What tech level is a Plasma Pistol?
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Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
If I had to speculate, technological level seventeen.
mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
With FF&S you can build them at TL16+ but they are much more capable at TL18.
In the TNE rulebook there is an adventure that mentions a hand fusion gun.
In the TNE rulebook there is an adventure that mentions a hand fusion gun.
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Ok, just looked at T5, Fusion rifle is TL16 so I am going to put the Plasma Pistol there as well.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
TL-15 Plasma Gun by CT Striker (mod):
Power: 0.105 MW
Output power: 0.042 MW
Gun weight: 0.37 kg, add a handle to get 0.4 kg
Volume: 0.4 l
Eff. range: 200 m, limited to 20 m for handgun.
Penetration: 5 (1.25 cm hard steel)
Ammo: 0.105 MW for 30 s is 3.15 MWs per shot. Each kg of battery stores 25 MWs, so 8 shots. 0.125 kg per shot
So, bigger and heavier than a Gauss Pistol.
Presumably high recoil (as all other non-compensated energy weapons).
No auto-fire, unlike Gauss Pistol.
Very heavy ammunition.
I'll take the Gauss Pistol...
Power: 0.105 MW
Output power: 0.042 MW
Gun weight: 0.37 kg, add a handle to get 0.4 kg
Volume: 0.4 l
Eff. range: 200 m, limited to 20 m for handgun.
Penetration: 5 (1.25 cm hard steel)
Ammo: 0.105 MW for 30 s is 3.15 MWs per shot. Each kg of battery stores 25 MWs, so 8 shots. 0.125 kg per shot
So, bigger and heavier than a Gauss Pistol.
Presumably high recoil (as all other non-compensated energy weapons).
No auto-fire, unlike Gauss Pistol.
Very heavy ammunition.
I'll take the Gauss Pistol...
That doesn’t look right at all. Check the TL15 RP-A for an example.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
A HMG with a 60 MW power consumption, requiring roughly 7 m3 (14 tonnes) of fusion power plant.
A quarter of the consumption of a shipboard laser.
Not quite a man-portable weapon...
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
You have to make the pistol extremely low power to make it portable.
Compare with Laser Pistol?
The TL-15 RP-A is a 4 MW weapon (1.6 MW output), multiplied by 16 for an auto fire DM +5 to 64 MW.
Power: 4 MW
Output: 1.6 MW = 4 MW × 0.4
Weight: 14 kg = 4 MW × 3.5
Pen: 44 = 48 cm hard steel
Same procedure from B3 p19-20.
To be portable it would need 64 MW × 30 s = 1920 MWs battery per round ≈ 77 kg, so perhaps a tonne for a few minutes of fire...
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AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
A PGMP-14 would be something like:
Power: 0.75 MW
Output: 0.3 MW
Weight: 2.6 kg (10 kg incl. compensator)
Pen: 25 (9 cm hard steel)
Ammo: 0.75 MW × 30 s = 22.5 MWs ≈ 1 kg battery per round.
The book uses 90 kg incl. compensator.
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Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
It's plasma rifle technological level, plus one.
Yes batteries are the key to man portable plasma MGs. I don’t read the firing as continuous over the full 30s of the phase.
Probably better to scale the firing rate to more the TL13-14 versions while capturing the miniaturization.
So, more like a TL15 version with TL15 batteries at half the power and auto rate of the TL14 version.
At 250 megawatt-seconds at TL15 it’s 10 kg- and yes Cr 100000 for 8 shots. A 2-3 man crew could lug them into position, but more like a battle dress unit with a gunner, the BD suits carry 100kg of kit each so the high tech equivalent of everyone carrying ammo belts for an MG.
Decisive weapon against both other suits and light vehicles- and can punch through unarmored starships. Worth the trouble.
Probably better to scale the firing rate to more the TL13-14 versions while capturing the miniaturization.
So, more like a TL15 version with TL15 batteries at half the power and auto rate of the TL14 version.
At 250 megawatt-seconds at TL15 it’s 10 kg- and yes Cr 100000 for 8 shots. A 2-3 man crew could lug them into position, but more like a battle dress unit with a gunner, the BD suits carry 100kg of kit each so the high tech equivalent of everyone carrying ammo belts for an MG.
Decisive weapon against both other suits and light vehicles- and can punch through unarmored starships. Worth the trouble.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
MgT2 has a practical Plasma Rifle at TL-16. Give it a TL to miniaturise is to a pistol, I would say TL-17 for a practical Plasma Pistol.
CSC'23, p152-153:
CSC'23, p152-153:
But the PGMP has infinite ammo in that power pack, so miniature fusion plants are a thing. I could reverse engineer that but I think I’ll do the pistol with batteries instead.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
The design sequence specifies continuous power consumption.
PGMP territory, so presumably requiring BD or "gravitic compensator" to fire.
Far from a pistol.
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
I would read that as "effectively unlimited" = "enough for a firefight", not really an infinity horn of plenty or weeks of fighting.
Unfortunately all Striker has to say about power plants:
Minimum 1 m3, 2 tonnes, and Cr 200 000 for TL-15 fusion.
MT allows smaller power plants, but also expands the scale efficiency table downwards:
So, a 0.1 m3 TL-15 power plant (200 kg, Cr 20000) would output 6 MW × 0.25 = 1.5 MW, slightly more than needed for an PGMP. Not suitable for a man portable weapon...
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mike wightman
SOC-14 10K
Use FF&S with the revised rules for energy weapons originally in Challenge.
I have stats for a TL 16 energy (plasma or fusion I forget which) pistol somewhere...
I have stats for a TL 16 energy (plasma or fusion I forget which) pistol somewhere...
AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
OK, let's say 100 kg of batteries for 10 rounds of fire.
10 kg per round is 10 × 25 MWs = 250 MWs, or ~8 MW × 30 s.
Auto fire DM+4 is 8 times the power, so down to effective power 1 MW of the weapon, output 0.4 MW.
Pen: 0.4 MW × 30 = 12 cm steel => AV 28.
Range: SQRT( 0.4 MW ) ≈ 0.6 km = 600 m.
Burst: None.
Total: Plasma "Machine Gun": 60 (28) +4, 120 (15) +4, 240 (1) +4
Effective against battledress and soft targets, tanks and spacecraft needn't worry.
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AnotherDilbert
SOC-14 1K
Problem is recoil?
Will penetrate anything but BD at very short range, but kicks like a mule:
Weapon weight is negligible, I had to load it down with massive amounts of ammo to get recoil under control...
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