@Hael
You say plasma and warp are the main weaponry/travel type things. However... there are many things other than that.
Plasma is built up, contained, and then released in a sudden burst. It'd be 'slower' than lasers, faster than Mass Accelerator Cannons (depending on the type of plasma burst), sure, but it's not exactly the best weapon out there.
For example, particle accelerators could be weaponized to fire streams of near-light-speed particles of various kinds, or even antimatter. And antimatter is very real, even today, if expensive to create. The effect would be your ship sort of eroding under a faintly glowing stream, with whatever it's hitting being lit up rather spectacularly as the antimatter annihilates your armor (and itself). It wouldn't be as effective against shields, of course, depending on what the shield is made of.
And drones/missiles can still play a large part. Even torpedoes- sublight torpedoes. I've always had a habit of having a nation that has a great deal of normal torpedoes, of various sorts, and a couple larger 'sublight' torpedoes. There's nothing special about them, except accelerating so fast that it'd appear to hit instantly, if within a certain range. And, of course, they'd be very, very, very dense. High mass + high speeds = very high impact force. A railgun, today, wouldn't need any warheads, because the impact of its round would be enough to create an equally large explosion as our best high explosives.
Drones can be launched, and can drift on ballistic courses, completely silent, until they open up on an enemy with missiles or somesuch. Likewise, missiles can be sent on ballistic courses too. Given adequate countermeasures, they'd be invisible- too small to be picked up as anything more than debris on radar, too stealthy for any emissions to be detected.
So?
What are your thoughts on all of that?
Plasma can be good, but it has many, many drawbacks. A nuclear weapon impacting your shield might even be enough of an EMP to collapse a plasma weapons' containment shield, and release any weapons' plasma that were about to fire- sorta like a gun self-destructing.
Yes, I know all of this.
I've done my research.
I only ruled that plasma was the main weapon because I wanted everyone to have the same "starting point", so to speak, but if you want to use any other form of weaponry than that is fine.
You'll find that my own race, the Xim, use guns, lasers, and bio-weapons, and only rarely use plasma weaponry at all. The warp/plasma idea is only a guideline for those who don't know as much about this sort of thing as you do, and thus wouldn't know what type of weaponry or propulsion to use without me saying that one particular type was the "base". Make sense?
It was not meant as a restriction, only a guideline for those who don't understand this sort of thing. Not everyone has the same knowledge as me and you. Please don't think of it as me telling you that you
must use plasma- that is a complete misconception of my intent. Plasma was ruled as the base only for those who do not wish to spend the time thinking about what type of weapons they want to use- it is for those who just want to "jump right in" without thinking about all the advantages/drawbacks to the various sorts of weaponry.
Like I said, I'm fairly open-ended about this sort of thing. I don't believe I ever said that non-plasma weaponry was banned. In fact, I've openly encouraged you to be creative many times.
Use lasers, use drones, use missiles. Use banana peels placed in precarious places if you want.
EDIT: My assertion that plasma is superior was only an attempt to simplify it for everyone. If it bothers you, I can edit that part- I realize claiming plasma is better than lasers is actually somewhat false, but I was stretching the truth for the sake of simplicity.
In all honesty, I agree with your points, and in your position I may have said the same things.
When it comes down to it, I prefer railguns, bio-weaponry, and nuclear explosives.
EDIT 2: I hate antimatter, however, but feel free to use it if you want to. I just find it too easy to defend against and rather ineffective for my personal taste. Shields would cancel out its usefulness, IMO, though it might be useful against a civilian/unarmed population.
Vec
