14 réponses à ce sujet

[Larry-3]

Was there ever a codex entry on why their are few lasers in Mass Effect. I was looking at the LaWS laser battery the U.S. Navy uses. It fire transparent energy beams to shoot down drones and boats. Well, why is something like that not used in the future? Surely after so many decades it has evolved into something more powerful. I want to burn through the armor of a Geth drone.

[Vazgen]

Not really efficient when there are handguns utilizing mass effect technology. Lasers need too much energy and deal much less damage

[RanetheViking]

The game mentions 'GUARDIAN' lasers that are used for point defence on warships etc. They even mention using different frequencies, such as infra-red and ultra-violet.

 

Not sure if that's what you mean though.

[themikefest]

 I want to burn through the armor of a Geth drone.

Armor piercing round will do that.

[cap and gown]

Guardian anti-ship lasers are a staple of ship defenses against missiles. The Geth and Salarians use ultra-violet versions, while everyone else sticks to infra-red versions.

[Iakus]

The discovery of mass effect fields caught everyone in a rut.  Why bother figuring other stuff out when what we have is "good enough"

 

THus you'll find lasers in a few areas.  But for the most part they simply don't bother.

[Vazgen]

GARDIAN lasers are good but they have some drawbacks. Short range and fast heat buildup mostly

[Larry-3]

Hmm... I am going to search up those GUARDIAN lasers.

[Orikon]

The same reason why there are no exoskeletons,jetpacks or teleportation,

[Qwib Qwib]

But the Protheans had lazors!

 

[SNascimento]

I always thought it was a more creative decision than anything. Mass Effect weaponry always felt modern. 

 

[cap and gown]

But the Protheans had lazors!

 

 

I don't believe those are lasers. Rather, they are related to the Reapers' weapons that squirt our a molten stream of metal that is accelerated by a mass accelerator. I don't have access to the codex right at the moment, but I believe that is what it says.

[Qwib Qwib]

Lazors!

[Qwib Qwib]

I don't believe those are lasers. Rather, they are related to the Reapers' weapons that squirt our a molten stream of metal that is accelerated by a mass accelerator. I don't have access to the codex right at the moment, but I believe that is what it says.

 

They look like lazors. That's enough. 

[CrazyCatDude]

Honestly?  Math.

 

According to in universe physics, running a small electrical current through element zero creates a strong gravitational field.  If we accept that this is the case, than the energy budget per shot for a mass effect weapon is very low.  In effect, you are dropping a grain of sand from a great height, and it hits the target going very fast.  E_k=mv² so even though the mass of the projectiles is very low, E_k is high because v is high.  But it only takes a small electrical current to generate v.

 

Peak Total Body output for the human body is 2,000 Watts.  That is, 2,000 Joules Per second.  This is from an activity like sprinting.  Assuming a similar peak output from Asari, which is reasonable given physical similarity, we know that it takes less than 2,000 Joules to perform a biotic charge, which can transport a human sized object rough the distance of a football field nearly instantaneously.

 

That being the case, we can reasonably assume that propelling a small weight of metal at a high velocity takes considerably less than 2,000 Joules.  This number will become important momentarily.

 

A modern assault rifle, the M16A4, delivers roughly 1,800 Joules to the target each time it hits.

 

An M8 Avenger has a base rate of fire of 850 rounds per minute.  (It can't actually achieve that, because of heating and reload times, but we'll use the number for comparison's sake).

 

If you had a laser in the Mass Effect Universe, you would have to generate 1,800 Joules 850 times a minute to keep up with a standard issue assault rifle.  That comes out to 25,500 Joules per second.  Or, 25,500 Watts.  Also, keep in mind, that assumes 100% efficiency in converting your power to light in the lasing cavity.  Which you will not get.  A more realistic number is 90% efficiency, which would mean you would need to generate something more like 28,333 Watts in order to keep up with an Assault Rifle.  Where does that extra 10% go?  Waste Heat.  You are talking about generating 2,888 joules of heat per second with this weapon.

 

The Mass Effect Weapon, by comparison, uses considerably less than 2,000 Joules.  Remember, we're established that 2,000 Joules is an upper limit for transporting a human through the biotic charge.  Since an adult human male in full armor would likely approach 150kg, and a projectile mass in the Mass Effect universe is measured in grams, and Mass Effect Weapons do not have to stop the projectile at the other end, it is not unreasonable to assume that the power involved in initiating the mass effect field required to accelerate the projectile is a two or three orders of magnitude lower as well.  Thus, we can ballpark an energy budget per short for a Mass Effect weapon as having an upper limit of 20 joules.

 

Now, if we go back to our breakdown of the laser, in order to do the same damage as an assault rifle, it has to deliver 1,800 joules per shot.  But remember that we also estimated a 90% energy efficiency for our laser weapon, which means that we'd actually need 2,000 Joules per shot, 200 of which would be lost to waste heat.

 

So, *worst case scenario*, the Laser requires 100 times as much power as the mass effect weapon to achieve the same result.

 

But, if we assume that the mass effect is purely linear, than an energy budget of 0.02 Joules per shot would be a closer approximation.  Remember, 2,000 Joules to transport 150kg, where as a projectile from a mass effect weapon would be more likely in the 1.5 gram range.  Which is a factor of 100,000.

 

So, you're looking at somewhere between mass effect weapons being somewhere between 100 and 100,000 times more efficient than a laser in achieving the same effect on the battle field.

 

The reason Lasers are useful in space comes down to the fact that they are primary point defense weapons.  A Laser beam travels a lot faster than a missile, so it has a chance of burning it out of the sky before impact.  At the ranges ground side fire fights happen, there isn't a species out there, even the Geth, who are going to have the reaction time to be able to dodge a round fired from a mass effect weapon, so the trade off isn't worth it, even if you have a power source that could keep up with the demand.

 

(And yes, I know someone is going to come along and point out that you could accept a lower rate of fire for a laser since the M8 can't achieve a real world RoF of 850 rounds because you have to swap the thermal clip every 50 rounds, but the point stands, because you're going to have to swap the thermal clip on a laser a lot more often.)