Questions about High-Tech/Ultra-Tech Gun Interactions.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Realistic gauss weapons deliver payloads at 10 times the speed of conventional weapons,

Physically possible railguns can reach that speed but practical designers would avoid it. The target speed for the railguns the Navy is developing is "only" 2200 meters per second which is just below the level where the projectiles would start burning up like little meteors.

That's also just below the speed at which even the toughest depleted uranium or tungsten projectiles would explode on impact.

If you search for videos of railguns in action you'll see them spitting out a huge ball of fire when like a tank gun firing. So no hiding or silencing that.

However, there is a different sort of electromagnetic gun called the coilgun. It has lower velocity potential and there are technical issues with maxing out their power but for the mature TL10 Gauss guns coilguns should probably be assumed. Note, do not take the use of "railgun" in any particular weapon in UT literally.

Coilguns have no propellant gasses so there's nothing to hide or silence and nothing to vent. so none of that applies.

The Gauss guns in UT are already using a sort of high density ammo as default (except for the shotguns and grenade launcher types) so their penetration generally can not be enhanced by ammo choice though special effects such as explosive damage can be achieved for large caliber gauss guns.

UT has its' own selection of ammo and there is generally nothing from HT that I'd bother with. The option in HT for Very High ROF would be useful and currently isn't in UT.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

However, there is a different sort of electromagnetic gun called the coilgun. It has lower velocity potential and there are technical issues with maxing out their power but for the mature TL10 Gauss guns coilguns should probably be assumed. Note, do not take the use of "railgun" in any particular weapon in UT literally.

UT is quite expressly using it literally - and explicitly distinguishes that 'Gauss guns' are coil guns.

[RedDragon]

I'm sorry, I should have clarified; I'm using the optional rules for EM guns from this forum post: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=147082

So Gauss guns have the armor divisor dropped and their base damage increased. This makes it an upgrade to use other bullets, rather than a downgrade.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by RedDragon

I'm sorry, I should have clarified; I'm using the optional rules for EM guns from this forum post: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=147082

So Gauss guns have the armor divisor dropped and their base damage increased. This makes it an upgrade to use other bullets, rather than a downgrade.

Well, since that explicitly says that discarding-sabot options can be added on, that's clear enough.

Using HT ammo rules with UT is still a bit inherently fraught because, as noted, UT was not written with any reference to HT and stuff just doesn't line up. But that does make the general EM ammo issue less of a mess.

[PTTG]

Coilguns could easily be tuned to fire sub-sonically, and the firing is not innately loud. I don't see any reason why a coilgun couldn't have a "stealth mode" setting.

It would do way less damage, and probably switch from piercing to blunt, but it's conceivable it's still useful.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Coilguns could easily be tuned to fire sub-sonically, and the firing is not innately loud. I don't see any reason why a coilgun couldn't have a "stealth mode" setting.

It would do way less damage, and probably switch from piercing to blunt, but it's conceivable it's still useful.

Subsonic firearm bullets still do piercing damage, so I don't think subsonic coilgun shots would differ there.

But a 4mm coilgun round weighs 2.7 grams. That's just above the heavy end of typical .22 bullets (says wikipedia), which are normally at least a little supersonic. So...about as useful as a silenced .22, perhaps. That's not nothing I guess, especially from the pistol or SMG frames.

EM grenade launchers should probably be fired subsonic more often than not, since payload rounds don't usually need impact damage. If their base firing mode isn't already subsonic...