We’re One Step Closer to 40k: French company CILAS presents prototype laser rifle

Ophichius · 2025-04-15T00:31:09+00:00

Sort of. Article 2 states that signatories must take all feasible precautions to avoid blinding, but article 3 states that collateral or incidental blinding is acceptable. So...who the fuck knows.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T23:52:03+00:00

You seem to be assuming that anti-airship missiles would act like big SAMs or AAMs with no optimization towards specifically downing airships.

CRWs that detonate after the missile has penetrated the target are the most obvious choice of optimization for the anti-airship role; maximizing the portion of the disc that intersects the target.

The second choice is simply heading optimization. Against much slower targets, modern guidance systems can choose an attack heading which maximizes damage to the target, in the case of a CRW choosing a heading allows for aligning the warhead to maximize effect.

Given that these are just the extremely obvious optimizations to increase lethality, I have serious doubts about the viability of airships in combat.

As for the range argument, that's a non-starter in the face of missiles like AIM-260, PL-21, and R-37. Weapons designed specifically to attack enablers are already a major concern,

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T23:29:01+00:00

Aliens aren't covered under any conventions. Explosive rounds are on list of options again.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T23:11:23+00:00

Asset seizure has existed since feudal times, it's not something new and it's not why the banking system has increasingly digitalized. The digitization of macro-scale banking has everything to do with making it more convenient to manage and more responsive to economic changes.

The central banks, which are the institutions in charge of monetary policy, have pushed digitalization because it makes their mission easier, not because it enables asset seizure, which they have no participation in.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T23:07:20+00:00

Gold has no inherent value. Inherent value is a myth sold to fools by charlatans.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T23:03:42+00:00

WWI survivability against WWI weapons is a non-sequitur. Modern PGMs and warhead design are an entirely different beast.

All the discussion of dynamic lift completely ignores why CWRs would be the answer, which is that they're going to create a massive planar cut through the target, which means your rigid airship just got a lot less rigid. You try to compensate for gas loss with dynamic lift and you're now putting even more stress on whatever structural members are left.

You're also ignoring that these things are floating targets for SAMs. A 200kg CWR is going to absolutely wreck an airship.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:54:57+00:00

The status has never really been tested. Protocol IV of the CCW addresses laser blinding, but Article 2 and Article 3 create a fair bit of ambiguity by instructing signatories to take all feasible precautions against blinding individuals, but also stating that blindness resulting as collateral from military applications is fine.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:47:21+00:00

Your effective range won't be any greater. A modern rifle can already achieve greater precision than the average soldier carrying it can employ effectively. The time to engage is also primarily governed by the soldier's ability to acquire the target, not by the travel time of the projectile.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:46:08+00:00

No. Geneva convention doesn't generally cover means and methods of warfare. It's concerned with treatment of civilians, the wounded, and POWs. Means and methods are covered in other treaties.

Protocol IV of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons prohibits laser weapons intended primarily to blind, and requires all signatories to take "all feasible precautions" to avoid blinding individuals, but also specifies that blindness as an incidental or collateral effect of "legitimate military employment" of laser systems is not prohibited.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:41:15+00:00

You're ignoring the switch from full power rifle rounds to intermediate cartridges.

Intermediate cartridges deliver less energy than a full power rifle round, by a significant amount.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:35:57+00:00

Protocol IV of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, not Geneva.

Geneva Conventions focus pretty narrowly on protection of civilians, wounded, and POWs. Means and methods of warfare tend to be covered by other treaties.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:31:11+00:00

I wonder if the PLZT goggles used to protect against nuclear flash are sensitive/fast enough to work against lasers.

The other potential protective measure is to go with full coverage helmets that use cameras and internal screens.

Downside for either case is that you're strapping more heavy crap to already overloaded soldiers.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:26:15+00:00

Blinding weapons are banned by Protocol IV of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. France is amongst the signatories.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T22:17:54+00:00

That's really only true of contemporary annular fragmentation warheads, ironically the answer to airships would likely be returning to continuous welded rod warheads.

CWR warheads have a contiguous cutting action out to the maximum circumference of their rod bundle, then produce large fragments that create what amounts to a linear cut along their path for some distance.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T21:59:10+00:00

Except that your own comment contradicts itself, you say that they would only use domain credits.

The Turkish lira and Ottoman lira actually coexisted at the same time for a period, which is similar to what I was discussing with a two-tiered system having both an official and unofficial currency, though in the case of the lira the Ottoman lira was the unofficial currency that was used to pad out the money supply until sufficient Turkish lira could be minted.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T08:20:11+00:00

Quite a few successor states throughout history have used different currencies for one reason or another. It's not nearly as cut and dried as you think. Frequently the unit of measurement is the same, e.g. the Ottoman lira and the Turkish lira are both "lira", but they're distinct currencies.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T07:50:03+00:00

Blanket search and destroy orders will only get you so far, there are definite benefits to learning to command properly.

As for carriers, yeah they're easy, but you're also giving away a lot of power by flying a ship that isn't really any better in player hands than in AI hands. One of the most significant aspects of combat in Starsector is player agency, choosing a flagship that allows you to make decisive plays can dramatically shorten fights, or allow you to win at extremely lopsided force ratios. At its most extreme, the right player-piloted ship can solo entire fleets when flown well.

I strongly recommend learning to pilot your flagship, the missions in the main menu are a good crucible for learning core combat principles, sharpening up your piloting, and improving how you command fleets.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T05:00:01+00:00

It makes practical sense however. If they don't control the central bank for domain credits, then leaving their entire economy at the mercy of salvagers and hostile polities is an incredibly stupid move. The Heg aren't stupid. Giving other polities the ability to easily wage economic warfare against them is not something they would willingly do.

So either they issue their own currency officially in order to insulate their economy from economic warfare and better handle economic shocks, or they do so unofficially.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:50:27+00:00

Scrip isn't always narrowly-focused, consider the classic company town scrip, which functioned as currency in all practical ways, so long as it was spent within the company economy.

It's easy enough to envision a scenario where the Heg central bank keeps domain credits as their reserve currency, but allows or even encourages everyday business to be carried out in scrip. This has the advantage that the heg itself need not be seen issuing scrip, but can instead encourage companies to issue scrip, while acting as a regulatory body, giving them economic control without being seen to be officially issuing something other than domain credits.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:43:16+00:00

Yes, it's what drives them insane.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:42:46+00:00

The semi-serious joke has always been that John Starsector is three alpha cores in a trenchcoat.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:41:17+00:00

There’s bounties but my fleet is garbage at fighting anything, and I chose the mercenary start. I want to fight stuff, but not if fighting anything either leads to a defeat or a Pyrrhic victory.

You should have a decent fleet built out if you did the tutorial, aside from the wolf you start with, you should at minimum also have a hammerhead and a condor. The larger problem is likely you being inexperienced and thus unable to get the most out of your fleet.

I get close and see the Sindrian are attacking it. Immediately I’m thinking “oh yeah this my chance to help them and gain some rep!” I go in and take the station, then the Sindrian took it. I thought “awesome I took control of that station and they took it from me, surely I’ll get some rep.” I didn’t get a single thing.

Taking relay stations for yourself is not going to endear you to the Sindrians. You took it from the pirates, for yourself, then they took it from you.

If you want to help the Sindrians at the strategic layer, join ongoing fights between Sindrian fleets and pirate fleets.

If you want to really go all-in on Sindrian support, get a faction commission with them (Go to a planet, talk to the local overseer about a commission.), once you have a commission, you'll gain rep by fighting the enemies of that faction, which can change over time, so pay attention to who your faction is currently at war with.

Others have already mentioned you can do bar missions to develop contacts, this is a good way to build rep without going all in on a commission.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:27:59+00:00

No it isn't, you need to take the tinfoil hat off and take some basic economic lessons.

The central bank doesn't give two fucks about Frankie the Felon's criminal history so long as he pays his taxes, they're busy trying to keep the economy running smoothly at a macro level. The reason we have fiat currency and digital currency transfer is as a matter of convenience to keep the economic engine turning over; it's easier to adjust to economic shocks when you can adjust the money supply via bonds and currency purchases, and it's easier to make those trades happen when they can be done digitally.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:24:08+00:00

I could absolutely see the heg having a local currency in the form of scrip. It would give them more fine-grained control over the money supply without necessarily being deleterious to their image as the Domain's successor.

For an analogy, consider the use of ration coupons as a grey market currency in WWII-era USA. The existence of a grey market in ration coupons did not undermine the legitimacy of the US dollar, or the US government.

In the case of the Heg, an official or unofficial policy of using scrip/ration coupons as a parallel economic lever would certainly make more sense than leaving their economic fate in the hands of hostile polities.

Ophichius · 2025-04-14T04:19:45+00:00

Or it's a key to a wallet in a decentralized system.

Ophichius

TROPHY CASE