Special FX of different weapons in the Third Imperium

[The Envoy]

Hey!

So we have this gazillion of different weapons in Traveller, which is nice.
However, I have issues to imagine what effects each weapon would cause upon firing. What is visible, what can be heard (or even felt)?

Sometimes I want to describe my players a battle scene, but it becomes difficult if you do not know how weapons in Traveller were "designed" to be.
For now, this is how I imagine the various weapons:

Laser: In darker areas, a quick (but barely visible) beam of light can be seen. Upon impact, it makes a little noise, depending on what the laser is about to heat up (or "cook").

Plasma: Small bolts of condensed energy, that quickly fly through the air. While flying, the water in the air vaporises (even more ^^), making a distinct sound. The impact is rather loud, as the matter that got hit explodes due to the spontaneous heating.

Fusion: I have no idea. ^^

Meson: Same as with fusion ... but it probably doesn't make any sound (apart from the weapon's inner workings upon firing), nor is the shot visible by the bare eye.

 

[fusor]

Sound can't travel in space so no weapons would make any noise there at all.

Lasers would be invisible unless there was smoke/mist/fog around (on a planet's surface).

 

[The Envoy]

Oh sorry, I was more referring to weapons used by men. ^^

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Sound can't travel in space so no weapons would make any noise there at all.

Depends on whose ship you’re on... if you’re on a Luriani vessel, they’ll turn on a surround-sound sound effects system hooked up to the sensors, so as to get some acoustic situational awareness.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Laser: In darker areas, a quick (but barely visible) beam of light can be seen. Upon impact, it makes a little noise, depending on what the laser is about to heat up (or "cook").

The laser beam/pulse will not be seen, except when it hits something. Dust in air is something.

Plasma: Small bolts of condensed energy, that quickly fly through the air. While flying, the water in the air vaporises (even more ^^), making a distinct sound. The impact is rather loud, as the matter that got hit explodes due to the spontaneous heating.

Energy Weapons (which include plasma guns and fusion guns) fire a highly energized beam of ionized gas at the target; with the fusion gun this gas actually proceeds to fusion.

Think flame-thrower, but much, much faster and more focussed.

Fusion: I have no idea. ^^

As plasma but the "ionised gas" (plasma) is still undergoing fusion, so the plasma is much hotter.

Meson: Same as with fusion ... but it probably doesn't make any sound (apart from the weapon's inner workings upon firing), nor is the shot visible by the bare eye.

The beam will not interact with matter, so cannot be seen or heard, until the mesons break down, causing an explosion.


You will hear when your ship fires its weapons or is hit by the enemy. Most likely you will not see the enemy except as a blip on a sensor screen.


This is perhaps a bit dull, if you prefer a more cinematic approach it's your world...

 

[mancerbear]

I know this is in no way realistic (before anyone hits me with "hard science"), but for meson guns I like to use the gathering of energy that the Wave Motion Gun from Yamato or the Reflex Cannon from Macross does. Little bubbles of energy gathering and building at the mouth of the gun/mount. If you want to go the whole hog, add the huge mo-fo blast of energy as well and explain it away as sub-atomic particles interacting with the hydrogen atoms in space.

I do like a more cinematic feel to combat in my traveller, so big flashy SFX are neat. Are they realistic? No, not really, but they do add bit of excitement the game.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

The sound something emits is often constrained by implementation, and not by a purely physical constraint; ever hear those mufflers that tune out specific frequencies? It’s like that. Hard Science Fiction wonks like myself cannot rightly have an argument on this subject. Now, if you wanted to get into the limit on the volume of such a sound... then there might be something to say, but it’s still just a theoretical maxiumum; the more efficiently the weapon bypasses atmosphere, and deals damage to a target in a way that doesn’t cause vibration, the quieter it will be. Sound volume is equal to inefficiency times power output... but the quality of that inefficiency? That’s entirely up for grabs...

 

[Nobby-W]

Sound can't travel in space so no weapons would make any noise there at all.

Lasers would be invisible unless there was smoke/mist/fog around (on a planet's surface).

They could be powerful to ionise the air that you fire them through. This also serves to attenuate the laser at range.

 

[alex_greene]

Beam lasers would cut like the violet beams of Shadow vessels from B5.
Pulse lasers flash, vapourising the target locations hit.
Particle beams discharge invisibly, thin beams which cause susceptible items to fluoresce when struck.
Plasma cannons emit pulses, packets of glowing plasma crossing the space towards the ship looking like glowing bubbles of blue.
Fusion cannons emit a blast of fusing hydrogen, a narrow cone of violet expanding towards the target vessel.
More exotic weapons emit pulses, probably not visible, with the following effects in the affected regions:-
Ion cannons - cinematic arcs and sparks flying from consoles and equipment signal the death of the technology hit.
Tachyon cannons - items shiver and vibrate, then flash into oblivion: the expanding ball of gas forms the kernel of an internal explosion. Ultraviolet colour.
Meson beams - materials fluoresce as the decaying mesons begin knocking electrons out of orbit. Violet colour.
Disintegrator (beam) - objects caught in the beam decay at an alarming rate, blue plasma showing at the spreading point of disintegration.
Gravimetric Disrupter - No visible flash, pulse or beam; but the ship loses all gravity.

 

[AndrewW]

Gravimetric Disrupter - No visible flash, pulse or beam; but the ship loses all gravity.

Well, all gravity within the area effected by it.

 

[wbnc]

I've always seen a plasma weapon as fing compact bolt/packets. There's a loud crack when they fire, and then a very loud crack when the bolt detonates on target. the bolts would be about as bright as an arc welder's flash. They would be hard to follow since they are comng out of the barrel at high velocites,...maybe an extra bright, extra intense tracer rounf=d???

They leave a very distinct smell of ozone and hot metal in the area. I've always added some downside to firing off plasma, lie needing to wear protective eyewear, or having a visor dim out for a split second as the bolt leaves the barrel. maybe a little electrical discharge around the area of impact as the gas dumps it's electrical charge.

A laser would be pretty unimpressive,compared to plasma or firearms. maybe a small crack as air in the path of the beam is heated and expands rapidly. Where it hit there would be a pretty noticeable effect, vaporized material and smoke and a definite crack as the air around the target gets displaced. For visuals think the PPGs the guys on Babylon 5 fired.

 

[Reynard]

I would say fusion and plasma weapons in atmospheres will heat the air it passes through the way lightning does creating a vacuum that collapses quite quickly. Not sure how fast a fusion/plasma bolt moves but we could have a slightly Doppler crack and rolling thunder from user to target followed by a white hot flash and material vaporizing boom.

To imaging lasers, remember those laser sights so common today. No sight, no sound normally except the bright dot where the laser stops. Also notice the there is a glow from the tip of the sight when activated. Condensation and particulates will make them visible though very brief especially a pulse. Even though the air and other materials are cooked as they pass through, it's so quick and small as to not be hear BUT we're used to laser sights. Has there been any reports of sound from actual weaponized lasers? Maybe a 'tsss!' as it fires in air? More likely there could be the target material making a sound as it's superheated, the pop of flesh wood or a cracking as rock or concrete bursts.

 

[Condottiere]

I suspect that the speed of sound is somewhat less than the speed of light.

 

[Reynard]

Lightning first followed by the crack of thunder. I have been a couple hundred feet from a lightning strike. They're close to equal in speed. Rolling thunder is also an echo.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Beam lasers would cut like the violet beams of Shadow vessels from B5.
Pulse lasers flash, vapourising the target locations hit.
Particle beams discharge invisibly, thin beams which cause susceptible items to fluoresce when struck.
Plasma cannons emit pulses, packets of glowing plasma crossing the space towards the ship looking like glowing bubbles of blue.
Fusion cannons emit a blast of fusing hydrogen, a narrow cone of violet expanding towards the target vessel.
More exotic weapons emit pulses, probably not visible, with the following effects in the affected regions:-
Ion cannons - cinematic arcs and sparks flying from consoles and equipment signal the death of the technology hit.
Tachyon cannons - items shiver and vibrate, then flash into oblivion: the expanding ball of gas forms the kernel of an internal explosion. Ultraviolet colour.
Meson beams - materials fluoresce as the decaying mesons begin knocking electrons out of orbit. Violet colour.
Disintegrator (beam) - objects caught in the beam decay at an alarming rate, blue plasma showing at the spreading point of disintegration.
Gravimetric Disrupter - No visible flash, pulse or beam; but the ship loses all gravity.

Alex, in space, there’s nothing for the light from a laser beam to reflect off of, and thus, illustrate that it is, in fact, a beam. Particle beams, on the other hand, consist of particles, and, therefore, may lose energy through stray photon radiation (light), giving visible shape to there being a “beam”. On the whole, your choices are full of flavor, but none of it is based in fact.

 

[alex_greene]

Beam lasers would cut like the violet beams of Shadow vessels from B5.
Pulse lasers flash, vapourising the target locations hit.
Particle beams discharge invisibly, thin beams which cause susceptible items to fluoresce when struck.
Plasma cannons emit pulses, packets of glowing plasma crossing the space towards the ship looking like glowing bubbles of blue.
Fusion cannons emit a blast of fusing hydrogen, a narrow cone of violet expanding towards the target vessel.
More exotic weapons emit pulses, probably not visible, with the following effects in the affected regions:-
Ion cannons - cinematic arcs and sparks flying from consoles and equipment signal the death of the technology hit.
Tachyon cannons - items shiver and vibrate, then flash into oblivion: the expanding ball of gas forms the kernel of an internal explosion. Ultraviolet colour.
Meson beams - materials fluoresce as the decaying mesons begin knocking electrons out of orbit. Violet colour.
Disintegrator (beam) - objects caught in the beam decay at an alarming rate, blue plasma showing at the spreading point of disintegration.
Gravimetric Disrupter - No visible flash, pulse or beam; but the ship loses all gravity.

Alex, in space, there’s nothing for the light from a laser beam to reflect off of, and thus, illustrate that it is, in fact, a beam. Particle beams, on the other hand, consist of particles, and, therefore, may lose energy through stray photon radiation (light), giving visible shape to there being a “beam”. On the whole, your choices are full of flavor, but none of it is based in fact.

I described the action - the cutting. The fact that the beams are still there, and that they are burning great streaks of vapourised hull material, is no bearing on whether they would be visible, except for one thing - the material being vapourised would spread out in all directions, including along the direction of the laser beams. They would be reflecting the light from those beams, partially scattering them and attenuating the beams slightly. If the beam cuts a conduit, any liquids or gases contained within would also evaporate, causing the beam to become visible.

With particle beams, the particles would be ionising the hull, causing ion vapour to arise from the site struck, like a column of plasma. That plasma would likewise interact with the particles, attenuating the effect somewhat, and creating a visible light effect.