Primitive weapon concept: Coilguns A failed step on the road to Gauss Rifles. Treated similar to Rifles for performance against 'mech armor, but subtracting 1 rather than 3 from the damage. Three variants, 1, 3, and 5. Their ammo is notably cheap, being simple shaped steel projectiles of varying sizes. However, Coilguns need a separately mounted Coilgun Capacitor to fire on any vehicle or 'mech, but that capacitor can be ran off any power-source, and is the same for all coilguns. One Capacitor can feed up to 4 Coilguns of any type. Coilguns, and their ammo, are both non-volatile, and do not suffer from explosive failure when damaged. Coilgun/1: Heat 2 Damage 1 Short Range 1-6 Medium Range 7-9 Long Range 10-14 Tons 3 Critical Slots 1 Ammo Per Ton 12 Cost (unloaded) 60,550 Ammo Cost (per ton) 50 *completely nullified by non-commercial 'mech armor Coilgun/3: Heat 3 Damage 3 Short Range 1-7 Medium Range 8-11 Long Range 12-14 Tons 5 Critical Slots 2 Ammo Per Ton 9 Cost (unloaded) 95,325 Ammo Cost (per ton) 75 Coilgun/5: Heat 4 Damage 5 Short Range 1-8 Medium Range 9-11 Long Range 12-15 Tons 6 Critical Slots 3 Ammo Per Ton 6 Cost (unloaded) 110,200 Ammo Cost (per ton) 100
Coilgun Capacitor: Tons 2 Critical Slots 2 Cost 30,100 Poses a risk of explosive failure if damaged. Equivalent to a 10-point ammo explosion.
Failed largely due to inefficiencies with power delivery, and substandard projectile performance in general, and a marked issue with bigger sizes causing severe reductions in potential range, due to the coupled problems of a bigger simple projectile having more air resistance and not being delivered more power than smaller Coilguns.
Never seen deployed on a 'Mech, though theoretically possible, project dated to some time pre 2200, though examples have been found all the way into the 3100s in the periphery, potentially new productions as the technology is fairly simple, if ineffective.
