[azile0]

Since this is obviously a hot subject, I made a topic for it.

Will the UE's Railguns beat the GTVA's Beams? Let's break down the facts and Physics.


Beams:
             They have Nasty AAA, as well as Slashes and Those beastly LGreens/LVas that pierce the hull. This can vaporise crew in the beam's line of fire. Problem is that they are slow, and, unless you use a LGreen/LVas, you only get a small area damage. Of course, that doesn't matter in FS2 where you hit. You could Subach the tip of a wing, and the whole ship will go KABOOM eventually.. Anyway,

Rail Guns
              Slower, as they are projectiles, but have a large area damage from the explosion. They can fire rapidly, and can thus cover more area. Less of a potential for AAA, as I am seeing more of 'Upgraded Flak' cannons to swat away bombs. Also can be a longer range, provided you aim it right.


So, Beams and Rails are looking pretty even.

[blowfish]

What are you talking about?  If you are trying to bring real world stuff into this, 1) You aren't doing it correctly, since railguns don't really have any impact explosion (IIRC), and 2) Beams have no logical explanation.  In the context of a Freespace mod, all that matters is how it is balanced, which can be changed easily.

[Aardwolf]

1. Railguns would have an impact explosion ... sort of. Just like if you shoot a pistol at some soft sand. The sand will fly away from the point of impact.

B. Similarly, real lasers (pulse lasers, stream lasers are nowhere near as effective) would produce a shockwave on impact, which is what would actually cause the damage. Stream lasers don't produce as much of a shockwave per amount of energy expended.

4. I agree with most of the rest of what blowfish said.

[Akalabeth Angel]

What are you talking about?  If you are trying to bring real world stuff into this, 1) You aren't doing it correctly, since railguns don't really have any impact explosion (IIRC), and 2) Beams have no logical explanation.  In the context of a Freespace mod, all that matters is how it is balanced, which can be changed easily.

     Though it doesn't apply in the context of BP, it should be noted that at a certain impact velocity, explosives become irrelevant.  Because the kinetic force of an impact will be equal in destructive power.

[WMCoolmon]

I suspect antimatter might mix things up a bit. As it often does...

[Androgeos Exeunt]

In BP, the Railguns generate a massive shockwave on impact. I've tried shooting the Colossal Railgun in AoA before.

[Darius]

The Colossal Railgun isn't used in Age, so the weapon is going to undergo some tweaking and balancing before it makes its appearance. This means the damage values aren't final. It should still generate a small shockwave though.

It's meant to be a destroyer-calibre gun, of which there will only be one or two emplacements on a ship.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

By all means, it really is suited for destroyers only. I can't imagine mounting that on anything smaller.

[azile0]

  I would LOVE to mod a Corvette to have a frontal BFRed and 5 or 6 Colossal Railguns. Probably a Deimos, as they have a large frontal side...

[pecenipicek]

Rail Guns
              Slower, as they are projectiles, but have a large area damage from the explosion. They can fire rapidly, and can thus cover more area. Less of a potential for AAA, as I am seeing more of 'Upgraded Flak' cannons to swat away bombs. Also can be a longer range, provided you aim it right.

I take it you never witnessed what proper flak cannons do, yes?

look at this.

just put the stuff as is in the folder and use the -mod flag.

and enjoy the carnage

[Snail]

I would LOVE to mod a Corvette to have a frontal BFRed and 5 or 6 Colossal Railguns. Probably a Deimos, as they have a large frontal side...

I would love to make an GTSFR (Galactic Terran SUPAR Freighter) Triton with OMGWTFBBQSALADReds on both turrets and twice as many hitpoints as the Volition Bravos. And 5000m/s top speed.

[Rodo]

I vote for railguns... just because beam weapons seem far too "burn out" by freespace retail story itself.

The sathanas is just a bigger warship with bigger beam turrets, and the logical evolution of it would be.... mm let me see.... Ah yes!! a bigger bulk with more or bigger beam guns

[Aardwolf]

I vote for some sort of missile carrying a deadly pathogen.

[azile0]

I vote for some sort of missile carrying a deadly pathogen.

Yes. You win. Biological warfare NEVER goes out of hand, does it? Still, I think that the EA should kick the GTVA's ass.
s

[blowfish]

Still, I think that the EA should kick the GTVA's ass.

That's UEF to you!

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Still, I think that the EA should kick the GTVA's ass.

That's UEF to you!

I hardly see you overreact, blowfish.

But you're right: The EA are the EARTH ALLIANCE, an INFERNO RELEASE 1 FACTION; the UEF are the UNITED EARTH FEDERATION, a BLUE PLANET FACTION.

[Admiral_Stones]

Really though, the 'AAA' beams always buggered me... AAA stands for Anti-Aircraft Artillery, which really just means Flak Cannon. So unless the AAAf is a stream of exploding stuff, it isn't really appropriate to this description.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Really though, the 'AAA' beams always buggered me... AAA stands for Anti-Aircraft Artillery, which really just means Flak Cannon. So unless the AAAf is a stream of exploding stuff, it isn't really appropriate to this description.

I was thinking along the same lines too. However, the FreeSpace 2 Team also abbreviated the Very Big Green Beam and Very Big Red Beam to BFGreen and BFRed, the F possibly meaning "Fat" or "F**king".

[General Battuta]

Really though, the 'AAA' beams always buggered me... AAA stands for Anti-Aircraft Artillery, which really just means Flak Cannon. So unless the AAAf is a stream of exploding stuff, it isn't really appropriate to this description.

I thought it stood for Awesome Against Aircraft.

[Aardwolf]

In retail FS2 (possibly still), when a player fires a beam weapon (at least when you cheat to select it) it displays a message "Firing Artillery", so ... yeah.