Re: Hulls aren't *that* fragile, was Gaussbow? was [TML] The Anachronistic Future carlos.web@xxxxxx 05 May 2016 11:27 UTC
<br><br><br>--<br>Carlos Alós-Ferrer<br>Chair of Microeconomics, University of Cologne<br>http://www.decisions.uni-koeln.de<p><br> Am 05-May-2016 09:59:15 +0200 schrieb xxxxxx@simplelists.com: </p> <blockquote style="margin-left: 0; padding-left:5px; border-left: 2px solid navy;"> This email was sent from yahoo.com which does not allow forwarding of emails via email lists. Therefore the sender's email address (<a href="mailto:xxxxxx@yahoo.com" target="_blank">xxxxxx@yahoo.com</a>) has been replaced with a dummy one. The original message follows:<br><br><br> --------------------------------------------<br> On Wed, 5/4/16, Tim <<a href="mailto:xxxxxx@little-possums.net" target="_blank">xxxxxx@little-possums.net</a>> wrote:<br><br> Subject: Re: Gaussbow? was Re: [TML] The Anachronistic Future<br> To: <a href="mailto:xxxxxx@simplelists.com" target="_blank">xxxxxx@simplelists.com</a><br> Date: Wednesday, May 4, 2016, 8:05 PM<br><br> On Thu, May 05, 2016 at<br> 01:23:09AM +0000, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) wrote:<br> > But that leads to another thought: What if<br> the standard shipboard<br> ><br> "sidearm" is a pistol crossbow?<br> > <br> ><br> --------------------------------------------------------------<br> > <br> > How about a pistol<br> 'gaussbow' that fires (launches?) the same<br> thing?<br> > <br> > or maybe<br> uses compressed gas?<br><br> I<br> figure that the "fragile ships" thing is a red<br> herring -- or even an<br> AF plot device in its<br> own right.<br><br> Starship crew<br> members aren't going to blow a hole in the hull with<br> any<br> reasonable personal sidearm, because<br> Traveller ship hulls are required<br> to be<br> extremely tough -- even the civilian ones. You may damage<br> some<br> internal ship systems, but the most<br> critical ones will have backups,<br> some<br> armouring, and be well out of the usual way anyway.<br><br> If the worst does happen, well<br> ... once you're in the position where<br> you're drawing lethal weapons, you've<br> already accepted that people are<br> likely to<br> die. You're going to want effective weapons to<br> increase the<br> chance that it's the<br> enemy. Blades or gaussbows are likely to be<br> bulky, heavy, and not as effective in most<br> situations as other choices<br> for a standard<br> weapon.<br><br> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br> As I recall, CT had the 'accelerator rifle', a type of gauss weapon that was optimized for low recoil to use in, or in case of, zero-G.<br><br> I agree that TU hulls are actually pretty tough & probably should be considered a sort of semi-armor.<br> In fact, 'armoring' important systems may just be sandwiching them 'tween a section of double hull.<br><br> Sure there are FGMP's & PGMP's but no sane sophont is going to fire up one of them inside a starship travelling thru space.<br><br> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br><br><br><br> -----<br> The Traveller Mailing List<br> Archives at <a href="http://archives.simplelists.com/tml" target="_blank">http://archives.simplelists.com/tml</a><br> Report problems to <a href="mailto:xxxxxx@simplelists.com" target="_blank">xxxxxx@simplelists.com</a><br> To unsubscribe from this list please goto <br><a href="http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=7nCbo4nKBtQOpWWDpQ32i3Rs9oYS7IvZ" target="_blank">http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=7nCbo4nKBtQOpWWDpQ32i3Rs9oYS7IvZ</a></blockquote> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FreeMail powered by mail.de - MEHR SICHERHEIT, SERIOSITÄT UND KOMFORT