Sudden realization about the QEP
Ojakokko
Finland Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226999Members
Finland Join Date: 2017-01-20 Member: 226999Members
So the Quarantine Enforcement Platform fires some sort of a plasma beam, which means it is a plasma weapon which in turn is a type of Directed Energy Weapon or DEW for short. It could also be some other weapon than a plasma weapon, but it is almost definitely some kind of DEW.
The QEP is also installed on the just of a mountain.
So that makes the QEP a literal...
The QEP is also installed on the just of a mountain.
So that makes the QEP a literal...
Comments
Oh well
THIS IS AWESOME.
You just made my day there. best theory i've heard so far too so 1 robot part to you
Relax. I already said it's not necessarily a plasma weapon, and assumed it was a DEW for the sake of the joke. It still probably is some kind of DEW though.
No, plasma weapons are considered DEWs despite plasma being matter. The plasma projectile still delivers thermal energy, while conventional projectiles deliver kinetic energy or chemical energy (which is partially converted to thermal). For an example, look up the AFRL MARAUDER project (Magnetically accelerated ring to achieve ultrahigh directed energy and radiation). I have no idea why the didn't just call it the PWFA (project with a forced acronym) or FAP (forced acronym project). Anyways it was basically a plasma cannon developed by the AFRL (so USAF). It is considered a DEW. The development has been classified since 1993 due to being succesful (=potentially dangerous)
The line's blurry, but as it currently stands, setting aside missiles and the like, it's either a conventional projectile weapon (bullet or equivalent is doing the work) or a DEW (some kind of focused energetic beam/stream is doing the work). The division is sloppy and imprecise, but you can equate it to biological taxonomy: the conventional/DEW division is at the kingdom level, with more specific divisions within each.
Without reposting the whole long discussion from the other thread, the short version of the post @Isummon_Durt mentioned effectively rules out plasma because it won't work. Plasmas require constant containment or they blow apart; a plasma is a bunch of like-charge subatomic particles being held in containment by a force greater than the repulsive force of the particles. Magnets and lasers can do the job, but only when they're present and active. Turn them off and the plasma dissipates and reacts itself back to neutral. Barring some exotic technology to provide a traveling containment to keep the beam coherent, plasma weapons - particularly in an atmosphere - don't work with our current understanding of physics. There's just no way to transmit the plasma a useful distance. So you can have a super-short-range plasma blowtorch, but that's about it.
The alternative I recommended was a different class of DEW, the particle beam. We have substantial working knowledge and experience with them, and it's possible - albeit inefficient - to fire a particle beam through atmosphere. The design I would've written into Subnautica would be an alpha weapon. This uses alpha particles (essentially naked helium-4 nuclei) accelerated to fractional light speed to create an effect. Particles are massive (in the sense that they have mass), can be effectively accelerated, and while they do suffer from blooming due to charge repulsion, aren't as badly affected as other ionized methodologies. Best of all, since the beam has mass, it can be steered by adjusting velocity and angle relative to the local gravity well. With sufficient technology and understanding of advanced particle physics, it'd be at least plausible that a particle-based QEP would work as shown.
With all that said...it was a hilarious joke.
Not entirely true. I refer again to the PWFA (or MARAUDER). It was able to fire a plasma "projectile" that was held together by its own internal forces and interaction with atmosphere (so in this case it wouldn't have worked in vacuum, only in atmosphere). It is possible to create a so called spheromak, a small plasma toroid that is held together by its internal electric forces. They are long-lived (for plasma). Even they live for mere microseconds without external confinement, but given that you can accelerate them to insanely high speeds it really doesn't matter.
All that being said, the gun fires a beam rather than a toroid so none of what I previously said matters and it almost definitely isn't a plasma weapon. Still probably a DEW.
I'll provide links later this day
Edit: I'm a forgetful person, will try again this evening.
Why couldn't there just be two guns? Both ships have come down in similar areas, no reason to say the rest of the planet is covered by other guns.
I'm fairly certain that the QEP has been described as being able to fire a beam at location on or around the planet, being able to curve sorta'. So if there were multiple Platforms, then the aurora and sunbeam would've been hit from multiple (many) different directions.
As for scifiwriterguy, I'd honestly never heard of a particle beam before and am only now checking the wiki. However, this actually makes a lot of sense for the QEP to project a particle beam and also makes sense for why the QEP might only be able to fire at things within the atmosphere, (I don't understand a particle beam's physics yet and probably won't try to, but I assume that the near void of space would immediately dispel any heightened energy,) and also makes sense for the whole tube-like structure of the alien tech around the platform. I.e. it's reminiscent of a particle collider except that it's... not very toroidal. Another thing, and perhaps the most important thing I've found on the wiki, is that particle colliders used for making beams may have an ionized power source. So y'know. Also, particle colliders are apparently used for making lasers and plasma acceleration, so that could work as well. But overall, I suspect that the QEP doesn't really fire anything consistent with the physical universe as it is known. As far as we know, plasma, for example, doesn't make weird little CPU-shaped designs when released. And as far as we know, plasma can't be stored in solid form while still being... uh... plasma. So any attempt at finding what the QEP fires is likely going to be flawed; the truth is as simple as we do not share the same universe and physical laws as Subnautica does and there's no real way to draw parallels between them.
The PDA says this is the only gun based on the alien data. I'm going to trust it.
If they wanted it to be funny, they should've just put a giant field around the planet which behaves like a balloon so that if a spaceship tried to enter the atmosphere, they'd be flung backwards like a trampoline.
Although this would screw up the planet's gravity unless it were made from an energy field; which would have to be projected. And likely from somewhere right beneath it on the planet. So not very cost-effective.
Even a solid shell around the planet wouldn't affect its gravity.
Check out the theory behind the concept of a Dyson Sphere. You could (theoretically) encase a star in a solid shell of such a massive diameter that it's at the habitable range from the star, creating an environment on the interior face. Most discussions on the subject assume that there would be no planets left in the star system, but not because the star's gravity has been disrupted; rather, because you'll need to harvest those planets for materials. Gravity is one of those forces that we currently have no concept on how you could disrupt, interfere with, or block gravity. If we did...well, you'd be smart to sell your aviation stocks in a hurry.