I've got one: the generation of the laser creates gas that has to be discharged. The recoil is caused by that.

That's as good as any.

I don't know, but I'm quite sure it's all highly scientific, though.

except sound doesn't travel through outer space...if you don't see it, you will not hear it..

Same reason lighting makes an explosive thunderclap. A vacuum is created and the atmosphere then collapses back in to fill the void creating sound and force.

Simply put, I think they needed more mod ideas for lasers, and added recoil to find those ideas. Afterall, why add a stock that improves recoil if the weapon produces no recoil to begin with?

Two reasons.

FIrst, in the Fallout universe the laws Science! apply and not the laws science that you are trying to use. Do not confuse the laws of Science! with the laws of science.

Second, it is a method of balancing weapons. Rightfully or wrongfully applied it still brings some semblance of balance.

the same reason you can see the beam,

it superheats the air it is passing through, it's only because the laser is interacting with the air that it can be seen, if the laser isn't interacting with something it is undetectable

heated air expands, thus heating the air in front of the weapon will push back on the weapon as it expands.

Also, a laser would be inherently silent, but would have a plasma like effect similar to lightning making the origin of the beam really obvious.

I'd love to see a weapon mod for Laser Guns that converts the laser into a mostly invisible beam that fires silently and does extra crit damage, sort of like a Suppressor for energy weapons. Ultraviolet Lens? Ultraviolet Capacitor?

If I could mod in new projectile art, it might be something I could do myself. But I dunno.

Simple.

In the fallout world, electrons and photons DO have mass.

Not sure why they have recoil, but the sound part is easy. Lasers are normally silent, but think about it. Fallout lasers are strong enough to pierce protective gear and kill a person. Not only that, but it does it in a fraction of a second where with real life lasers, have to be sustained io the target for several seconds to do that kind of damage. That's a huge amount of energy in a small amount of time. It superheated the air and it makes a cracking noise in the same way lightning bolt does when it releases it's massive energy in a split second.

Some laser uses gas to generate the laser, the giant laser they tried to build inside an 747 is one example. Gas is burned / react on firing and it makes sense to eject it forward on an handheld weapon. However the fallout lasers looks to be solid state and powered by electricity.

To me no recoil but overheating with extensive firing of multiple magazines other than the gatling laser who is build for it.

It's from the air displacing at the front of the gun. I have no idea but I just assume it's some [censored] like that.

First of all, cooling would require flow of cooling gas, not bursts. Flow does not create gun like "recoil".

Second, even if you would somehow create cooling system which would work in huge bursts equal to discharge of kinetic projectile, you would design it to be discharged in to two or more opposite directions to cancel each other.

Laser "weapon" is radiation emitter, it does not discharge kinetic energy. Laser itself is optically amplified electromagnetic radiation (light). Laser weapon is basically a powerful flashlight.

Recoil of laser weapons is part of Fallout 4 "magic". Along with magic second shot weapons, irradiated water and other nonsense.

so you are saying it should be constantly intaking air all of the time even while you are not using it? Seems like a waste of energy to me and would constantly drain your fusion cells. And yes the magic of an automatic air condencer that turns on when you pull the trigger and off after 0.2 seconds

any release of high energy will have force. if the energy release is greater than the resistance, then there will be recoil.

It's like some of you aren't reading posts after the OP or something.

Better question would be, why do they fire a laser projectile at all?

Ask George Lucas.

OP when we get right down to it, man portable laser rifles don't make any sense. Every depiction of a laser rifle would never be feasible because lasers don't work the way science fiction depicts them.


It's one of the true issues I have with science fiction as a whole. If there are laser rifles, they will always be done wrong.


However they are fun to use in game.

Fallout laser weapons were first created completely quiet with no recoil and invisible laser. Military brass was upset that troops couldn't use tracer fire while using the new laser weapons. The company that created the rifle then harnessed some of the visible light that was created in the laser crystal focusing and shot it down the weapon in addition to the laser. Thus a "visible" laser was created. The crystals used were even changed to give the laser a red colour to match the tracer fire. It was then found that a cheaper crystal could be used to get the red light, but a special induction circuit had to be added. This circuit required a high powered component, but it was ok because it could be cheaply made. The component also discharge air with a large amount of force, but engineers calibrated it so the energy was dispersed evenly and the weapon had no recoil. Army grunts hated it they couldn't figure out how to fire a weapon that didn't have any recoil. The poor engineer that figured out how to disperse the energy evenly was told his idea svcked and he needed to make the weapon recoil so grunts could shoot it. In a fit of rage he calibrated it so that most of the force came down out of the weapon to give it a recoil effect. He also had some of the force come out the side to act as a hot brass ejector. Displeased with his "crappy design" he went further by adding other features that he thought grunts would want. He added a howler to make noise every time the gun was fired for no reason. He then fiddled with power consumption circuitry to make it use more power so grunts would have to reload. Feeling that no one would ever want to use this crappy laser and he could go back to his better design, he presented it to the military. The grunts and brass loved it and adopted. In a fit of rage the engineer destroyed his notes on the better weapon and swapped to the new plasma weapon project. War, War never changes.

At first figured it was like Warhammer 40k where the Las-Rifles actually use an all-in self contained ammo that has a chemical reaction combustion to generate the shot, and a lens on the front of the shell.... but the fusion cells in game sure do look a hell of a lot like a D-cell flashlight battery.

More than once in FO4 I've scored a nice-sounding legendary laser, modded it up and found it utterly unusable for anything but one-shot sniping because of the recoil.

No, just when you are operating weapon of course.

i have never asked myself this question in all my gaming career

it would be a more interesting choice to have them overheat then to give them recoil .... as a design ideea