Zat-Gun Capabilities

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

;I've been wondering about some of the technical aspects of the zat guns. They established on the show that they are less powerful than the staff weapons and that is why Jaffa prefer to use the staff weapons. However a weapon that can disintegrate matter even in three blasts seems very powerful.

Some questions I have are?

1. Why haven't they made a larger more powerful version of the zat gun like they have a staff cannon,(larger more-powerful version of staff weapon)
2. What kind of materials can a zat-gun disintegrate?
I thought originally it must only be organic matter, because it seemed only useful against people, but that can't be right because everything on a person is disintegrated along with them, organic or not.
3. Could a more powerful zat-gun be used to disintegrate large vehicles like tanks and gliders?
Again takes us back to power-requirements and what type of materials it works on.
Just seems like the zat-guns have a lot of un-tapped potential and even the Goa'uld didn't have the capability to take the weapon further, surely we do now with the knowledge of the Asgard

If this has been talked about before please tell me. But I couldn't find any threads with Zat in the tagline.

[AvatarIII]

i think the whole point of zat's originally was stealth, hence why no larger ones.
in season 2 they established that it can disintegrate non-organic matter (see 1969)
and i think, if you fire a zat at something enough it should disintegrate anything, and personally i think they work well enough as they are, even in stargate the alliance they had to make the zat less powerfull because in the game one you had it you would own totally.

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

i think the whole point of zat's originally was stealth, hence why no larger ones.
in season 2 they established that it can disintegrate non-organic matter (see 1969)
and i think, if you fire a zat at something enough it should disintegrate anything, and personally i think they work well enough as they are, even in stargate the alliance they had to make the zat less powerfull because in the game one you had it you would own totally.

I think the point of the zat-gun was to have something with capabilities that multiple uses kind of the Stargate version of phasers. They needed a weapon on the show that would both be a disabling weapon and a killing weapon both and the staff weapon wouldn't work in that role. It doesn't seem any more stealthy, it still emits a large amount of sound and light, they could even see the zat blasts from the telescopes and equipment Earth was using to monitor Apophis' ships.

I was pretty sure I saw an episode that showed them disintegrating non organic matter thx!

And your right I don't see why anyone would rather carry a staff weapon over a zat, unless you wanted something usable for melee combat.

[IcyNeko]

Well, the zats are also weapons to use if the staff weapon was ever destroyed or dropped. It's also a lot easier to wield than a long staff weapon.

But yeah, it's created to torture, first and foremost.

[An-Alteran]

;I've been wondering about some of the technical aspects of the zat guns. They established on the show that they are less powerful than the staff weapons and that is why Jaffa prefer to use the staff weapons. However a weapon that can disintegrate matter even in three blasts seems very powerful.

Some questions I have are?

1. Why haven't they made a larger more powerful version of the zat gun like they have a staff cannon,(larger more-powerful version of staff weapon)
2. What kind of materials can a zat-gun disintegrate?
I thought originally it must only be organic matter, because it seemed only useful against people, but that can't be right because everything on a person is disintegrated along with them, organic or not.
3. Could a more powerful zat-gun be used to disintegrate large vehicles like tanks and gliders?
Again takes us back to power-requirements and what type of materials it works on.
Just seems like the zat-guns have a lot of un-tapped potential and even the Goa'uld didn't have the capability to take the weapon further, surely we do now with the knowledge of the Asgard

If this has been talked about before please tell me. But I couldn't find any threads with Zat in the tagline.

I think zat blasts are easily disipated and thus are ineffective against larger things, or denser things.

Remember all the suits that are Zat proof?

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

I think zat blasts are easily disipated and thus are ineffective against larger things, or denser things.

Remember all the suits that are Zat proof?

Oh yeah! Thx that is what I was looking for. The zat guns didn't work on Kull warriors if I remember right. But no energy weapons, including most projectile weapons and even explosives were ineffective against them so that isn't just a zat thing now that I think about it.

The super-soldiers are enhanced with plasma-absorption armor, so that nearly all energy weapons directed against them have no effect.

[Rudy Pena]

I think the point of the zat-gun was to have something with capabilities that multiple uses kind of the Stargate version of phasers. They needed a weapon on the show that would both be a disabling weapon and a killing weapon both and the staff weapon wouldn't work in that role. It doesn't seem any more stealthy, it still emits a large amount of sound and light, they could even see the zat blasts from the telescopes and equipment Earth was using to monitor Apophis' ships.

I was pretty sure I saw an episode that showed them disintegrating non organic matter thx!

And your right I don't see why anyone would rather carry a staff weapon over a zat, unless you wanted something usable for melee combat.

You are wrong, it was the Shock Grenade. That is what the SGC saw from the ship.

Shock Grenade defination(spelling)-Hand held device capable of blinding and rendering an entire room of individuals unconscious. Shock grenades work with optically-overloading bright light and piercing sound to render their targets immobile. A concealed button the side of the device can activate it for programming. It is then rolled down a corridor or into a room, where it initiates the violent pulse.

[ProjectNintey]

You are wrong, it was the Shock Grenade. That is what the SGC saw from the ship.

Shock Grenade defination(spelling)-Hand held device capable of blinding and rendering an entire room of individuals unconscious. Shock grenades work with optically-overloading bright light and piercing sound to render their targets immobile. A concealed button the side of the device can activate it for programming. It is then rolled down a corridor or into a room, where it initiates the violent pulse.

Not quite.

A "Shock Grenade" also known as a "Flashbang" is designed not to render individuals unconscious, but to disorient potentially hostile armed targets, thus preventing them from effectively aiming weapons and killing their attackers. Unconsciousness is merely a potential side effect, along with bleeding of the eyes and ears and a permanent loss of hearing. That kind of thing is just too unpredictable.

Also...Is that whole three shots rule strictly canon? Apologies if it is.

[turbo1889]

You are wrong, it was the Shock Grenade. That is what the SGC saw from the ship.

Shock Grenade defination(spelling)-Hand held device capable of blinding and rendering an entire room of individuals unconscious. Shock grenades work with optically-overloading bright light and piercing sound to render their targets immobile. A concealed button the side of the device can activate it for programming. It is then rolled down a corridor or into a room, where it initiates the violent pulse.

Not quite.

A "Shock Grenade" also known as a "Flashbang" is designed not to render individuals unconscious, but to disorient potentially hostile armed targets, thus preventing them from effectively aiming weapons and killing their attackers. Unconsciousness is merely a potential side effect, along with bleeding of the eyes and ears and a permanent loss of hearing. That kind of thing is just too unpredictable.

Also...Is that whole three shots rule strictly canon? Apologies if it is.

I believe the original refrence is in refrence to the Gouald version of a stun-gernade not the human version. The Gouald version does produce unconsioucness and temporary blindness lasting at least several minutes once the person wakes up hours later.

In fact, remembering the episode in question, I am absolutely sure we are talking about the Gouald version not the human version.

[Rudy Pena]

I believe the original refrence is in refrence to the Gouald version of a stun-gernade not the human version. The Gouald version does produce unconsioucness and temporary blindness lasting at least several minutes once the person wakes up hours later.

In fact, remembering the episode in question, I am absolutely sure we are talking about the Gouald version not the human version.

Yup, the Goa'uld version we are talking about.

[ProjectNintey]

Yup, the Goa'uld version we are talking about.

Ahhh....My mistake.

[Konrad9]

They haven't used the 3-shot rule in many, many seasons.
The producers realized the amount of energy needed to vaporize matter was extremely high, and a weapon as small as the zat wouldn't be able to do so.

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

Yup, the Goa'uld version we are talking about.

Yep sorry it was the shock grenade not the zat!

[Asuran]

They haven't used the 3-shot rule in many, many seasons.
The producers realized the amount of energy needed to vaporize matter was extremely high, and a weapon as small as the zat wouldn't be able to do so.

It was actually quoted in the 100th ep. about how stupid the idea was with between Martin Lloyd and one of the "directors"

[2ndgenerationalteran]

there is a larger zat weapon, in Demons the leader of the village had the ring that fired a large beam from the sky that carter said is like a zat blast.