28 replies to this topic

[Mcgral18]

MechWarrior5152251, on 10 March 2015 - 05:06 AM, said:

The gas canisters never made any sense. According to all the tech books flamers run directly off of fusion engine discharge.

One of the books has an FS9 falling on the canisters and cooking themselves. One of the first ten...can't place it though.

[Novakaine]

Joseph Mallan, on 10 March 2015 - 05:19 AM, said:

Propellant maybe?

LOL that's where they kept the beer for the victory party.

[Joseph Mallan]

Novakaine, on 10 March 2015 - 06:05 AM, said:

LOL that's where they kept the beer for the victory party.

Beer!

[Mechteric]

Novakaine, on 10 March 2015 - 06:05 AM, said:

LOL that's where they kept the beer for the victory party.

They should have made it a mech beer helmet instead

[Mirumoto Izanami]

Novakaine, on 10 March 2015 - 06:05 AM, said:

LOL that's where they kept the beer for the victory party.

So that's the REAL reason for all those heatsinks....gotta keep the beer cool.

[STEF_]

Mirumoto Izanami, on 10 March 2015 - 04:26 AM, said:

I swear, Kerensky is like the space Chengis Khan...that forum name is EVERYWHERE!

A big family indeed!

[wanderer]

Tech note time: Flamers tap the reactor for power, but it's the flamer itself that generates the blast of plasma- generally with a nominally non-volatile set of compressors for the gases needed, but some pilots use fuel-assisted flamers for that extra "kick" with the accelerant. That can most assuredly go boom, though flamers are normally non-volatile. The later "heavy flamers" take the idea of accelerant to it's fullest extent and actually use explosive and combustable ammo to get that extra spicy infantry-platoon-frying blast.

If it drew plasma straight off the reactor, it'd snuff the reaction. Mech engines have to operate with an internal vacuum, and venting plasma out of the chamber would just do Bad Things to the power plant (heck, that's why damaged engines quench when the shielding is breached).

[El Bandito]

wanderer, on 10 March 2015 - 08:10 PM, said:

Tech note time: Flamers tap the reactor for power, but it's the flamer itself that generates the blast of plasma- generally with a nominally non-volatile set of compressors for the gases needed, but some pilots use fuel-assisted flamers for that extra "kick" with the accelerant. That can most assuredly go boom, though flamers are normally non-volatile. The later "heavy flamers" take the idea of accelerant to it's fullest extent and actually use explosive and combustable ammo to get that extra spicy infantry-platoon-frying blast.

If it drew plasma straight off the reactor, it'd snuff the reaction. Mech engines have to operate with an internal vacuum, and venting plasma out of the chamber would just do Bad Things to the power plant (heck, that's why damaged engines quench when the shielding is breached).

Get your logic out of my BT! 31st century space magic FTW.

Quote

Introduced in 2025, the standard Flamer taps into a BattleMech's reactor to produce heat in the form of a plasma release.^[3] An extremely short-ranged weapon, the Flamer is devastating against infantry, however damage done against other 'Mechs and vehicles is negligible, though it can raise the enemy unit's heat levels. The Flamer is also often used to set ambient objects such as trees aflame, making it useful for burning forests or cities in order to slow the enemy down or cover friendly movements. A clear example of such is the Firestarter BattleMech.

Edited by El Bandito, 10 March 2015 - 08:18 PM.

[wanderer]

Or, to put it more simply: Flamer gets power from reactor (versus needing combustible fuels), flash-heats gases (those lovely canisters normally are used to build up high-pressure jets of said gases), blast of reactor-fueled, flamer-created plasma incinerates soft fleshy things and tickles enemy 'Mech. It indeed taps the reactor to produce heat and a blast of plasma, but it's just a different sort of energetic translation than what a laser or PPC does.

El Bandito, on 10 March 2015 - 08:16 PM, said:

Get your logic out of my BT! 31st century space magic FTW.

Friendship is magic (and assist bonuses). Technology is AWESOME. Awesomes are just plain cool.

The entire flamer process leads to all kinds of AWESOME. As noted, refinements later produce other flamer types, and eventually a much more focused and lased version of the flamer process is used to generate a plasma "shell" that creates a focused, highly damaging thermal effect that "splashes" into a heat-generating (and on soft targets, further damaging) cloud on impact. The early process is the man-portable Firedrake anti-infantry weapon, but it's later upscaled into the Capellan-invented plasma rifle and Clan-knockoff plasma cannon (which simply makes a bigger coherent but more loosely bound "splash" that acts as a tremendous heat gun/soft target obliterator).

They are beautiful, beautiful things to unleash on opponents, who constantly have to either cut down on their own heat loads or risk the random additions from plasma rounds screwing things up. Especially triple-strength myomer designs.

Edited by wanderer, 10 March 2015 - 08:31 PM.