Poll: Lasers weapons or Kinetic Weapons

[PapaGreg096]

Which do you prefer in fiction, do you like the idea of a weapon that fires metal pieces or do you prefer the idea of shooting light to vaporize enemies. Me personally I like the idea of a weapon where you can change its function through ammunition and I love the idea of magnetic weapons

 

[Thaluikhain]

I was going to say that laser weapons are usually depicted very badly in fiction, but then that is true of kinetic weapons as well, including ones that exist nowdays and should be well understood.

While you can change the function of a firearm with different ammunition, currently this doesn't much happen with the exception of tracer ammunition. Excepting shotguns, all sorts of weird munitions for those, and some of them people actually would want to use.

 

[Hawki]

Depends what kind of fiction and setting I guess. But I guess kinetic weapons.

 

[FalloutJack]

Speaking as a Fallout fan, the right tool for the right job is the answer. The minute you depend solely on one, something that Nopes it but not the other comes out and bites you in the ass.

 

[jklinders]

Lasers are cool and all science fictiony but I think I like slug throwers in all their truly diverse glory. Though they can co-exist in a properly thought out universe. Herbert had a nice balance happening in Dune. Lasguns, as they were called, were great, but bulky and expensive. Also not very cost effective if someone was using a body shield. In the age of kinetic shields, it was safer and more practical to use short range low-velocity dart guns and slug throwers. Lasguns only being useful if for some reason the target was not shielded.

Mostly I don't think much about it. If the tech is consistent within its universe I'm fine with any amount of hand waving.

 

[Mechamorph]

Reasonably any laser weapon in atmosphere will have to deal with blooming. Any kinetic weapon is space will be painfully slow compared to a directed energy weapon or even some sort of smart missile (which will keep accelerating due to a lack of air resistance). So my take is lasers for space combat and kinetic for inter or intra atmosphere work. Firing a big ball of metal or rock at a planet for instance is usually more efficient than trying to fire a laser from great distance. For one even if you miss by a small margin, the planet's own gravity might correct the course for you.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Bullet would carry a high energy directed payload to the target. Impacts. Energy explodes out from the bullet, optimally disrupting and making a small hole in any energy shielding and then the bullet goes through.

 

[lionsprey]

Kinetic i guess since my favorite fictional weapons are the 40K Bolters. more specifically the Astarte pattern ones

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Both. I like my Pew-Pew and my Dakka-Dakka.

Although honestly, I prefer my weapons to 'fire' small, stupid versions of me inside the intended target through a nightmare dimension.

 

[laggyteabag]

Lasers and Plasma weapons are cool. Coming from Halo, both of these categories give me the idea of something like the Covenant's plasma rifle, or promethan light rifle.

Sleek. Deadly. Otherworldly.

Personally, I have always been more of a kinetic kind of guy. That way you can go anywhere between a normal assault rifle that dakka dakkas pretty well, or you can get something like a railgun, that does a whole lot more, and a lot cooler.

I find Kinetic a lot more interesting, because there are a whole lot of things that you can shoot out of a barrel. Whether it be a bullet, or an explosive charge, or a superheated shard of metal, or a sliver of a pink, explodable crystal. A lot more than different coloured beams or blobs.

They also tend to sound a whole lot gnarlyer, to boot.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Kinetic ... lasers are fun and all, but guns don't require battery packs.

That being said, the laser rifle in Akira is pretty fucking cool.

Also, laser guns are cooler than laser swords. I honestly don't get the fascination of lightsabers in Star Wars. The blaster rifles and pistols looked way the hell cooler. It was like taking WW2 Soviet, U.S. and German guns, giving them a sci-fi pulp finish.

Spoiler: Nerd off..

vs

No contest ... blaster >>>>> lightsaber.

 

[Dango]

A bit of both is always good. Personally I loved the original Mass Effects explanation of why guns in that universe didn't use bullets or need reloading. That explanation alone was enough to make me hate reloading as a mechanic in Mass Effect 2, but Mass Effect 2's comparatively poor codex already puts it miles behind the original for me. The universe of the original Mass Effect just felt so much more complete and well thought out.

 

[SupahEwok]

Can't beat dropping tungsten rods from orbit.

 

[American Tanker]

Magnetic accelerators.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

The only good lasers are those that go through and tear up scenery. Everything else just looks a bit like a unicorn fart with little to no feedback compared to the hefty clunk of a railroad rod pinning some unfortunate yet annoying creature to their own ceiling.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Also, laser guns are cooler than laser swords. I honestly don't get the fascination of lightsabers in Star Wars. The blaster rifles and pistols looked way the hell cooler. It was like taking WW2 Soviet, U.S. and German guns, giving them a sci-fi pulp finish.

Er...when you say "like", do you mean "literally"? Though, the most common one was the UK Sterling.

Interestingly, there's a lot of that sort of thing, but usually with a blank firing weapon covered in plastic rubbish to obscure the original, rather than something that doesn't need to fire with extra bits added on.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

Kinetic ... lasers are fun and all, but guns don't require battery packs.

That being said, the laser rifle in Akira is pretty fucking cool.

Also, laser guns are cooler than laser swords. I honestly don't get the fascination of lightsabers in Star Wars. The blaster rifles and pistols looked way the hell cooler. It was like taking WW2 Soviet, U.S. and German guns, giving them a sci-fi pulp finish.

Spoiler: Nerd off..

vs

No contest ... blaster >>>>> lightsaber.

I never liked the Star Wars blasters actually. The stormtrooper ones are okay but when their too obviously just regular guns with backwards scopes seems lazy
Plus I get too distracted by there not being a magazine where there should be

 

[immortalfrieza]

Speaking as a Fallout fan, the right tool for the right job is the answer. The minute you depend solely on one, something that Nopes it but not the other comes out and bites you in the ass.

True, but that said if we're talking about Fallout kinetic weapons have significantly more versatility and the ammo is a lot easier to get a hold of, while laser and plasma weapons in Fallout and it's spiritual predecessor Wasteland tend to get shafted in some way and aren't as easy to get a hold of and supply ammo for. Either they aren't able to cause as much damage as kinetic weapons except against a specific type of defense if they aren't just weaker in general and can't be silenced.

OT: It depends on what we're talking about with laser weapons. If it's just plain lasers outright the options are a lot more limited, with I think even Star Trek's phasers using some sort of plasma. If we're talking plasma too then things open up a lot more. Of the latter I'd go with Star Wars blasters since other than lightsabers (which, incidentally, it would be best to use kinetic weapons against) it can go through just about anything but armor needed for vehicles and has hundreds of shots in a single clip, which makes it far superior to regular old guns in killing power.

However, I'll have to give the vote to kinetic weapons in the end, due to the sheer amount of variety in form and function of that sort of weapon that lasers have yet to match. This is a shame because I find the potential of a weapon that fires a projectile (for lack of a better word) that could be shaped into literally anything to be wasted with laser weapons.

 

[Hawk of Battle]

Why not both at the same time? Stargates drone weapons were basically that; a self propelled, mentally controlled missile wreathed in an impenetrable field of energy that is capable of punching through basically all matter and energy shielding, before turning back around for another pass. Sure it's not a laser, but it's about as close to a hybrid energy/kinetic weapon I've seen.