How fast does a Gatling gun consume it's ammo exactly?

[Tsubasa]

In Space Engineers Wiki, it says a Gatling gun has a RPM of 700, and has 64 litres worth of capacity.
A box of ammo with 140 bullets is 16 litres in volume, which means a Gatling gun can hold 4 boxes of ammo with 560 rounds.

Now according to common mathematics calculation, a box of ammo should be depleted in a matter of 12 seconds and 48 seconds straight for full 4 boxes consumption, unless my maths is a pile of crap, but Wiki somehow says one box of ammo will be consumed within 2 to 3 seconds and 12 to 13 for the whole inventory

So what is this inconsistency? Can anyone give an exact count regarding to that?

[BurlsoL]

Consistency is because the wiki may not have been updated as recently as this has been changed ingame. There is also some inconsistency between what inventory sizes are set to in world settings.

Then there is the fact that every world will operate at a slightly different time scale based on what else it is trying to process at the time. So the calculation of 48 seconds for 4 boxes might end up being 56 seconds, or 40 seconds, or any number greater or lower depending on world load.

That said, 46 minutes of continuous fire is a very large amount of damage and unless you are aiming at a hardened targer you are likely going to be going all the way through it in a fraction of that time.

[Wygos]

Exactly very fast. :D

[Thalyn]

The Wiki also makes a lot of assumptions which usually aren't tested to see if they're backed up in-game. In this case, the "700" simply comes from the Weapons.sbc file which set that as the "RateOfFire" value. The only real indication of anything is that larger values there do indeed correspond to more rounds per minute.

Best thing to do would be to test it and see. Keeping in mind, of course, that it's limited to what appears to be 180 shots per "burst" (which doesn't nicely line up with a single box of ammo) and has a reload time specified as "6000" (again with no reference unit).

2-3 seconds suggests the "700" from the config file actually corresponds to 70.0 rounds per second, rather than 700 rounds per minute. Earlier commented lines partially support this possibility..

NB All mentions of "time" correspond to simulation time, not actual time. Actual time is only relevant when it comes to measuring manually.

[Tsubasa]

Originally posted by Thalyn:

The Wiki also makes a lot of assumptions which usually aren't tested to see if they're backed up in-game. In this case, the "700" simply comes from the Weapons.sbc file which set that as the "RateOfFire" value. The only real indication of anything is that larger values there do indeed correspond to more rounds per minute.

Best thing to do would be to test it and see. Keeping in mind, of course, that it's limited to what appears to be 180 shots per "burst" (which doesn't nicely line up with a single box of ammo) and has a reload time specified as "6000" (again with no reference unit).

2-3 seconds suggests the "700" from the config file actually corresponds to 70.0 rounds per second, rather than 700 rounds per minute. Earlier commented lines partially support this possibility..

NB All mentions of "time" correspond to simulation time, not actual time. Actual time is only relevant when it comes to measuring manually.

70 rounds per seconds seems monstrously massive to me. Wonder if they really shoot that fast.

[krzosu18]

well in RL they do fire quite fast

for eg GAU-8/A Avenger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33teK7L4DM4
and its fire rate is about 3,900 rpm so the ones in game atm in comparison fire quite slowly

in comparison typical AK-47 shoots roughly 600 RPM.

but as ammo goes - gatling chew ammo very quickly in game so pick plenty of ammo - i usually not leave the base without min 40 cases of ammo on light ships (not including the ammo alrady in guns). and at least 140 cases on heavier small grid ships - which is usually enough to seriosuly wreck aregentavis - but still quite often it aint enough.

on large grid ships i like to mount quite large amounts of internal turrets usually 200 mags each but this means that amount of ammo i initially need to arm the vessel usually comes in 3-5k clips range.