Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-38854975-20190905144044/@comment-44248215-20191104175854

Phantomlink959 wrote: This was made with fairly limited real-world technology; their biggest limiting factor being the need for numerous large capacitors to get enough power to be worthwhile.

Have you even SEEN the Navy's laser weapons? Those things are literally the size of a car (and have to be to do what they do).

The thing about a laser is you need a large, inflexible gas-filled tube to generate one strong enough to be useful at range; this is non-negotiable and is an issue with the laws of physics themselves. To make electromagnetic weapons work at longer ranges you just need to strap better capacitors to them.

Dust can solve one of these problems. And it is the capacitor issue with the railgun.

Electricity Dust is in and of itself a form of capacitor; it is stored electrical energy capable of instantaneous generation and discharge. All you really need is a secure storage system for the powder form of it and a simple mechanism to regulate how much is pumped out and discharged at once.

Electromagnetic weapons have another advantage in that they can be made more compact; they can fold up when not in use. Lasers can, too, but they are limited by the size of the tube; which, being made of glass, is also incredibly fragile when compared to the all-metal construction possible with EM weapons tech. That same fragility makes it wildly impractical to give them any sort of melee form; striking with them once your aura is down will instantly shatter the tube, rendering them inoperable until you can replace it.

Besides if you're firing on the enemy from multiple kilometers away, you probably don't need a Huntsman on the job to begin with; their job is being able to survive up close and personal with the nasties.

There is fiber laser,whose working medium is light fiber doped with rare earth ions.Fiber Laser hasn't such glass tube,instead they have coils of light fiber encased in a metal cavity,which can add additional protection.Although fiber laser on Earth has energy density problem,but in Remnant,you may be able to dop Dust into fiber,which can dramatically increase efficiency.

Railguns need strong magntic field to accelerate projectile,which can disrupt communication.My team is planning to have C4ISR capability,so they cannot tolerate a weapon that disrupts communication.Besides,you ignored a problem of railguns:supply.Railguns need expensive custom-built shell when laser only need to buy Dust poweder from From Dust till Dawn.Rail wears down quickly,but laser can be more resilent because they do not have moving parts.It is very expensive to supply a railgun.Unless you are a Atlesian Specalist,laser would be a better choice because of cost reason

I do not know if Remnant have superconductive material,but if there isn't,waste heat generated by hypervelocity projectile and resistence of rail can quickly destroy a rail.To make electromagntic weapons have higher muzzle velocity,what you need is not just capitors,but projectile and rail with high strenth,thermal conductance,low coefficient of thermal expansion and specific resistence to prevent the rail from deformation due to overheat.High voltage between rails may lead to breakdown and your railgun will be destroyed by strong current.

Laser and EM weapons has different advantages and disadvantages.