Man, I feel like everytime money is brought up the Ehler's Cigs Co. gets shit on. There's an elaborate backstory and reasoning that was planned out since the beginning, and the character of Julius has just become wealthy for the first time in his life, which as we all know leads to careless spending. That said, that money is supposed to fund ICIA, not him, but he dips in the tip jar now and again.
See, he could fund the whole ICIA with all plasma weaponry AND probably impervium armor outfits with all that money they throw out easy.
As far as bladed weaponry goes (Such as swords), fighting someone with a gun with one is pretty bad on the sword's man end, unless their opponent is lightly armored, vulnerable, and unaware of their presence. If they've got good armor, then chances are the swordsman ain't gonna win, unless they somehow manage to sink the blade into the opening between plates, such as joints, or can catch them off guard and do just that. Guns. Guns guns guns.... Yeah guns do work. While a standard rifle plate could only take a few bullets, firing a fully automatic weapon at someone's rifle plate is gonna punch through it within a second. Sure a few bullets won't pierce, but the rest are bound to fill them up. The only problem is you have to keep in mind what caliber is being used. The only problem though is I sometimes see people just firing their gun over and over without reloading a clip at times. Bit of a pain to me. I keep track of ammo clips, even how much ammo in general a character has. Materials and money. -Shudder- Honestly I prefer trading in resources, 1. Because they won't lose value. 2. Some people's source of money just... Seems so unrealistic. I keep track of my how much money all of my characters have, so I know what my character's are willing to spend in order to get what they need or want. Ordered a cup of tea? There goes five pixels. It's really, /really/, /REALLY/ pain staking to see people just start throwing millions of dollars about like it's nothing. Leads a lot of questions like how they got it. Then comes the problem of resources. How did they obtain these resources and construct what they have? Materials and money are iffy alone. To Loveless - I am aware you're probably talking about Loura and Griss in the OP. Apologies for that. When it's that late at night I tend to go into a stupper and say things without thinking. At all. What so ever. Could a swordsman kill someone across the room? Naw probably not. The only way I can see them winning would be if they hid behind cover and then someone shot the guy in the back. It's a win, kind of. As far as melee weapons getting through armor, hammer is probably the best choice since it can dent plates in, even making it pierce skin if it's dented enough. Even then that's gonna take a lot of abuse to make it do that and the wielder is gonna be dead more than likely. I'd say it's about a 95% chance of a swordsman beating a gunman. So yah that's all.
Bullets are probably as obsolete as arrows are in this time of technology. Believe it or not, laser/'plasma' weaponry isn't going to be that expensive when people are flying ships with light-speed capabilities. Sure, it's easier to make swords and such but why would people make faster than light speed ships and say 'Oh, laser weapons are too expensive. I think I'll just use a sword.'
Regarding the melee weapon vs a gun scenario: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tueller_drill There are obviously variables that would affect this, but it's not like it matters anyway considering most characters on the server have the reaction times of gods.
Star Wars has turbolasers at sublight speeds, and is therefore garbage. For those who like to stay within the confines of reality and reasonability, here are two useful pages to read about laser and plasma weapons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_weapon#Practicality_of_plasma_weapons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_energy_weapons#Problems_and_ethical_considerations In summary, plasma is not a good weapon because it's quickly stopped by atmosphere, quickly lose energy due to thermal radiation (and blind everyone nearby), and many modern materials are already very resistant to plasma. Lasers are not great weapons because of blooming (although phased arrays and short pulses are man-portable ways blooming can be mitigated), has no indirect fire capability unlike kinetic weapons, and is stopped by sufficient amounts of rain, snow, fog, dust, smoke, and visual obstructions. (Edit2: great in space though) Edit: Considering we have man-portable weapons capable of punching through armored vehicles and structures, not to mention that man-portable tactical nuclear weapons were a thing half a century ago, any more advancements to man-portable weapons would really be directed towards making them cheaper and easier to use, not more lethal.
Hey, no worries, I figured your character was just being overconfident which wouldn't be too out of place, but it's not the only time this problem has come up so I figured I'd make a post about it. As for the resources and money, I'm totally going to start doing that now.
Well, Sen. If you want to stay within the realism and reasonability of use of energy weaponry. Since people obviously got smart enough to make faster than light speed ships which are thought to be impossible today. In your thread, it says that people can get through blooming through "phase-conjugate mirrors". I'm pretty sure people can develop some sort of 'mirror' that doesn't overheat in weaponized laser heat levels. That basically goes through your blooming problem.
Except the "plasma" weapons aren't actually plasma. They're an electrified, superheated, sticky goo that can vary from luke-warm upon impact to third-degree-burns seeping through gaps in armor and destroying kevlar.
