Intro:A couple of weeks ago I happily fitted my Prototype Railgun to my tank. Costs as much as ~2 tank hulls to fit. It has been worth the SP, and has been plenty of fun.
This weekend I engaged an enemy railgun tank at long range on Manus Peak, though I saw hit 'bursts' no damage was seeming to be done.
As I sparred with the tank (we both lost one that match, though he got me a second time right before match end) he and I both realized we were at exactly max range- using the same gun. He managed to best me utilizing forward and backward movement to beat the range mechanic, staying out of range just long enough poke in and whallop me.
Breakdown:I was positioned at the NE corner of E6 of Manus Peak, firing at the SE corner of A3.
As this is roughly 3 diagonal block lengths away. Basic geometry says if we call the sides of a block L, the max range of a railgun tank with the best railgun in game is only [ 3 * sqrt(2) * L].
This is 4.24L or ~4.25 map blocks total range.
The majority of current SMALL maps are larger than this. How will this play out when maps and territories disputed are expanded?
This means that this amazing, expensive, futuristic, ultra-destructive railgun can only shoot 2/3 of the way across many of our maps.
Comments:Linking into the projectile speed line item I mentioned in a separate tank Bug thread (which I noted was mentioned in the weekly updates as being 'looked into' - Thanks!) This really negates the value and ability of these expensive machines to act in their roles as long range sluggers.
Modern tanks can fire conventional munitions at ~3000-5000 f/s (~900-1500 m/s) at targets multiple miles (1 Mile= ~5500 feet = ~1700 meters) away utilizing discarding sabot rounds. Railguns promise faster projectiles, longer ranges.
Railguns, if you just increase these conventional numbers a mere 25% for thousands of years of technology, should have almost no perceptible delay at current ranges.
The range hard-cap seems to be less than the sniper rifle, which seems to regularly make shots beyond this range.
I do not know the dimensions of the map grid as it relates to the in game range units- but I know 4 blocks can not be significant range in Meters compared to what distances long-range tanks SHOULD be able to do combat at.