okay, so I went down to Wal-Mart the other night, and bought myself an 18.95 portable spotlight. 1,000,000 candlelight. Yes, one million. This thing is the kind with the safety warning that says "Do not aim at eyes." This is kind of thing that'll blind you. Could it be 'creatively' used to prevent people without flare comp from shooting you, or at least assess them some "blinded" modifiers?"

Prolly, if you want to carry a bulky big flashlight around on a sling (i.e. the walmart spotlight). But, in the time it takes to target and shine it at their eyes, you could easily shoot them in the head. Or if peaceful, shoot with a tazer, or drugs, or with gel rounds, or used a flash bang, etc...

On the other hand, cops use very small but powerful lights to give themselves an advantage... so it does work.

What if you had a miniaturized super-spotlight on a helmet? Like a miner's helmet, only with enough candlepower to light up someone's life?

A beam of light's not exactly as hard to aim as a bullet, after all.

It's potentially useful, but mostly for ambushes or defensive applications. And they're not particularly difficult to shoot out. And there is more effective ordnance that you could be carrying around in its place.

I was going to mention the ambush applications, but Arethusa beat me to it.

A sudden illumination with a bank of those puppies could actually momentarily stun a force that was caught at unawares. As for defensive purposes, having multiple lights scattered between and around fighting positions (but not on them) set to strobe at irregular intervals can be terribly disruptive to enemy shooters at nighttime. Also, this makes shooting them out more difficult as they are only on for a split second anyways.

And directionalized, so you didn't blind your chummers.

I think we always played flashpacks as having a 135 degree arc.

Why that figure in particular?

Probably due to the general build of lightpacks. There's always a slight edge around them to hold them together (mostly).

135 sounds about right. It gives that little blanking from the lip where the lid and the backing connect and lock together.

Yeah. Bright lights have great potential for night-time ambushes. Just for an experiment, stand in front of a (motionless) car at night, and get the driver to turn on the lights. How well can you see the driver? How about with the high-beams on? When you're looking past them, they're nearly as debilitating as complete darkness. Frankly, I don't think a +2 TN mod really does it justice.

SureFire™ flashlights are very small and extremely bright flashlights. More than the $20 walmart special but these can be carried in your pocket. Works great. Check them out.

BTW: Law Enforcement carries SureFire flashlights for working at night. They can easily blind their target (short term) so hopefully they can take out the suspect before gun fire is exchanged. Or if gun fire is exchanged, it is a very easy way to spot and shot the suspect (and hopefully blind them so they can not shoot you).

dx

My primary street sam character has had Eyelights, complete with the "MaxFlash" or whatever option, for about five years now. I've never yet had the chance to blast someone with them. *sniffle*

Apparently the under-barrel-mounted flashlight from Cannon Companion will inflict glare modifiers on whoever you point the gun at, so this has occurred to them. A big spotlight would probably allow you to "glare" at more people.

What about those big spot-lights used in every batman movie, show, comic, etc...? I would guess you could "glare" a bunch of people, but could it be efficiently vehicle mounted?

P.S. The Surefire™ flashlights run about $65-100. They are very usable with pistol's, though a 'tac-light' affixed to the gun is even easier to use.