I was reading over smurfy.net a bit, and wondered why all Clan Autocannons are burst-fire rather than single shot.
According to smurfy: "Autocannons range in caliber from 30mm up to 203mm and are loosely grouped according to their damage versus armor."
(Meaning that autocannons that fire smaller shells more quickly, but do the same dps would be considered the same "class" of autocannon)
"The exact same caliber of shell fired in a 100 shot burst to do 20 damage will have a shorter effective range than when fired in a 10 shot burst to do 2 damage due to recoil and other factors."
Doesn't this mean that due to recoil and heat buildup, clan autocannons should actually be shorter range? And as they fire, the shots should be a bit less accurate with each of the rounds leaving the barrel?
As well, I don't see anything in the section on Omnimechs or Autocannons indicating that clans all used burst-fire autocannons and IS used all single-shot autocannons.
Is there a lore basis for this?
EDIT: I actually found something on Ultra-Autocannon 20's
"Only the brand new Clan HAG 40 can match the sheer damage output of the Ultra AC/20, though even that cannot place 20 points of damage squarely in one place."
According to that, shouldn't all autocannons be single-shot?
Aside from the questions, I'm also adding in a thought. What if the more bulky "standard" clan autocannons that no-one uses fired single shots? That would give them a purpose and a different role than the ultra autocannons.
Edited by Night Thastus, 30 March 2015 - 10:44 AM.