Spinal Railgun Idea

[Borealis4x (OP)]

I understand that in the next few updates we are supposed to be getting spinal mounted railguns. I understand that the only difference between regular weapons and spinal ones is that they are larger and double the size of whatever caliber you are using.

I thought it would be a good idea to go even bigger. How about instead of only being able to go twice as big you can go three, four, or five times. This way you can create giant dreadnoughts with a massive main weapon instead of having multiple smaller ones.

[xXKageAsashinXx]

So basically a MOAR cannon (Mother Of All Railguns)? Seems legit, though I don't think that'd be very practical, as even though you only get one spinal weapon, it wouldn't do to make it ignore your focal size basically if you research it far enough. Plus, it doesn't get rid of the increased reload time for larger weapons, so unless you're fine with it only firing once per engagement, there's no real point.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Now that I think about it, it would be interesting to get rid of spinal mounting altogether as all non-turreted weapons are bsically spinal mounted and instead make it so you have greater customization over your weapon like you do from active EM sensors. So you can not only select which grade of capacitor and caliber but also make them larger by modifying them to by 4x as effective for 4x the HS or 50% as effective for 50% the HS.

[xXKageAsashinXx]

Like with Gauss weapons and missile launchers? That looks to be more feasible than the first idea, as sometimes you do just want a gigantic death laser that is basically your ship in a nutshell for rp reasons. I'm interested in the applications for that.

[Borealis4x (OP)]

It just gives you more depth of choice than merely selecting your most up to date velocity and capacitor tech after choosing a caliber.

[Herodotus4]

This sounds like something from HALO. . . . .

It might be cool, I would prefer to use it for fighters though.  Something like a LAC from the honorverse.

[boggo2300]

Now that I think about it, it would be interesting to get rid of spinal mounting altogether as all non-turreted weapons are bsically spinal mounted

no they aren't.  there is a BIG difference between a fixed mounting and a weapon your ship is built around

[Borealis4x (OP)]

Yeah, but I don't believe that a spinal rail-gun is any different from a normal railgun besides its larger weight which could be easily represented.

[boggo2300]

The reason there are currently only spinal lasers is I suspect that Steve hasn't decided on what effects to use for spinal versions of the other beam weapons,  personally for Rail Guns I'd like to see no range differences or anything like that,  just apocalyptic damage,  though probably with reduced accuracy.  But then I was a big Renegade Legion fan

[83athom]

Yeah, but I don't believe that a spinal rail-gun is any different from a normal railgun besides its larger weight which could be easily represented.

Non turreted weapons are casemate weapons sticking out the side, which still can be adjusted to aim without the need for the ship to line up perfectly (but still needs to turn to put thing in the firing arc). This includes things like the casemates of ships and SPGs. A spinal weapon is a inbuilt, fixed weapon like the MACs/Super-MAC of the Halo universe which require the aiming of the whole ship itself to target enemies..

[Gyrfalcon]

Mechanically, though, there's not one bit of difference between one or the other. Spinal lasers don't suffer any tracking speed reduction to represent that sort of scenario.