# Sci-Fi weapons with BAD design flaws **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2017, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573 "2017-01-30T07:18:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/121 "2017-02-02T21:36:22Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The Death Star has a more inexplicable flaw - while it can travel interstellar distances in a matter of days, it takes _hours_ to get to the other side of a planet. I dunno…seems true to life to me. I can fly clear across the country in a few hours and then spend a few more taxiing to the gate. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/122 "2017-02-02T22:08:46Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I dunno…seems true to life to me. I can fly clear across the country in a few hours and then spend a few more taxiing to the gate. 🙂 And you DO NOT want to know how the Imperial Transportation Security Agency manages the pre-boarding security checks. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/123 "2017-02-02T22:17:38Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > And you DO NOT want to know how the Imperial Transportation Security Agency manages the pre-boarding security checks. 😃 “Are you carrying any Samsung Note 7 phones?” “No, these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/124 "2017-02-02T23:47:28Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The MCU versions are, however, a different story. Unless you posit some heavy-duty stealthing along with the optical camouflage, those things must give a radar return you could spot with a microwave oven. > [@Chronos](#): > > The biggest problem with those is, if you have the technology to make a flying ship, why is it a carrier? Aircraft have the big advantage that they can fly, but the disadvantage of low dwell time: You can’t just park a bunch of planes in the sky right next to a misbehaving country. Ships have great dwell time, but can’t (with current technology) fly. An aircraft carrier is a compromise solution that gives most of the advantages of both, for the technology that we have. But if you can make something that flies and has long dwell time, just put the weapons directly on that thing. > [@Finagle](#): > > Man, don’t get me started on Hydra’s evil scheme. What’s the point of having AI predictive software that figures out who your enemies are when you have massive flying platforms that are murdering people by the millions? It’s pretty safe to assume that \* everyone\* who isn’t on one of your mobile oppression palaces is going to be your enemy. The point of this thread may be to point and laugh, but in fairness to the MCU… (1) The original helicarrier did have stealth technology. It didn’t work again Hawkeye, who probably knew all about it. We don’t know the exact nature or limits of it in general. (2) The original helicarrier was unarmed, apart from its planes and security personnel. It seemed to be more of a base than a warship, though, so that may have been the point: why put battleship guns on the HQ, when you can just send out planes? It makes the same sense as with regular naval carriers; increase the range of your firepower without giving away your location. (3) Project Insight gave Hydra a method of removing every possible enemy leader or resistance cell. It wouldn’t matter if everyone on Earth privately swore vengeance - they would never be able to organize, or for that matter, even know who was really doing the attacking. And the moment anyone tried to start a movement, Hydra would be able to immediately eliminate them, either by bombardment or simply arranging an “accident”. It might not have battered if someone _did_ take down the new, evil-brand helicarriers, as long as Hydra was able to consolidate power first. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/125 "2017-02-04T00:40:06Z")
How about the Tholian Web? A confinement field that requires the target to be relatively immobile for several hours? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/126 "2017-02-04T13:08:25Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > My point is why make them mobile at all, instead of just building them into spacecraft itself. That way you can move them from ship to ship instead of having to build one per. Which is germane to the Rebel’s problem of limited ressources : when the Imperial Navy is around, you send a bunch of starfighters raiding, then they come back and you put their droids back on fleet hopping duty. Maybe ? There’s also the whole “perform repairs in zero atmosphere” aspect - or into a fire, that sort of thing. You actually see an example of it in the prequel trilogy, where a bunch of R2s are sent out to do in-combat emergency repairs on a capital ship. Plus, say you’ve got a big meteorite-shaped hole in a bulkhead and you have to seal half of the ship away before the entire thing goes through decompression, it’s kinda nifty to have a little guy you can send in to patch it up, or run the components that are in the no-air half of the ship. Now, why the little guy doesn’t have, yanno, _arms_… [QUOTE=Robot Arms] For something with so many functions, how are people supposed to interact with it? R2 is shown understanding human speech, but its ability to reply seems pretty limited. There’s not much point in having something process information if it can’t communicate the results. [/QUOTE] Well that’s why you have to buy a translation droid for it. That’s Big Droid for you. You thought Microsoft was solely confined to our galaxy ? 😃 Seriously though, IIRC one of the RPG’s book explained that R2’s beeps and boops are sort of like your PC’s motherboard’s beeps and blinkenlights : sure they’re useless to the average user, but a droid specialist knows exactly what they mean and over time even non-specialist can sort of guess around the more common boops. I mean, even just watching the trilogy you can tell when R2’s going “oh hell no” or sarcasming at C3PO. ---
**Author:** ![TYphoonSignal8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e99b99/32.png) [@TYphoonSignal8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TYphoonSignal8)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/127 "2017-02-10T06:37:33Z")
Dune’s shields. Stop fast projectiles, don’t stop slow melee weapons. So you can’t kill me with a machine gun, but you could smack my brains out with a frying pan. Rightio. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/128 "2017-02-10T07:49:17Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > “Are you carrying any Samsung Note 7 phones?” > > “No, these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.” Love it. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/129 "2017-02-10T13:16:56Z")
[QUOTE=\*\*DrDeth] \*\*Yes helicarriers are massively stupid. [/QUOTE] > [@silenus](#): > > SHIELD was originally a UN organization Well, that explains it, then. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/130 "2017-02-10T13:29:26Z")
> [@TYphoonSignal8](#): > > So you can’t kill me with a machine gun, but you could smack my brains out with a frying pan. How much damage could a frying pan moving at six to nine centimetres per second do? ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2017, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/131 "2017-02-10T17:02:10Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > How much damage could a frying pan moving at six to nine centimetres per second do? Might give you a nasty burn if it’s fresh of the stove. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/132 "2017-02-11T18:12:27Z")
Speaking of Dune, do you recall the first (godawful) film? The “weirding modules”. Not a bad weapon per se, I suppose (although absolutely a wretched interpretation of Herbert’s vision). I was a bit silly how it worked- just as when I was a kid pretending to do karate, if you yell “Hah” at just the right time, your blow is waaaay more effective. Strategically, probably locking them away in a vault where they would be unavailable to Atreides soldiers if attacked was probably not their mentat’s finest moment. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/133 "2017-02-11T20:18:16Z")
> [@TYphoonSignal8](#): > > Dune’s shields. Stop fast projectiles, don’t stop slow melee weapons. > > So you can’t kill me with a machine gun, but you could smack my brains out with a frying pan. Rightio. This is not completely insane. Some non-Newtonian fluids exhibit properties that are vaguely similar–they resist fast-moving objects more than slow moving ones. Granted, it might be a bit messy to surround one’s self with a non-Newtonian fluid. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/134 "2017-02-11T20:41:08Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > This is not completely insane. Some non-Newtonian fluids exhibit properties that are vaguely similar–they resist fast-moving objects more than slow moving ones. Granted, it might be a bit messy to surround one’s self with a non-Newtonian fluid. 🙂 The same idea was used in Haldeman’s “The Forever War.” Within the confines of the force-field, there was a maximum speed objects could move. Guns didn’t work, but axes and pitchforks were just fine! I don’t remember where, but I read some SF story where the force-field suppressed the differential, not of speed, but of acceleration. You could go as fast as you wanted, and accelerate as much as you wanted, but the acceleration itself could only increase slowly. Sort of an anti-concussion field. (I’m thinking Larry Niven, 'cause it’s right up his alley.) ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/135 "2017-02-11T21:07:38Z")
I’ve heard the differential of acceleration termed “jerk”. That would definitely mess up guns. Not lasers or ray-guns. Maybe a gyrojet gun could work, depending on amounts of jerk allowed. Same for swords & such, although lower jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/136 "2017-02-11T21:12:21Z")
Niven had a field that could hold you immobile, used in his “crash field” and “police web”. I don’t think it was based on acceleration or jerk. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/137 "2017-02-11T22:16:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > How much damage could a frying pan moving at six to nine centimetres per second do? You’ve obviously never had my girlfriend’s cooking. _rimshot_ ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/138 "2017-02-12T06:16:28Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Pulse rifles firing 10mm explosive tip caseless standard light armor piercing rounds are good for rupturing primary heat exchangers inside what are basically giant fusion reactors. The bigger problems with the M41A Pulse Rifle being the fact it has incredibly simplistic gutter/trench iron sights as well as a digital round counter that can’t be seen without removing your eyesight from the sight picture. These looked better on-screen than they would in real combat which is why they did it. The first person video games based on the Alien franchise managed to fix this in two separate but simple ways. They either always have the player character fire the weapon from the hip (much like in the actual movie) thus there’s no need for the iron sights as well as you can still see the round counter while firing. Or they add a simple optic to the top that also has a build-in round counter there as well below the red dot sight. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/139 "2017-02-12T09:45:54Z")
And now for a completely different kind of stupid weapon > [@Robert Sheckley](#): > > Engraved on it, in flowing Martian script, was, “The Last Weapon” […] Well, he told himself, let’s see what the Martians considered their last weapon. He opened the box. […] ‘Ho ho’ the mouth said. ‘Protoplasm!’ […] ‘I like \*quiet \* protoplasm,’ the thing said as its gigantic mouth converged on Parke. ‘But I also like levely protoplasm.’ It gulped once, then drifted out of the other side of the field, looking ansxiously around for the millions of units protoplasm, as there had been in the old days. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573/140 "2017-02-12T13:29:55Z")
I don’t understand why people thought Darth Maul was cool when he had the [dumbest light saber](http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/1/1a/Darth_Maul_lightsaber_reveal.png/revision/latest?cb=2014042114355) in the SW Universe. How do you point that thing at anybody without hurting yourself? Starkiller Base in SW:TFA, a weapon so dumb even [I noticed how idiotic it was](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=795098). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sci-fi-weapons-with-bad-design-flaws/778573.md?page=8)