83 replies to this topic

[Lanc3rz3r0]

Alfred VonGunn, on 27 May 2012 - 03:08 AM, said:

WHich is first came out YEARS ago it was ammo.. didn;t know of teh change.. But that makes no sense either... WHy would teh Gauss RIfle overload and explode but Lasers and PPCs don't?

because the gauss rifle uses a magnetic field generator to propel shells, lasers use light. PPC's im not familiar enough (in a real world context) to explain. i can tell you from hands on experience that when you damage laser housing/lenses etc all that happens is it shuts off. gauss (read rail) guns on the other hand DO explode when you mess with them. I have made ones that could shoot steelies (steel beebees) through a bananna. if your timing is off, or the capacitors get bumped, then the whole thing goes 'pop' (read boom)

[Joseph Blak]

Would love to be able to get a Gauss Rifle on the Cataphract I am eying!!!!!!!

[Slepnir]

MMM gauss rifles, you do realise we are building them now-

BAE systems to be exact, about the right scale for a mech even-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uV1SbEuzFU


On the laser/PPC VS railgun debate.

Energy weapons draw power directly from the mechs reactor which is why they are big heat generators and also why they do not require a bank of capacitors along the entire barrel length of the weapon to accelerate the projectile to supersonic speeds the problem for the railgun and the reason it explodes is that power is constantly being stored in these capacitors along the length of the gun during combat(unless of course you turn it off) the feedback from direct damage to the capicitor releases that stored energy in a cascading effect hense the explosion.

hitting a laser projector housing by comparsion mess up the tube and throws off the focus reticle alighnment or causes damage to it preventing the laser from focusing to a narrow beam. there is no explosive material to set off.

[wanderer]

joseph a blak, on 29 May 2012 - 02:56 AM, said:

Would love to be able to get a Gauss Rifle on the Cataphract I am eying!!!!!!!

If it can fit an AC/10, with some tonnage tweaking it'll fit a Gauss Rifle. If they include the -1X and -2X variants, both will refit to a Gauss rifle in that ballistic hardpoint nicely, once you accomodate the extra weight. And the Davions take the Cataphract into their own production-model Caesar, which comes out of the factory armed with one in 3049- though it lacks the jump capacity.

The machine that people are going to twitch most about is the Atlas getting refitted with one of those things for it's AC/20. Barely reduces it's short-range punch and easily doubles it's long-range damage and then some for much less heat burden...