StellarRat Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 If your laser can burn through advanced alien armour, I don't see how it could spend more than a picosecond or so reflecting or refracting before your glass window is an exploded molten mess.Agree. Normal window glass isn't the best armor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWP Posted December 6, 2012 Share Posted December 6, 2012 If your laser can burn through advanced alien armour, I don't see how it could spend more than a picosecond or so reflecting or refracting before your glass window is an exploded molten mess. Melting, exploding, etc come from absorbed energy. If energy isn't absorbed, it doesn't cause effects. You don't act surprised that air manages to withstand a laser that destroys armor, do you? If the laser is in visual band and the glass is clean enough, it will split into reflected and refracted beams. With dirty glass it depends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Melting, exploding, etc come from absorbed energy.If energy isn't absorbed, it doesn't cause effects. You don't act surprised that air manages to withstand a laser that destroys armor, do you? If the laser is in visual band and the glass is clean enough, it will split into reflected and refracted beams. With dirty glass it depends. It seems to me that at high power levels if the glass has any dirt or imperfections it's going to blow. I'm pretty sure the lasers wouldn't be in the visible frequencies anyway. The little research I did shows all military lasers at really short wavelengths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGuyEddy Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 If energy isn't absorbed, it doesn't cause effects. You don't act surprised that air manages to withstand a laser that destroys armor, do you? If the laser is in visual band and the glass is clean enough, it will split into reflected and refracted beams. With dirty glass it depends. And that argument completely falls on its ass when you realise that glass will still absorb enough energy to be destroyed. There are no perfect mirrors, making an armor out of mirrors wouldn't work. And same goes for windows. A military high power laser weapon will destroy objects found in everyday life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWP Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 And that argument completely falls on its ass when you realise that glass will still absorb enough energy to be destroyed. The laser beam you are firing already has to pass through a few pieces of glass - its focusing lenses. Not the same glass or glass at all, but still all the same concerns. Assuming it's one of those visible lasers we see in games. Being military doesn't make it instant deathray, it's still just a beam of light and behaves like one. The glass will be destroyed with enough power, but reflected and transmitted beams will still deliver a large fraction of the energy. There are no perfect mirrors, making an armor out of mirrors wouldn't work. Of course it will, to an extent. Simply painting your armor white instead of Tacticool Black will reduce absorbed energy by an order of magnitude. That can be the difference between death and a trip to the paint shop. Silver will do better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betuor Posted December 7, 2012 Author Share Posted December 7, 2012 Nobody also even knows what 'kind' of laser that they are using. The setting is the 70s, it could just be a supped up laser pointer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StellarRat Posted December 7, 2012 Share Posted December 7, 2012 Nobody also even knows what 'kind' of laser that they are using. The setting is the 70s, it could just be a supped up laser pointer.Well, non-visible spectrum lasers have been available for a long time. Also, it's pretty much a given that visible spectrum lasers aren't much good as weapons. I think we pretty much have to assume any kind of weaponized laser will be more than a supped up laser pointer. It would probably be a CO2 laser of some type. For more information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_laser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzles Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 (edited) Well, non-visible spectrum lasers have been available for a long time. Also, it's pretty much a given that visible spectrum lasers aren't much good as weapons. I think we pretty much have to assume any kind of weaponized laser will be more than a supped up laser pointer. It would probably be a CO2 laser of some type. For more information:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed-energy_weapon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_laser Not entirely true. Well, it is, but not in a direct sense. Lasers can be made to have various harmonics. It's entirely possible that the primary beam which carries the juice is invisible due to being IR or similar, but the second or third harmonic could be in the visible range, so you'd still see a visible beam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-harmonic_generation Also, worth following the link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_optics for further topics of interest Edited December 11, 2012 by Buzzles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bofferbrauer Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 A weaponized laser would burn through it. A smoke wall from a Smoke grenade however should be blocking off laser beams entirly, since Lasers are just concentrated light beams. Might be an interesting Laser weapons countermeasure for Aliens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max_Caine Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 For the purposes of the game, if a weapon which I have to put time, manpower and money into to first research, then build, is crapper than a weapon which I don't, then why the hell did I go to all that effort in the first place? This is the persistent problem with the AfterX lasers. There's no point putting the time and energy into researching or building them, because other weapons do it better, cheaper. If there's a serious detriment to using lasers, then fuck lasers. I'll keep with ballistics and go straight to plasma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Wyvern Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 A smoke wall from a Smoke grenade however should be blocking off laser beams entirly, since Lasers are just concentrated light beams. Might be an interesting Laser weapons countermeasure for Aliens Highly concentrated, very hot laser beams that, again, should only have to expend a very small proportion of their energy burning through the particulates in smoke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gauddlike Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Might as well throw a chaff grenade and put on a light show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chollirem Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 mmm combat lasers would make a heat point, and not shoot a pew pew star wars laser Glass would weaken the shot or stop it all together by screwing up the focus nothing more or less Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tacobandit Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 mmm combat lasers would make a heat point, and not shoot a pew pew star wars laserGlass would weaken the shot or stop it all together by screwing up the focus nothing more or less But I like pew pew lasers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard456 Posted June 5, 2013 Share Posted June 5, 2013 How to know the type of laser? Is there any method to know it ? Do share the details on it. _________________________ laser mapping specialists Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.