Combat-Writing Thread

Uh, I've been playing the Metal Gear games and I've been thinking how effective a High Frequency Sabre would be in Kingdom Hearts killing Heartless and bad seeds.

edited 23rd Mar '16 5:06:24 PM by heliosKAISER

Hmm... True. I guess I'll stick with crossbows

In general, crossbows were intended to be used against armored targets, where their greater penetration makes up for their lower rate of fire. In a medieval context, that generally means knights. Bows are more useful against massed infantry, with their longer range and higher rate of fire. Bows are also generally better at higher trajectory fire. So the real question is who the enemy is and what under what circumstances will the battle take place?

They have three primary enemies: The Clanlanders of the east who regularly raids into the empire. The Orn of the south who is a rival empire that generally fields heavy infantry. And the Elves who like to throw waves of lightly armoured Thralls (this settings version of Orcs I guess) at things before the proper elven warriors move in

You didn't describe how the clanlanders fight, but the other two sound more like bow targets.

The Clanlanders generally fight like scots and celts. Preferring to do hit and run attacks and relying on mobility so the "average" warrior is generally quite lightly armoured with things like hardened leather or brigandines. Though if need comes to shove they also have a number of tamed dragons in their arsenal. Their homeland is generally heavily forested and hilly.

Hey guys, I'm trying to figure out the technical term for something, and I'd like some help.

Person A has been severly pissed off by the actions of Person B, and begins to deliberately inflict wounds that result in lifelong injuries. Breaking the legs in multiple different places, broken spine, rupturing certain organs but leaving the vital ones alone, etc, etc.

What's the technical term for this? It's not attempted murder, because he has no intention of killing person B. Torture is probably the closest, but he has no intention of getting information and just inflicting physical pain isn't the point either. So what's it called?

Maiming comes to mind. I think legally it's classed as something like Grievous Bodily Harm.

Maiming, that's the word I was looking for. Thank you.

So, I'm going to flood you with some Techno Babble, just say how plausible it sounds.

"Now, plasma weapons are fine in space, but they're pretty shit in the atmosphere. First, the heat. A plasma bolt is going to cool down so much faster in the air, and don't even try to fire it in the water. It'll fizzle out a foot out, if that. Second, the electrical charge. Enough humidity, it'll fizzle out. Fog, it'll fizzle out. Rain or snow, and you might as well throw your gun to cause just as much damage. Now, what happens when you nail someone with a plasma bolt... Well, what's not outright vaporized by the heat is going to be fried to hell by the electrical charge. Take a good aim, and the heaviest sentry bot you can find is >>wheesh<< cooked. And between fourth-degree burns and the jolt throwing their hearts and minds outta whack... yes, a plasma gun kills. Shit. Dead."

edited 29th Apr '16 5:12:05 PM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

Well, another thing to note is the blooming. Without a good, charged path, the plasma would disperse pretty quickly after leaving the magnetic field. If you did however have a good electric paft, such as air ionized by a lazer, you could pretty much have a lightning gun. Lightning is plasma after all

That was some high quality techno-babble right there. Sounded completely plausible, even though I am aware that probably none of it is actually true. I'd keep it.

It's great fun to listen to and understandable by even a layman.

edited 30th Apr '16 7:53:47 AM by hellomoto

It certainly sounds plausible, but I'm not sure it is. I doubt the static charge would have the effect you describe, for one. It'd be able to fry delicate electronics, but military hardware would definitely be shielded against that. And I don't think the jolt could kill anyone : you'd need a steady current source for that.

This also means maintaining the charge isn't so critical. As long as it's too hot for electrons and ions to recombine, plasma remains plasma. However, fog would probably still be a problem, since droplets would be attracted by the bolt's charge and absorb its heat. It might be better to fire neutral plasma bolts for this reason.

Fun fact: The more people argue about whether or not a description of yours could possibly be true in real life, the more successful your description was.

Haha, and the fun part comes now: when I wrote that, I was SO drunk. Downed almost an entire bottle of port.

Maybe I should become a Drunk Scriblerian understudy. :D

That's awesome.

You'll only catch flak from nerds like me. Sounds good.

So I'm writing a main character who is a mixed martial artist who has Charlie Atlas Superpower with Super Strength and other abilities.

How do I write fights with people in armor and armed with swords and the like?

You learn how to write them by reading them.

In my current main project, I have a lot of fight scenes that have the human-sized protagonists go up against Humongous Mecha without any mecha of their own. The Humongous Mecha in question are considerably smaller than "conventional" examples of that trope, but still much larger than the protagonists.

So I'm wondering what's the best way to handle the fight scenes here. I don't want to have a situation where the protagonists dodge everything because one hit from their opponents would kill them, but I don't want to have the mecha restrain themselves because they'd kill the protagonists in one hit (partially because it'd be out of character for their pilots to do that for some of them).

The best way to fight them would be to just sit back and watch the square cube law kick it's ass and the enemies' logistics network completely collapse trying to support the damn thing.

Or you know, hit and run type guerrilla stuff.

If they aren't going toe to toe, and they don't have superpowers, then either ambush or long range sniping are about the only tactics left.

I admit, I was expecting Shadow of the Colossus

What about big guns and explosives? A machine that depends on articulated limbs to move is probably bound to have some weaker spots on its armor, and square-cube law guarantees it won't get up again if it falls on its face.

Of course, if it was well designed, those weak spots won't be easily targeted by infantry, and getting in the right place to aim without being killed is going to be very tricky, but if you are sending giant mechas against your heros, it is kind of assumed taking them down is a heroic feat.

edited 26th May '16 6:23:19 AM by EternaMemoria