Railgun better than a Laser Cannon?

[denderan marajain]

[Dromdarr_Alark]

The railgun is a part of the SWTOR game. in the game, a starship could do nothing (including dodge) while spending 5 second to charge up the railgun.

Maybe you can make it more balanced by doing something with that.

Also, laser cannons can be fired more than once in a round, which is a pretty big deal.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[denderan marajain]

[Dromdarr_Alark]

Star Wars The Old Republic.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[garhkal]

Plus depending on what books you use (well what genre) rail guns due to the power packs for their magnetics are bombs waiting to be set off (gauss rifles in battle tech) so they could, if damaged, cause more damage to the ship carrying them. In addition they need ammo. Perhaps its more cost efficient to get blaster power packs and gas.
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[Corise Lucerne]

Ammunition is a main problem with railguns, for the same reason that slugthrowers aren't typically as popular as blasters.

Not only does physical ammunition take up more space (or have a limited number of bullets), but it isn't going to easy to find logistically. There are a huge variety of cartridges such a gun could take that wouldn't likely be easy to find far away from the weapon's manufacturer.

Whereas with a blaster or laser cannon, one just needs blaster gas, which can be used by a countless number of weapons.
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[garhkal]

WE had a recent thread on how interchangable blaster power packs are..
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[denderan marajain]

But all of you agree with more damage and better Range?

[nuclearwookiee]

Where did you find these stats? Also, how is an "ion rail gun" possible? How could a projectile propelled to ridiculous speeds not do actual damage to a ship it hits?

[garhkal]

Perhaps the ion railgun, has a device near the tip that encases any projectile passing through it in an ion field, to make it able to pass through enemy shields?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[nuclearwookiee]

[Dromdarr_Alark]

These stats were taken out of the context from which they were derived. They are standard equipment on a ship from The Old Republic MMO computer game.

In the game, using the gun requires the ship to come to a full stop. It must be charged for 5 seconds before firing. I'd say both of these are acceptable drawbacks that can offset its boons.
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"I still wouldn't have a roll for it - but that's just how I roll."

[shootingwomprats]

Its Star Wars, that's all that needs to be said to have something work. With that being said perhaps I can make a few suggestions.

The Ion Railgun. It accelerates an ion round that detonates on impact. The ionic charge explodes and creates an ion explosion. Perhaps its a high-tech sabot round.

The range stats are based on those given for starfighter scale ion weapons. The damage was loosely based on a concussion missile (7D). I also thought that 6D was a touch high, but as it was pointed out to me, if it hits it pretty knocks out the starfighter it hits. Part of balancing this was to give it a limited number of shot.

Another thing I would point out, that ships of 8,000 years ago do not directly convert to modern galactic ships. The ships are written to represent how effective they are against similar ships of the same era.

You asked why do they not use railguns in the current SWU? Maybe because in current a railgun converts to 1D damage because of a a common upgrade to standard shields that negates certain type of kinetic damage or an easy way to circumvent the kinetic energy delivery was discovered.

There are tons of way to explain this away. I would strongly encourage you to remember we are talking about 1,000s of years of difference here. Just like with real history, you cannot decide somethings impact base on modern measurements. Yes you can decide if its more powerful in comparison, but the real issue is not which one is more powerful, but how did that power effect items at that given time, not the current time.

I am having a hard time understanding the issue here.
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[Corise Lucerne]

[garhkal]