• @[email protected]
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      2011 months ago

      Inverse square law is just a geometric limitation, focus your lasers more, problem solved.

  • polonius-rex
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    3211 months ago

    the tank is confused by its own reflection and attempts to fight itself

  • verity_kindle
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    1311 months ago

    We don’t need Sky Ranger, mirrorbois or lasertank, we have shitballoons.

    • Seraph
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      3611 months ago

      …the color of a blaster bolt (character-scale or starship scale) is determined by the quality of the gas used in it - higher quality gives you green, lower quality gives you red. The Rebellion didn’t have access to the highest quality gas, and had to make do with the lower quality ammunition.

      Huh, I guess I wondered but never looked it up until now.

      • TurtlePower
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        1011 months ago

        I mean, that’s how it was retconned, but it was originally just so viewers could tell if it was the good guys or bad guys shooting. Just like there were only supposed to be blue (good guys) and red (bad guys) lightsabers. As the Star Wars universe and lore expanded, things got retconned and added/changed/removed, and it’s still happening with the new stuff that comes out. Isn’t world-shaping neat?

    • @[email protected]
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      711 months ago

      The US military has in the past used some large vehicle mounted beam weapons that make your skin burn like all hell, such as the Active Denial System, and I wonder if those could be deflected as well or if they’re the part of the spectrum that needs more sophisticated shielding?

      • knightly the Sneptaur
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        211 months ago

        Those aren’t lasers, they’re millimeter-wave radio beams.

        Yes, they can be deflected pretty easily, but you’ll need metal shield that’s big enough to entirely hide behind.

  • bufalo1973
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    3011 months ago

    If you fire a laser against a mirror, it bounces but raises the heat of the mirror so you end up melting the mirror and destroying the drone.

    • @[email protected]
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      2511 months ago

      I may risk being too credible here, but a $80 drone is a lot more expendable than a $40m laser tank. The drone can be considered a consumable. Hell, mark the drones down as ammo.

      • @[email protected]
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        811 months ago

        In all seriousness, wavelength-specific dielectric mirrors can approach six nines of reflectivity.

        The hard part is hitting the mirror instead of the drone.

    • @[email protected]
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      1011 months ago

      Depending on how long you do it, how powerful the laser, and how quickly it can cool off at the same time.

      And like the other guy said, you can make really good mirrors if you only care about one wavelength.

  • Norgur
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    4011 months ago

    I only we had something we could fire that do almost the same arc as that. That would be ballin’! So I’d call it ballistics

    • @[email protected]
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      511 months ago

      That would work if the earth wasn’t flat. As it is, you need to transport the artillery below their position and shoot them from there. Like Ender shooting through the ice clouds.

    • verity_kindle
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      411 months ago

      There’s a building in central London that melted a car. Solar laser, so SEO friendly, so on fleek.

  • @[email protected]
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    111 months ago

    Not stupid just single track minded. Doing as told with no deviation. The stupid ones are the officers driving the r&d battalions

  • @[email protected]
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    11411 months ago

    Laser tanks are impractical. What if the enemy wears mirrored shades? That laser goes right back and kills you instead. You don’t want your 100 million dollar tank to be taken out by a pair of Ray-Bans.