(NOTE: GAME MECHANICS ARE STRICTLY PROHIBITED)
Greetings. I consider myself somewhat of a “Loremaster” of various universes. However, this topic’s purpose is not to share with you what I think, but rather to see what the people on this forum thinks. Specifically on the matter of how effective Kinetic Barriers (the infantry kind) from the Mass Effect Universe would be against the plasma (small-arms kind) utilized by The Covenant.
So without further adieu, let us begin…
If you Looked at your title and Googled what “Kinetic” and “Plasma” were you would already have your answer. Though you should have been taught that in what, middle school?
Oh I have a very firm idea of what I think would happend. The purpose of this thread however is to see what the people on this site think (as stated in the opening post).
On another note, must you be so derisive? We’ve just met after all, so I’m pretty sure I haven’t performed an action worthy of your ire(at least not at the present).
Because it is common sense what will happen and people’s opinions honestly don’t change anything.
Kinetic is Movement Plasma is Energy, therefore Plasma will run right through the barriers. I think it was even stated in the codex that barriers are highly weak to plasma. We haven’t even talked about how the heat would do massive damages also.
> Because it is common sense what will happen and people’s opinions honestly don’t change anything.
>
> Kinetic is Movement Plasma is Energy, therefore Plasma will run right through the barriers. I think it was even stated in the codex that barriers are highly weak to plasma. We haven’t even talked about how the heat would do massive damages also.
The Codex entry in question is actually silent on the subject of plasma. It can’t protect from extremes of temperature, though, although it’s up to interpretation as to whether that refers to being set on fire or having a blob of plasma hit your chest.
Note, however, that plasma isn’t actually energy. It’s an ionized gas, very hot ionized gas in the case of Covenant plasma weapons. Since heat is really just a high average velocity of the atoms, I’d guess that kinetic barriers might actually stop plasma. If they do, though there’s still the radiation (Thermal and otherwise) emitted by the plasma, so the soldier behind the kinetic barrier might not have gotten off so lucky.
Interestingly enough, Covenant Plasma weaponry is exactly what the races of Mass Effect need for the upcoming battles with the Reapers. While their barriers are incredibly strong, they still suffer the same weakness; they are unable to withstand extremes, and plasma is certainly that on the heat side. The Reaper’s hulls, if Sovereign was anything to go by, can be penetrated by the conventional armaments the Systems Alliance navy possess.
In that universe, however, the only plasma weapon that I know of the the Geth Plasma Shotgun. Hopefully, the Geth will be able to upscale.
> If you Looked at your title and Googled what “Kinetic” and “Plasma” were you would already have your answer. Though you should have been taught that in what, middle school?
> Because it is common sense what will happen and people’s opinions honestly don’t change anything.
>
> Kinetic is Movement Plasma is Energy, therefore Plasma will run right through the barriers. I think it was even stated in the codex that barriers are highly weak to plasma. We haven’t even talked about how the heat would do massive damages also.
Face? Meet Palm.
No, plasma isn’t energy. Plasma is a state of matter (like gas, liquid, solid) akin to super charged particles. Thus there is mass involved which in turn means kinetic energy. Considering the low mass and speeds (by comparison to modern projectiles) too it’s minimal kinetic energy.
So while there is magical heat involved (I say that because the canonical figures for the plasma weapons aren’t enough to provide the heat to cause the damage the plasma weapons do in game and in the novels) it would stop at the kinetic barrier when the mass that carries that heat is halted.
Fun, fun.
Edit: LASERS are what people should be thinking of. No mass and no way to feasibly dodge them in the ME universe. But for that they all have ablative armor (which, by the way, would also work against Plasma).
IIRC, ground armor doesn’t have the Ablative plating like ships do, which use lasers.
Also, about the plasma halting… Guess what. You just halted the ball of super-heated matter a short distance from your armor. I doubt that’ll be comfortable. If anything, the heat would continue moving forward and thus could still melt/cause damage anyway.
> IIRC, ground armor doesn’t have the Ablative plating like ships do, which use lasers.
>
> Also, about the plasma halting… Guess what. You just halted the ball of super-heated matter a short distance from your armor. I doubt that’ll be comfortable. If anything, the heat would continue moving forward and thus could still melt/cause damage anyway.
Depends on how the kinetic barriers work.
-If they redirect the projectiles, they might deflect the plasma.
-If they stop projectiles, then they’d probably have a way of dealing with the heat. If a hypervelocity projectile is halted by a barrier, it’s going to vaporize into superheated gas, if not outright plasma.
In both cases, the radiation will get through, but it’s the plasma itself that does the most damage.
Plasma is probably quite effective against kinetic barriers, but I doubt that they are completely useless. The best defense in the Mass Effect universe is probably those barriers that the Geth throw up.
I think something that is important to note also is that when you equip incendiary rounds in Mass Effect, the fire is capable of going through the kinetic barriers. I am not 100% sure if the fire is hot enough to be considered plasma, but the heat itself sure makes it through. It would seem that the kinetic barriers would not be suited for plasma weapons.
> > IIRC, ground armor doesn’t have the Ablative plating like ships do, which use lasers.
> >
> > Also, about the plasma halting… Guess what. You just halted the ball of super-heated matter a short distance from your armor. I doubt that’ll be comfortable. If anything, the heat would continue moving forward and thus could still melt/cause damage anyway.
>
> Depends on how the kinetic barriers work.
> -If they redirect the projectiles, they might deflect the plasma.
> -If they stop projectiles, then they’d probably have a way of dealing with the heat. If a hypervelocity projectile is halted by a barrier, it’s going to vaporize into superheated gas, if not outright plasma.
>
> In both cases, the radiation will get through, but it’s the plasma itself that does the most damage.
> Plasma is probably quite effective against kinetic barriers, but I doubt that they are completely useless. The best defense in the Mass Effect universe is probably those barriers that the Geth throw up.
Which, apparently, don’t make any sense in the universe, according to some over at the BioWare forums.
> Which, apparently, don’t make any sense in the universe, according to some over at the BioWare forums.
Well, I wouldn’t know about that. I’d need some specifics.
> > If you Looked at your title and Googled what “Kinetic” and “Plasma” were you would already have your answer. Though you should have been taught that in what, middle school?
>
>
>
> > Because it is common sense what will happen and people’s opinions honestly don’t change anything.
> >
> > Kinetic is Movement Plasma is Energy, therefore Plasma will run right through the barriers. I think it was even stated in the codex that barriers are highly weak to plasma. We haven’t even talked about how the heat would do massive damages also.
>
> Face? Meet Palm.
You do understand that Everything has some form of inert energy correct?
So are you telling me that the Kinetic barriers would activate for Windstorm?
> You do understand that Everything has some form of inert energy correct?
And here is where someone delves into tangential technicalities when they realize that what they posted isn’t quite as smart as they thought.
You pointed out previously that kinetic was ‘movement’, plasma was ‘energy’. Now you say that ‘everything has some form of inert energy’.
How exactly is this related to whether plasma will pass through kinetic barriers?
> So are you telling me that the Kinetic barriers would activate for Windstorm?
Windstorm. You mean a windstorm?
Doubtful. The kinetic energy of the individual atoms would probably be too low, or at least far lower than that from a hypervelocity bullet or a blob of plasma.
> > You do understand that Everything has some form of inert energy correct?
>
> And here is where someone delves into tangential technicalities when they realize that what they posted isn’t quite as smart as they thought.
>
> You pointed out previously that kinetic was ‘movement’, plasma was ‘energy’. Now you say that ‘everything has some form of inert energy’.
> How exactly is this related to whether plasma will pass through kinetic barriers?
>
>
>
> > So are you telling me that the Kinetic barriers would activate for Windstorm?
>
> Windstorm. You mean a windstorm?
> Doubtful. The kinetic energy of the individual atoms would probably be too low, or at least far lower than that from a hypervelocity bullet or a blob of plasma.
Um don’t get ahead of yourself sir. I was responding to the other person not you. since he clearly is a wise one he will get what i was talking about.
You are over playing the barriers. You could throw a Rock at them and they would go through since it wouldn’t be fast enough despite it being enough to kill something.
And Talking about the Plasma is pointless since the Heat would still be more than Enough to bake somebody alive since Mass Effect troopers don’t walk around with Ablative coating or not enough or one that would absorb spread the heat of the plasma.
> Um don’t get ahead of yourself sir. I was responding to the other person not you. since he clearly is a wise one he will get what i was talking about.
I read what he posted, I read what you posted. If I can’t understand what you posted, he probably won’t either.
Your initial statement was that plasma was energy (presumably pure energy) and thus would pass right through the barriers. We both pointed out that plasma is a state of matter.
Your initial statement “Kinetic is Movement Plasma is Energy, therefore Plasma will run right through the barriers.” hinged upon plasma being energy (perhaps some fictional “Pure Energy”, ala Star Trek?), and kinetic being something else.
Kinetic energy is just that; the energy within a mass derived from its speed. Heat is the average kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules in a substance. Plasma is matter heated until it has ionized, and gained some other properties in the meanwhile.
> You are over playing the barriers. You could throw a Rock at them and they would go through since it wouldn’t be fast enough despite it being enough to kill something.
[Citation Needed]
Nowhere do I recall reading that airborne rocks are a significant hazard to the Alliance Trooper.
I do recall the codex entry stating that the barriers are tuned to specific velocities, so that a person can sit down in a chair without sliding off. If the armor is nearly as customizeable in the field as the guns are, then I wonder if the armor can’t be adapted to low-velocity weapons if they are encountered.
> And Talking about the Plasma is pointless since the Heat would still be more than Enough to bake somebody alive since Mass Effect troopers don’t walk around with Ablative coating or not enough or one that would absorb spread the heat of the plasma.
Funny; I remember an ablative coating being a popular upgrade in the first game.
As I pointed out before, impacts from the kinetic rounds in the Mass Effect universe are going to produce a lot of heat. If the armor beneath isn’t designed to withstand that heat, then the engineers in Mass Effect are as thoroughly useless as the self-styled engineers of Star Trek.
This should be interesting, how much can the kinetic barriers withstand anyways? Plasma rifles have an output of 100-150 kilovolts @2-3 dA. Same for the plasma pistol.
> This should be interesting, how much can the kinetic barriers withstand anyways? Plasma rifles have an output of 100-150 kilovolts @2-3 dA. Same for the plasma pistol.
Comes out to 5 kilojoules Erik… but those numbers are complete bullsh*t, better to use book feats than the official stats garbage(take a look at the spiker if you don’t believe me)
Don’t use halo.wikia! It’s bad! it just made my computer go all craZy…
Can you provide the calculations and explain?
> Don’t use halo.wikia! It’s bad! it just made my computer go all craZy…
> Can you provide the calculations and explain?
The wikia worked fine when I posted it… anyway the calcs are somewhere on Factpile. Forgot how to do it though 