[...]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?