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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ralts Bloodthorne" data-source="post: 2742224" data-attributes="member: 6390">A common fallacy I see in many sci-fi games is the thought that beam weapons would eventually replace ballistic weapons completely. To me, this is completely ludicrious.For one thing, right off the top of my head, you have atmospheric attenuation. That's not even counting such things as a high dust level, exotic atmospheres that may contain high refractory elements suspended in the gas, overabundance of oppositely charged materials in the ground or air, and many other factors that can affect beam weapons.That's without even getting into the power pack. Sure, a fusion pack can supply nearly endless power, but look at the weight. Even if we say it's a cold fusion reactor or graviton reactor that only weights 5 lbs, you have interconnecting cables, aimed shots, etc.Still, ballistic weapons also are affected by some of this, but let's continue.Armor against energy weapons would not have to be overly weighty. A reflective suit can bounce light based weapons, superconductor material can be used to channel energy weapons into the suits power pack or onboard capicators (sure, you'd have to immediately discharge the energy, but there are plenty of ways to do this), not to mention energy shielding.Hey, a laser could be bounced by a prism grenade.Energy weapons would have little to know knockback, either, or impact shock.Ballistic weapons, on the other hand, can also be configured for mission specific munitions, in addition to blowing through thin energy weapon configured armor. Weapon magazines could and probably would contain supercapacitors for emergency weapon operation (the ability to use scopes and other gadgets wouldn't work) as well as being quickly and easily handed back and forth between troops.There are many other reasons that ballistic weapons will still be used, as even inertial dampeners won't have a full effect when you start adding in weapons that accellerate the projectiles to nearly C.So, what do you think, should ballistic based weaponry still be included for PL 6 and higher, for vehicles, hand held weapons, and starships?</blockquote>

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