It actually struck me immediately that there is neither recoil nor impulse from kinetic weapons. Firing a cannon should give a pretty substantial push, as should getting struck by a cannon slug.
If I'm in a Derpwinder and I get broadsided by a Class 3 cannon, I should spin like Darth Vader off in some random direction. =P
We can calculate the recoil. Lets use the 40mm Bofors as an example. The L/70 variant fires an 870g projectile at 1030 m/s. That's 4.6e5 J of kinetic energy. So the maximum recoil would be the same, though in real life you would expect part of the recoil energy to be used in reloading the gun or expended in some other fashion. A Vulture is about 350 tons (1/40,000 the mass of the projectile). So the delta-V imparted on the Vulture by firing 1 round on the Bofors would be about 1.6 m/s.
Not really substantial, but could be noticeable. Imagine firing 2 of these for 3.2 m/s per shot at 2 rounds per second per gun. Fire for a 5 second "burst" for 20 rounds or a delta-V of -32 m/s. Would be noticeable with Flight Assist Off. Imagine shooting from only one side, that could throw off your aim substantially using Fixed Bofors.
Do note, while we call these things kinetic weapons, I'd assume most of the damage is done by the explosive charge. So the damage isn't necessarily purely kinetic.
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