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Realistically would they make noise when fired or have light beams come out of them and even have recoil?

I know the games show them with all of the above but realistically...?

usmcmidn wrote:
Realistically would they make noise when fired or have light beams come out of them and even have recoil?

I know the games show them with all of the above but realistically...?

I imagine they would make a noise as energy is changed from electrical to light and heat in the battery pack, and there's also the internals of the lasgun that make noise. Realistically there would be no recoil, but it has to shape up to the autogun which has horrendous recoil, game-terms they're the same weapon.

Lasguns would also have infinite range. You could technically fire into the sky and hit someone on another planet thousands of lightyears away.

 BrotherOfBone wrote:

usmcmidn wrote:
Realistically would they make noise when fired or have light beams come out of them and even have recoil?

I know the games show them with all of the above but realistically...?

I imagine they would make a noise as energy is changed from electrical to light and heat in the battery pack, and there's also the internals of the lasgun that make noise. Realistically there would be no recoil, but it has to shape up to the autogun which has horrendous recoil, game-terms they're the same weapon.

Lasguns would also have infinite range. You could technically fire into the sky and hit someone on another planet thousands of lightyears away.

Maybe with one of the photons that was emitted, if it wasn't absorbed by interstellar dust or another planet on the way...

Well, and even if the projectile isn't a moving part, in the conventional sense of the word, it doesn't mean that the gun itself has no moving parts.

Leave it to the imperium to find some way to make a laser need to have heavy metal parts swinging around in it.

... with spikes... that are on fire!

Las-guns make a hiss-crack of heat and expanding air as they pass through the atmosphere.

They don't have limitless range because they are a thermo-kinetic pulse that loses beam-coherency (probably due to thermal degradation) over a given distance, depending on environmental conditions.

 Psienesis wrote:
Las-guns make a hiss-crack of heat and expanding air as they pass through the atmosphere.

They don't have limitless range because they are a thermo-kinetic pulse that loses beam-coherency (probably due to thermal degradation) over a given distance, depending on environmental conditions.

Yea, there's noise (like the loud crack from an electrical discharge) as you toast the air with the heat. Lasguns prolly smell like ozone something awful.

Do you see a visible laser?

usmcmidn wrote:
Do you see a visible laser?

Yes. They are often described in the Gaunt's Ghost novels as Imperial weapons being white and chaos being a dirty red.

I can remember times when I've read on this forum that lasguns shouldn't actually make any visible discharge whatsoever (the laser oeprates in a part of the spectrum that isn't visible), but it's the collective belief of the guardsmen that it should be shooting something causes it to manifest. Kind of like ork tech in that regard.

No idea where that came from though. I find it kind of dumb but hilarious at the same time.

There's no reason for the beam to be invisible, and several compelling reasons for it to be visible. If you can plainly see where your split-second laser discharge is hitting, you can adjust your aim (if needed) to strike the target more accurately or more effectively (like, say, hitting an enemy in the eye-socket of his helmet, rather than on the most-armored ridge above his eye).

But you don't need to see the beam to know where you're hitting. The explosive ablation of the target point would give it right away. Also if you're looking down the gunsight you know exactly where you're hitting

I imagine for coolness that it makes a loud static crack when it fires. I also imagine the beams to be invisible except the firing point and the hit point.

Recoil probably isnt a problem, the guns are stocky so they can be used for clubs and survive harsh environments etc in my opinion.

 Flinty wrote:
But you don't need to see the beam to know where you're hitting. The explosive ablation of the target point would give it right away. Also if you're looking down the gunsight you know exactly where you're hitting

Visible under perfect range conditions, perhaps, but not with a two hundred meter shot in a blowing-dust and smoke-filled trench across a killing ground currently being shelled.

I imagine lasguns fire a yellow somewhat incandescent beam that make a hiss sound.

So, only having taken rudimentary high school chemistry... Lights higher on the scale are stronger, so does that mean chaos lasguns are (minutely) stronger than the Imperium's?

I picture lasguns as green beams that make a sharp crack as the air heats up. Off topic a little, would Meltaguns sound like thunderclaps when fired? That's a lot of air heated up really fast...

 Will1541 wrote:
So, only having taken rudimentary high school chemistry... Lights higher on the scale are stronger, so does that mean chaos lasguns are (minutely) stronger than the Imperium's?

I picture lasguns as green beams that make a sharp crack as the air heats up. Off topic a little, would Meltaguns sound like thunderclaps when fired? That's a lot of air heated up really fast...

I imagine it more like a 'FWUUUUM'

I think it might have been in the 3ed BRB lasguns were described as making a snap crack sound. I also picture the beams being green in my head.

Well for one, canonically Lasguns are always red, IIRC only Chaos lasguns are of a different color. Of course, the nature of lasguns even being lasers is questionable given that W40K likes to jump around from them either being lasers or some kinda of particle beam like star wars blasters, or else a great deal of space marines and eldar have FTL reaction speeds for dodging lasers after they've been fired.

Also, every instance of a lasgun I've read have them being a snap and a crack. The snap from their firing, the crack from the superheating of the target object and detonating it. Also, while all light technically has infinite range (well, near it), the concentration of the beam stops at some point as it's refracted by the atmosphere (dust, rain, snow, metals, etc) or just eventually loses its focus. Lasguns are effective up to something like two kilometers, while hellguns are close range weapons and lose their power faster in exchange for being a helluva a lot more lethal.

Well you will get reaction from air meeting the super heated laser beam as it exits the barrel.

Though visible Im not sure that it would....

Off topic a little, would Meltaguns sound like thunderclaps when fired? That's a lot of air heated up really fast...

Meltaguns are described as making a hiss/roar sound as the air is superheated in front of the barrel. Brobably the same sound as a flamer, really. a lasgun is probably a crackling sound as the reaction, while very similar would be much, much faster.

If a laser hits its target, it would make a hiss matching the laser's frequency. High frequency lasers would make a much louder noise. I assume lasguns and helguns work similarly, so if the trooper hits something there is a noise.

So, based on the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer, there are two settings, high power and low power.

High power issues a sharp crack sound.

Low power issues a sizzling hiss.

The long-las sniper rifle includes a "flash suppressor" to hide the muzzle flash. But lots of the artwork shows a bright yellowish beam firing from a lasgun.