In actuality, can anti-air buildings hit aerial units?

[Pandonetho]

Barring the missile turret, would the photon cannon or spore colony/crawler be able to hit air units high in the sky such as battlecruisers?

I know they are probably pretty effective against units that rely on coming in low to strike hard and leave fast (AKA the Wraith or mutalisks).

But do they have the actual power to be able to fire a projectile at a target so high up (such as the battlecruiser or the carriers) to actually do any damage?

I'm kind of having a bit of difficulty imagining it, whereas we've all seen missiles before (I assume they're self propelled).

What are your guys' opinions?

[KDraconis]

I think the photon cannon propels its shots at a very high speed, so it might reach. As for the spore colony, its projectiles might have some kind of self-propulsion, or the projectiles might be light enough to drift upwards, hit its target, and cause damage through corrosion.

[Norfindel]

The Photon Cannon shoots energy, so i don't think there's a problem there. I don't know about the Spore Crawler, but Marines and Hydralisks can hit Battlecruisers, so it's not like it makes a lot of sense anyways.

[Pandonetho]

That's why I said in actuality.

Obviously realistically marines and hydras can't effectively shoot battlecruisers, so that's why I'm wondering if the defenses can.

[Ghost_828]

Photon Cannon: Yes. Energy projectile.
Spore Colony: Possible. Zerg 'tech' seems pretty resilient.

[Kacaier]

Well, Blizzard says so, so obviously they can hit and do ample damage. Though, if we break down the names of the structures, we can technobabble it into a workable form. My science, however, is pretty bad. What I may say might be complete and utter nonsense.

A photon is a particle of light. Now, anyone would assume any light-based attack should move at the speed of light, but like the burst laser or laser batteries of the BC (or any scifi laser weapon), they move slow enough to be followed with the eye. This is a trope in every sci-fi setting. Instead of a laser beam, which would use the wave form of light, a photon cannon would use the particle duality. A particle beam (or blast) rather than a laser.

Would it be able to hit something in the air? Conventional sciences say they move at light speed. But SciFi magic can make them move at any speed they want. So, even if not at light speed, several speeds above Mach might be sufficient. And it would most likely move at a constant speed, with the atmosphere only 'weakening' the projection, rather than slow down like with a missile or solid bullet.

A spore colony is a lot more tricky. In fact, anything Zerg is tricky. Bio-weapons and bio-mechanisms that can go on par with mechanical structures are unheard of. But since we accept Zerg through the suspension of belief...

A spore is a 'seed' emitted by many plants and/or fungus. Instead of fruits or nuts, some plants like weeds will disperse millions of airborn seeds that will be scattered by the wind throughout the lands. A spore colony, may not use it for reproduction anymore. Like a scourge or infested terran maybe, these spores would be explosive and scattered in greater numbers (rather than by one as shown in SC). I suppose the initial velocity would be achieved by the spore colony launching them like a hydralisk. Through gas sacs or maybe they're build so that the air can keep them afloat, they would saturate the air so that air units will crash into them rather than actually get shot by the spore. Though I would find the spore colony to be the biggest stretch in reaching high atmosphere.

[Visions of Khas]

I'd thought that the object shot from a Spore Colony was itself a living organism that propelled itself through the air. However, there are plants that literally launch their seeds through the air with (relatively) explosive force, so it's not entirely impossible for the "spores" to literally be spores.

Photon cannons shoot bolts of anti-matter ensconced in a psionic field which acts to stabilize it as a plasmoid. I can think of no real reason to call it a "photon" cannon, other as a reference to the Photon Torpedoes used in Star Trek, which likewise use antimatter.

[Lupino]

Barring the missile turret, would the photon cannon or spore colony/crawler be able to hit air units high in the sky such as battlecruisers?

I know they are probably pretty effective against units that rely on coming in low to strike hard and leave fast (AKA the Wraith or mutalisks).

But do they have the actual power to be able to fire a projectile at a target so high up (such as the battlecruiser or the carriers) to actually do any damage?

I'm kind of having a bit of difficulty imagining it, whereas we've all seen missiles before (I assume they're self propelled).

What are your guys' opinions?

The answer to your question would require knowledge which IIRC we do not currently have, namely the range, maneuverability and velocity of the projectiles fired.

[Roobster]

I can think of no real reason to call it a "photon" cannon, other as a reference to the Photon Torpedoes used in Star Trek, which likewise use antimatter.

The name can lore-wise be explained with linguistics in several ways. One way is that Photon Cannon was the name of an archaic Protoss weapon whose name got stuck to the current design. Perhaps what the Protoss really mean when they say Photon Cannon is "automated static defense cannon"? Think of how the word rifle is used to describe other things than what it was originally intended for, a gun with a rifled barrel, like water rifle.

[Agiel7]

Could be that photon bolts and Zerg spores work like anti-aircraft flak artillery. They explode at a certain height and cause damage through the splash.