sci-fi human race ideas

[Shroom Man 777]

I've been thinking of a sci-fi universe, it popped into my mind when I started cooking up a forum RPG game. Anyway. Here it goes:

The general concept is for it to be gritty, militarily superior to Star Trek yet being a bit modern-ish too. Setting is in the year 2547+

1/3 or so of the galaxy is discovered, humans are trading and living with other races. It is gritty and kinda dangerous, a bit. Organized crime, big business, lots of travel, that kind of stuff.

Warp travel is the norm, although they use worm holes, warp gates and jump nodes.

Starships have shields, commercial ships have them to defend from natural hazards. Warcrafts have them, warships have shields in light MT level. All are hardened to EMP and they hardly ever see technobabble situations brought about by glowing rocks that Trek sees daily.

Buildings are kilometers high. Lots of very high bridges, kinda like those in Batman Beyond. Cars come in wheeled or/and anti-grav hover variety. Wheeled is cheaper. Anti-grav is faster and it hovers, but no flying though.

Paper as a medium for writing and the like is replaced. Milimeter thin plastic sheets which display info are used nowadays to replace paper, they have small gizmos where info will be DLed or stored, a sort of harddrive which stores the info the sheet will display So you can have an entire encyclopedia in a single sheet of this plastic and a large HD for the gizmo attached to your plastic sheet.

Now for military stuff. Standard human troops use powered armor, like the ones in StarCraft and also in HALO. THere is an HUD, target acquisition, computer, communications, different visual modes, enhanced strength, bio-nano health recovery system and stimulant delivery, etc.

Weapons are as follows: Normal guns. Like today, except due to nanotech and miniturization, bullets are smaller. Pistols can carry 30 bullets in a normal sized clip, yet the bullets are stronger. Civilian and low level use normal bullets used today, pistol rounds can be as strong as M16 rounds. Military use AP-explosive rounds.

Military and high class criminals use plasma and railguns. Railguns like those sported by the Marines in SC, not doing uber damage, but stronger than conventional ammo. Plasma weapons are similar to those shown in T2 and also those in the 6th Day. Has variable yield, explosive, penetrating, low damage, high damage, that stuff.

Lasers are also used. Lasers can have variable yield, also can switch from visible to UV.

Expensive knives and cutting tools are mono-molecular. Military also uses mono-molecular chainsaws in their tanks to cut down trees in jungles and hordes of xenomorphs.

Plasma flamethrowers and napalm and the like is also used.

There are plenty of other weapons.

Tac nukes are used in artillery barrages, special forces have tac nukes with them. All warships have nuclear weaponry ranging above 100 MT. Fighter craft have strong missiles, one of which can bring down the WTC building. Starfighter dogfighting weapons come in the form of railguns and plasma and laser. All of which are strong enough to level houses in one shot.

Tanks can utterly demolish buildings in single rounds, leveling em.

Missiles are long ranged too. Cruise missiles in my world has ranges beyond ICBMs of today.

Strategic weapons come in the form of cloaked and warp capable nuclear missiles, delivering above 500mt. Warships use rail guns, lasers, plasma, nuclear guns, etc. They also launch missiles via rail systems.

Jammers and the like is always used in combat.

Stealth craft use cloaking fields and the like.

Nuclear power, plasma power are the norm. Anti-matter is advanced tech, but they won't blow up as easily as ST warp cores.

Military robots and androids come in the form of hi-tech beings similar (but superior) to Terminators. They learn, adapt, evolve. They easily can infiltrate and mimic.

Commercial androids and the like are dumber and are merely programmed to act human and to learn a bit.

Well, that's what I could think of my universe's wishlist. Gimme suggestions and comments, tell me if this concept sucks or rocks or is lukewarm. I'm looking for advice. But don't flame me, don't be too hard too. And also tell me what you'd think is cool.

[Rye]

I've been thinking of a sci-fi universe, it popped into my mind when I started cooking up a forum RPG game. Anyway. Here it goes:

The general concept is for it to be gritty, militarily superior to Star Trek yet being a bit modern-ish too. Setting is in the year 2547+

Personally, i would reckon that's a bit too far ahead. One set around 2400 should be plenty far in the future (babylon 5 is only set in the 2200s)

Starships have shields, commercial ships have them to defend from natural hazards. Warcrafts have them, warships have shields in light MT level. All are hardened to EMP and they hardly ever see technobabble situations brought about by glowing rocks that Trek sees daily.

Glad to hear it .

Buildings are kilometers high. Lots of very high bridges, kinda like those in Batman Beyond. Cars come in wheeled or/and anti-grav hover variety. Wheeled is cheaper. Anti-grav is faster and it hovers, but no flying though.

Why no flying? Something liek in the fifth element would be cool (althoguh it could bee seen as overused in scifi) just have a heavily regulated flying car system.

Paper as a medium for writing and the like is replaced. Milimeter thin plastic sheets which display info are used nowadays to replace paper, they have small gizmos where info will be DLed or stored, a sort of harddrive which stores the info the sheet will display So you can have an entire encyclopedia in a single sheet of this plastic and a large HD for the gizmo attached to your plastic sheet.

Sounds like E-ink, cool.

Plasma flamethrowers and napalm and the like is also used.

To this i would ask: is there really a need for plasma flamethrowers?

Nuclear power, plasma power are the norm.

So, fusion then?

Anti-matter is advanced tech, but they won't blow up as easily as ST warp cores.

You always have to put more energy into making antimatter than you'll ever get out of it, so matter/antimatter reactors could be good for weaponry, but starships would still have a fuel problem(perhaps have vast arrays of solar collectors that refine antimatter?).

[Sea Skimmer]

Weapons are as follows: Normal guns. Like today, except due to nanotech and miniturization, bullets are smaller. Pistols can carry 30 bullets in a normal sized clip, yet the bullets are stronger. Civilian and low level use normal bullets used today, pistol rounds can be as strong as M16 rounds. Military use AP-explosive rounds.

That just doesn't work unless your totally ignorning physics.

Expensive knives and cutting tools are mono-molecular. Military also uses mono-molecular chainsaws in their tanks to cut down trees in jungles and hordes of xenomorphs.

Bulldozers work just fine, and simply cutting down the tree will still leave it as an obstacle. For armor to penetrate heavy jungle your either going to need excessively large vehicles, or something like the Vietnam era land clearing units which used hundreds of modified bulldozers to knock down trees, destroy jungle and then clear paths through the debris. Hundreds of thousands of acres where cleared in this way.

Plasma flamethrowers and napalm and the like is also used.

A plasma flamethrower? That just wouldn't work nor have a point.

Tac nukes are used in artillery barrages

The first one to explode will fry the others. But then somtime called danger space makes nuclear weapons rather limited on the battlefield. But anyway with nuclear weapons you don't need to fire a barrage.

Missiles are long ranged too. Cruise missiles in my world has ranges beyond ICBMs of today.

So there equal to 1950's technology?

Nuclear power, plasma power are the norm. Anti-matter is advanced tech, but they won't blow up as easily as ST warp cores.

Plasma power?

[CelesKnight]

I've been thinking of a sci-fi universe, it popped into my mind when I started cooking up a forum RPG game. Anyway. Here it goes:

The general concept is for it to be gritty, militarily superior to Star Trek yet being a bit modern-ish too. Setting is in the year 2547+

Personally, i would reckon that's a bit too far ahead. One set around 2400 should be plenty far in the future (babylon 5 is only set in the 2200s)

As for me, I would think that it should be set further in the future. Unless you have massive cloning and/or breeding programs, it wouldn't seem like you're have enough population growth to fill a third of the galaxy. Unless you're going to do like Babylon 5 did and have only a handful of colonized planets, each with only a few thousand people.

[Stormin]

If you are using wormholes or something like that to leapfrog over vast distances, you could easily claim to have populated 1/3 of the galaxy with very few worlds.
In my sci-fi 'verse humans control a largeish percentage of the galaxy while only actually having ~20 systems because all but a very tiny percentage of galactic systems are reachable by jump points, which are the only means of ftl.

[Kerneth]

When you say "powered armor like that in StarCraft and HALO", keep in mind the enormous fundamental differences in these two approaches to powered armor.

The StarCraft powered suits don't require any special abilities to use. It's bulky and ill-suited to stealth, however. Think of a small, strap-on main battle tank.

HALO Mjollnir battle armor, on the other hand, is apparently almost like not wearing any armor at all. Anything you can do outside the armor, you can do inside it. More importantly, only massively upgraded humans can wear the armor without killing themselves trying to move in it.

[Micheal Ryans, Beta pilot]

HALO Mjollnir battle armor, on the other hand, is apparently almost like not wearing any armor at all.

Not quite. It is fairly heavy, but the armour's powered muscles can handle that, hence the 'almost like not wearing any armour' thing.

Anything you can do outside the armor, you can do inside it.

Yeah, but I suggest not trying to salute inside the armour; it'll give you one hell of a headache.

More importantly, only massively upgraded humans can wear the armor without killing themselves trying to move in it.

That's not exactly true. There are ways to tone it down, but the armour was proved in combat testing to be much less effective in the toned down mode.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Humans are the evil, opressive, mentally unstable warrior race of the galaxy. Everybody fears us. Oh and our tactics are copied by everyone, setting the new standard, we have a fearson reputation (that's a human, they use city killer weapons on their own kind!), and while not the most technically advanced speicies in the future, we are one of the most respected and feared, especially for what we do with what little we have.

[Shroom Man 777]

Alrighty then, I'll make the setting in the year 2200+.

Why no flying? Something liek in the fifth element would be cool (althoguh it could bee seen as overused in scifi) just have a heavily regulated flying car system.

Hmmm...... I'll think about that.

Sounds like E-ink, cool.

Yeah, I got that concept from that.

To this i would ask: is there really a need for plasma flamethrowers?

Huh? Wouldn't it be more effective than normal flamethrowers using liquid fuel?

Nuclear power, plasma power are the norm.

So, fusion then?

Anti-matter is advanced tech, but they won't blow up as easily as ST warp cores.

You always have to put more energy into making antimatter than you'll ever get out of it, so matter/antimatter reactors could be good for weaponry, but starships would still have a fuel problem(perhaps have vast arrays of solar collectors that refine antimatter?).[/quote]

Yeah, fusion.

Hmmm.... is that true? Then.... how do the ST ships work?

That just doesn't work unless your totally ignorning physics.

How so? It's the future, wouldn't they be able to make stuff like that?

Bulldozers work just fine, and simply cutting down the tree will still leave it as an obstacle. For armor to penetrate heavy jungle your either going to need excessively large vehicles, or something like the Vietnam era land clearing units which used hundreds of modified bulldozers to knock down trees, destroy jungle and then clear paths through the debris. Hundreds of thousands of acres where cleared in this way.

Chainrippers are just kewler. Okay, I'll use your suggestion. But when could I use the concept of a vehicle sporting vicious chain rippers?

A plasma flamethrower? That just wouldn't work nor have a point

Why won't it work? That magic magnetic containment field could just be tweaked so that the plasma would act like it was spewed from a hose, rather than being a bolt or a ray.

The first one to explode will fry the others. But then somtime called danger space makes nuclear weapons rather limited on the battlefield. But anyway with nuclear weapons you don't need to fire a barrage.

First one to explode will fry the others? What do you mean by that?

Wouldn't low KT level nukes be okay when used in barrages? What about when the military is destroying futuristic mega cities?

So there equal to 1950's technology?

*slaps forehead* Okay, that was stupid. Let's just say, cruise missiles can go interplanetary distances.

As for me, I would think that it should be set further in the future. Unless you have massive cloning and/or breeding programs, it wouldn't seem like you're have enough population growth to fill a third of the galaxy. Unless you're going to do like Babylon 5 did and have only a handful of colonized planets, each with only a few thousand people.

It's not a solely human galaxy. There are other races.

Hmm... can anyone give me suggestions for alien races which humans will interact with? They ought to be different, but their tech should be somewhere near the level of my humans. Nothing like Trek where they're too humanish. More like SW where they're more assorted and wacky and original, yet still familiar for us people and not too strange.

When you say "powered armor like that in StarCraft and HALO", keep in mind the enormous fundamental differences in these two approaches to powered armor.

The StarCraft powered suits don't require any special abilities to use. It's bulky and ill-suited to stealth, however. Think of a small, strap-on main battle tank.

HALO Mjollnir battle armor, on the other hand, is apparently almost like not wearing any armor at all. Anything you can do outside the armor, you can do inside it. More importantly, only massively upgraded humans can wear the armor without killing themselves trying to move in it.

Uh-huh. I want to use the SC type power suit for those soldiers lugging heavy weapons (think of portable mortars or stuff like that) and dishing out heavy damage whilst having heavy protection.

And as for the HALO suit. I didn't mean like having the Master Chief super strength and the like. I just meant the overall design, how it looks (it looks kick arse) and how it generally performs: "almost like not wearing any armor at all." "anything you can do outside the armor, you can do inside it."

But perhaps we could tone down the strength the power suit gives the user, making it more like Stormtroopers/Clone troopers.

Hmmmm.... in Starship Troopers, how does their armor work? The movie blows, don't talk about it. Is the book MI's armor identical to the Animated Series' (the animated series owns) armor?

[Shroom Man 777]

Alrighty then, I'll make the setting in the year 2200+.

Why no flying? Something liek in the fifth element would be cool (althoguh it could bee seen as overused in scifi) just have a heavily regulated flying car system.

Hmmm...... I'll think about that.

Sounds like E-ink, cool.

Yeah, I got that concept from that.

To this i would ask: is there really a need for plasma flamethrowers?

Huh? Wouldn't it be more effective than normal flamethrowers using liquid fuel?

Nuclear power, plasma power are the norm.

So, fusion then?

Anti-matter is advanced tech, but they won't blow up as easily as ST warp cores.

You always have to put more energy into making antimatter than you'll ever get out of it, so matter/antimatter reactors could be good for weaponry, but starships would still have a fuel problem(perhaps have vast arrays of solar collectors that refine antimatter?).

Yeah, fusion.

Hmmm.... is that thing about anti-matter true? Then.... how do the ST ships work?

That just doesn't work unless your totally ignorning physics.

How so? It's the future, wouldn't they be able to make stuff like that?

Bulldozers work just fine, and simply cutting down the tree will still leave it as an obstacle. For armor to penetrate heavy jungle your either going to need excessively large vehicles, or something like the Vietnam era land clearing units which used hundreds of modified bulldozers to knock down trees, destroy jungle and then clear paths through the debris. Hundreds of thousands of acres where cleared in this way.

Chainrippers are just kewler. Okay, I'll use your suggestion. But when could I use the concept of a vehicle sporting vicious chain rippers?

A plasma flamethrower? That just wouldn't work nor have a point

Why won't it work? That magic magnetic containment field could just be tweaked so that the plasma would act like it was spewed from a hose, rather than being a bolt or a ray.

The first one to explode will fry the others. But then somtime called danger space makes nuclear weapons rather limited on the battlefield. But anyway with nuclear weapons you don't need to fire a barrage.

First one to explode will fry the others? What do you mean by that?

Wouldn't low KT level nukes be okay when used in barrages? What about when the military is destroying futuristic mega cities?

So there equal to 1950's technology?

*slaps forehead* Okay, that was stupid. Let's just say, cruise missiles can go interplanetary distances.

As for me, I would think that it should be set further in the future. Unless you have massive cloning and/or breeding programs, it wouldn't seem like you're have enough population growth to fill a third of the galaxy. Unless you're going to do like Babylon 5 did and have only a handful of colonized planets, each with only a few thousand people.

It's not a solely human galaxy. There are other races.

Hmm... can anyone give me suggestions for alien races which humans will interact with? They ought to be different, but their tech should be somewhere near the level of my humans. Nothing like Trek where they're too humanish. More like SW where they're more assorted and wacky and original, yet still familiar for us people and not too strange.

When you say "powered armor like that in StarCraft and HALO", keep in mind the enormous fundamental differences in these two approaches to powered armor.

The StarCraft powered suits don't require any special abilities to use. It's bulky and ill-suited to stealth, however. Think of a small, strap-on main battle tank.

HALO Mjollnir battle armor, on the other hand, is apparently almost like not wearing any armor at all. Anything you can do outside the armor, you can do inside it. More importantly, only massively upgraded humans can wear the armor without killing themselves trying to move in it.

Uh-huh. I want to use the SC type power suit for those soldiers lugging heavy weapons (think of portable mortars or stuff like that) and dishing out heavy damage whilst having heavy protection.

And as for the HALO suit. I didn't mean like having the Master Chief super strength and the like. I just meant the overall design, how it looks (it looks kick arse) and how it generally performs: "almost like not wearing any armor at all." "anything you can do outside the armor, you can do inside it."

But perhaps we could tone down the strength the power suit gives the user, making it more like Stormtroopers/Clone troopers.

Hmmmm.... in Starship Troopers, how does their armor work? The movie blows, don't talk about it. Is the book MI's armor identical to the Animated Series' (the animated series owns) armor?

[Shroom Man 777]

FUCK! Can a mod fix that? I mistook the quote button for the edit button.

[Peregrin Toker]

Warp travel is the norm, although they use worm holes, warp gates and jump nodes.

....

Buildings are kilometers high. Lots of very high bridges, kinda like those in Batman Beyond. Cars come in wheeled or/and anti-grav hover variety. Wheeled is cheaper. Anti-grav is faster and it hovers, but no flying though.

.....

Now for military stuff. Standard human troops use powered armor, like the ones in StarCraft and also in HALO. THere is an HUD, target acquisition, computer, communications, different visual modes, enhanced strength, bio-nano health recovery system and stimulant delivery, etc.

Weapons are as follows: Normal guns. Like today, except due to nanotech and miniturization, bullets are smaller. Pistols can carry 30 bullets in a normal sized clip, yet the bullets are stronger. Civilian and low level use normal bullets used today, pistol rounds can be as strong as M16 rounds. .Military use AP-explosive rounds.

....

Lasers are also used. Lasers can have variable yield, also can switch from visible to UV.

Expensive knives and cutting tools are mono-molecular. Military also uses mono-molecular chainsaws in their tanks to cut down trees in jungles and hordes of xenomorphs.

....

Nuclear power, plasma power are the norm. Anti-matter is advanced tech, but they won't blow up as easily as ST warp cores.

.....

Sorry for listing similarities with my sci-fi universe.

What about:

1. Future humans being cybernetically and biotechnically enhanced to the point that they become demigods compared to present-day humanity??
2. A society which functions without a hierarchy??? I don't recall many such societies depicted in sci-fi, save for perhaps The Culture.

BTW - as for railguns replacing ordinary assault rifles as a standard military-issue weapon, that sounds a tad unrealistic to me. How are they gonna deal with the immense recoil of a railgun?? I can imagine future tanks using railguns, however.

BTW#2 - if you want original ideas for aliens, I can recommend following:
- Aliens which live all their lives aboard gigantic spacecraft and adapted to such a lifestyle. (for example, they could use their feet as hands as well)
- vaguely "Centauroid" aliens if you know what I mean.
- Aquatic creatures which then have adapted to surface life.

And you can always look for my document on space alien archetypes in sci-fi, which I'll soon post in a new and updated version. Although it might become too cliché if you include yet ANOTHER Evil Insect From Outer Space or Stereotypical Grey Alien species.

[Sea Skimmer]

[quote="Shroom Man 777"
Yeah, fusion.

Hmmm.... is that true? Then.... how do the ST ships work?[/quote]

Starfleet must keep large banks of Fusion reactors on star bases or planets to provide power for the net loss process of making anti matter. Anti matter is more compact in terms of how much energy a given volume gives you, but your overall energy economy must have some other power source that puts out more energy then you anti matter reactors consume. Fusion is the logical choice for this since you can get vast amounts of its fuel from the oceans of a world.

How so? It's the future, wouldn't they be able to make stuff like that?

We could make a handgun that could fire an M16's 5.56x45mm cartridge right now. But the weapon would be impossible to shoot even remotely accurately because of its recoil and the violence's of the action, the muzzle flash would also be blinding and the whole thing would deafen you. It would be very hard simply to keep it in your hands. Physics is strongly against firing more powerful rounds from smaller guns.

As for the matter of making smaller yet still effective rounds, nanotechnolgy means jack shit for this. If you want a smaller bullet which has the same energy you must either increase the density of the round to get its mass up, or fire it at a higher velocity. Increase mass means you'd have to go to DU or Tungsten, both are very hard to machine and could only really be used with some form of sabot. The round will then punch clean through flesh most likely and do little damage. Higher velocity works poorly, the bullet will tumble in flight and rapidly lose all its energy. Though turning the bullet into a flechette with a sabot can help with this. A couple designs have been put forward like that today; well actually it was more back in the 70's and 80's. But the great cost of the guns and there ammunition killed them.

Chainrippers are just kewler. Okay, I'll use your suggestion. But when could I use the concept of a vehicle sporting vicious chain rippers?

I can't think of any valid use, melee range weapons just plain suck incredibly badly compared to any decent gun.

Why won't it work? That magic magnetic containment field could just be tweaked so that the plasma would act like it was spewed from a hose, rather than being a bolt or a ray.

I suppose that might work. Of course you've now taken a simple weapon and made it as complex as a guided missile. You might as well just build the missile or some rockets instead, and best of all you can actually use those without being killed. Flamethrowers are only used by a couple nations today for good reasons, there clumsy and slow to use and your absurdly vulnerable while doing so. Your future army might as well use one which actually shoots flame, since the only major use is going to be using them to burn down houses in the third world. When filled with mace instead of napalm they also make excellent riot control weapons.

First one to explode will fry the others? What do you mean by that?

If you try to set off a bunch of nukes close together one is going to go off first, and its heat and radiation pulse is going to destroy the other nukes in the air nearby. To actually get simultaneous detonations, espically with artillery shells in a small area is effectively impossible. But anyway the point to using a nuclear weapon would be you don't need to fire more then one. Using lots of nukes isn't the best idea, since the resulting destruction blocks roads and makes movement near impossible.

*slaps forehead* Okay, that was stupid. Let's just say, cruise missiles can go interplanetary distances.

Ones which could hit any point on a planet quickly without being too huge would still be impressive, just not uber advanced. And of course, if you have one which travels trhough space its just a missile , cruise missiles a powered by engines which take in outside air.

Hmmmm.... in Starship Troopers, how does their armor work? The movie blows, don't talk about it. Is the book MI's armor identical to the Animated Series' (the animated series owns) armor?

No its not. Just go get the book.

[Shroom Man 777]

Your sci-fi universe? Meh. I bet our sci-fi universe is similar to a bajillion other sci-fi universes out there.

1. To wacked up.
2. Not what I wanted. I wanted a sort of space opera which is similar to modern day humanity, but futuristic, maybe more crime, grittier than the modern world, but nothing like what you've given. I might use #2's concept for an alien race.

Railguns: The infantry railguns will not be uber strong, though they will be able to shear through concrete. The standard rail rifle might be a bit stronger than a .50 machinegun. But nothing obscene.

Tanks will also use railguns, yeah. In fact, even warships use railguns to launch missiles.

Aliens: Hmmm.... this would be good for a buncha aliens which travel the galaxy and have a caste system. One casta trading, another developing tech and building, one caste ruling, one caste fighting and hunting. Kinda a bit similar to Preds, but different.

The aquatic creatures are nice, but how different are they from the Mon Cal from SW?

Hmmm... maybe I could include humanoid cat aliens, a tribute to that wacky stuff in anime. Hmmm....

What about humanoid bearish alien? Spews out acidic stuff from their noses. This acidic stuff is also a primary element in their power sources. I shall call them.... the Booger Bears!

Show me your document on the alien steryotypes!

And I also plan to includ evil insect aliens, different species of them. But they are not a major military threat, just hostile xenomorphic lifeforms which are routinely shown in the news and routinely pestering humans and routinely facing extermination activities. Plus tabloids will have field days proclaiming the prescence of these xenos in the sewer systems of cities and whatnot.

I was also thinking of wookie like aliens, ewoks too. And humanoid insects, but not the typical Zerg/SST bug aliens, but more of a barbaric race, but organized and forming a nation and a political entity.

I also plan to make a race of lizard men.

Hmmm... now that I'm creating this sci-fi universe.... what should I do with it? Make a forum RPG? A fanfic? Both?

I also plan to include some concepts in different franchises, since many of them rock and I wanna give tribute to their awesomeness. Like the gun-kata from equilubrium, and Terminators, and Master Chief's kick ass suit and more.

[Shroom Man 777]

Starfleet must keep large banks of Fusion reactors on star bases or planets to provide power for the net loss process of making anti matter. Anti matter is more compact in terms of how much energy a given volume gives you, but your overall energy economy must have some other power source that puts out more energy then you anti matter reactors consume. Fusion is the logical choice for this since you can get vast amounts of its fuel from the oceans of a world.

I see. So... is StarFleet's choice of using anti-matter logical? I mean, generating their ship's fuel costs more energy than that present in the fuel itself. Is it logical?

We could make a handgun that could fire an M16's 5.56x45mm cartridge right now. But the weapon would be impossible to shoot even remotely accurately because of its recoil and the violence's of the action, the muzzle flash would also be blinding and the whole thing would deafen you. It would be very hard simply to keep it in your hands. Physics is strongly against firing more powerful rounds from smaller guns.

As for the matter of making smaller yet still effective rounds, nanotechnolgy you must either increase the density of the round to get its mass up, or fire it at a higher velocity. Increase mass means you'd hmeans jack shit for this. If you want a smaller bullet which has the same energy ave to go to DU or Tungsten, both are very hard to machine and could only really be used with some form of sabot. The round will then punch clean through flesh most likely and do little damage. Higher velocity works poorly, the bullet will tumble in flight and rapidly lose all its energy. Though turning the bullet into a flechette with a sabot can help with this. A couple designs have been put forward like that today; well actually it was more back in the 70's and 80's. But the great cost of the guns and there ammunition killed them.

Hmmm...... okay then. So how would this sound? Nanotech/miniturization tech increasing the strength of the propellant, but nothing as high as an M16, just handleable for the pistol and superior to modern pistol rounds. Then the slug itself is either armor piercing and explosive or expanding, giving some bullets the ability to punch through armor or cause severe organ damage. How does that sound? Which should I use? Expanding or explosive?

Is it okay for my race to have rifles firing AP/explosive rounds, each shot being of high velocity and capable of tearing limbs off? Or is that also not possible according to the laws of physics?

I can't think of any valid use, melee range weapons just plain suck incredibly badly compared to any decent gun.

What about using them to tear hordes of bugs to pieces? Imagine a tank blasting away. A bug jumps at it, too close for the guns, then the chain rippers attached to the tank's front, rear and sides tear it to pieces. Would that be okay?

I suppose that might work. Of course you've now taken a simple weapon and made it as complex as a guided missile. You might as well just build the missile or some rockets instead, and best of all you can actually use those without being killed. Flamethrowers are only used by a couple nations today for good reasons, there clumsy and slow to use and your absurdly vulnerable while doing so. Your future army might as well use one which actually shoots flame, since the only major use is going to be using them to burn down houses in the third world. When filled with mace instead of napalm they also make excellent riot control weapons.

Good point. Using flamethrowers would just be used in exterminating bug infestations. Maybe I'd just make up some fancy propellent which combusts into super hot stuff, hence making it similar to plasma.

If you try to set off a bunch of nukes close together one is going to go off first, and its heat and radiation pulse is going to destroy the other nukes in the air nearby. To actually get simultaneous detonations, espically with artillery shells in a small area is effectively impossible. But anyway the point to using a nuclear weapon would be you don't need to fire more then one. Using lots of nukes isn't the best idea, since the resulting destruction blocks roads and makes movement near impossible.

What if I make the nukes smaller, and the nukes would be a bit far from each other, to prevent them from killing each other, but still enough to blanket a large area with death and doom and overkill.

What if the nukes' explosions are shaped and directed to a single point? Is that possible?

And if I explode two nukes a bit near each other, simultaneously. Would both explosions cancel out each other? Like ripples in the water slamming at each other.

Ones which could hit any point on a planet quickly without being too huge would still be impressive, just not uber advanced. And of course, if you have one which travels trhough space its just a missile , cruise missiles a powered by engines which take in outside air.

Oh.... lol. Never figured that's what made a cruise missile a cruise missile. Silly me.

No its not. Just go get the book.

It's hard to find the book, although I did spot it somewhere in a second hand book store.

[Peregrin Toker]

Show me your document on the alien steryotypes!

Okay, here you are - my essay has been revised a lot since it last was posted in this very forum.

Sci-Fi Alien Archetypes (I think this is the third version of the essay.)

[Peregrin Toker]

(editor's note: Describing the idea of future humans using cybernetics and genetic engineering to become a species of superhuman demigods) 1. To wacked up.

Why?? I find the idea interesting. Or, in case you don't want all of mainstream humanity to be cyborg demigods, you can have an isolated enclave of cybernetically enhanced superhumans hiding out there.

Or in case you don't fear being labelled a Luddite, a society where the elite is cybernetically and genetically enhanced and the common populace aren't.

[Sea Skimmer]

I see. So... is StarFleet's choice of using anti-matter logical? I mean, generating their ship's fuel costs more energy than that present in the fuel itself. Is it logical?

It significantly reduces the mass of fuel the ship must carry. That is a major advantage. But the massive safety issues with warp cores, and the fact that we know there fusion reactors provide a significant percentage of the power of ships warp core makes it slightly dubious.

Hmmm...... okay then. So how would this sound? Nanotech/miniturization tech increasing the strength of the propellant, but nothing as high as an M16, just handleable for the pistol and superior to modern pistol rounds.

I fail to see how Nanotech will increase the energy liberated in a chemical reaction. And anyway we already have handguns, which are too powerful for most people too shoot. I suppose in the future you might be able to do that with a smaller overall gun, but a lighter smaller gun would be even harder to shoot accurately.

Really for general military use you don't want an uber powerful handgun. Anyone who needs that level of power ought to be issued a carbine instead, and for officers it's just a badge of rank. Statistically they're more likely to shoot themselves in the leg or foot then shoot the enemy with one, so a small cartridge is better. That way they simply limp around rather then getting part of a limb amputated

Then the slug itself is either armor piercing and explosive or expanding, giving some bullets the ability to punch through armor or cause severe organ damage. How does that sound? Which should I use? Expanding or explosive?

Gee, maybe you should have a gun, which can accept more then one cartridge? But really, explosives aren't likely to be effective and will greatly reduce the mass and thus range accuracy and stopping power of the bullet. Expanding bullets are nice, but they don't pierce armor. In turn AP bullets will punch through the armor and make a nice round hole through the person without doing much damage. However AP isn't too effective with handguns, so you ought to have either an expanding bullet as standard issue, or to prevent officers from killing themselves by mistake FMJ.

Is it okay for my race to have rifles firing AP/explosive rounds, each shot being of high velocity and capable of tearing limbs off? Or is that also not possible according to the laws of physics?

Actually tearing off a limb isn't something any rifle bullet is likely to do; certainly not anything you can fire automatically. Mangling the limb to the point that it must be amputated at the shoulder however is very possibul.

What about using them to tear hordes of bugs to pieces? Imagine a tank blasting away. A bug jumps at it, too close for the guns, then the chain rippers attached to the tank's front, rear and sides tear it to pieces. Would that be okay?

I suppose so. But the vehicle crew isn't very good if they're popping up that close, its also a good time to have another vehicle simply rake yours with machine gun fire to clear off the pesky bugs. And of course good old canister will take care of the bug swarms slightly further out.

Good point. Using flamethrowers would just be used in exterminating bug infestations. Maybe I'd just make up some fancy propellent which combusts into super hot stuff, hence making it similar to plasma.

These bugs seem to like close range melee combat, that would make attacking them with a flamethrower, typical range is about 15 yards, very suicidal. If you want a flame weapon for clearing out bugs, I suggest something like this Soviet invention. Each 220mm rocket has FAE warhead. One salvo with affect an area 400x200 meters.

This site has some better pictures, though the Russian doesn't seem to translate.

What if I make the nukes smaller, and the nukes would be a bit far from each other, to prevent them from killing each other, but still enough to blanket a large area with death and doom and overkill.

Your probably better off just firing several weapons over time, as soon as the first detonates you shoot the second. It might mean your barrage takes ten minutes rather then thirty seconds but it will be more effective.

What if the nukes' explosions are shaped and directed to a single point? Is that possible?

No.

And if I explode two nukes a bit near each other, simultaneously. Would both explosions cancel out each other? Like ripples in the water slamming at each other.

One blast wave is bound to be more powerful and it will likely smash through the other, basically breaking them both up. The result would likely be very nast for anyone below the point of collision.

It's hard to find the book, although I did spot it somewhere in a second hand book store.

Boarders had it last time I was there.

[Shroom Man 777]

Why?? I find the idea interesting. Or, in case you don't want all of mainstream humanity to be cyborg demigods, you can have an isolated enclave of cybernetically enhanced superhumans hiding out there.

Or in case you don't fear being labelled a Luddite, a society where the elite is cybernetically and genetically enhanced and the common populace aren't.

I did have the idea of their special, special forces being either terminator like or genetically improved humans (or meta-humans) with cybernetic upgrades. I might follow's StarCraft's example, using psychic/telekinetic/psionic humans for special forces, just like the Ghost.

And perhaps a bunch of metahumans making some society in the fringe of the known regions of the galaxy or something.

I fail to see how Nanotech will increase the energy liberated in a chemical reaction. And anyway we already have handguns, which are too powerful for most people too shoot. I suppose in the future you might be able to do that with a smaller overall gun, but a lighter smaller gun would be even harder to shoot accurately.

Really for general military use you don't want an uber powerful handgun. Anyone who needs that level of power ought to be issued a carbine instead, and for officers it's just a badge of rank. Statistically they're more likely to shoot themselves in the leg or foot then shoot the enemy with one, so a small cartridge is better. That way they simply limp around rather then getting part of a limb amputated

Hmmm... what if it's not uber, just a wee bit stronger than modern rounds? Maybe I'd just quit my delusions of limb tearing pistols. Oh well, there are still plasma pistols, like those from The 6th Day.

But what about a handgun for those soldiers in powered armor, facing power armor wearing opponents? If their main weapon is out of ammo and they have to use their side arms, and if their sidearms are like normal guns, then what?

Gee, maybe you should have a gun, which can accept more then one cartridge? But really, explosives aren't likely to be effective and will greatly reduce the mass and thus range accuracy and stopping power of the bullet. Expanding bullets are nice, but they don't pierce armor. In turn AP bullets will punch through the armor and make a nice round hole through the person without doing much damage. However AP isn't too effective with handguns, so you ought to have either an expanding bullet as standard issue, or to prevent officers from killing themselves by mistake FMJ.

My guns can accept more than one cartridge, but i'm just weighing whether expanding rounds are more effective than explosives.

And what's this issue about officers killing themselves?

Anyway, what if I have some explosive bullet whose tip is made out of something dense and heavy and tough, like DU or tungsten, while the rest of the slug is explosive and delayed. So it pierces armor, and then blows up and mangles limbs. Perfect for opponents in powered armor. Note: I'm talking about both pistol and rifles.

And like I've said, these fancy bullets are to be used in combat, normal rounds are for civilian and law enforcement.

I suppose so. But the vehicle crew isn't very good if they're popping up that close, its also a good time to have another vehicle simply rake yours with machine gun fire to clear off the pesky bugs. And of course good old canister will take care of the bug swarms slightly further out.

Hmmm.... what if the bugs manage to go that near to the vehicle, running very fast and all. Or maybe unmanned drones designed specifically for going in, spewing machinegun rounds, plasma, flamethrowers, chainrippers. That's not so smart, but it's cool, no? Perhaps this would be a specialized thing for specific bugs which are very, very overwhelming.

These bugs seem to like close range melee combat, that would make attacking them with a flamethrower, typical range is about 15 yards, very suicidal. If you want a flame weapon for clearing out bugs, I suggest something like this Soviet invention. Each 220mm rocket has FAE warhead. One salvo with affect an area 400x200 meters.

This site has some better pictures, though the Russian doesn't seem to translate.

Oh God, that's fantastic. I love the concept. Where do you get this things? I must say that your very well knowledged in things like these. Could you get me ass kicking pictures of that warhead exploding into a fireball of carnageous goodness? That thing's so sweet!

Your probably better off just firing several weapons over time, as soon as the first detonates you shoot the second. It might mean your barrage takes ten minutes rather then thirty seconds but it will be more effective.

Hmmm.... why would it be more effective? Hmmm.... maybe just after the nukes have detonated, maybe they could lob conventional warheads without the nuke blast killing the conventional warheads.

And as for shaped charge nukes. What about shaped charged bombs with special explosives which put them in kt level? Shaped MOABs?

[Sea Skimmer]

Hmmm... what if it's not uber, just a wee bit stronger than modern rounds?

Modern handgun rounds vary from worthless against anything bigger then a rabbit to ones powerful only people like Arnold Schwarzenegger can hope to fire them.

So its a matter of what your bullet is a wee bit stronger relative too. If you mean relative to current military service rounds, which are almost all 9x19mm or .45APC then sure, that's possibul and the gun will still be useabul. If you mean a bit stronger then the biggest handgun cartridge around, .50cal Magnum, well then the answer really is no. That round's already too powerful to be fired from an automatic and somehow I don't think you want to arm your futuristic military with revolvers.

But what about a handgun for those soldiers in powered armor, facing power armor wearing opponents? If their main weapon is out of ammo and they have to use their side arms, and if their sidearms are like normal guns, then what?

They'd be better off carrying another magazine for their normal gun then...

But I suppose powered armor could let you fire a more powerful round, though I think there would be some danger to the person, since the powered armor would need to be physically stopping your hand and limbs from moving, which could well break them.

And what's this issue about officers killing themselves?

When you have a handgun from a leg holster its point down at your leg and foot. Sometimes when someone draws their weapon they accidentally grab the trigger and fire it, into there own body. Equally often officers or others will shoot them self's accidentally while cleaning there weapons. So you have to weigh the additional dead and increased injury from such accidents a very powerful handgun, against the increase effectiveness in the very rare event that the handgun is actually used in action. As I said, anyone who expects to need a very powerful handgun should be issued with a carbine instead. Special Forces are something of an exception. But even then there are limits. US Special Forces for example kept .45cal handguns when the rest of the military went to 9mm. But .45APC isn't nearly the most powerful round available

Anyway, what if I have some explosive bullet whose tip is made out of something dense and heavy and tough, like DU or tungsten, while the rest of the slug is explosive and delayed. So it pierces armor, and then blows up and mangles limbs. Perfect for opponents in powered armor. Note: I'm talking about both pistol and rifles.

That's really not going to work very well; explosives are very light compared to the lead core of a normal bullet or steel/tungsten core of an AP bullet. So your AP/explosive round won't be very heavy. If its not very heavy it won't have much energy with which to pierce the armor.

A better idea is to have a either simply a solid conventional AP bullet, which wont do all that much damage but will pierce a damn lot of armor, or have a hybrid like the current SS-109 5.56mm round. This round has an AP head much like you described, but a lead core behind it. As it prices armor the AP head breaks away and the lead then does its tumble thing and causes a much wider damage path. The downside to this is that if it hits someone who is not armored, then the round won't break up, which makes it much less effective. But I don't think this will be an issue for your forces, since everyone is probably going to have some kind of body armor. And if you run into any third world militia equivalents, then loading hollow points will be excessively effective.

Hmmm.... what if the bugs manage to go that near to the vehicle, running very fast and all. Or maybe unmanned drones designed specifically for going in, spewing machinegun rounds, plasma, flamethrowers, chainrippers. That's not so smart, but it's cool, no?

Yes its cool. How about a remote controlled/ or robot driven bulldozer? The whole thing would be clad in both chainsaws, and in what look like reactive armor tiles. Only the tiles can be command detonated and explode like claymores (warning keep it the fuck away from your own infantry least they be shredded) There would also be guns on the roof, and flame rocket launchers would provide cover fire along with lots of automatic weapons.

The bulldozers main mission would be to go forward and smash its way up to the bug hives, which if your going SST teamed would be underground. The dozer could then either fill up the tunnel entrances, or fire in some kind of explosive, maybe it would be more like a bulldozer tank, with a huge short barreled gun that fires a big HE shell to smash the tunnels closed.

Perhaps this would be a specialized thing for specific bugs which are very, very overwhelming.

If the bugs are a major threat specialized equipment make sense, though maybe the background story could be how some armored division on the front line improvised the first ones together using spare parts and half wrecked old tanks. That could explain a fucked up weapons load out with everything from chainsaws to automatic mortars.

Oh God, that's fantastic. I love the concept. Where do you get this things? I must say that your very well knowledged in things like these. Could you get me ass kicking pictures of that warhead exploding into a fireball of carnageous goodness? That thing's so sweet!

Sadly the Russians have been fairly secretive about it (things like napalm and FAE's tend to bring a negative public reaction in the west), though I think I know of one picture of the rocket exploding. This might tide you over, the GIF at the bottom is of a USAF FAE bomb test, the Russian rockets are probably somewhat less powerful.

The text also mentions the RPO-A, keep in mind while the Russians call it a flamethrower it actually a form of hand held FAE rocket launcher, and a very effective one.

Hmmm.... why would it be more effective? Hmmm.... maybe just after the nukes have detonated, maybe they could lob conventional warheads without the nuke blast killing the conventional warheads.

It would be more effective because you can drop each warhead exactly where you want it, though firing another nuke into the mushroom cloud of the first is not the best idea.

And as for shaped charge nukes. What about shaped charged bombs with special explosives which put them in kt level? Shaped MOABs?

Well since you have easy space travel simply dropping 1000 tons of TNT onto an enemy from probably wouldn't be that hard, a pet idea of mine is to have a big shielded barge that flies around on Star Wars repulsorlift's. Its laden with explosives, and when its over the target the whole thing simply tips to one side and rolls a vast pile of woop-ass onto the enemy.

Shaped charges can be scale up as large as you want. The Russians built some, which weight over 2000 pounds for they're anti ship missiles and I see no reason why you couldn't build one that weighed 21,000 pounds, though it would be very fat.

As for uber powerful conventional explosives, well it's your universe and you can go ahead and have that kind of sci tech if you want. There's nothing really objectionable I suppose, and it might let your proposed exploding bullets be effective. But explosive/AP would remain incompatible in rifle calibers. Though the thing is that if you have very powerful yet light and compact explosives then combat would involve ever fewer vehicles and men on each side because there so powerful, and having a bunch would only present a better target.

Really, are things any fun if you can simply level any city or town with a few non-nuclear shots, rather then having to fight through them room to room?

[Shroom Man 777]

Modern handgun rounds vary from worthless against anything bigger then a rabbit to ones powerful only people like Arnold Schwarzenegger can hope to fire them.

So its a matter of what your bullet is a wee bit stronger relative too. If you mean relative to current military service rounds, which are almost all 9x19mm or .45APC then sure, that's possibul and the gun will still be useabul. If you mean a bit stronger then the biggest handgun cartridge around, .50cal Magnum, well then the answer really is no. That round's already too powerful to be fired from an automatic and somehow I don't think you want to arm your futuristic military with revolvers.

My futuristic military could have specialized revolvers for special forces. I've always wanted my futuristic guys to have handguns similar to those in Equilubrium, while having monsterous stopping power. Oh well, that's not gonna be a reality. Unless I keep with the explosive AP bullets, making the explosives really dense and compact, the AP tip being really heavy or something.

They'd be better off carrying another magazine for their normal gun then...

But I suppose powered armor could let you fire a more powerful round, though I think there would be some danger to the person, since the powered armor would need to be physically stopping your hand and limbs from moving, which could well break them.

That just stinks. But why would the hand be broken? Isn't it actually just the armor which is gripping the gun? Maybe instead of gripping a pistol, the armor would have a sort of gauntlet with a gun built into it. Imagine, pointing their fists at someone and boom, that someone drops dead, huge hole on the forehead.

When you have a handgun from a leg holster its point down at your leg and foot. Sometimes when someone draws their weapon they accidentally grab the trigger and fire it, into there own body. Equally often officers or others will shoot them self's accidentally while cleaning there weapons. So you have to weigh the additional dead and increased injury from such accidents a very powerful handgun, against the increase effectiveness in the very rare event that the handgun is actually used in action. As I said, anyone who expects to need a very powerful handgun should be issued with a carbine instead. Special Forces are something of an exception. But even then there are limits. US Special Forces for example kept .45cal handguns when the rest of the military went to 9mm. But .45APC isn't nearly the most powerful round available

How often does this happen? Doesn't sound like this happens a lot.

That's really not going to work very well; explosives are very light compared to the lead core of a normal bullet or steel/tungsten core of an AP bullet. So your AP/explosive round won't be very heavy. If its not very heavy it won't have much energy with which to pierce the armor.

A better idea is to have a either simply a solid conventional AP bullet, which wont do all that much damage but will pierce a damn lot of armor, or have a hybrid like the current SS-109 5.56mm round. This round has an AP head much like you described, but a lead core behind it. As it prices armor the AP head breaks away and the lead then does its tumble thing and causes a much wider damage path. The downside to this is that if it hits someone who is not armored, then the round won't break up, which makes it much less effective. But I don't think this will be an issue for your forces, since everyone is probably going to have some kind of body armor. And if you run into any third world militia equivalents, then loading hollow points will be excessively effective.

What if I make my futuristic explosive quite heavy, dense. Or the tip will be DU/tungesten/heavy strong thing. And then the 2nd part of the slug, the middle-rear part has explosives, but that explosive is covered inside pieces of lead/DU/whatnot. So the tip pierces armor, separates from the explosive part. THe explosive part which is encased in metal them blows up, aside from blowing up, it releases lots of fragments of DU or whatnot. Doesn't that sound nasty?

Yes its cool. How about a remote controlled/ or robot driven bulldozer? The whole thing would be clad in both chainsaws, and in what look like reactive armor tiles. Only the tiles can be command detonated and explode like claymores (warning keep it the fuck away from your own infantry least they be shredded) There would also be guns on the roof, and flame rocket launchers would provide cover fire along with lots of automatic weapons.

The bulldozers main mission would be to go forward and smash its way up to the bug hives, which if your going SST teamed would be underground. The dozer could then either fill up the tunnel entrances, or fire in some kind of explosive, maybe it would be more like a bulldozer tank, with a huge short barreled gun that fires a big HE shell to smash the tunnels closed.

Yeah, that's awesome! Exactly what I was thinking. And the claymore-reactive armor thing is just brilliant. Now imagine putting monomolecular edged shrapnel into the reactive armor, the bugs would be shredded into pieces.

Now what if we add a rotary automatic grenade launcher into this thing? Imagine that!

If the bugs are a major threat specialized equipment make sense, though maybe the background story could be how some armored division on the front line improvised the first ones together using spare parts and half wrecked old tanks. That could explain a fucked up weapons load out with everything from chainsaws to automatic mortars.

Great idea! Maybe some military garrison caught with their pants down in some backwater planet unknowingly filled with bugs. Then after a while, they cook up this fancy unit and manage to hold out long enough for reinforcements to come and commence extermination procedures.

Sadly the Russians have been fairly secretive about it (things like napalm and FAE's tend to bring a negative public reaction in the west), though I think I know of one picture of the rocket exploding. This might tide you over, the GIF at the bottom is of a USAF FAE bomb test, the Russian rockets are probably somewhat less powerful.

The text also mentions the RPO-A, keep in mind while the Russians call it a flamethrower it actually a form of hand held FAE rocket launcher, and a very effective one.

God, these Russians are so clever. What'll they think of next. This idea is great, I'm definately keeping this.

Well since you have easy space travel simply dropping 1000 tons of TNT onto an enemy from probably wouldn't be that hard, a pet idea of mine is to have a big shielded barge that flies around on Star Wars repulsorlift's. Its laden with explosives, and when its over the target the whole thing simply tips to one side and rolls a vast pile of woop-ass onto the enemy.

Shaped charges can be scale up as large as you want. The Russians built some, which weight over 2000 pounds for they're anti ship missiles and I see no reason why you couldn't build one that weighed 21,000 pounds, though it would be very fat.

As for uber powerful conventional explosives, well it's your universe and you can go ahead and have that kind of sci tech if you want. There's nothing really objectionable I suppose, and it might let your proposed exploding bullets be effective. But explosive/AP would remain incompatible in rifle calibers. Though the thing is that if you have very powerful yet light and compact explosives then combat would involve ever fewer vehicles and men on each side because there so powerful, and having a bunch would only present a better target.

Really, are things any fun if you can simply level any city or town with a few non-nuclear shots, rather then having to fight through them room to room?

This weapon could be designed for super heavy combat and for interstellar ship to ship combat. And for taking out large and shielded defense emplacements or extremely large battalions of tanks. But for actual combat against infantry and like that, troops would still have a place. Yeah, room to room combat is extremely fun, but I want to have the mass destruction capabilities which gives my race a sense of awesomeness and might. And these explosives won't be that strong, just a few kilotons, nothing obscene. And the armor and construction material of my universe is also quite strong, hence it will be balanced out a bit.

God, your ideas are good. I'm actually getting advice from a military genius. Thanks man.

As for the AP bullets decimating vehicles. Heck no. I don't want to have a military solely made out of infantry.

Why would the AP-explosive still remain incompatible with rifles? We could manufacture them to be strong enough to mutilate people while small enough to fit in rifles, not strong enough to destroy vehicles.

And the vehicles, light tanks, tanks, recon, trucks, humvees, whatnot, would be built of fancy and strong sci-fi armor which would balance it up and protect them from these AP explosive rounds, hence they wouldn't be obsolete, but they would even be more effective since the un power armored infantry would have to rely more on these vehicles due to the pressence of powerful AP explosive rounds.

Plus the vehicles will sport even stronger weapons. Railguns, plasma blasters, fuel air explosives, etc.

[Coalition]

Hmmmm.... in Starship Troopers, how does their armor work? The movie blows, don't talk about it. Is the book MI's armor identical to the Animated Series' (the animated series owns) armor?

For a roug comparison, watch the series, and look at Battletech. From the series, grab all their maneuverability, including jumping, nd human maneuverability, not to mention drop capability. Essentially, when the wearer jumps high, the thrusters kick in, allowing higher jumps. For movement, there is no resistance, and the suit amplifies your own actions.

Now, from Battletech, grab a Clan Elemental suit, massing roughly 1 ton, and give it more maneuverability, and weaponry that is just as deadly.

Combine the two, and that is roughly what the MI suits on the book are capable of. Each shoulder has pocket nukelaunchers. Each jump by the armor goes 1 mile. Hand weapons include flamethrowers, autocannon, and other death-dealing items.

The suit has lots of grenades, including the ever-famous:

"I'm a talking bomb, I'm a talking bomb. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 . . ."

As people within the building run for their lives.

---

For antimatter vs Fusion, antimatter offers greater power released per unit volume, thus making it useful for warships. Fusion power can be powered by hydrogen, making it easly useful by freighters anywhere. So you have warships with M/AM reactors, and fusion powered stations to refuel them.

---

For the FTL travel modes, what are their advantages?

Warp - go anywhere, but slow
wormhole - go to the other end, much faster, limited to the end points
Warp gate - go to the other end (unless tuneable to go to any gate?), but you can build other ends everywhere.

So you could have warp powered vessels expanding a sphere from Earth, and building a warp gate at the destination site. Earth then colonizes that site. If a wormhole is found, then expansion continues in the spherical fashion, from the other end(s?) of the WH.

---

For powerful pistol weaponry, rocket rounds could be useful. You have a pistol remachined to handle the exhaust, and fire bullets that are either dumb rockets, or guided missiles (Runaway).

---

For a plasma flamethrower, do you mean an operator with a fusion plant on his/her/its back, taking in air, superheating it, and expelling that towards the enemy (mini fusion explosion). Don't get too close when that weapon takes a hit though (lots of superheated gas, even if fusion burns itself out quick, it might take a fraction of a second too long).

---

For the race that only lives in space, how about giving them extensive knowledge of external suits, and/or gravity fields. The suits and fields allow them to land on a planet, and be able to move around. They prefer to meet in a room, though (agoraphobia).

One thing that gives them creeps though, is when they feel wind blowing. In a starship, if you feel a strong breeze, that means the hull has lost pressure, and you have an emergency. On a planet, it means that you can fly a kite.

---

For other alien takes on the humans, they could be more advanced, but afraid to show it to the humans "Humans take every gift we give them, and turn it into a weapon."

One option might be an alien race that gave humans the secret of monomolecular fiber, for superstrong cords. Humans took that technology, made the fiber into a 360 razor wire, and use the equivalent of chain shot to clear forests in a hurry (hundreds of monomolecular threads holding together pairs of weighted spheres. The spheres pull the thread long, and the thread cuts anything in its path.

[Peregrin Toker]

Why?? I find the idea interesting. Or, in case you don't want all of mainstream humanity to be cyborg demigods, you can have an isolated enclave of cybernetically enhanced superhumans hiding out there.

Or in case you don't fear being labelled a Luddite, a society where the elite is cybernetically and genetically enhanced and the common populace aren't.

I did have the idea of their special, special forces being either terminator like or genetically improved humans (or meta-humans) with cybernetic upgrades. I might follow's StarCraft's example, using psychic/telekinetic/psionic humans for special forces, just like the Ghost.

And perhaps a bunch of metahumans making some society in the fringe of the known regions of the galaxy or something.

BTW - In case I'll ever complete "The Wormhole War" and go as far as writing as sequel, one of my ideas for a new civilization encountered by the Xril are: The Igigu, a bunch of humans which have been cybernetically and genetically to the point that they are immortal and quasi-divine.

[Sea Skimmer]

My futuristic military could have specialized revolvers for special forces. I've always wanted my futuristic guys to have handguns similar to those in Equilubrium, while having monsterous stopping power. Oh well, that's not gonna be a reality. Unless I keep with the explosive AP bullets, making the explosives really dense and compact, the AP tip being really heavy or something.

A bullet has to be stable and balanced, or it will tumble in flight. Tumbling AP ammunition doesn't work too well, as in not at all.

That just stinks. But why would the hand be broken? Isn't it actually just the armor which is gripping the gun?

The gun would only be held as tightly as the person is gripping. And when you fire the recoil will be transmitted through the power glove into there hand, unless the glove and arm is somehow going rigid, which would mean the person can't move it. Well whatever, go ahead with it, I dont think anyone will really care.

Maybe instead of gripping a pistol, the armor would have a sort of gauntlet with a gun built into it. Imagine, pointing their fists at someone and boom, that someone drops dead, huge hole on the forehead.

But how would your fire it? One big advantage of powered armor is a guy can simply lift up a gun and use it normally after all.

How often does this happen? Doesn't sound like this happens a lot.

It doesn't happen a whole lot, but then as I said military personal also very rarely use handguns in combat.

What if I make my futuristic explosive quite heavy, dense. Or the tip will be DU/tungesten/heavy strong thing. And then the 2nd part of the slug, the middle-rear part has explosives, but that explosive is covered inside pieces of lead/DU/whatnot. So the tip pierces armor, separates from the explosive part. THe explosive part which is encased in metal them blows up, aside from blowing up, it releases lots of fragments of DU or whatnot. Doesn't that sound nasty?

If your explosive is really heavy then its advantage is largely lost. But I suppose that could work. But I don't think its necessary. Can you imagine the cost of building a tiny fuse for each of billions, likely trillions for your 1/3 galaxy empire, of rounds of ammunition? Well anyway, go ahead if you want

Yeah, that's awesome! Exactly what I was thinking. And the claymore-reactive armor thing is just brilliant. Now imagine putting monomolecular edged shrapnel into the reactive armor, the bugs would be shredded into pieces.

Ringing a vehicle with claymores isn't an original idea of mine, people proposed it all the time, its just a really bad idea with current militaries. But for this, with a robot vehicle operating well away from supporting infantry, which are also in power armor it would be rather effective. I think monomolecular bladed shrapnel is slightly overengering the protective bombs. But a monomolecular edged bulldozer blade to allow it to cut through anything in its path would be useful. There should be a couple more of those blades on the roof, that way if say a tree falls on top, it will be cut apart, Some coils of razor wire with enhanced edges would help keep bugs off it.

Also this dozer must be big, be it aconverted tank or converted construction equipment. The D11 bulldozer is today the largest in the world. I'm thinking bigger, your'll need the size if only to provide room for the guns.

Now what if we add a rotary automatic grenade launcher into this thing? Imagine that!

Current automatic grenade launchers can get up to 300rpm or even more, really think your going to need some form of gatling weapon?

God, these Russians are so clever. What'll they think of next. This idea is great, I'm definately keeping this.

You'll be proud to know the USMC also recently introduced its own Thermobaric rocket. Only tow got fired during Operation Iraqi freedom. One totally disintegrated a wooden building; the other was unfortunately a dud.

This weapon could be designed for super heavy combat and for interstellar ship to ship combat.

Supre heavy combat? I think I'll steal that.

And for taking out large and shielded defense emplacements or extremely large battalions of tanks. But for actual combat against infantry and like that, troops would still have a place. Yeah, room to room combat is extremely fun, but I want to have the mass destruction capabilities which gives my race a sense of awesomeness and might. And these explosives won't be that strong, just a few kilotons, nothing obscene. And the armor and construction material of my universe is also quite strong, hence it will be balanced out a bit.

Well just remember the dirt doesn't get any stronger, so trenches and bunkers won't work quite as well unless you haul in 5000 tons of whatever uber-crete you use for such things. But then such stuff could always be dropped in from orbit. Heck, you could even have complete self-contained pillbox's/gun turrets dropped down at night when your bug crushing armored units need to set up a perimeter. Later some anti gravity craft could retrieve them. I'd assume the bugs don't use too many ranged weapons, so you wouldn't need to worry about concealing or digging in the things too much.

God, your ideas are good. I'm actually getting advice from a military genius. Thanks man.

No problem

As for the AP bullets decimating vehicles. Heck no. I don't want to have a military solely made out of infantry.

Why would the AP-explosive still remain incompatible with rifles? We could manufacture them to be strong enough to mutilate people while small enough to fit in rifles, not strong enough to destroy vehicles.

AP-explosive would be incompatible because of themass issue I mentioned. If you have an ultra dense explosive thats much less of an issue.

And the vehicles, light tanks, tanks, recon, trucks, humvees, whatnot, would be built of fancy and strong sci-fi armor which would balance it up and protect them from these AP explosive rounds, hence they wouldn't be obsolete, but they would even be more effective since the un power armored infantry would have to rely more on these vehicles due to the pressence of powerful AP explosive rounds.

Plus the vehicles will sport even stronger weapons. Railguns, plasma blasters, fuel air explosives, etc.

Sounds good.

One thing you might consider is making up a chart of body armor levels. Then if you make up a light weapon, you could assign it to one of those categories. Say the TD-55 pistol goes next to Level II body armor, because that's the highest level it can pierce. A slightly more powerful get might go next to level III and so on until you've got the PKT crew served blaster (which looks suspiciously like an E-WEB) alongside Level XI, class M-3 Heavy Assault Powered Armor.

This would let you keep the relative power of all the guns clear in your head, without having to actually say how powerful they are in joules or whatnot. If you go and create solider types you could also place them as having whatever level of body armor. The same can be done for vehicles and bigger guns, but because vehicles often have different armor on there various sides it's not going to work as well

As an example hear's a PDF file of various body armor and vehicle armor protection standards. (The vehicle's are armored things like limos and SUV's, not military stuff)

[Peregrin Toker]

Maybe instead of gripping a pistol, the armor would have a sort of gauntlet with a gun built into it. Imagine, pointing their fists at someone and boom, that someone drops dead, huge hole on the forehead.

But how would your fire it? One big advantage of powered armor is a guy can simply lift up a gun and use it normally after all.

What about having some cybernetic implant in the soldier's brain which is connected to the gun built into the gauntlet, thus enabling the soldier to fire the gun merely by thinking about it??