Zan replied to me: > > According to the rules, disintegrators are unaffected and lasers > > get 1/10th range. Even if you argue that grasers are not lasers, > > they'd get 1/100th range, which would be almost a mile. Enough > > for point defense. > > > > Reality doesn't affect disintegrators. Normal amounts of gamma > > rays are absorbed quickly, but I wonder if the weapons-grade > > graser is going to burn a tunnel through water to limit the > > drop. > > > > 4E ultra-tech gives grasers zero range in water. > > I would think that the grasers would be able to vaporize the water in > their path quite rapidly. Firing the weapon while it was in contact with > the water might damage the weapon mount itself because of the > temperature feedback (really hot steam and/or plasma) and shockwave > effects. I didn't think of that before. > > I wonder why there's no effect on disintegrators in the rules? Can a > disintegrator be fired through solid matter? If not, then water should > affect it.
Hello Zan, keep in mind that we're talking about TL15. While this is one step below the maximum in 3E, it is still firmly in the realm of science fantasy. The setting has hyperdrives, force fields, contragrav, reactionless drives, ... That being said, there are two or three factors to help here: * A graser requires a power input of three times nominal power output. It needs some pretty capable cooling systems, anyway, unless that represent power loss on the way to target. * Now the ship is in water, not vacuum, so temperature issues should be easier. * The ship has barrier screen. If required, it can create an air or vacuum bubble around itself. (Yes, that contradicts the second point. Maybe, depending on your physics.) For the disintegrator, remember the extremely high armor divisor. If it goes through armor like butter, how about water? Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
