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mr.ultramarine wrote: even though venting is good plasma guns can explode because of the level of technology. Considering the level of tech of the imperium by our standards high but to eldar or tau very low.

No Imperium actually has higher tech level than Tau (See Imperium space ships versus Tau ones), they just dont really care for user safety.

Jackster wrote:

mr.ultramarine wrote: even though venting is good plasma guns can explode because of the level of technology. Considering the level of tech of the imperium by our standards high but to eldar or tau very low.

No Imperium actually has higher tech level than Tau (See Imperium space ships versus Tau ones), they just dont really care for user safety.

really, well then I guess the plasma gum manual dose not come with a section labeled what to do when your plasma gun explodes in your face.

mr.ultramarine wrote:

Jackster wrote:

mr.ultramarine wrote: even though venting is good plasma guns can explode because of the level of technology. Considering the level of tech of the imperium by our standards high but to eldar or tau very low.

No Imperium actually has higher tech level than Tau (See Imperium space ships versus Tau ones), they just dont really care for user safety.

really, well then I guess the plasma gum manual dose not come with a section labeled what to do when your plasma gun explodes in your face.

You die! either by the explosion, the enemy in front of you or get shot by the Commissar!

AchillesFTW wrote:Sort of off topic, but I realized the IoM doesn't use autonomous robots kind of the same way with Dune. The robots turned on their masters eventually, humanity did win out, but learnt its lesson.

I guess the lack of technology is why the IoM is do inefficient, and the fact that they use DSL.

The Imperium is only inefficient because of its massive size, and even then "inefficient" is a completely subjective label. Inefficient compared to what? Only the Necrons ever created an empire of comparable size to the IoM and even then they were fractured between the various C'tan's forces. the IoM is a fairly unified organization when it comes to external threats.


so, by that definition, one could say that the Imperium is incredibly efficient for an empire of a +-million worlds that spans the entire galaxy.

Daston wrote:back in second edition chaos plasma weapons didn't suffer any firing penalties as they were built better.

Incorrect. Chaos plasma guns turns off all the safety features and had a chance to kill themselves and those around them.

Other plasma guns just couldn't be fired every turn.

DarknessEternal wrote:

Daston wrote:back in second edition chaos plasma weapons didn't suffer any firing penalties as they were built better.

Incorrect. Chaos plasma guns turns off all the safety features and had a chance to kill themselves and those around them.

Other plasma guns just couldn't be fired every turn.

Ahh fair enough, its been a while and I only have the wargear book kicking about.

I think Harriticus already nailed it in post #2, though it's worth pointing out that Imperial Plasma weapons are only crude now because so much knowledge has become lost over the ages, which results in unreliable containment as the Imperium is unable to recreate the same level of quality (which makes me remember that short story in the 3E Marine Codex where an Astartes complained about replacement parts for his power armour not being as good as the originals). Venting pretty much seems to be a standard measure to better control the weapon, but just like blowing off steam in a nuclear plant doesn't turn an out-of-control reactor safe (see Fukushima), it is only a stop-gap measure to deal with accumulating internal pressure and heat due to containment "flickering", essentially buying time until the system hopefully starts working again. If containment fails for too long (more than a second?), I suppose it just becomes too much to handle.
I'd also recommend to consider that the tabletop is an abstraction - just because your miniature made one attack in a round doesn't necessarily mean he only fired a single plasma shot.

Anyhow, here's another excerpt from the 3E rulebook, which featured some very cool fluff details about armour and equipment, and also addresses this topic. I'm sure you'll find it interesting:

"The ancient technology required to construct plasma weapons is only known by an inner circle of Adeptus Mechanicus Artisant and Munitions Adepts. Few are constructed today, and each is individually crafted and blessed by the Machine God before being allowed into service. Most Space Marine Chapters continue to maintain a few plasma weapons in their armoury, revering them as ancient and irreplaceable weapons from a former age.

Ammunition for a plasma gun consists of a photonic hydrogen cell or flask. Two of these vessels are usually screwed into place inside the weapon before battle. These two flasks feed a fusion core, where the hydrogen becomes highly energised and converts into a plasma state. The plasma is held in the core by a powerful magnetic field, then allowed to escape along a linear magnetic accelerator, speeding the plasma 'bolt' towards its target. The molten gas explodes on impact, generating the destructive hear of a small sun before dissipating.

Plasma fuel flasks, usually good for approximately ten shots, are not reusable after firing. Reloading a plasma gun is time consuming, as both flasks have to be unscrewed and new ones carefully screwed into position.

Plasma weapons use similar technology to that used in plasma reactors and drives. The colossal energies generated are constrained within a powerful magnetic field. It is the magnetic containment field which is so difficult to replicate and maintain. Field failure can result in the plasma becoming unstable and the weapon overheating in a catastrophic meltdown. Emergency venting for escaping super-heated steam is a vital feature of plasma weapons.

In the 41st millennium it is an honoured but dangerous task to be a plasma gunner."

The Mad Tanker wrote:This is all for infinity plasma weaponry thou, vehicle mounted plasma weaponry has enough space for coolant systems and dose not overheat.

Not necessarily. The crew in an Executioner has a tendency to get out of the tank at the first sign of trouble, as there are coolant lines on the outside of the tank. Along with the coolant tanks being right inside the armor. If something punctures the armor, it will more that likely hit coolant. Which can mean trouble for the crew and tank, as the Plasma Destroyer "gets hot" faster, and is more volatile.

forruner_mercy wrote:Along with the coolant tanks being right inside the armor. If something punctures the armor, it will more that likely hit coolant. Which can mean trouble for the crew and tank, as the Plasma Destroyer "gets hot" faster, and is more volatile.

At least the crew will "stay cool" when stuff leaks into the cabin ...

*scnr*

Brother Coa wrote:So "Get Hot" is weapon being overheated in battle and due to high temperature it wounds the user. This sound like not venting weapon and making temperature raise to the critical point were the gun malfunction.

This make much sense to me because if the weapon was exploding like I heard here they wouldn't mount it on ships and tanks ( Stormblade ).

The thing with the Stormblade is that the vehicle is big and armoured enough to have good containment fields and a larger reseve of coolants. If the EM field is ruptured, then it can still explode. And considering that it seems that the bigger the plasma weapon, the bigger the explosion, then you are going to get one massive plasma explosion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Lynata wrote:

forruner_mercy wrote:Along with the coolant tanks being right inside the armor. If something punctures the armor, it will more that likely hit coolant. Which can mean trouble for the crew and tank, as the Plasma Destroyer "gets hot" faster, and is more volatile.

At least the crew will "stay cool" when stuff leaks into the cabin ...

*scnr*

Apparently plasma does vent, according to Lexicanum. I wonder how the gun contains the plasma in those split seconds before it is ejected out of the gun? It can't be an electromagnetic field, as then you would not need to vent it? You would think that plasma would melt the gun in seconds if it was not contained within a field while inside the gun.

Hmm, not even the techpriests know that one I suppose.

It is an electromagnetic field.

Its just that the heat from the gun might get so intense that it melts whatever is creating the magnetic field, which naturally results in field failure, which leads to a severe case of sunburn for the user and anyone in close proximity.

But surely the whole point of an electromagnetic field is so that you can suspend it in a vacuum while it is charging the gass? I don't really see any other way of containing plasma than a vacuum. So if it is in a vacuum then how does it overheat the electromagnetic coils? Or maybe the electromagnetic coils are overheating under their own steam, rather than the plasma heating it? You know all those volts coursing through it. It does not make much sense otherwise.

As already cited in the 40k rulebook quote above, the magnetic field is the basis for containment. Occasionally the field fails and the plasma leads to internal heat and pressure build-up, which can be countered by emergency-venting. If containment fails for too long and doesn't come back online in time, however, the heat and pressure simply gets too much and it goes boom. There's only so many bars the system can cope with, and only so much plasma that can fit through the vent at any one time.