Re: Plasma and the Nitpickers

[homunculus]

[...]If the plasmoid explanation for ball lightning holds up it gets around this because the theory (and the relatively few observations) do not describe the balls as acting as projectiles.

And the plasmoid hypothesis indicates that actual damage comes from a charge carried by the plasmoid structure, and not much from the plasma itself.... and that charge is presumed to be lightning-related.

ball lightning has been described to move around.
the vaguely confirmed fact that it exists in reality (at least as much but perhaps more than ufo-s) would take some pressure off the plastic casing viability.
and also the beauty of it could be that we do not know very much about ball lightning, so the aliens might be able to create ball lightning that has properties that suit their needs.
like more and hotter plasma and some electric charge also "doesn't hurt", does it?
and the whole explanation would be shorter, and imho that would also be nice.

heck, i would even prefer an explanation of some charge separation that would hold the ball together, or some charge oscillation (which would very likely be most insane bulshit) to some hi-tech magnetic casing which would mean that we do not have a "real" plasma weapon but some hybrid hollow projectile weapon that is desperately trying to be reasonable but just ends up being unreasonably clumsy.

but, fortunately, we have ball lightning.
unexplained phenomena to be exploited in the game the way the devs see fit.

well, that's what i think.
what is it exactly that makes it not so good projectile?
not hot enough?
but who can tell that you cannot create ball lightning that is hot enough?

[Hertzila]

To my understanding, ball lightning plasma lacks two things: reliability and punch.

It has been confirmed to move in erratic patterns which makes it very unreliable as weapon. At least I wouldn't EVER fire a plasma weapon that could at any moment turn around and start chasing me. As an extra nail in the coffing, if it is kept together by a magnetic field, couldn't it be dispersed by magnetic field? You'd only give enemies an advantage if they could just produce magnetic "shields" to counter your weaponry.

It also lacks the punch. It has a good electricity charge when it occurs naturally but it lacks the heat and burning ability of plasma itself (or so I've heard). It quite simply doesn't do as big damage a plasma ball or zapkittys "plasma" ball would cause. And to have the electrical charge when occurring naturally, artificial ones would have to be charged by insane amounts of voltage, too much for even aliens to have on hand (I'd think particle weaponry would be more cost effective at that point). Armor would be its ultimate doom, despite the fact that it doesn't produce so good insulation, it could produce good enough that the charge goes straight to earth instead of through human.

[homunculus]

i can put it short:
afaik, really, you do not know.

afaik you do not know what it moves after, you do not know how much damage it could be engineered to inflict, no clue at all.
all assumptions. nobody knows.

[Hertzila]

i can put it short:
afaik, really, you do not know.

afaik you do not know what it moves after, you do not know how much damage it could be engineered to inflict, no clue at all.

Yes, I do not know. I did put that "Or so I've heard" note there for a reason. Only thing confirmed about it is that it moves erratically and that's one good nail in the coffin.

[homunculus]

[...]Only thing confirmed about it is that it moves erratically and that's one good nail in the coffin.

there are very few things that move truly erratically.
we do not know what it moves after, that's all.
you could have figured it out by yourself, i guess.