New Weapon- Coilguns (Aka-the Gauss Rifle/Cannon)

[Jaylem]

Considering how people can make these things as a hobby, I would of thought the design would be heavily recognised in Elite.

To keep this short;
- Coilguns open the potential of rapid fire Hyper-velocity weapons. (sizes 1-2)

-More or less being the Railgun equivalent to a Plasma repeater. (again 1-2)

-same heat problems just like a railgun (game balancing)

-Lower DPS than railguns, but less punishing to miss with. Ideal for targeting Smaller craft.

-Cost effective munitions (small and cheap rounds)

- Charge up time required before automatic fire,

-Compared to Ihammer, ROF and clip capacity is significantly higher.

-Size 4 goes opposite way, With a Massive Charge up time But high Dam per round (More damaging than a 4A PA bolt, but half the DPS) Missing is a very costly mistake.... successful hits however would give even Engineered Shields and hull a run for it's money. Not to mention it would look very impressive.

- Engineer mods Mimic that of standard railguns (except Class 4 Short range blaster too imbalanced)

- new unique special effects to spice things up


I myself am a large fan of Magnetically Accelerated weapons. and would really like to see some more verity to this aspect/


Thoughts?

CMDR Jaylem

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Considering how people can make these things as a hobby, I would of thought the design would be heavily recognised in Elite.

To keep this short;
- Coilguns open the potential of rapid fire Hyper-velocity weapons. (sizes 1-2)

-More or less being the Railgun equivalent to a Plasma repeater. (again 1-2)

-same heat problems just like a railgun (game balancing)

-Lower DPS than railguns, but less punishing to miss with. Ideal for targeting Smaller craft.

-Cost effective munitions (small and cheap rounds)

- Charge up time required before automatic fire,

-Compared to Ihammer, ROF and clip capacity is significantly higher.

-Size 4 goes opposite way, With a Massive Charge up time But high Dam per round (More damaging than a 4A PA bolt, but half the DPS) Missing is a very costly mistake.... successful hits however would give even Engineered Shields and hull a run for it's money. Not to mention it would look very impressive.

- Engineer mods Mimic that of standard railguns (except Class 4 Short range blaster too imbalanced)

- new unique special effects to spice things up


I myself am a large fan of Magnetically Accelerated weapons. and would really like to see some more verity to this aspect/


Thoughts?

CMDR Jaylem

Isn't that what a Railgun is?

 

[Vasious]

Isn't that what a Railgun is?

I believe Coil guns and Rail guns rely of different mechanisms to accelerate the projectile so could offer different positives and negatives for a similar weapon class

Akin to how Cannons vs Multi-cannons are the same but different kinetic weapons with chemical reaction used to propel the projectile

 

[Konnivar]

I believe Coil guns and Rail guns rely of different mechanisms to accelerate the projectile so could offer different positives and negatives for a similar weapon class

Akin to how Cannons vs Multi-cannons are the same but different kinetic weapons with chemical reaction used to propel the projectile

Both rely on electromagnetic forces to propel a projectile. Coil guns do this by using a whole bunch of individual coils wrapped around a tube in the same way as a solenoid.

Rail guns use two electrified rails of opposite polarity driving a magnetic projectile that completes the circuit between them.

Railguns are simpler to implement, but require more power and have little control over projectile speed. Coil guns are more complicated to implement, but require less power and have more control over projectile speed. In terms of weaponization they are functionally the same, with the railgun having a leg up for being less complex and more reliable (currently).

As cool as this would be to see in game I don't see a niche that it would fill that a railgun can't already do.

 

[Nero Tacitus]

As cool as this would be to see in game I don't see a niche that it would fill that a railgun can't already do.

Railguns are currently the sniper rifles of ED. They take careful aim and punish you hard if you're even slightly off. A slimmed down, rapid fire version of the railgun would be a welcome addition IMO. Hell, we have 0 gimballed thermal-kinetics, there's a niche right there.

+1. Nice idea. Though I wouldn't count on a huge mount that hits harder than a PA. I think there's a good reason there's no huge railguns, balance (we can dream though).

 

[Teh Smoo]

So, scaled up plasma repeaters from the fighters?

Taking weapons to extremes is generally stupid, though. The weapon either becomes completely unusable, or massively powerful in a niche.

 

[YinYin]

I think there's a good reason there's no huge railguns, balance (we can dream though).

One of the personal guardian weapon concepts looks like a huge railgun. Probably not very useful against normal ships though.

https://i.imgur.com/eTeZIIj.png

edit: well the rails are a bit rough ... probably only fires an electrical discharge of some kind ...

So, scaled up plasma repeaters from the fighters?

No. Plasma repeaters are tiny rapid fire plasma accelerators. They have a conceivable shot speed. Coil guns would be rapid fire hit scan.

 

[MaxamusLead]

Looking from a game balance Point of view, a rapid fire hitscan weapon kinda kills of Multi cannons they are simply better and easier to use. No travel time Check, able to use both fixed lasers and fixed kinetic damage dealers which require no lead, Check. They would have either have really low damage, range, ammo or a mix of these three to even to begin to be balanced.

They only thing i would like to see would be Class 3 and 4 railguns but again there is a balancing issue as railguns are kinda a direct improvement on cannons and way easier to aim over Plasma Accelerators.

 

[YinYin]

They would have either have really low damage, range, ammo or a mix of these three to even to begin to be balanced.

Low ammo is a no go. It just sends the user to collect materials or go for restock. No fun and no help concerning in-use balance.
Range is something you cannot believably tamper with on this type of weapon.
Reasonable damage is rather obvious. I would imagine it to essentially be a pulse laser with a kinetic/thermal split (in terms of damage). With the addition of charge up time and limited clip reloads (like a multi).


There are much better ways to balance it - and more importantly, set it apart from what exists.

It would certainly use more distributor power and generate more heat than either pulse or multi cannons, since it's closer to a rail gun.

If you really want to do something with range, you could make this a weapon with significant jitter.

You could also set armour piercing lower than the alternatives.

 

[Shadowdancer]

A coilgun would immediately make railguns obsolete.

 

[MaxamusLead]

Low ammo is a no go. It just sends the user to collect materials or go for restock. No fun and no help concerning in-use balance.
Range is something you cannot believably tamper with on this type of weapon.
Reasonable damage is rather obvious. I would imagine it to essentially be a pulse laser with a kinetic/thermal split (in terms of damage). With the addition of charge up time and limited clip reloads (like a multi).


There are much better ways to balance it - and more importantly, set it apart from what exists.

It would certainly use more distributor power and generate more heat than either pulse or multi cannons, since it's closer to a rail gun.

If you really want to do something with range, you could make this a weapon with significant jitter.

You could also set armour piercing lower than the alternatives.

The problem with thermal and power limits is that you can "Fix" those issue quite well with engineering, i guess you could remove the thermal mods but power really is not as big a thing as it was before engineering, quick example Vulture. even with the worst rolls on a G5 overcharge give it enough power to run Class 3 PA. It would have weakass shields but this is just modding the Power plant with the worse results

another way you could limited it could be the damage per second rather than the damage per shot but that might not the best way either.

 

[YinYin]

The problem with thermal and power limits is that you can "Fix" those issue quite well with engineering, i guess you could remove the thermal mods but power really is not as big a thing as it was before engineering, quick example Vulture. even with the worst rolls on a G5 overcharge give it enough power to run Class 3 PA. It would have weakass shields but this is just modding the Power plant with the worse results

I was talking about distributor power, not generator power.

And the engineered caps don't invalidate either being a deciding balance factor.

another way you could limited it could be the damage per second rather than the damage per shot but that might not the best way either.

No idea what that's supposed to mean. Damage per second always exists as a value. So does damage per shot, if you happen to have shots.

 

[Stigbob]

Both rely on electromagnetic forces to propel a projectile. Coil guns do this by using a whole bunch of individual coils wrapped around a tube in the same way as a solenoid.

Rail guns use two electrified rails of opposite polarity driving a magnetic projectile that completes the circuit between them.

Railguns are simpler to implement, but require more power and have little control over projectile speed. Coil guns are more complicated to implement, but require less power and have more control over projectile speed. In terms of weaponization they are functionally the same, with the railgun having a leg up for being less complex and more reliable (currently).

As cool as this would be to see in game I don't see a niche that it would fill that a railgun can't already do.

Hmm so coil guns use coils, and a rail guns use rails. Whooda thunk it.

 

[MaxamusLead]

I was talking about distributor power, not generator power.

And the engineered caps don't invalidate either being a deciding balance factor.

it makes balancing harder from power triangle view. example, let's say a weapon hits like a truck and has middle of the road ROF but really high heat output forcing short bursts of fire before it overheats. Sounds good and balanced but when you're able to remove that draw back of the high heat or reduce it by a fair amount it breaks balance.

No idea what that's supposed to mean. Damage per second always exists as a value. So does damage per shot, if you happen to have shots.

A overlong way to describe Rate of fire. Damage per minute might of been a better value to describe what i ment over Damage per Sec.

 

[YinYin]

it makes balancing harder from power triangle view. example, let's say a weapon hits like a truck and has middle of the road ROF but really high heat output forcing short bursts of fire before it overheats. Sounds good and balanced but when you're able to remove that draw back of the high heat or reduce it by a fair amount it breaks balance.

But that is already the case for every single non AX weapon in the game. It has no relevance, because it can balance out the same compared to them.

A overlong way to describe Rate of fire. Damage per minute might of been a better value to describe what i ment over Damage per Sec.

Ah okay, rate of fire forces you to be more or less accurate, but changing that doesn't have to change damage over time.
The whole point here is though, allowing you to be a bit less accurate due to a higher fire rate than hammers for example (which already do the same compared to rails).