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I was rewatching the 3rd episode of New Generation/Invid Invasion and heard Scott call Rand's side Arm a Proton canon.
My question for all you science wiz's out there is what would a proton energy beam be like and do you think that the game's stat's are a good balance. The closest I come to Science is Biology and Pol-Sci Specialized Honours, and from what I remeber from High Scool science classes a proton is part of the base level of the atomic cell structure along with Electrons and Neutrons.

1.) its Cannon two N's.

2.) a Proton Cannon would just be a compact particle projector. man made lightning. a linear accellerator would be used to speed up Alpha Radiation to almost the speed of light. as far as damage goes, proton bombardment is used to alter elemental states, the protons colliding with the target material and either causing non-reactive fission or sticking to the nucleus of atoms to generate heavier elements. either way the composition of the material changes. the newly generated material generally is unstable, and breaks down via non-reactive fision into smaller and more stable elements. so a part of your armor just goes "poof" and becomes something else. the energy imparted is enough to vaporise most materials, so your armor just vaporises off in a cloud of altered elements.

Huh?

Okay, basic elemental physics, with a slight anime twist to it.

I imagine that Rands "proton cannon" works something like this: take a normal, everyday elemental material. Say, iron. Iron atons are composed of protons and neutrons tightly stuck together in the nucleus and surrounded by a shell of electrons.

Protons have a positive charge, neutrons are neutral in charge, and electrons are negativly charged. The number of protons and electrons always equal each other in any atom, so it's electrically balanced (ie: has no positive or negative charge).

One weird this is that if you run a material hot enough, those negative electrons will be stripped away, leaving a plasma of positivly charged material behind.

One sci-fi way of turning this into a weapon would be for the cannon to take some of these iron atoms, heat them up to strip away the electrons, and then accelerate them down the barrel of the weapon at very fast speeds (say, the speed of light or so).

Though each atom is very light, having a bunch of them slam into your armour at near the speed of light would cause no small amount of damage.


Or you get glitterboy2098's idea, where these stripped-down atoms slam into your armour and bond with the material that's already there. Since these news atoms would have more protons than electrons, the atom is unstable and would break down into a new material that isn't armour plating.

okay so I get all that, but do you think the 4d6 is the right amount of damage?

Wildfire wrote:okay so I get all that, but do you think the 4d6 is the right amount of damage?

Personally, no. But for totally different reasons.

The Gallant in rifle mode weighs 7 pounds and does 4d6 MDC.
Rands proton cannon weighs 22 pounds and requires a Cyclone to lift and use properly, and it also does 4d6 MDC. That makes no sense to me.

So to bring things a little more into my own little world, the EP-40 should do 6d6 MDC. More damage, but not so much that it would equal a mini-missle.

Hey LT. 6d6 already beats a Frag or an HE Mini-missile 5d6 each

6d6 is more realistic.

And I love the integral targeting computer for the additional +1

Personally I have a char with two ep-40s and cycle mode I allowfor twin shots

It's still less than a Plasma mini-missle, plus the EP-40 has less range than any of the standard mini-missles.

True dat
But I still love this little weapon for look cool factor

Wildfire wrote:True dat
But I still love this little weapon for look cool factor

Don't get me wrong, I love the EP-40. My favourite gun in the whole book. I just feel the RPG short changed it a little, that's all.

Justy Ueki wrote:Huh?

I think he said it was a particle beam.

in the third show Scott calls Rand's gun a proton.
He says words to the effect "Rand don't fire your protn cannon I don't want any of these goons getting hurt" sorry I can't give the exact quote the wife is watching a DVD right now