[nuone]

Rail-guns should not be underestimated. (Hope I don't get censored for mentioning other-universe information) In the Halo universe, MAC cannons are essentially, monster rail-guns that can destroy entire capital ships with a single salvo. AWESOME.

[eliex]

Heh . . . if it comes to Halo, I'll preferably take the Covenant plasma cannons and capital ship shielding like the Lucifer. Hmmm, actually I might incorporate that  into . . .

Still, MAC rounds are actually projectiles IIRC, so the FS railguns would be more like the Covenant's plasma railguns. 

[Stormkeeper]

MAC guns sound pretty heavy duty though. They sound like Gauss Rifles, tbh.

[General Battuta]

Heh . . . if it comes to Halo, I'll preferably take the Covenant plasma cannons and capital ship shielding like the Lucifer. Hmmm, actually I might incorporate that  into . . .

Still, MAC rounds are actually projectiles IIRC, so the FS railguns would be more like the Covenant's plasma railguns. 

Noooo they wouldn't. There's no such thing as a 'plasma railgun'. Any railguns in the FS universe are fan-created, not canon, and therefore probably mass-driver weapons.

[eliex]

Okay, I checked what a railgun is in Wikipedia. My mistake.

MAC guns sound pretty heavy duty though. They sound like Gauss Rifles, tbh.

In the book "Fall of Reach" there are some MAC cannons described that can rip a Covenant Super-Destroyer in half including their shields. 

[Stormkeeper]

Heh. I guess they are heavy duty.

[-Norbert-]

Plasma Rail gun.... right....
And how would someone accelerate a cloud of superheated gas on a track of rails?
Or is it actually a projectile weapon that fires bullets with plasma inside a hard shell?

[Snail]

And how would someone accelerate a cloud of superheated gas on a track of rails?

Magnets?

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Encase it and use air separated by a piece of air-proof plastic?

[Titan]

or just admit that its a cool name? 

i don't know how many 'railguns' i've seen, but none of them work like what a 'railgun' really is.

[Snail]

IRL, a railgun would just look like a very fast piece of metal.

[eliex]

And how would someone accelerate a cloud of superheated gas on a track of rails?

For a plasma rifle (and obviously then other plasma based weaponry) an electromagnetic accelerator is required to guide the plasma forward: but now it is theoretical ideas so I have to say much more than that is needed.

And a real railgun from real life is . . .

A railgun is a purely electrical gun that accelerates a conductive projectile along a pair of metal rails using the same principles as the homopolar motor.

So actually a Halo MAC is the proper form of a railgun.

[Commander Zane]

Plasma Rail gun.... right....
And how would someone accelerate a cloud of superheated gas on a track of rails?
Or is it actually a projectile weapon that fires bullets with plasma inside a hard shell?

You can use accumulator rings, but then it would be more like a particle accelerator cannon.

[Stormkeeper]

The railguns that the Tau use in DoW seem to fire a beam, then the projectile travels down the beam.

[Darius]

That'll actually be a pretty cool weapon if I can find a way to work it into Freespace.

[Stormkeeper]

Not to mention is freaking scary. The original Broadsides that came in squads of 3 weren;t very scary, but after the patch, watching a pair of Broadsides chew up Space Marines like they were Imp Guards is frightening.

[-Norbert-]

In the background story of Warhammer 40K the Tau railguns don't fire beams, they do fire solid ammunition. I never really liked the way those weapons were animated in Dawn of War, but even there you see a projectile (white sphere) traveling inside the blue beam.
Besides, Warhammer is pretty much the last place we should look for when it  comes to explenations of technology...

[nuone]

If someone could animate them like the rail-guns in "ERASER" with Arnold Swarzeneggar, now that would be incredible.

[eliex]

Not to mention is freaking scary. The original Broadsides that came in squads of 3 weren;t very scary, but after the patch, watching a pair of Broadsides chew up Space Marines like they were Imp Guards is frightening.

That was in Dark Crusade right? Luckily in Soulstorm Broadsides are pretty easy to kill.

I found it quite amusing to see on the titles of some DoW multiplayer games "No Tau." Fire Warrior massing is like the most annoying thing in the universe.

The railguns that the Tau use in DoW seem to fire a beam, then the projectile travels down the beam.

How does that work? 

[Stormkeeper]

That was in Dark Crusade right? Luckily in Soulstorm Broadsides are pretty easy to kill.

Not really ... my Broadside took down about 9 Space Marines. Granted, they weren't upgraded, but still ..

I found it quite amusing to see on the titles of some DoW multiplayer games "No Tau." Fire Warrior massing is like the most annoying thing in the universe.

I don't see whats so annoying, tbh. My friend tried that on me, and I just dropped in Flayed Ones and the Fire Warriors dropped like flies.

How does that work? 

Watch the Broadsides fire in Dark Crusade. It looks kinda like a guiding beam  that the shell uses to travel to its target. Like the UCS plasma cannon superweapon in Earth 2140 series, which fires a plasma beam, which does nothing, merely transporting its payload of bombs down the beam.