# Pretty colours fired by lasguns



## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

Hi there.

What colour laser do you think the standard Imperial lasgun fires? I've seen it portrayed as blue, white and red. I've always though, thought of it as red, as demonstrated in Warhammer 40,000: Firewarrior, and the DoW series.

Secondly, what projectiles do the lasguns fire? In a Gaunt's Ghosts epilogue (or prologue) they are described as firing projectiles 'as long and thick as a man's middle finger'. However in DoW, the lasguns fire a long concentrated beam, and have been described as firing such, and in Warhammer 40,000: Firewarrior, the lasgun is depicted to fire circular/ovular balls of red energy.

How do you imagine the lasguns to operate?


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## Dirge Eterna (Apr 30, 2007)

Lasbolts, in my imagination, have always been about a foot long, blue/white (white being the hotter center of the bolt), and fired in automatic streams much like blasters from Star Wars. Although, in the same respect, you could manufacture lasbolts of any color, depending on the filters you used to focus the laser.

-Dirge


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## Exitus_10 (Jul 14, 2008)

U cant use filters on a laser to determine the Colour. Essentially Laser is colourless Light Apmlified by the Emmission of Radiation is only seen when the projection hits a solid wall, it gets its colours by the ray being exposed to gassess, red is by using some random gas but green is from using Argon.
According to fluff read long ago, the Las Bolt is red coloured or invisible accdording to who you read it from, it forms a continuous connection between the target and the gun, the Laser or the energy released is possibly shot through a proton tunnel which carries the energy or laser to the target.


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## BloodAngelZeros (Jul 1, 2008)

I've always pictured them as regular laser beams, like that of a ruby-based laser. Just a beam of red light that emits from the end of the rifle to the target for as long as the man wielding it holds the trigger.


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## xpunksbeendeadx (Jul 2, 2008)

I agree with the single long laser that makes contact from the gun to target. I believe the star wars like blasters would be more along the lines of Tau weapons.


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## arhain (May 6, 2008)

> U cant use filters on a laser to determine the Colour.


tell this to the eldar and their fire prisms


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## T.R.get (Jul 16, 2008)

first thing that comes to mind is star wars... then physics classes kick in and make me think of them as clear because lasers move at the speed of light and are just partials put in a line... then I think of them as being green, blue, or purple thinking right off of the top of my head the colors of the more powerful lasers


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## Cato Sicarius (Feb 21, 2008)

You could filter it into different coloured light. What if you fired at a prism? After all it's just light. Take out the filter and it really would be 'Pretty Colours fired by Lasguns'!

Anyway, back on the thread, I've always pictured them like that laser off Goldfinger, only much less destructive, and fires in short bursts.


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

Hmmmm. Interesting.

I've always thought the 'end of muzzle to body of target' projectile to be, well, lame. So, for me, I imagine the lasgun to fire ultra-heated lasbolts.


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## Exitus_10 (Jul 14, 2008)

las bolts arent a seperate entity stored toward the lasgun like bullets are to a AK 47 and such. They are in part stored as in, the energy cellls have power stored in them, most galaxy pattern rifles have amplifiers to absorb the energy from the cell and convert them in to high power energy which can only be stabilizedand displaced through a proton tunnel, some thing like a lightning. As you know ligtning's energy travels through a proton tunnel. It is a similar theory anyway. the colour is determined either by the gas used to encite a proton waveform, EG noble gasses (I think) or whatever the author of a novel feels like. But its mostly right.....mostly.

:Iam better than cyclops, feeling..cyclops: I think


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## Engelus (Jul 26, 2007)

well you can't see the laser in the air, what you would see is the gas ionizing and glowing in the air, so depending on the primary gas of the planets atmosphere, you could see different colors.


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

Fair say. But what do you perceive it as?


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## Angel of Retribution (Jul 10, 2008)

I dont think itd work for the poor IG if the beam was invisible...poor buggers wouldn't know if they were hitting what they were aiming at, or wether it was their weapon actually hitting a target. I personally see them as red beams that stay on target as long as the trigger is held down and the battery lasts lol...More AA batteries needed on the frontline...


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

In that case (prolonged beams of light as long as the trigger is pulled), would their Ballistic Skill be altered? If you can see exactly where your shot is impacting, you could far more easily adjust your aim than say a kinetic-energy weapon?


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## Exitus_10 (Jul 14, 2008)

I dont think the guardsmen will be alive long enough to recalibrate their targeters or even seeking them, most of them die, but a few may survive to perform the mentioned action.


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

Hmm, heavily depends on the regiment I'd dare say, Exitus_10.


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## Exitus_10 (Jul 14, 2008)

Agreed Kelly


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## BloodAngelZeros (Jul 1, 2008)

KellysGrenadier said:


> In that case (prolonged beams of light as long as the trigger is pulled), would their Ballistic Skill be altered? If you can see exactly where your shot is impacting, you could far more easily adjust your aim than say a kinetic-energy weapon?


What about SM? should their BS be even higher because watching a .75 caliber bullet explode should be even easier to spot. With the force behind railguns and pulse technology and for being a pretty shooty type of army, the tau should have a higher BS as well. Heck even the nids should have a higher BS if we take into account that all they have to do is point their arm at something. How hard could that be? I don't think the only thing impacting a unit's BS is how easily it is for them to adjust their shots. I think it's more or less how well they can shoot in the heat of battle. If I have a dozen flashlights and I start shining them every which way for only a blink of an eye, how easy is it going to be to see where my shot went? Just as easy as it is to see where any other standard issue weapon has fired.


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

I realize that, of course. But as I understand it, the Tau, 'Nids, and the .75 caliber, rocket propelled shells fired by the Space Marines are projectiles, this meaning a greater level of hand-eye coordination is needed to adjust the shot. But the Imperial Guard (apparently) fire one, long, unbroken laser, which is visible to the eye, so therefor, hypothetically, you could merely twitch your arm for the 'shot' to go where you wanted.

However, taking that into consideration, I've come to appreciate that the firer's BS isn't a representation of their accuracy in say, a target range, but his/her ability to fire efficiently in the heat of battle, with many more extraneous variables.


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## Grand Master Belial (Jun 4, 2008)

KellysGrenadier said:


> I realize that, of course. But the Imperial Guard (apparently) fire one, long, unbroken laser, which is visible to the eye, so therefor, hypothetically, you could merely twitch your arm for the 'shot' to go where you wanted.


With all the horrors of the Universe in 40K. I strongly believe that the Administratum would have put in place something to prevent a Guardsmen freezing in battle with their finger locked holding down the trigger. They would kill the battery in seconds that way. Besides that, we have a number of stories where Guardsmen have a Single Fire and Sustained Fire Modes. 

So there has to be a something in the rifle that breaks the beam from a constant beam into a pulsed beam. Usually a capacitor that is charged by the battery and discharged by the trigger pull. Rate of fire would be determined by the strength of the battery's charge. So a low battery would be evident by longer pauses between shots and perhaps a rune that acts like a low battery indicator on a phone.

Okay, I've mixed in way too much reality for a fictional weapon.


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

Mayhaps, but I don't think the rate of fire would be determined by the life of the cel. I think it fires efficiently until there is no more power. Much like a magazine full of bullets until they are all fired, the first shot is as effective as the last, and can be refilled, much like a las cel, between battles.

Also it seems like we have a lot of physicists discussing this.


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## Col. Schafer (Apr 15, 2008)

It’s blue for standard imperial weapons, and for some reason traitors shoot red (don’t shoot the messenger I read that in straight silver)


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