What Exactly Do Railguns Do?

[Pamparampampamparam]

How are they better than conventional cannons, what do they do specifically? Is it worth spending the time and resources for? Is it better to apply them to smaller or larger guns?

I'm also having a problem where I have a three barrel 500mm turret with all barrels possessing "rails" that are connected to the firing piece yet only the middle one charges up. What gives?

[Eviliari]

Convential railguns use a 'rail' of magnets to propel a projectile to huge speeds, without the use of gunpowder. In From The Depths, it would be better to use them on slow firing, large guage cannons because of the long recharge of the railguns, unless you a a lot of charger units on every battery for a rapid firing one.

With the 3 barrelled gun, do they have separate systems? such as their own autoloaders, clips and the like? They cannot be touching each other, not even the batteries or the guage increases can. Everything needs to be separate so they can fire at the same time.
Hope that helps!

[Pamparampampamparam]

The problem isn't that they don't fire, its that the rails only charge for the middle barrel. And yes, every firing piece has its own loader, gauge, cooler, and clips.

Also, by not having to use gunpowder do you mean that the shells you make don't need a propellant?

[Admiral Obvious]

Originally posted by BasileusMaximos:

The problem isn't that they don't fire, its that the rails only charge for the middle barrel. And yes, every firing piece has its own loader, gauge, cooler, and clips.

Also, by not having to use gunpowder do you mean that the shells you make don't need a propellant?

How long do you wait for it to charge, and does your engine have enough power to handle it? You need to give it a decent interval to recharge, and in most cases, a railgun will drain half the maximum charge per shot. So, you can fire 2 fully charged shots, but past that, you need to wait a while for it to recharge enough to be useful.

As for no gunpowder, that's correct if you want. It creates a gun that has a set 0 recoil cooldown. Fire rate is only restricted by reload speeds. It's pretty useless if it's not charged appropriately though.

[Kage]

Actually it's best to use it on lower calibers like the current experimental railguns as the rails can accelerate the smaller mass faster.

[Pamparampampamparam]

So do I need no recoil dampeners with railguns?

[Sabertoothproton]

You do. The recoil can be insane on big railguns.

[Eviliari]

yea..... might as well try to make a reversable/spinning ship or aircraft if you are going to make railguns with no recoil....
would be insteresting to try that tho..... >:-)

[Harold]

Correction; using a big gauge like 500mm is a HORRIBLE idea if you are using no gunpowder. The shell will just flop out the barrel, even nick said its meant for small caliber bullets.

[Pamparampampamparam]

So because you don't need gunpowder casings railguns allow you to use more offensive ordinance and get rid of cooldown times, correct?

[Kage]

Unless it's a fairly small caliber, you're going to need some gunpowder, however rails can be used to supliment gunpowder allowing for more ordinance, yes.

[Admiral Obvious]

Originally posted by BasileusMaximos:

So do I need no recoil dampeners with railguns?

With gunpowder, yes. In my experience, without gunpowder, no. Any gunpowder with a railgun hugely multiplies recoil force depending on the build, but it won't do anything if it multiplies by 0, as in no powder. I've made a few powerless builds that get rounds flying 800 m/s, but I have to enforce a large cooldown, near 5 rounds per minute to keep that effective range and velocity with a reasonably sized gun.

It's practically useless to use a railgun for a shot that would fit in anything much bigger than what would fit into a 2m gun, because at that point, it's far more efficient to use gunpowder without the rails. Railguns are almost exclusively intended to be used for smaller guns, but that's no reason not to experiment with a 5m railgun, even if it's going to be hugely impractical.

[amimai002]

if you can not lob huge shells to stupid ranges using pure railguns, i have one phrase for you : MOAR DAKKAKA

in all seriousness 40000 charge is laughable for a .5m railgun, you need to reach at least half a milion charge (a 10x10x10 block of batteries will do) then let it rip

be warned firing such a monster will send most ships flying backwards at speed from the recoil

for example my 1.2million charge railgun is capable of spitting out a .5m ap/flack/nuclear cannon shell at 350m/s (geometric energy vs speed? round 5 million charge to get another 100m/s)

said flack shell has takes out atlas with one hit by using its 60m blast radius

(slightly less dramatic effects on metal targets where it just sets itself off in the middle of the sip via penetration fuse and guts it)

[rditto48801]

I use my pure railguns on a sky fortress. No recoil based relocation problems.
It's amusing switching from 50cm to 20mm... stupidly fast projectile that can shoot across the map in well under a minute... Otherwise, a 3.3k kinetic damage, 168 AP, 5km/s sabot round is kind of pointless... outside of chase camera mode and seeing how the terrain looks on the other side of the map from the safety of your home territory...