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Combat and Zero G

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Tue, 2015-01-13 07:01

jasonbrisbane jasonbrisbane's picture

Combat and Zero G

Hello All, I was wanting to clarify some points... Combat in Zero G - specifically in low Earth Orbit. - Can kinetic weapons be fired at all? Normal firearms (modern earth) require oxygen for the gunpowder to explode. Is this the same with EP kinetic weapons? Or is the oxygen encased in the gunpowder in solid form waiting for some douche to strike the bullet with a pin? - If you dont have an Anchor, your going to go backwards by half of the force of the explosion, right? (if you go back and the bullet goes forward, both equidistant from the explosion? What weapons would be no issue in Zero G? Do beam weapons work fine? Im thinking they would be the few that would. Seekers should also work too...? Thanks.

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Regards, Jason Brisbane

Tue, 2015-01-13 07:27

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

actually modern gunpowder

actually modern gunpowder weapons would work in space just not very well. there is enough oxidizer packed into the casing but you are not going to get as clean a burn in EP magically there is no recoil on small arms so ylu can go nuts with them. however back in the 60's a solution was thought up to the recoil problem and that is the gyro pistol. essentially the bullet was also a rocket motor beams no problem seekers and other missiles would need an anchor.

Tue, 2015-01-13 08:17

Lorsa

No recoil is not the same as

No recoil is not the same as no conservation of momentum. To my knowledge, several weapons today limit the recoil by directing the momentum into various mechanical parts in the weapon, such as automatic reloading. Discounting any such things, you, the shooter, would gain an equal amount of momentum as the bullet. For a bullet of 7.5 g in weight, travelling at a speed of 377 m/s, this gives a momentum of 2.8275 Ns. For a shooter weighing 75 kg, this gives a speed increase of 0.0377 m/s (wow, that was an easy example). So not much really. On the other hand, fire about 300 of these and you will suddenly be travelllng at Usain Bolt speed. The funny thing is that photons have momentum as well, so firing a laser pulser would ALSO send you flying in the opposite direction. As does ionised beams of heated goo (plasma). So yeah, you probably should be anchored no matter what you shoot, or at least be sure which wall you are going to hit afterwards.

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Tue, 2015-01-13 08:26

ShadowDragon8685 ShadowDragon8685's picture

A propellant weapon will work

A propellant weapon will work just fine in vacuum, as the amount of oxidizer you need for most of them is significantly greater than you get with atmospheric air, and thus, they incorporate their own oxidizer in the mix. Weapons in Eclipse Phase do not experience recoil which is detrimental to keeping a weapon's aim on-target. This is not the same thing as having no recoil whatsoever, as that would entirely violate the law of conservation of momentum. While lasers do, indeed, have recoil in the most technical term possible, the effect of that recoil in terms of personal scale combat is going to be below negligible. As I once put it, to get an appreciable change in velocity, even in microgravity, from firing a laser at someone, you would require a post-miracle-tech laser massing less than a disposable plastic spoon and powerful enough to shoot down Death Stars.

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Tue, 2015-01-13 11:37

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

Mythbusters did a thing on

Mythbusters did a thing on guns in a vacuum: http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/m5-bullet-baloney-a...

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Tue, 2015-01-13 20:33

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

ah forgot about conservation

ah forgot about conservation of momentum, thanks

Tue, 2015-01-13 21:39

thepedant

my two cents

Most of what I would have said is covered, so here's just a couple other thoughts: 1) Seeker weapons are the descendants of the gyrojet weapons of yore; internal targeting makes up for the inaccuracy of the round at launch. 2) I assume for gameplay reasons there aren't additional momentum rules for blowing half a clip of a submachine gun at someone in microgravity, but you could, if you wanted, house-rule a penalty about that. 3) Eclipse Phase assumes caseless ammunition as the norm. However, in one of the adventures I had some Nine Lives thugs using pre-fall antique automatic weapons with cased ammo, and had to have the players deal with hot brass bouncing around the inside of a closed space even after the firefight ended.