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* The Grav Lance in the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series is a key plot point in the first book, and is then never mentioned again. Considering how much other technology advances over the course of the books (about 20 years in universe), you'd think they could have worked out the glitches of a weapon that can one hit the shields of any size of ship, up to and including a [[MightyGlacier superdreadnought]]. Its sponsor lost favour, and its debut performance generated massive bad feeling amongst the other powers-that-be, so it could be deliberately kept out of action.
** The Grav Lance required the ship using it to be at extremely close range to its opponent, it couldn't work at all except when mounted on a cruiser-sized or bigger vessel, and the energy requirements meant that the ship's usual defensive weaponry had to be gutted. While it did work as advertised, the ship was nearly destroyed in the process. Still, it was only a prototype, and could have been refined to be less dangerous to its own crew.
** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist From a Doylist point of view]]: once the writer realized how big an impact could it have on his vision of space warfare, he proceeded to close every loophole he could find in the setting's internal logic to make sure the weapon will never come back.
This is equivalent of saying that swords are forgotten phlebotinum because modern armies don't use them anymore. Grav Lance was AmesomeButImpractical experimental weapon from the start and it's very situational usefulness combined with huge size and low reliability made it simply ineffective in Weberian space combat. Granted, Grav Lance / Plasma torpedo combo was deadly but grav lance has a range of 0,1 gigameters, Lasers can pass the sidewalls from four times that range, and missle combat is fought at over ten times that distance, and that was ''before'' multistage missles were introduces with range going up to around 60 gigameters. Using grav lance would be space equivalent to trying to atack sniper in open field with a knife, it's no suprise that it was never used again.
** The Grav Lance required the ship using it to be at extremely close range to its opponent, it couldn't work at all except when mounted on a cruiser-sized or bigger vessel, and the energy requirements meant that the ship's usual defensive weaponry had to be gutted. While it did work as advertised, the ship was nearly destroyed in the process. Still, it was only a prototype, and could have been refined to be less dangerous to its own crew.
** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist From a Doylist point of view]]: once the writer realized how big an impact could it have on his vision of space warfare, he proceeded to close every loophole he could find in the setting's internal logic to make sure the weapon will never come back.
This is equivalent of saying that swords are forgotten phlebotinum because modern armies don't use them anymore. Grav Lance was AmesomeButImpractical experimental weapon from the start and it's very situational usefulness combined with huge size and low reliability made it simply ineffective in Weberian space combat. Granted, Grav Lance / Plasma torpedo combo was deadly but grav lance has a range of 0,1 gigameters, Lasers can pass the sidewalls from four times that range, and missle combat is fought at over ten times that distance, and that was ''before'' multistage missles were introduces with range going up to around 60 gigameters. Using grav lance would be space equivalent to trying to atack sniper in open field with a knife, it's no suprise that it was never used again.
to:
* The Grav Lance in the \'\'Literature/HonorHarrington\'\' series is a key plot point in the first book, and is then never mentioned again. Considering how much other technology advances over the course of the books (about 20 years in universe), you\'d think they could have worked out the glitches of a weapon that can one hit the shields of any size of ship, up to and including a [[MightyGlacier superdreadnought]]. Its sponsor lost favour, and its debut performance generated massive bad feeling amongst the other powers-that-be, so it could be deliberately kept out of action.
** The Grav Lance required the ship using it to be at extremely close range to its opponent, it couldn\'t work at all except when mounted on a cruiser-sized or bigger vessel, and the energy requirements meant that the ship\'s usual defensive weaponry had to be gutted. While it did work as advertised, the ship was nearly destroyed in the process. Still, it was only a prototype, and could have been refined to be less dangerous to its own crew.
** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist From a Doylist point of view]]: once the writer realized how big an impact could it have on his vision of space warfare, he proceeded to close every loophole he could find in the setting\'s internal logic to make sure the weapon will never come back.
This is equivalent of saying that swords are forgotten phlebotinum because modern armies don\'t use them anymore. Grav Lance was AwesomeButImpractical experimental weapon from the start and it\'s very situational usefulness combined with huge size and low reliability made it simply ineffective in Weberian space combat. Granted, Grav Lance / Plasma torpedo combo was deadly but grav lance has a range of 0,1 gigameters, Lasers can pass the sidewalls from four times that range, and missle combat is fought at over ten times that distance, and that was \'\'before\'\' multistage missles were introduces with range going up to around 60 gigameters. Using grav lance would be space equivalent to trying to atack sniper in open field with a knife, it\'s no suprise that it was never used again.
** The Grav Lance required the ship using it to be at extremely close range to its opponent, it couldn\'t work at all except when mounted on a cruiser-sized or bigger vessel, and the energy requirements meant that the ship\'s usual defensive weaponry had to be gutted. While it did work as advertised, the ship was nearly destroyed in the process. Still, it was only a prototype, and could have been refined to be less dangerous to its own crew.
** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist From a Doylist point of view]]: once the writer realized how big an impact could it have on his vision of space warfare, he proceeded to close every loophole he could find in the setting\'s internal logic to make sure the weapon will never come back.
This is equivalent of saying that swords are forgotten phlebotinum because modern armies don\'t use them anymore. Grav Lance was AwesomeButImpractical experimental weapon from the start and it\'s very situational usefulness combined with huge size and low reliability made it simply ineffective in Weberian space combat. Granted, Grav Lance / Plasma torpedo combo was deadly but grav lance has a range of 0,1 gigameters, Lasers can pass the sidewalls from four times that range, and missle combat is fought at over ten times that distance, and that was \'\'before\'\' multistage missles were introduces with range going up to around 60 gigameters. Using grav lance would be space equivalent to trying to atack sniper in open field with a knife, it\'s no suprise that it was never used again.
