[Yamatai] Mass Driver Guns

That looks promising. There are a few things I wish to comment on, though:

Subspace encasement no longer, on modern shields, cleave through shielding the way particle cannons in the Miharu plot manage to do (the ships Miharu fights are older and don't have the YE 29+ shield upgrades). I'd reword so to use subspace encasement as the reason why the solenoids are still effective in damaging shielding instead.

When we discussed that weapon on IRC, we made mention of the SDR4 positron round firing once per 10 second, but the solenoids were SDR1 projectiles that fired roughly every 2.5 seconds (still making the equivalent of SDR4 but with multiple attacks). I do remember touching on charge times... but now, though, it seems the solenoid round does 75% of the damage of the positron round instead of 25%, and the charge times for positron and solenoid rounds are no longer distinct.

In light of that, I'm wondering how rate of fire will end up affecting this. This weapon - because you gave the SDR value to the round rather than a salvo - could possibly fire a SDR3 or SDR4 round every second at a muzzle velocity of 30 000kps (which makes it more like a SDR40 weapon when it's muzzle velocity is 0.1c ~_~; ).

Also, a muzzle velocity below the sublight speed of your ship is probably bad. you may want to up the scale of the lower end values of the table.

Finally, have you thought of a muzzle velocity for when solenoid rounds are fired in the atmosphere?

Thanks, Fred. Soresu's helped me here, too.

I was struggling to remember how we'd broken it down in the IRC, and the note I had about it was not within my immediate grasp.

On subspace encasement ... I don't know. I feel that doesn't really make any sense, that somehow just that subspace effect allows all that kinetic energy to transfer directly into the shields. Then again, if I keep the encasement description as it is, it gives me shield-penetrating rounds, which isn't fair.

I'll change it.

On the speeds and firing rate:

Soresu was suggesting something similar, but he said 0.75 c as a round speed is very unlikely (too much heat, too much stress on the barrel).

Maybe a range of 0.35 to 0.55 c, then?

On the damage:

That's what I was forgetting. I was thinking of it as just one gun, not the four the Chiaki will have.

I'll change it.

Also, Nashoba pointed out there's no D3-W3200, so I need to redo and relink the wiki page at the end.

Updated.

Again on muzzle velocity:

Sakura gunships used position railguns on Miharu. Those went at 0.6c. Yukari was generally able to easily dodge them. So, the idea to charge to get more accurate, harder to dodge shots came from that experience.

Miharu's particle cannons are more like directed energy weapons, so their speed is much closer to the speed of light (0.8c? 0.9c?), which makes them more reliable and more accurate weapons. Those, however, are not railguns.

As I see it... the charge time in your submission, rather than add flavor, is severely hindering your weapon's effectiveness. At this rate, I'd advice tossing out the table and just say that the projectiles go to somewhere around your 0.55c. 0.35 is barely faster than the ship are - it's really not a great declaration of efficacity in my eyes; I mean... some ships will be able to outrun it!

Maybe like this?
Charge Time: 2.5 seconds; Velocity: 0.55c | SDR4 salvo (4 shots per 10 seconds)
Charge Time: 5 seconds; Velocity: 0.65c | SDR2 salvo (2 shots per 10 seconds)
Charge Time: 10 seconds; Velocity: 0.75c | SDR1 salvo (1 shot per 10 seconds)

I know that when I suggested charge times to you in the past, I had much higher values in mind because I knew the weapon needed to be viable - especially in comparison to possible starship speeds. I figured the charge time would help give more flavor and interactivity to the weapon... but I had never planned on it crippling the weapon.

I mean, those are a large part of your arsenal. They need to be effective. Soresu is a tech mod so he probably knows what he's talking about, but my own inclinations would favor waving away some of the barrel friction/heat consideration under the this is sci-fi high tech stuff' clause. That's my opinion.

If Soresu's OK with that kind of table, I certainly am. His points about heat are well taken, so I want to ensure everyone's OK with any precedents I might be setting/trampling.

Ninja edit: I also forgot to add independent power sources (small ones) to the gun. I will do that.

Second ninja edit: Kai points out to me his own creation that's relatively similar to what I want to do.

Well. You can't really say that the coils wouldn't overheat, warp, and break. And the barrel warps and gets stress fractures from repeated rapid-fire shots. Most modern rifles and the like still have occurrences of overheat, early machine guns suffered the problem on a much larger scale.

Muzzle velocity also doesn't work like that. The faster the round, the greater the force of impact. So if it goes slower, it does less damage, faster it does more. You also have to take into account what this is doing to the coils. They can't be made of the metamaterials (I think, could be wrong since not all properties are listed.) we use for standard armor and would be prone to damage and melting. I'm not saying it has to follow it to the 'T' but it should to some degree since this is running extremely high currents through it. It also helps explain the reprieve between shots as well. ( Also just can't fathom a mass driver firing at .75c and only doing SDR 1, let alone at all since it seems a little too far-fetched for me.)

Velocity also does not entirely mean Accuracy as you have to target the opponent and plot their flight trajectory and then fire. Basically, you train the weapon and fire hoping they're smacked by the round. Unless they're stationary, charging you, you're in close, or you're chasing high speeds mean nothing since a few meters of drift spells doom for many a salvo so aiming plays a major role here.

Salvo size would also wreak havoc on your gun. Firing four consecutive rounds, while it may sound good makes that overheat a big issue if it is a single barrel. If you want more then one round going at the target, making it dual, or tri-barreled would solve the issue and give you a slight increase in damage should you want it. But yeah, just cap the velocities these fly at and the time between shots. And the major thing is this. They wouldn't travel at that speed forever. I think the speeds would begin to taper off until you lose the bite and it hits range.

Also. I maybe entirely wrong on some of my take on how rifles and such work IRL. And would hope if I am, Doshii could correct me.

Soresu said:

Well. You can't really say that the coils wouldn't overheat, warp, and break. And the barrel warps and gets stress fractures from repeated rapid-fire shots. Most modern rifles and the like still have occurrences of overheat, early machine guns suffered the problem on a much larger scale.

Click to expand...

What if special coolant systems run around the barrels, too? They could be like water-cooled machine guns, with water sleeves around them, except with coolant.

As to all the rest you said, do you have a suggestion that wouldn't involve changing the art? I don't want to make Wes screw with such great art.

Even if the art doesn't change, I'm getting the feeling that past precedents aren't feasible, but since they're approved, I want to make sure mine is as feasible as can be. If that means that the gun just isn't practical, then I need to know that now.

*Scratches his head.* Well. You already know I'm weapon shy on here in some cases. But when I see weapons like these I tend to take a special interest since this sort of thing varies wildly it starts getting confusing. The Gauss Impelled Gun goes at .90+c. And is SDR 4. The Chase 600mm Railgun of the Abwehrans go about .6c and hit for SDR 5. Hence why more often then not I am quite wary of these guns.

Water may not cut it fast enough so you may have to look into a different form of coolant. Even then you're wearing it down with the instant heat, instant cooling instead of a gradual decrease in temp. But it would help cut that down a bit and prolong life. Basic rifle stuff really, just on a bigger slightly more complex gun.

The weapon is practical and all. But we're here reading into varying velocities and charge times which is making for some head scratching is all. So I think it'd be much safer to just hammer out one speed and a charge time between the two round types for firing so you still get your dif flavors.

In the case of the 600MM Chase Railgun, the projectile being fired is a bit larger if I remember correctly. It also takes minutes to load a Chase.

The cooling problem is actually why I am switching over to gauss weaponry exclusively.

I have not figured out how it will translate to SARP terms. But after reading up on them, Gauss will be easier to cool using liquid nitrogen as your coolant system, consider trying that

Would a charge time of, say, 3 seconds work for the solenoids at SDR 1 (at 0.75 c), and 10 seconds for the positrons at SDR 4 (same speed), work?

For the solenoid knock it down to about .55c - .60c and you can keep the positron where it's at.

Updated!

Looks good. Approved.