Out of Pod Experience

Uhm. I'm not sure when this happened, but the early technology for plasma rail cannons is a thing now.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_railgun

I find it neat.


I read things about a homemade railgun by some dudes using aluminum as ammo, which isn't magnetic.. "Aluminum is usefull because aluminum has a high boiling point.' Not sure why, but that's what someone who built a backyard railgun said. I saw white sparks and blue aluminum smoke come out the end. It definitely vaporized the small block. In fact they didn't even video it hitting anything. A video of a smaller version put some damage into something like a shotgun, but it wasn't nearly as effective as an actual shotgun.


So if high boiling points are usefull, Does hybrid ammunition in EVE have high boiling points. Would it relate? They are all at plasma based on the descriptions, and some of them are things like "Iron" and "Tungstun". I always read that and it makes me worrisome that hybrid ammo might be dangerous if the magnetic on the ammo fails.


Now that things in sci-fi are becoming reality we can test it against the guess of EVE. See if the devs were smarter than they thought when writing how the technology in EVE worked.

Tell you what, OP, EVE's creators had a lot of sci fi to draw from. Plasma weapons, rail guns, lasers all have been in the literature for well nigh a hundred years now. All of that was based on theory extrapolated from observed fact, and we've been waiting a century in some cases for the application (yeah, right, a "pone app").

Kinda makes me wonder who's got the catching up to do. But, all that aside. When I see your sig I become worried for your sake. It's easy for "us" to imagine AI being HAL...or better. It's hard to imagine this one part of the sci fi prophesy fest might have been just a tad over drawn. However, that would all depend on what intelligence is to YOU, as to what the artificial version might be. I'll take Roddenberry over Clarke any day.

If it makes you feel any better. I made dinner and can't find the salt. Vegetables without salt. (Some bbq chicken too).

Good, good; another railgun post.

I kno right? But its projectiling them as a plasma. Blasters magnetic field (ball) it and fire it, which is to explain why it dissipates so fast "meaning short range". While railguns hurl it really fast and precise. The T2 ammunitions have explanations for how they work, but "rocket assisted" only works for projectiles. I don't see how a "rocket sabot" assists plasma fired in T2 spike ammo.

Just FYI: Tungsten has the highest boiling point of any element at a whopping 5,555C.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungsten

Which is why it's suitable for use in orbital kinetic bombardment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment and such projects as the Rod From God and it's been used in Discarding Sabot tank shells for yonks and yonks.

As described in that wiki you linked, the rail gun accelerates the ammo by passing current through it. You form a motor of sorts, when your electricity goes through one of the rods (rails), sideways through the ammo, and then back through the other rod (rail). The flowing current forms a magnetic field that pushes the ammo down the rails.

The ammo doesn't have to be magnetic, just electrically-conductive. Metals conduct electricity, so they work. Plasma also conducts electricity, so it also works. Of course, passing electricity through metals creates heat, which is where resistivity and boiling point come into effect. I'm guessing melting point doesn't matter because molten or not, the metal will still hit with the same mass and velocity.

In any case, the other method is to replace the rails with a series of electromagnets that are activated sequentially, to push or pull the ammo out. In this case the ammo does have to be magnetic. Plasma can produce a magnetic field if you somehow rotate it into a vortex of some sort.

For EVE, "hybrid" means a mixture between "projectile" and "energy." I believe we're shooting metal projectiles that are accelerated using energy (rather than some sort of explosive powder). The various types of hybrid ammo all have some (actual, real life) metal in the name, except for antimatter; in that case we're shooting antimatter for extra damage on impact (though the ammo stats don't reflect the huge increase in damage antimatter should do upon impact).

Containment is an issue with antimatter. It's also an issue with nanites, but supposedly it's all handled. Being a game, nobody's guns have ever jammed or blown up in their faces, in all of 15 years of massive use, nor have any nanites escaped confinement to wreak havoc on exposed systems.

Lasers are also in the same situation.

We're probably at the point where we can fully design stuff in CAD, with all the specifications, and then run performance and usage simulations, even if we don't have the materials or the energy levels for it yet. Basically, "Here you go guys, it's already designed, whenever you figure out a material that can withstand these conditions, for this little part here, you can mass produce it."

CAD Sci-Fi.

It's not exactly easy to maintain metal in a molten state. The temperature has to be controlled very carefully or the metal will just burn, leaving only impurities.

Pay very close attention to the hybrid weapon damage type. Notice that they do thermal damage.

Now make your conclusion.



I imagined that rocket-assisted projectile is exactly what the Minmatar are using. How else can projectile weapons hit their targets almost instantaneously if the projectile stops accelerating after leaving the barrel? They have got to be semi-gyrojets.