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Kyle Hawkins

Member Since 15 Mar 2012
Offline Last Active Nov 17 2012 07:55 PM
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Posts I've Made

In Topic: The weapon balance poll.

04 November 2012 - 11:50 AM

View PostOnyx Rain, on 04 November 2012 - 06:47 AM, said:


First to be fair I should put this...
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Gauss_Rifle
"Introduced inIntroduced in 2590 by the Terran Hegemony[4], the Gauss Rifle utilizes a series of electromagnets to propel slugs of ferrous nickel-iron alloy at extremely high velocities"

Being ferrous it is less likely to require a sabot like armature from my understanding since it isn't non-ferrous like aluminium. And I saw no mention of one on sarna.net

Second...
I agree that anything getting hit with something sabot/armature or not at mach 5 is going to cause as much if not more damage probably due to increased mass...unless maybe if the sobot or armature is made out of some crazy sponge like super shock absorbing material ;)

Third...(wiki)
A sabot is a device used in a firearm or cannon to fire a projectile, such as a bullet, that is smaller than the bore diameter, or which must be held in a precise position. The name "sabot" comes from a French word for wooden shoes traditionally worn in some European countries, also called clogs.

Now in further response to your general statements...

Actually...

From wiki (again)...

A coilgun is a type of projectile accelerator that consists of one or more coils used as electromagnets in the configuration of a synchronous linear motor which accelerate a magnetic projectile to high velocity. The name Gauss gun is sometimes used for such devices in reference to Carl Friedrich Gauss, who formulated mathematical descriptions of the magnetic effect used by magnetic accelerators.[/color]
[color=#000000]
Coilguns consist of one or more coils arranged along a barrel. The coils are switched on and off in sequence, causing the projectile to be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces. Coilguns are distinct from railguns, which pass a large current through the projectile or sabot via sliding contacts. Coilguns and railguns also operate on different principles. The first operational coilgun was developed and patented by Norwegian physicist Kristian Birkeland.

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And...

Railgun projectile...(I guess the "sabot" is generally referred to as an armature, but is somewhat similar principle.) (Do we actually know if the gauss is a coil gun, railgun...or what?)
http://worldofdefens...netic-rail.html

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http://www.google.co...29,r:0,s:0,i:72

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So while he was kinda off relating to the game, in general he wasn't to far off about there being a sabot...or sabot like mechanism, ( or armature) in similar real world weapon types.


Hmm. Well then. I concede and redact what I said earlier. Sabots in a coilgun. And yeah, Gauss does refer specifically to coilguns.

I'd always been under the assumption that futuristic coilguns would be designed to suspend the round hovering perfectly in the very centre of the barrel, to reduce wear and friction, but there is no way for sure to know exactly how BT gauss rifles would be designed.

The point about a lethal mach 5 ferrous sabot does certainly still stand, but I'll take back the stuff I said about a sabot making no sense.

In Topic: The weapon balance poll.

04 November 2012 - 04:53 AM

View PostDigital Ninja, on 04 November 2012 - 04:26 AM, said:

How did PPC get more votes for being underpowered than the machine gun and flamer? At least it's possible to actually kill something with a PPC, even if it's not optimal. It's literally impossible to kill a non-AFK mech with machine guns and flamers.


I'm assuming it has something to do with people forgetting that the MG and Flamer are even an option in the game, and skimming the poll list for the ones that do come to mind. Weapons like the PPC are the kind that a lot of people want to use and will try out, and by extension, end up with players feeling let down or disappointed by the most often. So they're the first that come to mind.

That's my take on it.

In Topic: The weapon balance poll.

04 November 2012 - 04:09 AM

View Posttopgun505, on 03 November 2012 - 11:03 PM, said:

Solution: This has been mentioned by multiple people before. Turn the Gauss slug into a sabot round. For those who don't know a sabot is basically a mold that the actual projectile is inside so that it can fit in the barrel. Once fired and the projectile has left the barrel the mold breaks away and the penetrator round continues on its merry way. This would easily justify giving a Gauss Rifle a minimum range. The shot would still do damage inside the min range but it would be greatly reduced (60%?) due to the projectile still being encased in the sabot.


[Edit : Striked out text redacted for being incorrect. Turns out we use sabots in gauss rifles today.]

Whilst I hate to put down a fair attempt at rationalising the Gauss minimum range mechanic, I've got to point out that a Gauss Rifle firing a sabot round would make no sense whatsoever. The point of a sabot round is to fire a narrow projectile whilst maintaining a close seal to the barrel of the gun, so that the propellant gasses don't flush round the projectile and get wasted. Ie, they only can be used in conventional chemical charge weapons. A sabot would not only have no purpose in a magnetic accelerator weapon, but also actually slow down and hamper the projectile.

Not to mention that if you look at real sabot rounds, it's pretty obvious that the sabot would in no way obstruct the penetrator damaging a target at short range. If anything being hit by a mach5 sabot casing only adds more potential hurt to the target.

Sorry. : /

In Topic: The weapon balance poll.

03 November 2012 - 02:01 PM

View Postp00k, on 03 November 2012 - 12:44 PM, said:

not true. the ac20 still outdamages the gauss. if you can decide the battle before the ac20 hbk starts to overheat, then the ac20 wins.

gauss has superior range and heat, but inferior damage. so on caustic valley, lots of wide open spaces, hot map, gauss has a clear advantage. frozen city on the other hand, which provides ample cover to close and is cool, plays to the ac20's advantage


The key bit behind this Gauss vs AC20 Hunchback stuff is, that for the amount of heat generated by the AC20, you can fire both the Gauss and your energy weapons, for equal or greater effective damage at much higher precision. The stock Hunchback very quickly hits it's heat threshold, and is forced to chose between either it's lasers or it's autocannon, That goes completely against the basic concept behind Ballistic weapons that they are low heat and don't conflict with heat intensive weapons.

The extra velocity and precision of the Gauss makes itself particularly welcome during such fast moving point blank brawls, allowing it to hit targets which the AC20 still ridiculously struggles on.

Up close like this, the difference isn't the kind obvious enough to have people declaring the Gauss OP. It's the combined versatility of it in all other roles that does that. But in a close quarters fight the AC20 needs to be doing better than breaking even. This is it's express and only role, and something it should be excelling at.

An AC20 should dominate this kind of fight and be blatantly and undeniably superior in CQB, but most people will shun it even in that role.

In Topic: The weapon balance poll.

03 November 2012 - 12:30 PM

View PostSlepnir, on 02 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

The stock hunchie is NOT a good brawler even on the TT, it has jack for armor, next to no ammo and its slow. its made to fiight only in urban environments. against things like the hatchetman, urban mechs and vehicles.... about the only variant that works as a general brawler is the clan laser boat. also given that on the TT it only fires once every 10 seconds the heat is a non issue most of the time.


That's nice to know, but doesn't change my point or reinforce yours at all. The AC20 remains a short range specialist weapon, that is worse at it's intended role than the Gauss. And talking about how the heat is a non issue in the TT, is lovely, but utterly irrelevant in MWO where it's a massive issue, since firing the AC20 alone will overheat you, and mechs like the stock Swayback can't even fire once per 10 seconds without building up crippling heat. It's just plain broken.

View PostSlepnir, on 02 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

Also ERLL are sniper weapons i use them now and they do the job they were intended to do quite well. there are lots of options for those type of weapons in the game, you just need to choose what to use.


Isn't it interesting then how virtually every good premade team out there chooses to avoid using half of these weapons like the plague. I see an ERLL probably less than one mech in a hundred, and when I do see them, they don't live long. I would say that the group consensus on this poll of which weapons are either lacking or overshadowing the others, is good and accurate. They are unpopular because they under perform, it's easy to see, and the community at large knows it.


View PostSlepnir, on 02 November 2012 - 11:33 PM, said:

The pilot is more than the sum of his mech parts.

Weapons are not balanced across weapon types they are balanced by pros and cons for thier intended uses and performance.

energy does not worry about ammo and takes up less space but requires heat control. gauss explodes etc... the most important element is the pilot and his team..


Pros and cons for each weapon is a core aspect of good balance, but currently half the weapons have all the cons, and the other half all the pros. This is the balance we're talking about in this thread. No one wants all the weapons to be the same. I never implied that at all. And as I've said in other posts, a valid role and varied weapon flavour are vitally important. But when so many weapons are simply objectively worse than their would be competitors, you get what we have now. Weapons being discarded and dismissed by the majority of players.

And really, stop with that "pilot is more than the sum of his mech parts." Stuff. Pilot skill is damned important as we all know, but stating it here changes nothing.

If you take two equally pilot skilled pilots in an AC20 Hunchie and a Guass Hunchie, the pilot with the AC20 build will lose in every circumstance and situation.
A good pilot stuck using only MGs and flamers is still next to worthless. A bad pilot boating LRMs or Streaks can still decimate enemies.

Player skill is irrelevant to the matter of general weapon balancing since any pilot can use any loadout. Though I would be surprised if you hadn't noticed during spectator mode that the more skilled pilots tend to favour certain weapons.