Is it possible the Hi-Mega cannon has 1/5th the power of a colony laser?

[Geoxile]

The Unicorn novelization mentions the Gryps II colony laser has an output of 92 million GW. The ZZ Gundam's Hi-Mega cannon being 1/5th the power sounds unbelievable, even with setting details like megaparticle cannons being 4x more efficient than lasers. But an earlier Unicorn novel has characters, including some Nahel Argama crew, discussing the Nahel Argama's Hyper Mega Particle Cannon being capable of power comparable to the colony laser, which makes the 1/5th claim seem a little more believable. So is this claim just nonsense from old model kit manuals or is there some merit to it due to mega particle magic?

[Seto Kaiba]

It's hogwash.

The ZZ Gundam's hi-mega cannon has a rated output of 50.0MW in official materials.

If the statement about the Gryps II colony laser's power is accurate, it is 1.84 billion times as powerful as the ZZ Gundam's hi-mega cannon.

[Mafty]

What exactly happened to the High Mega Cannons anyway? They are added to ships and MS freely in the UC 80s, but seem to disappear from use by the UC 90's, which is odd because you'd think they'd of use in CCA with stopping Axis.

[Seto Kaiba]

What exactly happened to the High Mega Cannons anyway? They are added to ships and MS freely in the UC 80s, but seem to disappear from use by the UC 90's, which is odd because you'd think they'd of use in CCA with stopping Axis.

When you get right down to it, there isn't a clear distinction between a "high mega cannon" or "hyper mega particle cannon" and a regular mega particle cannon in technological terms. It seems to just be a way to denote a particularly (read: "impractically") powerful mega particle beam cannon. The weapons specifically flagged as such seem to have only one detail in common: they draw so much power from one or more dedicated reactors that their incredible stopping power is matched by an atrociously long recharge time and power demands that leave a MS helpless after running its reactors on overload, using multiple mobile suits, or tying into a warship's reactors.

It's possible they just stopped distinguishing as mega particle beam cannon outputs improved, or maybe the technology was retired as impractical because of its limited battlefield utility compared to a normal cannon with a much higher rate of fire.

[MythSearcher]

The higher power HMC for the FAZZ(79.8MW) has 10 shots before overheating, and S Gundam's BSG(56MW+) can also fire multiple times while in combat, even the Z+ C1[Bst] can support 2 BSG(50MW each).
So yeah, the ZZ HMC(50MW) is definitely just a design flaw that can be taken care of with higher tech or simply not directly connecting it to the generator.

[Mafty]

It's interesting how Gundam will sometimes put in technology that doesn't work in universe, it adds a bit of realism to the technology race.

There also may be an out of universe reason for the issue; at times some of the technology simply disappers from the timeline; only to show up in a interquel with no explanation as to why it wasn't used previously

Spoiler

Like how Unicorn brings back the Gryps Colony Laser, that no one thought to fire at Axis in CCA.

[Seto Kaiba]

It's interesting how Gundam will sometimes put in technology that doesn't work in universe, it adds a bit of realism to the technology race.

It's not that it doesn't work, it's that it doesn't work well enough to be practical or efficiently enough to be economical.

Remember, these amazing giant robots being used on the field of battle were built by the lowest bidder like every other weapon.

Gundam has a rather unrealistic love affair with "awesome, but impractical" in the sense that super prototypes far too expensive to ever actually produce or maintain properly always end up being pivotal to the course of a war they should never be fighting in... and nobody would have realistically developed anyway. A super-prototype defeats the entire purpose of a prototype.

There also may be an out of universe reason for the issue; at times some of the technology simply disappers from the timeline; only to show up in a interquel with no explanation as to why it wasn't used previously

Spoiler

Like how Unicorn brings back the Gryps Colony Laser, that no one thought to fire at Axis in CCA.

Colony laser systems were notoriously unreliable. The material requirements to make one are huge, they require a lot of maintenance, they take a prohibitively long time to charge up and cool down between firings, and its excessive firepower damages the weapon every time it's fired. Gryps 2 was damaged in battle and by repeated use in the Gryps Conflict and the AEUG abandoned it. It's possible that it took years to repair the damage the war and its own operation inflicted on it and return it to working order.

[MythSearcher]

It's not that it doesn't work, it's that it doesn't work well enough to be practical or efficiently enough to be economical.

Remember, these amazing giant robots being used on the field of battle were built by the lowest bidder like every other weapon.

Gundam has a rather unrealistic love affair with "awesome, but impractical" in the sense that super prototypes far too expensive to ever actually produce or maintain properly always end up being pivotal to the course of a war they should never be fighting in... and nobody would have realistically developed anyway. A super-prototype defeats the entire purpose of a prototype.

Actually, not lowest bidder. AE is pretty much charging EFF extra premium price since they have the monopoly until some time towards 0120, and EF itself is kinda a monopoly in economy for the entire Earth sphere of influence that has a lot of money to spend. While yes, they have cost cuts but seems to always look for over priced over spec items to accommodate for the cutting of manpower and keep using old stuff until eternity in back water places that is so unbalanced and may need more upkeep than actually switching to new stuff.

Spoiler

Like how Unicorn brings back the Gryps Colony Laser, that no one thought to fire at Axis in CCA.

Colony laser systems were notoriously unreliable. The material requirements to make one are huge, they require a lot of maintenance, they take a prohibitively long time to charge up and cool down between firings, and its excessive firepower damages the weapon every time it's fired. Gryps 2 was damaged in battle and by repeated use in the Gryps Conflict and the AEUG abandoned it. It's possible that it took years to repair the damage the war and its own operation inflicted on it and return it to working order.

Well, Gryps 2 was the one they captured from Zeon anyway, so they don't have to make a new one. And considering they basically built it within OYW, I doubt the repairs lasted from 0088 to 0093, even if they started repairing the thing after 1st NZ conflict in 0089, they have 4 years of repairs. Just that 0093 when Axis is falling to Earth, I doubt they have time to go through all the bureaucratic procedures and then charge it up to use it.

[Mafty]

The Solar Ray was actually a Zeon colony, the one seen being forcible evacuated in the first series. So Gryps is actually a different colony, in particularly the industrial 2nd Colony of Side 7, Green Noa 2. I agree that the Colony Laser was probably damaged and abandoned, so there simply wasn't enough time to do anything with it, prior to the out break of conflict in CCA( remember the Second Neo Zeon war occurs in a matter of days), there's also the issue of how Gryps was used to commit war crimes, so there would probably be backlash for using it, indeed Gryps being repaired seem to be something kept under wraps in Unicorn.


As for the beam output , that is hard to say. It's worth noting that both the Colony laser and the High Mega Particle Cannon are capable of destroying a colony (though at least the Argama uses an abandoned colony).

[Seto Kaiba]

As for the beam output , that is hard to say. It's worth noting that both the Colony laser and the High Mega Particle Cannon are capable of destroying a colony (though at least the Argama uses an abandoned colony).

Well, yes... though, to be fair, the UC-era space colonies are quite fragile and it doesn't actually take much to fatally damage one. It's like trying to demonstrate the difference between a .38 pistol and a .50BMG by shooting at a cardboard box.

[MythSearcher]

As for the beam output , that is hard to say. It's worth noting that both the Colony laser and the High Mega Particle Cannon are capable of destroying a colony (though at least the Argama uses an abandoned colony).

Well, yes... though, to be fair, the UC-era space colonies are quite fragile and it doesn't actually take much to fatally damage one. It's like trying to demonstrate the difference between a .38 pistol and a .50BMG by shooting at a cardboard box.

Also, punching a metre wide hole on an Island 3 colony will take months for it to be empty of air, and at least days before the air pressure thins enough that the residents have to worry.