Edit: Forgot to include the burst duration in dps calculations. AAAAAUGH. Fixed now.
Terran123rd, on 25 August 2025 - 11:50 AM, said:
Because it's not just the damage numbers. It's never been just the damage numbers.
The railgun is 30 tons and takes up 12 slots, 5 in each side torso and both in the center torso. It is six tons lighter than dHGR and is 10 slots smaller, not to mention that those slots are spread between all three torsoes. All of this combines to allow both the IS and Clan versions of the mech to use light/XL/cXL engines AND weight-saving tech.
All of this means that War Ghoul has 20 tons, 15 slots free for backup weapons (15 tons, 17 slots with LFE) while Void Killer gets 23 tons, 16 slots. That's not insignificant, especially with Void Killer's clan tech making those backup weapons smaller and lighter. The stock loadouts for both mechs come with a heavy mech's worth of lasers.
The railgun itself has a an optimal range of 810 meters and a ridiculous 2,050 meter max range meaning that either mech, if the player so desires, can sit back, snipe, and still deal the weapon's full 40 pinpoint + 12 + 12 splash damage.
If it was just a 40 pinpoint weapon, that might actually be fine, given that it's a fixed weapon; you're stuck with it, so it might as well hit hard. It's the splash damage that pushes it into the ridiculous. Splash damage, damage automatically applied to adjacent components, that is, is already stupid because it completely bypasses skilled play(1), but the railgun's 12 + 12 splash is ridiculous. It's 3 times higher than ANY other splash weapon. Two full SRM6s' worth of damage (1 SRM6 per component) applied to components that weren't even hit.
Even the HAG-40, which has the same alpha and had the highest splash until the railgun came along, only does 4 + 4 splash.
The railgun is smaller, lighter, longer-ranged, allows for multiple play styles, and indulges in a problematic mechanic.
That's why it's problematic.
All right, it's "Um, actually" time.
You started off well - because you're right on a number of points: Dual HGauss is
not a near-substitute for the Railgun, and it
is never just the damage numbers. The Railgun's overall damage profile also may well be a problem when you consider the splash damage - you can't just count the pinpoint - and splash damage weapons are not the same as scatter or hitscan weapons (though lasers
are still pinpoint; they're just not
frontloaded pinpoint, which is what you're getting at, anyway.) But then you left out a bunch of relevant stuff that's not damage numbers.
Missing from your calculations is the cooldown of those weapon systems, and the need to compare similar tonnage costs, if feasible. Base cooldown for the Clan Gauss Rifle
*, HAG/40, HGauss, and Railgun are often wildly different. The total recharge time for these weapons is 5 sec, 7.77sec, 5sec, and 8sec, respectively. HGauss isn't really the same role, so I'm ignoring it until brawling Railsharks become a common build. So let's consider Dual Gauss,
dual HAG/40, and Railgun as tonnage-equivalent options which all share the same brackets for range. The HAG is included primarily for comparison
For reference, those guns' distinct base base stats are:
- Dual Clan Gauss: 30 (+0) damage; 6.0dps; with 2 heat (0.40hps,) costing 24 tons and 12 slots
- Dual HAG/40s 64 (+16) damage; 8.24 (10.30 total) dps; with 21 heat (3.0hps,) costing 32 tons and 20 slots - and delivering its damage in a minimum of 1.27 seconds total burst duration, with staggered fire required to avoid heat scale penalties.
- And last, we have the Railgun: 40 (+24) damage; 5.0 (8.0 total) dps; with 20 heat (2.5hps,) costing 30 tons and 12 slots.
- For a bonus comparison, dual HAG/30s deal 48 (+12) damage; 7.27 (9.09 total) dps; with 18 heat (2.73 hps,) and cost 26 tons with 16 slots - with a far saner .6 second burst duration and no Heat Scale penalties. A saner option, but also farther down the scale between weapon systems. More on that in a bit.
Now:
none of these numbers, or the information derived from them, absolutely proves the Railgun to be balanced - or overpowered. What it does is to give us a basis for analysis, and to challenge some premature conclusions. Because the total stats on paper tell us, at the very least, what the Powers That Be were likely thinking when they set the stats on this weapon. Dual Gauss is somewhat lighter and faster, syncing better with supplementary lasers, both in cooldown and the Gauss Rifle's exceptional heat efficiency. The HAG/40s, on the other hand, demonstrate a positively huge increase in total burst damage, at the cost of a very long burst duration and no front-loaded pinpoint. Similarly, the Railgun's
pinpoint damage output - while greater per hit - produces inferior dps compared to the two Gauss Rifles at the other end of the scale, but at 20 times the heat cost. Of course, the Gauss Rifles aren't adding six damage to adjacent 'mech components, either (more on this in a bit, as well.)
Viewed in this light, the Railgun falls somewhere between the two weapons on a sort of scale between strong pinpoint and heat efficiency on the one end (Gauss Rifle,) and massive overall damage at the cost of pinpoint at the other. If you're not seeing what I mean yet, consider this: the HAG/40 has about
21% more total dps
per ton than the Railgun; the HAG/30,
31% higher. Conversely, the Railgun's high heat allows Dual Gauss builds to sustain a significantly higher rate of fire by comparison, particularly when supplemental energy weapons are included - and more of the Gauss Rifle build's total damage is likely to land on the intended enemy component.
Because it bears repeating: I'm not arguing that the Railgun is balanced. I rather suspect it's not, particularly on the Clan side - hence my choice of tech bases - yet by looking at these two comparisons, I think we can see the balance point the Railgun was aiming for. But here's the rub: where balance actually lies is dependent on a bunch of things that we simply cannot calculate from weapon stats. Burst duration is a significant limitation in any ballistic, but how much does that buy back the superior damage; pinpoint damage is important, but so is heat efficiency - and how much does pulling so much of the Railgun's damage into splash damage actually hinder the weapon as a sniper - and how does that stack up against the
benefits of the overall damage? How much does raw alpha matter in relation to superior dps in the first place? The answers to all of those questions are: "It depends." It depends on what 'mech you're shooting at, and from what angle; it depends on how well they're able to maintain their desired range and what map you're playing; it depends on how many other long-range 'mechs are on your
and the enemy's teams. More often than we'd like, it really does... depend. We
can get to a general ballpark; it's not like crunching numbers is useless, or I wouldn't have spent... frankly too much time, doing it here. But the theoretical performance of a weapon
never matches its use by actual players, so at the end of the day, some stuff just depends.
The answers to all of those questions exist, in the game telemetry data that the Cauldron will use to analyze how the weapon and its varous core builds work. I'm fairly certain that's the reason they dropped two
identical Legends with identical Railguns into two very much not identical tech bases: it gives them a baseline for evaluating how tech base affects synergies with the weapon. In any case, looking at the data analytically helps us see how the mech was likely designed, and why it might not be the horribly broken
Thing That Will Kill the GAME! (dun, dun, DUNNN) that some people are screaming that it definitely is - based on their personal feels on the subject.
*:
I'm using the Clan Gauss Rifle because frankly the Clans' Gauss options overall are closer to the Railgun than the Inner Sphere. The IS GR has slightly higher DPS to offset the significantly lighter Clan equivalent and account for the Clans' superior supplementary lasers.
Edited by Void Angel, 25 August 2025 - 09:50 PM.
6
