(CyberShadow @ Jul. 15 2007,16:54)
QUOTE
A few of my gripes:
Lasguns - do they really make a 'crack' sound? This seems to be very common in GW background, but surely a laser wont make anything like this noise. Maybe a whine? Does this weapon really superheat air so fast as to produce a 'crack'? Anyway, this is a bit 'in depth', so I can live with it if I have to.
Nitpicking here - but no. A whine would be produced by the turbines of a laser using gas as a medium; seeing that solid medium lasers already exist, the heavier gas systems would not be used for hand-held weapons, given the choice. So the weapon would be uninterestingly silent.
As for superheating the air and 'cracking' - no. I cannot see how this would occur. Any laser travelling through air does not make a noise, and even the evaporation of a metal is silent, unless a plasma is generated, which may cause a guttering hiss. A plasma would not be generated in air, as it is unbound (i.e. out in the open) and could not absorb sufficient heat from the beam during passage. And any high rate of energy absorption would attenuate the beam, making it less effective - which, incidentally, can be a problem with laser-guided weapons in heavy rain or snow or fog.
So, no whine, no crack, no whoosh, and now glowing ray of light either! Just molten material where it hits, if it has sufficient power. And Necrons - in particular, highly polished ones - might even reflect most of the beam!
)
