Projectile Weapons vs Energy Weapons

[peragrin]

Ronan's side arm well devastating requires replacement energy caps after so many lethal shots. How they get recharged is debatable.

I would want something like the P-90, with Ronan's gun as a side arm. with stun, and kill settings it is more convenient than just a slug thrower.

However a projectile weapon can do higher damage. If you know your going up againist wraith who generally wear limited armor. you can carry hollow point rounds that make bigger holes, or you can swap out and start shooting armor piercing rounds.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

The answer depends on whether it's a sidearm or a large weapon.

For sidearms, plasma is crap in real life, particle weapons are (for now) too bulky, so kinetic weapons like machine/gauss/coil guns or LASERs or Phased Array laSERs (PHASERS are real hypothetical weapons; Star Terk can't copyright) are best.

For large weapons, relativistic kinetic weapons just can't be beat. Sorry all you energy weapon fans, it's true.

[Durgia]

I believe the projectile weapons are still the best choice for the main guns. They have extreme high rates of fire and are able to function in places and situations that energy weapons are useless.

However I would like to see the side arms switched to be something like Ronans gun. It would be the perfect compliment to the standard projectile weapons.

[FN-P90]

Clearly this is a very hard choice to make but i would go with both. The energy weapons are great for large weapons like the Asgard energy weapons or the Staff cannons, but the P90 and other projectile would be useful for close quarters combat and as anti air craft weaponry. So I belevie you need a balanced mix of both Energy Weapons and projectile weapons.

[iqbalg1]

Thats why Drones are so awesome:
They are essentially projectile weapons (dependent on ammo, insanely good rate of fire) augmented by energy (allowed to ignore newton's law (which would slow down the projectile) because the energy penetrates shields and probably burns through alot of material)

We should do something like that..such as a handheld weapon that fires projectiles using magnets powered using naquadah and contains some small explosive or corrosive material at the tip of the bullet. (which wouldn't be set off by propelling the bullet since no explosion)

[FN-P90]

Thats a good point about the Drones

[pbutter]

Ronon's weapon over a projectile weapon any day of the week.

Only need to look at 'Vengeance' to see how much trouble the P-90 had, compared to the energy pistol.

In 'Duet', we saw what Ronon did with the P-90 to target, then a single shot with his own weapon!

On top of that, it can also stun an enemy, something which a main or back-up projectile weapon cannot do!

That's interesting, but let me ask you this, if you had to (had no choice) choose a weapon to be shot with, which one would you choose ?
Let me tell you, I would rather be shot with Ronon's pistol than a P90.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

I'd rather not be shot.

[pbutter]

Uhh ...huh.
That's why i added "had no choice" in brackets.

[Ancient122]

this topic has been discussed SO many times on SO many forums. One of the main arguments I have for energy weapons is almost 0 recoil. Despite what the tv shows use energy beams/bolts have little mass, therefore little recoil. One idea I like though is a projectile 'sheathed' in plasma.

[pbutter]

Here's a real life RailGun being tested by the U.S. Navy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1q_rRicAwI

[wise one]

they both have their uses yet energy weapon can help power things like a zat did to the cargo ship or tealc staff power source

[ijffdrie]

well, the only good energy weapons with a kill-stance we've seen sofar is traveler weapons, so i have to go with projectile

[Ouroboros]

I vote projectile weapons, even in an advanced technological setting. Energy weapons, no matter how advanced they get (barring handwavium) are always going to be more inefficient in causing damage for a given energy expenditure. That's to say it's always going to require a lot less energy to kill/injure someone with a bullet or solid object than to do similar with a laser or particle beam.

Another reason is that the sum total of projectile weapons doesn't end with just "throwing solid objects" at something.

With advanced technology also comes the possability of highly advanced intelligent guided projectiles with any number of explosive, toxic or who knows what payloads. With sufficiently advanced miniaturization of power sources and computer technolgoy you could in effect create something that would be more of a tiny missile launcher than a gun as we'd understand it. The gun/launcher would be little more than a tube with maybe an EM accelerator to give the missiles a bit of boost but the projectile itself would be a highly advanced micro missile. These missiles could theoretically fly around cover, allow soldiers to fire without exposing themselves to attack, and even chase people around corners and intentionally seek out the head or center of body mass, likely all at the same time. You could also fit them with explosive warheads to ensure single hit lethality. A weapon like that with a machine gun like fire rate could potentially hit hundreds or thousands of targets per minute. I'd take that over any kind of flashy laser gun any day. A single man armed with a thing like that could "spray and pray" at entire crowds of enemies and get near perfect hit ratios thanks to the missiles doing all the hard work of aiming. A very nasty prospect for any adversary without the tech to jam any given method the missiles would use to aquire targets. To be a real ******* you could mix magazines with different types of missiles all qued to lock on to different things, ensuring that no single form of jamming tech would ever provide safety.

If you want to see something like this in action there are weapons in "Andromeda" based on something similar to what I've described. Note however that I would never suggest that anyone actually ever attempt to watch Andromeda.

[anima]

Energy weapons in Stargate tend to lack both range and accuracy where as a projectile weapon has both but the projectile weapon runs out of bullets quicker than most energy weapons run out of power. So it really depends on whether you want range and accuracy or you want to be able to use the weapon for long periods without the need for ammunition.