Looking for cool weapon ideas

[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.

[Justice]

For a disabling weapon, perhaps you could have a missile which bursts into dozens of cluster munitions. These cluster munitions are meant to magnetically attach (among other ways of sticking to things) to whatever mech and to heat up to high levels to induce possible overheating on mechs (Once attached, obviously). They are small enough that one missile could cover a wide area with enough that they'd be hard to avoid.

[Naly]

I keep thinking of the protection foam from Demolition Man...

If the foam were more of a thick putty, and was place in some penetrative speargun kind of rounds, then you could clog the inside mechanisms of a battle mech and put it to a standstill. Alternatively, you could just go straight for the cockpit with a more gentle foam idea to incapacitate the pilot

[Swindle1984]

Bolos. Mech-sized bolos.

[Rayo Azul]

Just finished reading March Upcountry again and was reminded of the chameleon suits they use which are only effective against high velocity weapons. The idea being that they dissipate kinetic energy throughout the armour, stiffening or expanding to protect the user. Mind you, it's a disadvantage that slow moving projectiles or weapons can have much more effect than high-tech bead rifles. Especially as that's the main tech level on Marduk.

[phongn]

Sabot rounds which mix AP with a flammable payload

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

Not just DU - there are dedicated lesser rounds that can do that - see the Raufoss Mk. 211

[Rayo Azul]

Sabot rounds which mix AP with a flammable payload

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

Not just DU - there are dedicated lesser rounds that can do that - see the Raufoss Mk. 211

This sounds like exactly what I was thinking of. I like the shrapnel effect if used against infantry. Making it bigger and using the shrapnel effect once penetrating the outer armour would give the effect we were talking about.

[Crazedwraith]

It's also of highly questionable legality. There's a cause about not using explosive rounds in the Geneva convention. The Raufoss round about is an anti-material round. Using it against personnel is considered a no-no by some parties.

[Swindle1984]

It's also of highly questionable legality. There's a cause about not using explosive rounds in the Geneva convention. The Raufoss round about is an anti-material round. Using it against personnel is considered a no-no by some parties.

Wouldn't much matter, I believe the Raufoss round will only explode on impact with a hard surface. Hitting something soft and squishy like a human would be like shooting it with regular ball ammo.

[Crazedwraith]

I believe that's why its 'questionable legality' not just outright illegal. Norweigan Government have rules saying not to use it on personnel. The Americans and many others don't.

Though if you're mucking about in a sci-fi setting with mechs and stuff there's no reason the laws can't have changed.

[Rayo Azul]

Though if you're mucking about in a sci-fi setting with mechs and stuff there's no reason the laws can't have changed.

Yeah, I agree, and the setting for this tends to have a legal greyness - if the pseudo-religious order okays it, then anything goes

[The Yosemite Bear]

personal favorite invention of mine.

The Glass Gun
fires missiles of compressed silicon mixed with metals, tends to create lots of sprays of leathal to meatbag shrapnel when it hits something too dense for it to penetrate, super sharp core and main graments can penetrate lighter vehicles and goes through most meat bag body armour.

ok, so it's a gyrojet gun that fires missiles made of hightech glass.

[krakonfour]

If we let our imagination run, a lot is possible.
Now from your setting, you say that your mechas are 10-20m tall (ie, big) and are powered by twin fusion reactors. We can't be more vague than that, but let's try getting a realistic flavor here.

I propose:
Javelins. But the scifi type. A 3 meter long rod of very dense materials is accelerated to Mach 3/4. It slices through the armor and sticks half poking out the opposite side. We're not looking to cause gaping holes in the armor, but for the rod to go through and through an essential part of the mecha's insides.

Micronukes. Advances in technology allow nukes to go critical with only a few kg mass of fissionables. This allows proximity bombing of the opponent. While the superstong armor might not be completely blasted away (the bombs aren't that big) we'd have a few layers vaporized, sensors blasted or blinded, a big overheat and a certain knocking down effect...

The million round per second grenade launcher! Area weapon.

[Swindle1984]

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.

Miniature turrets on the torso, head, shoulders, etc. that detect enemy units and fire lasers to blind sensors, pop smoke and chaff, track and fire machine guns at incoming guided missiles, etc. Reactive armor is good, I don't think I've EVER seen it portrayed in a movie or story.

[Swindle1984]

personal favorite invention of mine.

The Glass Gun
fires missiles of compressed silicon mixed with metals, tends to create lots of sprays of leathal to meatbag shrapnel when it hits something too dense for it to penetrate, super sharp core and main graments can penetrate lighter vehicles and goes through most meat bag body armour.

ok, so it's a gyrojet gun that fires missiles made of hightech glass.

No, it's a flechette gun that fires the ammo used by Known Space strakakkers.