Looking for cool weapon ideas

[Rayo Azul]

Okay, here's the thought - there's nothing new under the sun, however I'm looking for ideas on cool weapons which can be mounted on Mecha or added to Armour. I want to include it in one of my stories and thought you guys could well give me some ideas.

It could either be a type of missile, round or an actual installed weapons system. I'm trawling the web for ideas, but thought I could save some ground by asking the question.

Cheers

Rayo

[Vendetta]

If you're casting about for a "cool" weapon you're probably Doing It Wrong. (Or you're doing a super robot show, but then you wouldn't need to ask, because rocket punches and drills got you covered there).

The type of weapon systems your fictional world employs if they're not ordinary guns/lasers/big sticks should be bound up in the rest of the fiction. Don't think about what the coolzorz weapon is called or what it does, think about why they use that instead of a chemical explosive which propels a small bit of metal really fast.

[Rayo Azul]

If you're casting about for a "cool" weapon you're probably Doing It Wrong. (Or you're doing a super robot show, but then you wouldn't need to ask, because rocket punches and drills got you covered there).

The type of weapon systems your fictional world employs if they're not ordinary guns/lasers/big sticks should be bound up in the rest of the fiction. Don't think about what the coolzorz weapon is called or what it does, think about why they use that instead of a chemical explosive which propels a small bit of metal really fast.

Okay, take your point. I guess the word cool was wrong. Maybe it should be alternate, or rather an innovative weapons idea. I'm looking for a weapon which gives added punch and perhaps combines a couple of technologies. I've been looking into flechette pistols and Sabot rounds which mix AP with a flammable payload.

Guess I was wondering if anyone had heard of something a little bit different which I could adapt.

As I said though, points taken.

[CBG]

Sabot rounds which mix AP with a flammable payload

These are real. Made from deplated uranium, which is pyrophoric.

An uncommon idea - kinetic kill guided missiles for ground combat. Can be very heavy and fast, but the trick is that they need some distance to accelerate. If you have improbably heavily armored mechas, these can be a nice weapon to pierce their armor.

[Caiaphas]

If you want something stealthier than a KKV, then I'd recommend a kilowatt- or megawatt-rated laser. Absolutely silent, fairly lethal, and very efficient. It may not be able to knock an enemy down, but for precision work--that is, melting shut the knee joint of a mech, or destroying sensors in a fraction of a second--there's nothing better.

[Sky Captain]

For close range combat a flamethrower version of this
http://www.npl.washington.edu/AV/altvw56.html

Imagine spraying your enemies with fissioning plutonium salts

[harbringer]

How realistic do your weapons need to be??. If crazy is what you want nano payloads that are programmable (dissolve all polymers.... or if you actually want to kill turn them into h2o useful and lethal) giant beam weapons that dissolve nuclear bonds, gravity beams that crush or immobilise a target. basically anything you can think of or rationalise given your background. If you want real physics stuff though do what everyone else said.

[someone_else]

If you want something stealthier than a KKV, then I'd recommend a kilowatt- or megawatt-rated laser. Absolutely silent, fairly lethal, and very efficient. It may not be able to knock an enemy down, but for precision work--that is, melting shut the knee joint of a mech, or destroying sensors in a fraction of a second--there's nothing better.

Silent my ass. When it hits something it will make quite a lot of noise due to the vaporized stuff that must exit the hole.

I see lasers as melee weapons for the Mecha. Must be used as spear tips or sickle "virtual blades" (without any shiny effect while not cutting stuff) though. Their cutting ability is triggered by proximity to a surface.

Also, lasers brawny enough can be used as a "grenade launcer" by making them emit a very high-powered continuous beam to hit a surface. The surface explodes and throws shrapnels around, also giving that object a nice recoil in the same direction of the beam. That can also be used as a "Rocket Punch" effect (that is a "punch" at short range instead of melee distance), leaving a nice shallow crater on the enemy's Mecha armor.

[Rossum]

Megaman Legends had a mecha named Bruno (controlled by the Bonne family) who had launchers on his shoulders that lobbed grenades or mortar shells (kind of hard to tell). I think they were cool because he was several stories tall and could use those to lob explosives over the tops of buildings instead of relying on line-of-sight. Probably not much use against another mecha but useful for dealing with little guys with missile launchers or whatnot. Also, since the Bonnes had the servebots working for them its likely those launchers were controlled independantly of the main robot body. Let the pilot worry about other big robots and let the turret operators launch mortar shells into any little guys who might think of taking potshots at the huge two-story target.


Also there was a Cracked.com article I read about crazy military weapons (it was one of those top X list of sthings) that included a what I think was a rubbarized ball of jet fuel with a hole in one side (or maybe it was a ball or rubbarized fuel with a coating on the outside and a hole where the fuel was exposed to air). Basically the lob the thing into a room and a fuse ignites the fuel, this causes the rubber ball thing to rocket and bounce around spraying fire and death all over the place. Like a happy fun ball full of napalm. I don't know how such a weapon would work against mechas (what with most mecha battles taking place in an open environment) but it sounds horrifyingly awesome and inhumane for a weapon. Maybe a mecha regularly launches those things into buildings to set their contents on fire to cause as much colladeral damage as possible during the fight.


Point-Defense cannons. Have the robot build with point defense guns to defend itself against missiles and heavy projectiles. I imagine lasers would be a good way to handle this. Maybe eye lazers like Liberty Prime used in Fallout 3. The robots head can turn 360 degrees and if it hears something firing/launching/cocking/warming up then he swivels his head to face it and starts firing off lasers to take out all the missiles being fired at it. It would be like that scene in Superman Returns except instead of people being shocekd that the bullet bounces harmlessly off his eye they are shocked when a full-on Macross Missile Massacre from a team of robots is met with the big guy glancing in their general direction and exploding them all at a distance. Bonus points if his lasers are normally invisible and it just looks like he exploded them with his mind or somehting. Maybe a scene later where they try the same thing but there are clouds of debris and they finally see that he uses lasers to stop the missiles... then they intentionally cloud up the area to mess with his defenses and fire missiles blindlly at him.


Cannon Fists. In Fallout New Vegas there is the Ballistic Fist which is basically a glove with a shotgun built in so that when you punch someone in the face it automatically fires a shell into them as well. Have a giant robot with heavy artilary cannons built into his fists. That way he can use them as ranged attacks in the standard arm cannon mode but could also get up close and personal and start punching his enemies with fists of fury! But those punches would also be firing artilary shells into his opponent at point blank range.


Some kind of knockdown weapon. Maybe the giant robot equivelent of a shotgun, something designed to hit the opponent with enough force to knock them on their back. Giant robots should logically have more trouble standing up from a prone position than a human would (due to size and mass and such) so knocking one down should stun it enough to start lobbing mortar shells and whatever huge finishing move you need at it.

[Zixinus]

Paintball. Really large, fucking paintball-cannon that will blind anything and everything it hits, as well as to clog and close ports. Make it a accessory or something.

But really, what is the nature of the warfare itself? That is, after all, what dictates what weapons are ideal and what are not.

[Purple]

Have a bunch of small launchers on its body, preferably 4 or 8 or some other even number. Have the launchers fire small missiles attached to huge power cables. Step 1, the missiles fly at the enemy and he dodges them. Step 2, they turn back and wrap around his limbs. Step 3 electrocute.

If you are particularly mean you can even make them drain power from the enemy mech and fill up your own batteries. Or if you want to be extremely mean you can have them drain power from the enemy and use that power to rev up a super laser in your chest.

Imagine like a laser canon or something that usually takes a hell of a lot time to power up and makes you motionless while it revs up. It is also a slow flying beam so anyone can dodge it. But when you pull off your trap and drain combo not only does it rev up ultra fast but the enemy cant dodge. It would be a killer finishing move. You can even have your pilot improvise this solution on the field when he is in desperate trouble as a great crowning moment of awesome.

[Serafina]

You CAN go with style over substance and have it make sense. It's very heavily dependent on the setting tough.
Basically, you must have a reason why people would use cool weapons. Most fighs could be for sport, entertainment or could follow some sort of honor code. If that has been the case long enough in your setting, they simply could no longer have purely functional weapons - even when it turns into an all-out war, they have to use what they've got, and the cool, flashy stuff is what they've got.

An example:
For centuries, the feudal families of planet X have been waging ritualised warfare. Disputes over territory were settled in large combat arenas (square kilometers large) and fights between giant war mechs. Each lord and his chosen champions would try to win over the crowd of the territory that was disputed by displaying the most impressive attacks and being the most honorable and memorable combatant. For non-territorial disputes, a council of other feudal lords decided on the matter, and personal disputes were settled in similar duels.
In order to win these disputes, each feudal family built and maintained huge, powerfull mechs in order to impress the audience. They were giant sinks of resources, but necessary in order to keep and gain land and power.
But now, war with another planet has broken out. Planet X has no proper war machine in order to defend itself - almost their only weapons are their shiny mechs. While they realize that those are not machines of war, they are a symbol of feudal power and leadership and must this participate in each fight. Their performance is crucial for the moral of the people back home, even if it is not crucial for winning the actual fights.

Something like that is a plausible reason to have cool but inefficient weapons of all sorts (they don't have to be mechs). You could even integrate the "show off in order to increase public morale"-idea into most settings.

[lordofchange13]

A super big shoulder cannon that shoots a beam, which converts matter in energy! you could also also wormhole bullets.

[Rayo Azul]

Bit of Background then:

The Mecha in this story are a fourth generation development. They are designated RPD - Resurrection Prototype Delta. The control is applied via a lobotomised brain - a human AI in effect. These units are controlled from remote units, although they have the ability for simple functions within their mission parameters - MURDER, DEATH, KILL to pinch a quote. Power source is a twin fusion reactor. Size around 15-20m.

Alpha models were more large battle suits, Beta units twin pilot and weapons expert (included a variety of weapons, both physical and long range), third and fourth generations were quickly developed following resurrection technology, and an upgrade. They are used in a war of cleansing - pseudo religious.

What I am looking for is both primary and secondary weapons - long range and short or melee weapons.

Already picked up some great ideas for their infantry counter parts, but am open to suggestions, and to be honest there have been some excellent suggestions.

[TOSDOC]

Does your story involve having to capture an opponent's mech and/or pilot alive? I always liked the idea of spraying a mech's legs down with quick-expanding sticky Gorilla glue, or shooting them from a distance with those glue guns from The Incredibles. I think they should have allowed stuff like that on Battlebots too.

[Swindle1984]

Plasma jet. Works like a combination blowtorch/flamethrower. Very limited range and operation time is limited because of fuel and damage from overheating being a serious concern. At longer ranges, it just sets stuff on fire. At short range, it can burn through armor in just a few seconds.

Gyrojet guns. The real-life gyrojet pistol was pretty cool; fewer moving parts than a conventional semi-auto pistol (which meant greater reliability/decreased odds of jamming), the gun firing sounded like a soda can being opened rather than a firearm going off, and it fired a .50-caliber projectile that travels at high velocity (same neighborhood as the 9x19mm) while producing recoil akin to a .22 pistol. A friend of mine who owned one for a while (sold his in the 80's after ammo was nearly impossible to find) said he'd shoot it on camping trips or in his yard and nobody would even realize he was firing a gun because it was quiet and, unlike a suppressed/silenced pistol, didn't sound like a gunshot.

Gyrojets had problems though; the last batch of ammo produced had serious quality-control issues that made reliability and accuracy hit-or-miss. The exhaust nozzles for the ammo would be misshapen or blocked entirely, sending bullets careening wildly instead of straight, propellant would be exposed to the humidity in the air and would either result in poor combustion (the bullet would accelerate too slowly or be unable to overcome the spring holding the hammer in place and simply burn out inside the pistol.), etc. Earlier batches of ammunition were far more accurate and reliable, on par with conventional ammo.

You could make gyrojets for the pilot's sidearm, or make a conventional autocannon that fires gyrojet projectiles for even greater velocity, though you risk copying the bolter from Warhammer 40k.

Bullets or missiles loaded with trimethylaluminum could be interesting; upon exposure to air, burns at 6,000 degrees F and can't be extinguished with water or CO2. Produces bright white and UV light that instantly burns your retinas and blinds you if you look directly at it. Produces clouds of high-temperature, toxic smoke. If it lands in water, instead of burning it just explodes. Standard procedure for an accident involving trimethylaluminum is to just let it burn out. I'm not sure what, if any, advantages it would have over projectiles loaded with thermate/thermite. Maybe a combination illumination flare/incendiary?

You could also make use of chlorine trifluoride. The Nazis experimented with it as a fuel for rockets and flamethrowers, but abandoned it as too dangerous to play with. It reacts with just about anything. Splash some on concrete and the concrete itself will combust. Ditto for metals, flesh, wood, plastics, sand, etc. Just spray something down with it and it'll either dissolve like you poured concentrated acid on it or burn. As a side bonus, it makes all kinds of fun byproducts as it reacts with different substances, such as hydroflouric acid. You know, the stuff that will soak through your flesh, melt your bones, and dissolve your nervous system so that you die in horrible agony as your body liquifies from the inside out?

Have your giant robot spray a high-pressure stream of that shit at an enemy tank and watch the thing burn like crazy, explode when the ammo/fuel is reached, and any crew who survived the fire and explosion die the most horrible death imaginable. Holy shit.

Alternately, you could always use some sort of radiation gun that kills the crew, but leaves enemy tanks, giant robots, etc. more or less intact.

[jamsy42]

So called Medusa Weapons. They emit a specific frequency etc that inhibits higher brain function or possibly induces hallucinogenic affects.

[Rayo Azul]

Does your story involve having to capture an opponent's mech and/or pilot alive? I always liked the idea of spraying a mech's legs down with quick-expanding sticky Gorilla glue, or shooting them from a distance with those glue guns from The Incredibles. I think they should have allowed stuff like that on Battlebots too.

It does include two actions - infantry having to take down a Mecha and Mecha protagonising a boarding action in space.

I am playing around with a missile which releases a net which wrapped round or over a target and delivered an EMF pulse, the following disruption allowing easy access/boarding to the opponents vehicle.

[generator_g1]

Does your story involve having to capture an opponent's mech and/or pilot alive? I always liked the idea of spraying a mech's legs down with quick-expanding sticky Gorilla glue, or shooting them from a distance with those glue guns from The Incredibles. I think they should have allowed stuff like that on Battlebots too.

They did that in Gundam 00 where the Tierens tried to capture the Gundam Virtue and they shot a glue like substance at it's joints to inhibit it's movement.

[Peebo-T]

Of note: A glue type weapon was also show in "Ghost in the shell-Second Gig" episode.

Large blobs of substance that deform squishily upon impact, but quickly harden around where ever they hit.

[Formless]

Any kind of freezing weapon. They rape the laws of thermodynamics, but they sure as hell are fun.

[Rayo Azul]

Okay, we've talked about weapons, now what about armour?

I personally liked H Beam Piper's idea on armour plating - Collapsium. Where atoms were collapsed, so that they were so closely packed nothing could get through.

What other ideas are there? This could be real or theoretical.

[Eternal_Freedom]

You could go with old BSG armour kind of stuff. Heavy armour plate for blocking Ke stuff and also somehow manages to be thermally superconductive, so it absorbs and re-radiates energy safely. Fun stuff!

[Purple]

Use active countermeasures like the ones on modern tanks combined with ERA. If nothing else it would be original to use something like that on a mech.

[Rossum]

For armor, maybe it incorporates a sort of soft programmable matter that can heal over itself to replace damaged parts. Sort of like the T-1000 in the terminaor movie, the soft morphable armor isn't as hard as normal armor but it can morph to repair itself to protect vital components.

It could be like the Yellow Devil monsters from the Megaman games where the mecha is mostly a blob of morphable goo or plastic with a few solid mechanical parts inside. Attacking the gooey parts will damage it temporarily but that mass can easily be repaired or replaced. You'd have to damage the solid cores to really disable the machine.

Or it could be made to look more like an animal. The morphable material is soft enough to cushion any blows the solid parts might sustain from falling from great heights (if a big mecha falls over then the inertia involved could mess up its parts when it lands) so it would be like a 'skeleton' of a big creature with alot of softish armor on the outside that cushions the mechanical parts against falls, blows, or attacks. A mecha covered in reflective foam would have some protection against energy weapons since they just melt the outer surface which makes proceeding layers more reflective to resist the weapon. If the foamy armor is morphable then damage sustained from one attack could be negated by the armor just moving to replace the removed sections.


So a 'Mecha' could either look alot like Sargent Shlock (a big moving glob of gunk with a few solid parts and weapons in it) or like a Terminator with a metal robotic endoskeleton and a softer 'fleshy' exterior that can heal to cover its metal parts.