are projectile weapons too flashy? - Thorn Valley Forum Archive

Pennsylvania Jones

22-04-2012 13:40:05

I'm currently under way on my first fanfic and I was wondering if you guys think that the rats inventing a eletromagnetic rail gun is too far out for the NIMH universe?

It's not too far out if the setting is 2058 or later. ;) For the Mrs. Brisby Era, it's generally accepted that the Rats are more in the medieval age, with swords and arrows and catapults and the like.

Steven

Deadliest Dillenger

22-04-2012 15:02:46

thanks, but remember that the rats do have a bathosphere, and I was thinking more like a primitive rail gun, thats made out of various houseold items.

Pennsylvania Jones

22-04-2012 16:00:41

thanks, but remember that the rats do have a bathosphere, and I was thinking more like a primitive rail gun, thats made out of various houseold items.

In the rosebush, yeah. Which actually brings me to a question I probably should've asked in the first place: Is your fanfic In-Rosebush or post-Rosebush?

Steven

shivermetimbers

22-04-2012 17:04:04

A rail gun, would be fine. I don't consider that too farfetched. But why would they need it?

DariusGreywind

22-04-2012 18:47:05

A practical railgun requires very advanced electronics (power transistors, electrolytic capacitors, microcontrollers) and a serious power source. Stick with gunpowder or compressed air weapons. Either of those is well within the possible tech level.

shivermetimbers

22-04-2012 19:17:55

If they're still in the rosebush I can see it happening, but if you're talking about Thorn Valley, then forget it.

Deadliest Dillenger

22-04-2012 19:22:34

It's when they first discover the rosebush and start to build.

shivermetimbers

24-04-2012 17:47:16

It's when they first discover the rosebush and start to build.

A catapult or a giant crossbow would be more appropriate and you wouldn't have to write out a bizarre explanation as to how they got a hold of one.

Deadliest Dillenger

24-04-2012 19:03:18

Yeah a giant crossbow sounds more likely.

Whiskers57

28-04-2012 23:57:08

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a86/desmouse/cdrrstand.jpg[" alt=""/img]

One NIMH artist drew this a few years back, Looks like she`s packing some heat, If I remember correctly this was during a war between the rats and the mice of NIMH, what kind of weapon? not sure. Simon may recall more.

Simon

29-04-2012 01:46:03

ChrisS.

29-04-2012 03:26:54

LordDirk's art is fantastic. Sad that he's apparently not on the site anymore or just hasn't contributed anything in over two years. Glad to have Marcus still with us.

Deadliest Dillenger

01-05-2012 22:36:32

Well when you put it that way... a rail gun still would be cool, but I decided to add in a harpoon gun powered by compressed air.

SentinelMoonfang

21-07-2012 05:41:17

The problem with chemically propelled weapons (as with most projectile weapons at that scale) is a matter of actual energy created. You'd have to consider that a bullet for a rat would be a tiny thing, and the amount of explosives you'd need to propel something that tiny at a speed such that it would injure even a rat would be immense. Even the idea of throwing a dagger such as at the end of the movie at that scale is pretty suspect, the weight of the thing would make it difficult to pierce an animals hide at the speed such a weapon could be thrown at...

That said, suspension of disbelief and all, I see the Rats as in a Renaissance sort of stage in their technology. Primitive firearms make sense to me in that regard... But it's really more fascinating to hypothesize what the rats might come up with to replace things like firearms because of the problematic physics of their size. Perhaps they'd make more use of electricity in their weapons somehow.

Swayti14

21-07-2012 10:51:47

I think the argument could go either way. This really gave me a hard time in writing my fanfic. The book says they lived in a mansion with a library for a few months. Surely, I thought, there was a book on guns(if not an actual gun in the building) and one on explosives (in the book, dynamite is mentioned). I came up with a little idea 2 weeks ago. I looked up how to make dynamite, and found I could make a form of it with materials surely found on the Fitzgibbons' farm or a nearby town. However, the chemials are very dangerous and put off a lot of deadly fumes. Another problem is how they're going to cast iron or steel to make the guns without the farmer noticing. The last problem is how to make the gun NOT explode when you fire it. If you can figure out a concieveable way to solve these problems(I did, so it's not impossible), you could make a feasable firearm. Just remember, nitroglycerin based propellant was my idea 8) .

SentinelMoonfang

21-07-2012 16:52:05

Well what would make a gun explode would be excessive back-pressure. That's not really an issue when you're talking about such a light and small projectile and so little powder.

One thing I could see compensating for a lack of energy might be weapons intended to be fired from extreme close range, some sort of melee weapon with a musket built into it, so that one could slash or stab or shoot an opponent from inches away. People in the Renaissance used similar weapons for hunting boar, though I can't recall what the name of the weapon was.

Still a melee weapon with the capability of shooting a small bullet seems rather weak if you compare it to the lightning halberds of doom that the rats can clearly already make.

Like I said before, having learned much about electricity before black-powder could really create some interesting weapons that seem to belong in one of Nikola Tesla's fevered dreams... but then the problem becomes the power supply required. I like to think the rats' technology would take a wholly different path than humans, leading them to some cool steam-punky kind of contraptions.

That said, I don't imagine much advancement made in the field of weapons in Thorn Valley. There's simply no necessity for them. I imagine Thorn Valley as very utopian and peaceful!