but with a powerful weapon a powerful drawback is needed to stop it being overpowered maybe only a sniper can penatrate it and if it does say goodbye to everything behind you

Antimatter annihilation reactions do not generate physical force. They create a blast of radioactive energy (along numerous wavelengths) so intense that most matter caught in the blast will be vaporized. About half the energy released manifests as neutrinos which simply pass through everything without effect. What you need is a material capable of reflecting as much of that energy as possible. It could be as brittle as charcoal and it wouldn't matter, it's resistance to physical force is irrelevant. It's like the argument that we won't use laser guns on an infantry level since people could just stick mirrors all over themselves, but then the enemy just shanks you with their bayonet. It sounds like something that contains an antimatter blast and reflects lasers would be really great for protecting yourself but that's not really how it works

What makes it so nasty is that anything that this energy is directed at, that isn't really good at reflecting radiation waves, will be vaporised and will expand at a rate faster than the speed of sound. Now we have an explosion on our hands. But just because the target goes 'boom' doesn't mean your antimatter reaction inside the gun does too.

Darlos also mention Nuclear explosive pumped lasers. I admit that I don't know a huge amount about nukes and actually now that I think about it if it was a vacuum container then a nuke wouldn't give off a shockwave either. Hmm. Ok, nevermind my ranting then.

Nukes are a little different as they often use conventional explosives to compress the core so that the nuclear reaction goes off all at once. But you could also create a very nasty neutron laser by surrounding a subcritical plutonium core with movable reflectors. Completely enclose the core and a critical reaction spirals very, very quickly. Adjust the reflectors so that the energy is released in a specific direction, and ZAP.

Heck, a gun like that would behave almost exactly like the stereotypical 'IMMA CHARGIN MAH' laser gun that gets more powerful the longer you hold the trigger, but risks eventually exploding.

I just wanna chime in here

the gunslinger

you're my goddamn hero

Quotepyramid-ed for truth

The further you get from the original quote, the less original your get.
Just saying.

That is a fairly excellent idea, though surely it'd be pretty damn heavy -> not really infantry compatible, at least with current tech.

Just thought i liked it so much that i would quote someone that quoted somone about quoting someone

also with the attachable LUA, you can add new pie menu statistics, no more messing with keybinding for the custom weapons!!!

yeah alright knock it the ♥♥♥♥ off with the quote pyramid

I'll kill you.
Lua, not LUA.

Okay, yes, Gunslinger wins the prize for coolest idea. I think I may go with that.

Do you figure it'd still be one-shot though? I figure once the core goes critical once it can't really do it again.

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Jus' passin' by.