Why are sci-fi weapons worse than modern ones?

[Fingon NL]

The Mass Effect weapons are most realistic to me. Essentially, they're mass accelerators (railguns) who fire a tiny shard of metal at the speed of light or higher. (FTL speed is possible due to the mass effect). This gives weapons with virtually unlimited ammo, instantanious travel time and great accuracy. And it's not even that much of a stretch compared to most SciFi weapons.

Yeah that's why I love it, the ammo is essentially a big block of metal e.d. and if you wanna shoot something the gun shears off the tiniest piece and accelerates it to the speed of light .

[the_mango55]

Yeah that's why I love it, the ammo is essentially a big block of metal e.d. and if you wanna shoot something the gun shears off the tiniest piece and accelerates it to the speed of light .

lol it doesn't accelerate it anywhere near the speed of light. Speed of light in Mass Effect can only be achieved by reducing the mass of ships to zero. Zero mass = Zero kinetic energy, so it would be useless.

The most powerful mass accelerator in the setting are those mounted on dreadnoughts, which fire 20 kg slugs at 1.3% of the speed of light (about 4000 kilometers per second). This shot produces a blast twice as powerful as the Hiroshima nuke, and they can fire every 2 seconds.


This is actually not that much compared to many other sci-fi, but unlike 95% of them, this weapon is plausible and explainable.

[Turtle Hammer]

I'm not arguing the effectiveness of the weapons, hellheaven, but the design.
I understand why Gamesworkshop designs them like that, because lets be frank: Its pretty damn awesome. But if you look into the universe, I can't justify it. THe improvement on tank design theory is natural, tank commanders feed information back about the tank. The companies engineers analyse this information and see how they can improve. Over the thouands of years of use, no tank commnader or enginseer has thought "Hey, if we move the bolters to the front of the tank, we'll ahve more room to make the tank lower, if its lower, its a smaller target?" any some such.

Although, when I think about it the Landraider may be forgiven. While it has no turrets and can be quite low, it is designed to ferry SpaceMarines/Terminaters around the battlefield, who are quite big themselves, so, now that I have thought about it, the Landraider itself is probably a good design.

Woah, so you're suggesting the Adeptus Mechanicus don't know what they're doing? That they're... wrong? Until they find an STC construct that says otherwise, tanks are fine. And you're a heretic. Just sit tight, the Ordo Hereticus will be around shortly to discuss your lack of faith in the Emperor's servants...

[Gaidin]

Woah, so you're suggesting the Adeptus Mechanicus don't know what they're doing? That they're... wrong? Until they find an STC construct that says otherwise, tanks are fine. And you're a heretic. Just sit tight, the Ordo Hereticus will be around shortly to discuss your lack of faith in the Emperor's servants...

Yes. That's exactly what he's suggesting. You get that a lot when things are designed by the Rule of Cool(TM) instead of actual engineering practicality. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but still.

[Nimthill]

Yes. That's exactly what he's suggesting. You get that a lot when things are designed by the Rule of Cool(TM) instead of actual engineering practicality. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but still.

"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with.'"

- Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

[thatguy]

Yes, they pretty much have it Turtle, and I am not a heretic for saying the Adeptus Mechanicus are wrong, they themselves dont even worship the emperor

But Like i said, I understand why the gamesworkshop crew designed them like that, it looks bad-ass.
Gaidin said it perfectly.

[Rolling Thunder]

I decided to not bother buying GW tanks any more and just purchase some Mark IV tanks instead.

[Sanguinary Guardian]

I decided to not bother buying GW tanks any more and just purchase some Mark IV tanks instead.

Good for your wallet!

[Bonemarrow]

I think terminators are fairly efficient compared to modern day weapons

[justicar5]

I do know about the Imperial Fleet's abilities, since the Galactic Empire is my favourite faction in the SW mythos. Yes the Emperor did some ed up mistakes, that however does not answer my question. How did the best equipped, trained and professional starfleet in the Galaxy managed to loose against a ragtag band of Rebels converted merchants, with courage making up for their lack of training? The Emperor used battle meditation, fair enough, but even with the destruction of the DS and the Executor, the Imperial Fleet still outnumbered and outgunned the Rebels. Had they followed their training, the Rebel fleet and threat would have been obliterated. No, I don't accept that a trained and professional force lost the stomach to fight a battle they were winning.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_meditation

In the old days, the Dark Lords of the Sith built meditation chambers in their warships. In the heat of battle, they would seal themselves in the chambers…and direct powerful visualizations upon the conflict that raged all around them."
―Odan Urr

tho interpretations vary as to wether it was palpatine, vader or grand admiral nial declann who was doing the meditation. (And just how hard the KOTR era Jedi or sith would curb stomp the empire era empire or rebels, I lean towards very hard, given the ' actually have a plan, coherant command structure, ideology and military industrial complex' exhibited in the two sides in the KOTOR era, given that both have been in actual total war for over a decade, and given that they run less on rule of cool than later [still do ofc, this being star wars, but the personal force fields and lightsaber resistant armour and melee weapons make a hell of a lot of sense])

[squatlover]

Vasquez's smart gun in Aliens was probably the least practical weapon to carry and use - serious arm ache - who could carry this thing in a combat ready state for longer than 10 minutes without getting cramp? Looks cool though.

[paradamed]

Vasquez's smart gun in Aliens was probably the least practical weapon to carry and use - serious arm ache - who could carry this thing in a combat ready state for longer than 10 minutes without getting cramp?

I disagree. This is why there is some kind of hidraulic device attached to the weapon that probably helps distribute the weight and avoid arm tiredness.

[Last Roman]

I do know about the Imperial Fleet's abilities, since the Galactic Empire is my favourite faction in the SW mythos. Yes the Emperor did some ed up mistakes, that however does not answer my question. How did the best equipped, trained and professional starfleet in the Galaxy managed to loose against a ragtag band of Rebels converted merchants, with courage making up for their lack of training? The Emperor used battle meditation, fair enough, but even with the destruction of the DS and the Executor, the Imperial Fleet still outnumbered and outgunned the Rebels. Had they followed their training, the Rebel fleet and threat would have been obliterated. No, I don't accept that a trained and professional force lost the stomach to fight a battle they were winning.

Why? It's happened in real history before.

[Sanguinary Guardian]

Why? It's happened in real history before.

Well, the opposite has also happened, see the Battle of Lützen.

[hellheaven1987]

I believe Darth Sidious wants to know the answer too, just like Emperor of Mankind is questioning why the heck he wanted to teleport into Horus' ship.

[Last Roman]

Well, the opposite has also happened, see the Battle of Lützen.

ok, while true, that's not really the point (the point being that underdog forces have, via various methods, defeated superior ones).

[Påsan]

Reason why the "almighty empire" lost: Plot armour and underdog favorisation = bad storytelling. The original Star Wars movies are the most overrated humanly produced item in the world.