TWRL - TEST Weapons Research Lab

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Bhering, KP, Python - companies like these have got the conventional weapons all wrapped up.

We at TEST Weapons Research Lab need to have wider ambitions - when around a TEST Services Ship, unpredictability will be our first line of defence... and offence.

We have already discussed the Practical Avocado Launcher (PAL) at great length in the below thread, and also come up with a personal side weapon which launches small easy to get hold of projectiles that can be used inside a pressurised hull without the fear of breaching the walls:

https://testsquadron.com/threads/semi-silly-side-question.8136/

However this is not enough - we need more unpredictability, more power and above all more options for TWRL to help our TEST brothers and sisters defend themselves with options that will be as practical as they are deadly.

For instance, inspired by the recent thread about greifers (below), a potential idea for a new e-war weapon, the Remote Self Destruct.:

https://testsquadron.com/threads/reddit-repost-we-cant-all-be-pirates.8533/

We can make our enemies ships our ammunition. Imagine a Bengal, with a pair of Javelins as close support with a field of fighters. A lone TEST Herald drops out of Quantum and darts through the field, the pilot dodging missiles and copilot hacking the ships systems, transmitting a remote Self Destruct signal. The Bengal blows, a victim of its own scuttling system, the Javelins go down in flames, the fighters flee to try to get out of range... without a single shot fired by our side.

These are the ideas TWRL not only has to have but also needs to implement in the 'Verse.

Come, brave souls, what other ideas can we have for the glory of TEST? The Avocado Launcher and Remote Self Destructor are fine starts, but what else can we come up with?

For suggestions, please keep them practical. A Cat Launcher is all well and good, but where would you get the cats from? Where would you keep them before launch? What costs would be involved in having live ammo, food/water etc?

Welcome to TWRL, let discussion commence.

 

[DarthMatter]

How about project RAMP-V? Remotely armed multi-purpose vehicle (name in progress). We build our ground base with a slanted roof that goes down all the way to the ground. From this we can then drive cars and carts loaded with explosives into ships that are hovering right above us, jump out at the last second and watch everything explode.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

How about project RAMP-V? Remotely armed multi-purpose vehicle (name in progress). We build our ground base with a slanted roof that goes down all the way to the ground. From this we can then drive cars and carts loaded with explosives into ships that are hovering right above us, jump out at the last second and watch everything explode.

I like your thinking... Perhaps the base shape could be a gently sloping cone or dome so we could launch RAMP-V's in any direction, hight and distance depending on speed of the vehicle...?

 

[DarthMatter]

WALL - Wall of Auroras Littered and Laying around.
Creating a big group of auroras and leaving them in front of the exit/entrance of a system so that anyone trying to come in un-announced will crash into the WALL and explode. Effectively plugging up entire planetary systems.

 

[FluffyVonRage]

DERP - Deployed EVA Reactionary Personnel - drop a group of snipers into space near a combat zone to pick off any enemy survivors/Medical teams.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I was inspired to weaponise the Quantum Drive after a discussion on toilets. I wondered to myself what would happen if my ships Waste Tank vented while at QD? Would the Blue Ice atomize or continue on at 20% the speed of light?

20% the speed of light is 134,123,325.8mph I would wager anything travelling at 134 million miles an hour has much more kinetic energy than any conventional weapon at our disposal... ideal for slow or fixed targets like space ports and enemy installations.

Forget the 'Tali Torpedo, launch an Aurora into a Javlin at Quantum and the Jav is not going to survive that hit. If the Merlin could fit a Quantum it would make the Snub Bay on the Connie useful.

It would not have to be a suicide mission either, like a dive bomber you could QD carrying a solid mass toward a target and let go of it before dropping out of QD allowing the masses momentum to carry on, or even attach Quantum Drives to masses and let them fly...

Now, all this presumes that ships and objects in QD can interact with objects outside of QD. If they can't, the following is possible: Fly object at impenetrable fortress. Deactivate QD while object is sharing same space as impenetrable fortress. Object still had high speed, maybe not 20% of light but if it is even 620 that's still a hell of a hit. Impenetrable fortress go boom.

Do any of you know the current Lore around the QD - Can it not function around gravitational fields meaning you get close and it switches off? What speed do items outside of a Quantum Field return to, can quantum dive bombing work? Can objects inside a Quantum field hit stuff outside it?

 

[Snakey]

So, basically make a rods from gods system with QD.

Count me in!

 

[DarthMatter]

Don't really know from lore if it's possible, but I think I have crashed into other players while both where in QD

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Excellent, we'll have to test it out a bit more but it sounds like an achievable option - If pirates want your cargo QD toward their base and chuck all the cargo out of your Freelancer - they can have it at 134 million miles an hour!

 

[AeroGrizzly]

For suggestions, please keep them practical. A Cat Launcher is all well and good, but where would you get the cats from? Where would you keep them before launch? What costs would be involved in having live ammo, food/water etc?

Welcome to TWRL, let discussion commence.

Who said anything about live cats? Air-freshener is cheaper and easier to store than cat food.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Who said anything about live cats? Air-freshener is cheaper and easier to store than cat food.

You make a very good point, however if you are going store air freshener to fire dead cats why not just fire the air freshener?

You could have different types of Air Freshener too, Aerosol, the weird jell stuff in the plastic cage, or those little tree shapes you get for the car.

If the Aerosol tins, the explosion on impact from the pressurised can would make a good ship to ship or anti-personnel mortar ordnance, I can imagine a lot of shrapnel coming off one of those things. Cans of WD40 would have a similar effect I would think. Also because they are pressurised if we get the launcher right they could be self-propelled for even more of a punch.

If the weird jell stuff, that's ideal for smothering an enemy ships cockpit. They may still be able to track with radar but damned if they are going to see us or the asteroids around them ;)

And if we use the little tree thingies, what could be more offensive than a bunch of those splatting on to your your ships canopy with "you smell" hand written on them in marker pen? Its that personal touch Test should be known for.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Ah, and there is the perfect tag line for Test Weapons Research Lab:

TWRL - "Its that personal touch"

 

[AstroGimp01]

Whenever I think of TESTies conducting weapons development I harken back to Homer Simpson and his Max Power persona

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P0JM3h7IQk


'Gimp

 

[DarthMatter]

Whenever I think of TESTies conducting weapons development I harken back to Homer Simpson and his Max Power persona

The TEST way has more crashes and explosions though :)

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Ladies and Gentlemen of TWRL, i put forward a defence system for our Rock Raiders brothers and sisters which is practical and recycles the useless rock they do not want to use:

Imagine a lone Prospector out in some backwater asteroid belt scratching a 'roid when they come across the mother-load, a seam of riches unlike has been seen before. The ship hunkers down to work, but now it is vulnerable. Can't run, can't hide, a sitting duck. Disaster! Half way through a pair of pirate Gladius and a Cutlass appear to relieve you of your hard won resources... What do you do?

You turn on the trio of TWRL "Spoiler" turrets that you bolted to the asteroid when you started working, thats what you do: remote unmanned turrets that fire the useless spoil rocks from the asteroid you are mining - Effectively unlimited projectile ammo they can even mine the floor they are on for ammo if they run low on spoil, they could be like the Mantis Gatling guns - low physical damage per projectile but a stream of projectiles so dense if it doesn't breach the hulls immediately they would be able to physically push the ships off course and away, before chipping through that hull or cockpit canopy finishing those who do not run off.

 

[Printimus]

Excellent, we'll have to test it out a bit more but it sounds like an achievable option - If pirates want your cargo QD toward their base and chuck all the cargo out of your Freelancer - they can have it at 134 million miles an hour!

Light travels at 186,000 miles per hour or 300,000,000 meters per second. QD is sub light speed.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Light travels at 186,000 miles per hour or 300,000,000 meters per second. QD is sub light speed.

300,000,000 meters per second converts to 186,000 miles a second. Per hour light travels 670,616,629 miles. 134 million miles an hour is about 20% of lightspeed which is what QD is supposed to be ;)

This is all relative to the speed the destination is travelling and in what direction, of course, so in a way we are both right depending on specific circumstances.

 

[Printimus]

300,000,000 meters per second converts to 186,000 miles a second. Per hour light travels 670,616,629 miles. 134 million miles an hour is about 20% of lightspeed which is what QD is supposed to be ;)

This is all relative to the speed the destination is travelling and in what direction, of course, so in a way we are both right depending on specific circumstances.

omg, im retarded.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

omg, im retarded.

Oh no you're not, 'twas just a little miscalculation. To error is human, to TEST devine!

Also check this out: Scientists slowed a light beam down to 38mph http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/1999/02/physicists-slow-speed-of-light/

 

[PajamaJams]

Count me IN! I was planning on being a flight engineer, so weapon specialization is grand.