11 replies to this topic

[Lightfoot]

The Gauss Rifle charge-up does not work as planned when in the actual game to make it a long range weapon. The charge-up makes it harder to use at long range than short range due to the size of the target to be hit. That the Gauss Rifle gets used at long range is just because it is a long range weapon to begin with.

So a way that actually reinforces it's long range preference would be to remove the charge-up phase and replace it with a torso movement penalty and maybe a 5 second recycle. The movement penalty would be mild with just one Gauss Rifle, but noticeable if 2xGauss were mounted. How noticeable depends on how much mounted 2xGauss should cost in aiming difficulty.

As more players learn to master the Gauss charge-up the more common it is to see 2x Gauss Rifles and the more some players are complaining about them again is what I am seeing. I can't use the Gauss Rifle as is due to the charge-up and I suppose this is true for about half of MWO players now and this will definitely include any new players who are learning to pilot mechs. Replacing the Charge phase with a torso movement penalty in the same way that equipping an omnipod grants Quirks is more balanced in it's impact on players.

[VinJade]

You know Lightfoot you have something here.
this would remove the need to charge it but give it different way of balancing the weapon out.

[cowmagik]

Not that I have an issue with the current way the gauss rifle functions but if you want to make it easier to use for newer players (and consequently all users).
It is my opinion the change should not be to remove charge time which is characteristic to the weapon but the ability to hold the charge indefinitely (to better plan shots).
The drawback being reduced movement speed while charging by 15% per gauss being charged and on release being incapacitated for .1seconds per gauss fired to encourage firing from safety (long range).

Edited by cowmagik, 27 September 2015 - 06:17 AM.

[VinJade]

actually the weapons charge themselves it is stated in the books and unless countered by the powers that be that should be reflected here.

no manual charge time what soever.

Edited by VinJade, 27 September 2015 - 05:11 AM.

[IraqiWalker]

Lightfoot, on 27 September 2015 - 04:10 AM, said:

The Gauss Rifle charge-up does not work as planned when in the actual game to make it a long range weapon. The charge-up makes it harder to use at long range than short range due to the size of the target to be hit. That the Gauss Rifle gets used at long range is just because it is a long range weapon to begin with.

So a way that actually reinforces it's long range preference would be to remove the charge-up phase and replace it with a torso movement penalty and maybe a 5 second recycle. The movement penalty would be mild with just one Gauss Rifle, but noticeable if 2xGauss were mounted. How noticeable depends on how much mounted 2xGauss should cost in aiming difficulty.

As more players learn to master the Gauss charge-up the more common it is to see 2x Gauss Rifles and the more some players are complaining about them again is what I am seeing. I can't use the Gauss Rifle as is due to the charge-up and I suppose this is true for about half of MWO players now and this will definitely include any new players who are learning to pilot mechs. Replacing the Charge phase with a torso movement penalty in the same way that equipping an omnipod grants Quirks is more balanced in it's impact on players.

No thank you.

As someone who spends time in the New Player Help section of the forums, many new players have little trouble with the weapon. Sure, in the beginning it's awkward, but they pick it up quickly.

Also, why should there be a movement penalty on mounting the weapon? It's within the mech's tonnage limit. Plus :GG close Fafnir dead before inception.

This is possibly the single most original alternative to Gauss Charge, but I can't ever see it as helpful at all.

Snap firing is what makes the weapon so powerful in short range, and torso turn rate penalties won't do diddly to that, unless I'm facing a light mech, and even then, I can counter twist and catch them on the return circle, and this time, I'm guaranteed a hit, because my weapon is snap fired.

[Apollo 42]

A better Idea with the Guass rifle is to scale the damage, it SHOULD do more damage to a light, its needs to give a light pilot fear, I know a need to balance lore vs game-play, but a mech with a guass and 2 meds is more of a joke that I viable build, esp with 20 shots(Shadowcat), now lore states it can core a light in one shot and most meds in 2-3. so why is a weapon with a slower fire rate treated like a joke in the current game environment. I may be wrong here but is this very weapon not designed to go through armor and hit internals, its not about explosive force on the outer armor, its about going through a target, not peeling outer armor off first if the weapon was more like lore you would not see so many with 2 of them, that was done as a player counter to them to make them more workable again. if the damage is going to be as low as it is, double the ammo per a ton and increase its fire rate to make is more on par with lore and make it a feared weapon again, not a joke, where a mech with loads of ultra 5s can and often does score more damage and a higher score than a guass build

[IraqiWalker]

Apollo 42, on 27 September 2015 - 06:52 PM, said:

A better Idea with the Guass rifle is to scale the damage, it SHOULD do more damage to a light, its needs to give a light pilot fear, I know a need to balance lore vs game-play, but a mech with a guass and 2 meds is more of a joke that I viable build, esp with 20 shots(Shadowcat), now lore states it can core a light in one shot and most meds in 2-3. so why is a weapon with a slower fire rate treated like a joke in the current game environment. I may be wrong here but is this very weapon not designed to go through armor and hit internals, its not about explosive force on the outer armor, its about going through a target, not peeling outer armor off first if the weapon was more like lore you would not see so many with 2 of them, that was done as a player counter to them to make them more workable again. if the damage is going to be as low as it is, double the ammo per a ton and increase its fire rate to make is more on par with lore and make it a feared weapon again, not a joke, where a mech with loads of ultra 5s can and often does score more damage and a higher score than a guass build

Yes, because light mechs need more nerfing. No thank you.

Also, the GR was not designed to hit internals. In fact, I don't remember the GR getting a bonus to through-armor criticals.

For the record, a meahc iwth UAC5s is supposed to get more damage. Because it's more likely to spread damage, while the Gauss will nail sections with high PP FLD. A proper Gauss mech pilot will get kills for about half the damage of a UAC5 mech, if not even less.

[Apollo 42]

IraqiWalker, on 27 September 2015 - 09:00 PM, said:

Yes, because light mechs need more nerfing. No thank you.

Also, the GR was not designed to hit internals. In fact, I don't remember the GR getting a bonus to through-armor criticals.

For the record, a meahc iwth UAC5s is supposed to get more damage. Because it's more likely to spread damage, while the Gauss will nail sections with high PP FLD. A proper Gauss mech pilot will get kills for about half the damage of a UAC5 mech, if not even less.

I am only offering a possible solution, the thing is if a light gets in close some mechs have a hard time countering them on ones own, Since they have yet to put knockdown, in the game or allow things like the death from above move being a counter to an enemy light or against another mech period as a last resort. Once the collisions are in the game change the relative damage back on par with what it was. I have great respect of light mech, I have also used them, for the most part when I see a slow heavy or assault mech, it is not fear I feel, but a sense of an easy kill, something must be done to make the light mechs not the Gods of the battlefield or as tanky as an assault, I am referring to the Artic cheetah here, I love mine, but with all the extra structure buffs, It feels like I have a mech with 2 layers of armor, not one. Another thing I have thought about is to include the charge to fire into the recycle time of the guass, as where the cycle time is its a bit of a joke for use in a faster paced match, less one has the faster fire rate mod for it and quirks, I am referring to the hero Hunchback mech. I propose speeding up the weapons cycle time somewhere half way between the stock cycle and the hero hunchbacks cycle time to make it more competitive. Hear me out with the quirks and mod for fire for guass with the hero hunchback it looks more like an ultra 5, that fire rates a little too high, but with a little boost to fire rate of the stock guass weapon in general, it could go a long way towards having less laser vomit only mechs and more tactical play.. BTW it may not say it in the Lore, but the Guass Rifle, is a railgun, In real life we already have them on things naval vessels either to launch a fighter or a slug down range, the set up with them is its all about a extremely high velocity round that has no explosives in it, instead its damage comes from its mass and speed its goes through a target, say Mach 6-7+, that in itself is a Hypersonic speed round going around 6,126 KPH at a target, this is a round that has a mass of one-tenth of a ton with an extremely aerodynamic shape so as to have as little drag as possible, that is ALOT or energy, more than enough to go through a mechs armor into it internal structureits like getting hit by a dropship in a small spot, I know When battle tech was created certain liberties were taken such as the range of weapons, when we already have weapons that have ranges that greatly exceed even the longest range weapons in MWO, But still this weapon in lore could and did kill a light in one shot for good reason, not in 2-3 as the game now allows. Now How can A light mech stay standing or not go though it when hit by a dropship the size of say a bottle of wine, its a mass of a dense material like depleted Uranium , not a spitball, it should do lots more than it does, THAT is the reason why it became lost tech during the succession wars in the lore as it was such a dangerous and powerful weapon, Every power sought to destroy the others ability to make the most dangerous weapons and ships, like Warships. They are to be feared and respected when a skill person uses one in combat. I realize that in the game certain measures were taken to balance the game, like the pre-charge before one can fire, when the game first was out they had a recycle time and ZERO time once one pulled to trigger to fire, would you rather they did that take away to draw the bow mechanic they use now?

Edited by Apollo 42, 09 October 2015 - 09:11 PM.

[IraqiWalker]

Apollo 42, on 09 October 2015 - 08:26 PM, said:

I am only offering a possible solution, the thing is if a light gets in close some mechs have a hard time countering them on ones own, Since they have yet to put knockdown, in the game or allow things like the death from above move being a counter to an enemy light or against another mech period as a last resort. Once the collisions are in the game change the relative damage back on par with what it was. I have great respect of light mech, I have also used them, for the most part when I see a slow heavy or assault mech, it is not fear I feel, but a sense of an easy kill, something must be done to make the light mechs not the Gods of the battlefield or as tanky as an assault, I am referring to the Artic cheetah here, I love mine, but with all the extra structure buffs, It feels like I have a mech with 2 layers of armor, not one. Another thing I have thought about is to include the charge to fire into the recycle time of the guass, as where the cycle time is its a bit of a joke for use in a faster paced match, less one has the faster fire rate mod for it and quirks, I am referring to the hero Hunchback mech. I propose speeding up the weapons cycle time somewhere half way between the stock cycle and the hero hunchbacks cycle time to make it more competitive. Hear me out with the quirks and mod for fire for guass with the hero hunchback it looks more like an ultra 5, that fire rates a little too high, but with a little boost to fire rate of the stock guass weapon in general, it could go a long way towards having less laser vomit only mechs and more tactical play.. BTW it may not say it in the Lore, but the Guass Rifle, is a railgun, In real life we already have them on things naval vessels either to launch a fighter or a slug down range, the set up with them is its all about a extremely high velocity round that has no explosives in it, instead its damage comes from its mass and speed its goes through a target, say Mach 6-7+, that in itself is a Hypersonic speed round going around 6,126 KPH at a target, this is a round that has a mass of one-tenth of a ton with an extremely aerodynamic shape so as to have as little drag as possible, that is ALOT or energy, more than enough to go through a mechs armor into it internal structureits like getting hit by a dropship in a small spot, I know When battle tech was created certain liberties were taken such as the range of weapons, when we already have weapons that have ranges that greatly exceed even the longest range weapons in MWO, But still this weapon in lore could and did kill a light in one shot for good reason, not in 2-3 as the game now allows. Now How can A light mech stay standing or not go though it when hit by a dropship the size of say a bottle of wine, its a mass of a dense material like depleted Uranium , not a spitball, it should do lots more than it does, THAT is the reason why it became lost tech during the succession wars in the lore as it was such a dangerous and powerful weapon, Every power sought to destroy the others ability to make the most dangerous weapons and ships, like Warships. They are to be feared and respected when a skill person uses one in combat. I realize that in the game certain measures were taken to balance the game, like the pre-charge before one can fire, when the game first was out they had a recycle time and ZERO time once one pulled to trigger to fire, would you rather they did that take away to draw the bow mechanic they use now?

Charge mechanic is it's own discussion, and I am of the opinion that it should stay. I was there when we had snap fire Gauss. Every mech that could mount it, did. Charge at least helped mitigate that, and also simulate the minimum range rule the weapon had in TT.

What I don't understand is why let it deal bonus damage to lights? The armor is the same material. The weapon is the same. Why should it do more damage to a light mech?

As far as the lore, mechanics of rail guns, and RKVDs, go, trust me on this. I am VERY well informed. What I'm asking about is the fact that Gauss never had a bonus to through-armor criticals (a special thing that can happen on tabletop. Insanely rare), so letting the weapon get the ability to apply damage through armor (which would trigger critical hits), makes no sense here. Especially not on a weapon that is considered the single best one in the game. Ton for ton.

You're also forgetting that not only does armor in BT function very differently than what you think (it's slabs upon slabs that will shatter and break, but almost completely block any penetration, if there are enough of them, and it killed STOCK lights with one shot. Because they had almost no armor, anywhere.We're running lights with max armor, and actually DOUBLED armor, and internals, and Gauss still only needs 2 - 3 shots to kill a light.

The weapon right now is in a decent place. What people aren't seeing, or refuse to see, is why it's become so dominant right now.

Which has nothing to do with the fire mechanism.

Simply put, it's hit reg.

Hit reg is problematic. So people use lots of lasers, since those give a much better chance of scoring damage. Lasers generate loads of heat. Gauss generates only 1 heat when fired. So it works really well with the very light energy weapons, as it lets you dish good PP FLD damage, while you're cooling off your mech.

[Apollo 42]

even when hitting

IraqiWalker, on 10 October 2015 - 06:54 PM, said:

Charge mechanic is it's own discussion, and I am of the opinion that it should stay. I was there when we had snap fire Gauss. Every mech that could mount it, did. Charge at least helped mitigate that, and also simulate the minimum range rule the weapon had in TT.

What I don't understand is why let it deal bonus damage to lights? The armor is the same material. The weapon is the same. Why should it do more damage to a light mech?

As far as the lore, mechanics of rail guns, and RKVDs, go, trust me on this. I am VERY well informed. What I'm asking about is the fact that Gauss never had a bonus to through-armor criticals (a special thing that can happen on tabletop. Insanely rare), so letting the weapon get the ability to apply damage through armor (which would trigger critical hits), makes no sense here. Especially not on a weapon that is considered the single best one in the game. Ton for ton.

You're also forgetting that not only does armor in BT function very differently than what you think (it's slabs upon slabs that will shatter and break, but almost completely block any penetration, if there are enough of them, and it killed STOCK lights with one shot. Because they had almost no armor, anywhere.We're running lights with max armor, and actually DOUBLED armor, and internals, and Gauss still only needs 2 - 3 shots to kill a light.

The weapon right now is in a decent place. What people aren't seeing, or refuse to see, is why it's become so dominant right now.

Which has nothing to do with the fire mechanism.

Simply put, it's hit reg.

Hit reg is problematic. So people use lots of lasers, since those give a much better chance of scoring damage. Lasers generate loads of heat. Gauss generates only 1 heat when fired. So it works really well with the very light energy weapons, as it lets you dish good PP FLD damage, while you're cooling off your mech.

IraqiWalker, on 10 October 2015 - 06:54 PM, said:

Charge mechanic is it's own discussion, and I am of the opinion that it should stay. I was there when we had snap fire Gauss. Every mech that could mount it, did. Charge at least helped mitigate that, and also simulate the minimum range rule the weapon had in TT.

What I don't understand is why let it deal bonus damage to lights? The armor is the same material. The weapon is the same. Why should it do more damage to a light mech?

As far as the lore, mechanics of rail guns, and RKVDs, go, trust me on this. I am VERY well informed. What I'm asking about is the fact that Gauss never had a bonus to through-armor criticals (a special thing that can happen on tabletop. Insanely rare), so letting the weapon get the ability to apply damage through armor (which would trigger critical hits), makes no sense here. Especially not on a weapon that is considered the single best one in the game. Ton for ton.

You're also forgetting that not only does armor in BT function very differently than what you think (it's slabs upon slabs that will shatter and break, but almost completely block any penetration, if there are enough of them, and it killed STOCK lights with one shot. Because they had almost no armor, anywhere.We're running lights with max armor, and actually DOUBLED armor, and internals, and Gauss still only needs 2 - 3 shots to kill a light.

The weapon right now is in a decent place. What people aren't seeing, or refuse to see, is why it's become so dominant right now.

Which has nothing to do with the fire mechanism.

Simply put, it's hit reg.

Hit reg is problematic. So people use lots of lasers, since those give a much better chance of scoring damage. Lasers generate loads of heat. Gauss generates only 1 heat when fired. So it works really well with the very light energy weapons, as it lets you dish good PP FLD damage, while you're cooling off your mech.

The game is lacking in the physics department for this weapon if one reads about them the way this weapon works is as an armor penetrating weapon, yet in this game and table top it never seems to do that, it is really weird, its like the poeple whom designed this weapon, never bothered to research its potential output in terms of projectile speed, with that speed alone it should be doing more than it does to ANY class of mech, one saving grace is if sarna says....
"[color=#000000]Introduced in [/color]2590[color=#000000] by the [/color]Terran Hegemony^[4][color=#000000], the [/color]Gauss Rifle [color=#000000]utilizes a series of electromagnets to propel slugs of ferrous nickel-iron alloy at extremely high velocities[/color]^[5][color=#000000], making it a devastating and lethal long-range weapon. Unlike most traditional ballistic weapons, the Gauss Rifle does not use combustible propellant, so its firing generates very little heat. However, the sheer mass and bulk of the weapon limits its applications.[/color]
Since the Gauss Rifle fires solid metal slugs, with neither propellant nor explosive, Gauss Rifle magazines are not susceptible to ammunition explosions. However, if the weapon itself is struck by enemy fire, the capacitors that power the electromagnets will release their stored energy, with an effect similar to an ammo explosion. (In game terms, a critical hit on a Gauss Rifle is equivalent to a 20-point ammo explosion.) Some 'Mechs employ CASE in the section containing the Gauss Rifle to protect internal components in the event the weapon explodes.
The Gauss Rifle was found on a number of heavier Star League Defense Force 'Mechs, but fell out of use in the Inner Sphereduring the technological decline of the Succession Wars. It was revived following the discovery of the Helm Memory Core. TheClans never lost the technology, and continued to refine the Star League-era weapon. Although the Clan Gauss Rifle is similar in performance and operation to its Inner Sphere counterpart, it is 20% lighter and somewhat more compact."
now the first part of this is the ammo type, its a ferrous nickel-iron alloy round, now If I remember right that is the absolute last thing you want to use for a round, the speed it is shot at alone would cause it to melt, one has to look no further than, the SR71 blackbird for proof of that, the speeds it goes at if it was made out of Iron it would melt and the round would fall apart of if it did not it would be more of a hot spitball which I guess could be why to damage and weapon effects are so off. You mentioned hit register, I do agree with the lag spikes and ping are VERY important factors that cause lots of grief for what is a precision weapon, the other is the way a match is scored, the event with the 300 score they had, with say a shadowcat in stock guass setup, it would be very difficult to get that score as damage is what determines score, that is a bad idea, like you said guass can get kills with less damage per any other ballistic, yet the way a person is scored, say you only get 200 score with 1 kill and 5-7 component destruction, that is hardly not doing nothing for ones team, yet one gets treated like that in the final score. I think at teh end of the day thats a much bigger issue than fire rate, if one gets a crit or destroys a side torso or arm, weapons included in that area, they must also be given more credit for it than c-bills, it needs a bonus to match score, that would encourage smarter team play with weapons that have slower rate of fire and damage, but have tangable results another example of this is a er-ppc or the clan one with spread shot damage, but I will not discuss that weapon here. I think a match score bonus would be in order for when one destroys a section of a mech and its components, as a sniper does not always aim for cockpit shots but rather the vital areas on a enemy target, that weakens the other teams firepower and ability to fight. I do think that if this weapon was redesigned with real world physics in it it may cause loads of grief from players getting instant killed, But something must be done to improve it. Like maybe actually making the internal battle computers in each mech have targeting properties, like auto adjust for a moving target, kinda like a lrms target lock, but not so extreme, just enough to counter the issues caused by lag to help it be a little more precise, but not enough to make it where say it could show a second cross hare on a targeted mech thats drifted off from the main as to indicate aim more like here to have a better shot at a hit, not one that says aim here to hit the cockpit all the time. or a tone system to indicate when one has a higher chance to hit a targeted mech, it could even only be in play during the draw the dow phase to help with aim a little. The layers of armor you also speak of that is Chobham armour so its layered, or laminated, that may make it closer to kevlar, but still look at the first Ironman movie, when Stark was hit by a tank round while standing still he was sent flying into the ground, the force of the impact caused it, it may not have pierced the armor, but it did still have to absorb the energy behind that shot, so even if it does not go through, a mech should still register more than it does when hit by a gauss round, the amount of energy it has to absorb will depend on the velocity of the round at impact, a Militarized coil-gun would want maximum velocity possible, once one knows the energy being hit with one should make the knock back worse for a smaller mech than a larger one that can absorb the impact better. lets say the speed number I gave you earlier was right, a arctic cheetah gets hit by an object traveling 43.75 time faster than its max speed, and yet nothing happens, sorry that is way off, even if it fails to go through the armor, it still needs to absorb the energy behind that projectile, also as a side note, the description of the round it fires kinda sounds like its firing the same stuff the armor is made from or something close to it. sounds like the argument that a steel bullet can not penetrate a steel chestplate, sorry, but with enough energy behind it it can, and will go through it. with enough energy behind it spitball will go though a mech. Ferro-Fibrous armor (FF) is a special type of armor used by vehicles andBattleMechs. Utilizing a weave of ferro-steel, ferro-titanium, and diamond weave fibers which boosts the tensile strength of the plating......
Hmmm, well like I said it boils down to the speed of the gauss round, but at mach 6-7
if not faster this armor will not stop a round of this type completely with no ill effects on the mechs location, not standing status, less they equip all mechs with inertial dampeners, which sad to say, last time I checked, that was a star Trek invention, and does not exist in battletech lore.

[_____]

The Gauss works as a long range weapon once you learn its mechanics. One of the best long range weapons in the game in fact (and in my opinion, the best general purpose ballistic weapon period). You can fairly reliably hit larger assaults at 1000m when you get the lead right, and at that range you're doing nearly full damage. Just practice with it and it'll become pretty natural.

[IraqiWalker]

Apollo 42, on 10 October 2015 - 08:18 PM, said:

even when hitting


The game is lacking in the physics department for this weapon if one reads about them the way this weapon works is as an armor penetrating weapon, yet in this game and table top it never seems to do that, it is really weird, its like the poeple whom designed this weapon, never bothered to research its potential output in terms of projectile speed, with that speed alone it should be doing more than it does to ANY class of mech, one saving grace is if sarna says....
"[color=#000000]Introduced in [/color]2590[color=#000000] by the [/color]Terran Hegemony^[4][color=#000000], the [/color]Gauss Rifle [color=#000000]utilizes a series of electromagnets to propel slugs of ferrous nickel-iron alloy at extremely high velocities[/color]^[5][color=#000000], making it a devastating and lethal long-range weapon. Unlike most traditional ballistic weapons, the Gauss Rifle does not use combustible propellant, so its firing generates very little heat. However, the sheer mass and bulk of the weapon limits its applications.[/color]
Since the Gauss Rifle fires solid metal slugs, with neither propellant nor explosive, Gauss Rifle magazines are not susceptible to ammunition explosions. However, if the weapon itself is struck by enemy fire, the capacitors that power the electromagnets will release their stored energy, with an effect similar to an ammo explosion. (In game terms, a critical hit on a Gauss Rifle is equivalent to a 20-point ammo explosion.) Some 'Mechs employ CASE in the section containing the Gauss Rifle to protect internal components in the event the weapon explodes.
The Gauss Rifle was found on a number of heavier Star League Defense Force 'Mechs, but fell out of use in the Inner Sphereduring the technological decline of the Succession Wars. It was revived following the discovery of the Helm Memory Core. TheClans never lost the technology, and continued to refine the Star League-era weapon. Although the Clan Gauss Rifle is similar in performance and operation to its Inner Sphere counterpart, it is 20% lighter and somewhat more compact."
now the first part of this is the ammo type, its a ferrous nickel-iron alloy round, now If I remember right that is the absolute last thing you want to use for a round, the speed it is shot at alone would cause it to melt, one has to look no further than, the SR71 blackbird for proof of that, the speeds it goes at if it was made out of Iron it would melt and the round would fall apart of if it did not it would be more of a hot spitball which I guess could be why to damage and weapon effects are so off. You mentioned hit register, I do agree with the lag spikes and ping are VERY important factors that cause lots of grief for what is a precision weapon, the other is the way a match is scored, the event with the 300 score they had, with say a shadowcat in stock guass setup, it would be very difficult to get that score as damage is what determines score, that is a bad idea, like you said guass can get kills with less damage per any other ballistic, yet the way a person is scored, say you only get 200 score with 1 kill and 5-7 component destruction, that is hardly not doing nothing for ones team, yet one gets treated like that in the final score. I think at teh end of the day thats a much bigger issue than fire rate, if one gets a crit or destroys a side torso or arm, weapons included in that area, they must also be given more credit for it than c-bills, it needs a bonus to match score, that would encourage smarter team play with weapons that have slower rate of fire and damage, but have tangable results another example of this is a er-ppc or the clan one with spread shot damage, but I will not discuss that weapon here. I think a match score bonus would be in order for when one destroys a section of a mech and its components, as a sniper does not always aim for cockpit shots but rather the vital areas on a enemy target, that weakens the other teams firepower and ability to fight. I do think that if this weapon was redesigned with real world physics in it it may cause loads of grief from players getting instant killed, But something must be done to improve it. Like maybe actually making the internal battle computers in each mech have targeting properties, like auto adjust for a moving target, kinda like a lrms target lock, but not so extreme, just enough to counter the issues caused by lag to help it be a little more precise, but not enough to make it where say it could show a second cross hare on a targeted mech thats drifted off from the main as to indicate aim more like here to have a better shot at a hit, not one that says aim here to hit the cockpit all the time. or a tone system to indicate when one has a higher chance to hit a targeted mech, it could even only be in play during the draw the dow phase to help with aim a little. The layers of armor you also speak of that is Chobham armour so its layered, or laminated, that may make it closer to kevlar, but still look at the first Ironman movie, when Stark was hit by a tank round while standing still he was sent flying into the ground, the force of the impact caused it, it may not have pierced the armor, but it did still have to absorb the energy behind that shot, so even if it does not go through, a mech should still register more than it does when hit by a gauss round, the amount of energy it has to absorb will depend on the velocity of the round at impact, a Militarized coil-gun would want maximum velocity possible, once one knows the energy being hit with one should make the knock back worse for a smaller mech than a larger one that can absorb the impact better. lets say the speed number I gave you earlier was right, a arctic cheetah gets hit by an object traveling 43.75 time faster than its max speed, and yet nothing happens, sorry that is way off, even if it fails to go through the armor, it still needs to absorb the energy behind that projectile, also as a side note, the description of the round it fires kinda sounds like its firing the same stuff the armor is made from or something close to it. sounds like the argument that a steel bullet can not penetrate a steel chestplate, sorry, but with enough energy behind it it can, and will go through it. with enough energy behind it spitball will go though a mech. Ferro-Fibrous armor (FF) is a special type of armor used by vehicles andBattleMechs. Utilizing a weave of ferro-steel, ferro-titanium, and diamond weave fibers which boosts the tensile strength of the plating......
Hmmm, well like I said it boils down to the speed of the gauss round, but at mach 6-7
if not faster this armor will not stop a round of this type completely with no ill effects on the mechs location, not standing status, less they equip all mechs with inertial dampeners, which sad to say, last time I checked, that was a star Trek invention, and does not exist in battletech lore.

Could you please reformat this post. It's very hard to try and read through it.

Also, do remember this weapon was designed in the late 70s, when such weapons were mere fantasy.

Also, I think the problem here is that you don't seem to grasp how BT armor works. It's not like how you imagine armor to work. These tiny slabs put on top of one another can basically stop anything. So it takes 15 of them to stop gauss shell.

Basically, an armor penetrating weapon is only going to penentrate if it can go through all the armor into the internals. With enough plates, the Gauss doesn't penetrate into the internals, period.

We also seem to have a foundational difference. You seem to think Gauss needs buffing/improving. The consensus is the exact opposite. Gauss is good where it is. If anything, it needs some curbing.