to 1.3% of light speed.
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Aesthetically speaking, laser beams are smexier than a blurred object meant to represent a mag weapon projectile. But your mileage may vary.
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Reason lasers are seen as a future weapon is because they travel at the speed of light which will outrun a bullet any day. The problem we face is that though we can make deadly lasers it's very easy to counter act and the only way to make it combat effective is to be able to have the laser carry any material. Magnetic guns are more likely to come next but once we figure out how to make space ships travel at light speed we'll be able to extrapolate some of the methods used to make the deadliest firearms we can think of.
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Coil/rail guns do not fire "nearly as fast." They still require an ammo source. Energy requirements are largely as high. They do not have as far of an effective range.
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How do we know that future railguns don't look like the ones in halo, which hella look like laser cannons.
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Magnetic weapons could also produce magnetic defences. For example magnetic field that would repel/deflect rounds from said rail gun. Much like Fortune out of MGS 2.
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You thought this one over pretty hard didn't you?
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I am almost certain that I read about a US navy prototype railgun/coilgun which was able to accelerate a 2.7 kg mass up to a speed of 80 km( 50 mi) per second. That would do some damage. [spoiler]I could've misread the 50 miles, which may be 50 km or 30 miles per second[/spoiler]
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Magnetic Weapons Master Race
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A rail gun that shoots laser coils is the only solution.
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Orbital Super black hole hyper MACs are the only logical solution, as well Galaxy cluster wormhole cannons.
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Probably because magnetic weapons are more feasible. Sci-fi is that crazy imaginary world from the future with bad ass giant lasers that -blam!- shit up. Something that hurls a large peace of metal just doesn't stimulate the imagination as much you know? Don't get me wrong, the MAC's in the Halo universe are bad ass and all but lasers are just a staple of most sci-fi lore.
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Bolter >>> Flashlights and Fridgemagnets.
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Particle Beam weapons pwn all
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[quote]unless you have a [b]highly advanced[/b] laser weapon [/quote] [spoiler]future[/spoiler]
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[quote]The projectiles of magnetic weaponry are pretty close to being as fast as lasers[/quote] Nope, not even close.
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A few years until we see a handheld version I'd say lol
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because laser weapons are more dangerous
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Edited by Kizdon: 8/7/2014 5:54:52 PMBecause laser weapons travel at the speed of light, they can get to such high temperatures to burn through anything basically instantly. They can also be programmed to how far the light will last.
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Because lasers look cool, could potentially be very deadly...and are even less practical than throwing rocks.
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Who else studies quantum physics and imagines a particle beam?
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Because they're easier to draw/animate than giant blurs
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Really though, the best weapon would be controlling the strings of particles anywhere in the universe and simply vibrating that string through a quantum computer instantly.
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-They became a staple in stuff like Star Wars when we didn't know as much about the subject as now -Easier to animate -No recoil -Infinite Accuracy at Range -Although both require substantial amounts of power, lasers do not require a reload.