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Just how powerful are they?
I have run into a guy who says B-tech lasers can not be very powerful due to various real world reasons like the energy needed in some of the older numbers would burn through feet of iron plating (to melt ~60kg of B-tech armor would require around 200 megajoules), or cook the pilot if assumed the armor spreads the heat, and what naught. He even said that jump jets are garbage as the reactors should have enough thrust to allow a mech to fly at these out puts... from him the novels support his ideas (though he has no memory that the armor is often mentioned as melting down the mech in rivers).

So from the novel perspective how accurate is he?

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Never allow yourself to hate a people because of the actions of a few.I hope most people did not hate Germans because of the Nazis,or Americans because of slaves.Never hate,it only eats you alive.Keep an open mind and always look for the good in people.

I seem to remember a line something akin to this "If you wonder how he eats and breaths, and other science facts. You should repeat to yourself this is just a show and really should relax."

This is science fiction, not science reality.

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been a while since i read it but I recall a scene from Sword and the Dagger where Ardan Sortek once saw a child on the battlefield get vaporized by a Mech grade LAser. no mentions of which size laser however.

BT armor is usually millimeters to centimeters thick. Since the materials and their densities are pretty well known, it's easy to guess at armor tonnage vs 'Mech armor, and it ain't feet thick.

However, the 200MJ per armor point figure should tell you that BT lasers are very, very powerful. The USAF's Airborne Laser would need 200 seconds to deliver 200MJ.
Whatever. Thermal conduction is a slow process. When you dump enough energy into armor plate to destroy 60kg (per point of damage) in less than 10 seconds, there's no melting or widespread conduction. There's localized ablation and surface explosions.
Sure, the jump jets have plenty of thrust to support flight. Once you have the thrust to get a 'Mech off the ground, you've got plenty of thrust to keep them in the air and propel them. However, jump jets don't have the endurance to support flight, which Tech Manual spells out.

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Isn't the armor thickness one of the Embarrassing Open Secrets of Battletech? Sort of like how the engine size is defined by movement rates, and not weapons power draw?

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Yeah, I think Mac once calculated the armor of BattleShips would be about as thick as mylar or something, considering the size of the ships.

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Rick
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* There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don't. *

It sounds more like he wants a game where everything is science fact and thus needing long winded points verses laser beam vaporizeds the armor around point A etc...as for his jump jet comment this is Battletech not Robotech.

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Now, now.

Just because this is art doesn't mean we should avoid Realism entirely.

Conversely, some things will have to be thrown out the window to make the game work …

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[url=http://www.hitbox.tv/hmpgoose]Goose - The Egyptian God of Frustration[/url]

"He closes his eyes and remembers the night splattered with brightness, the sudden flare of erupting fuel, the mad chase as, supersonic, he bobbed and weaved among the hills and valleys of the Ozarks, the laws on his tail, burning for home …"