Rail guns should leave visually aesthetic streakies behind. End of story.

[Stamp of Approval] ™

why?

railgun slugs are jest pieces of hot metal, and they use no propellant that would leave a particle trail.

Why does this ammunition-based weapon move much faster than our ENERGY weapons? I too think a trail would be cool if there is no technical problem with doing so. Seriously though, why are these bullets faster than our energy/laser beams?

Not everything has to be super duper pristinely realistic. It's a VIDEO GAME. Such an affect would be really really cool and seems fitting for this type of weapon.

Yeah this would be cool. So if some one is hiding up along the walls of some valley and they shoot you can see kinda where it's coming from... oh wait, wrong game. Cool none the less.

FatStrat85, considering that the old 58 Springfield Rifle Musket had a muzzle velocity of 950 feet/second or 290 m/s. http://www.hackman-adams.com/guns/58musket.htm

and with a real rail gun "20 kilometers per second [20,000 m/s] has been achieved with small projectiles explosively injected into the railgun. Although these speeds are theoretically possible, the heat generated from the propulsion of the object is enough to rapidly erode the rails. Such a railgun would require frequent replacement of the rails, or use a heat resistant material that would be conductive enough to produce the same effect."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railgun

It is pretty obvious that the speeds in this game are strictly for entertainment value, and not a reflection of what real weaponry is capable of.

That all said, I think rail trails would be cool.

My comment was to point that it is ironic that energy weapons which SHOULD move at the speed of light, move much slower in VO than projectile weapons, which should move much slower than light. Everything is all wacky...

Anyway, trails would be cool.

I love this. It would be cool if the railguns had long trails that sortof expanded like they ripping through the air. Like the rail guns from Quake 3!

EDIT: reading back, that looks like a genkaesque smartass comment, but I'm serious.

What about HOMING rails??
Say, same speed and damage as adv. rails, but half of the ammo and good maneuverability.

That is just dumb. You're asking for a weapon which would be very hard to dodge. So you could PK someone pretty much in seconds, with little to no skill.
Oh. maybe you were being sarcastic :-/

No to trails. It would make dodging rails easier (you're almost always looking at the trajectory at an angle). Also, it does not make sense from a realistic point of view.

Or even better, rapid fire rail guns with lots more ammo but of course weaker. There's your reasoning for having a trail. =P

"is ironic that energy weapons which SHOULD move at the speed of light"

Umm, no, this is wrong. Our energy weapons in game fire packets of charged particles, which can go as slowly as we want, and would become more unstable the faster you accelerate them (a good reason to not have them go ultra-fast).

The only true laser weapon in the game was taken out because people kept complaining about being insta-killed by it.

"No to trails. It would make dodging rails easier (you're almost always looking at the trajectory at an angle). Also, it does not make sense from a realistic point of view."

Tosh, have you ever fought rails? Not to brag, but I've dodged the rails of some of the best fighters in this game, and let me just say that I rarely (Read: Never) see them coming, think "Hey what angle is this coming at?", and dodge accordingly. It's 1/3 natural-dodging (IE how you dodge when you aren't thinking about dodging), 1/3 specific counter-rail dodging methods and 1/3 luck. Rails move too fast for you to base your dodge on where they're headed, unless you're far enough out that any strafe will get you away from them.

toshiro, at the velocity that rail pellets travel in VO, the trail wouldn't help much. If that rail pellet is going to hit, it's going to hit whether you see the trail or not.

Personally, I think dodging rails involves a bit more luck than Smittens says it does, especially at close range. By the time you see the pellet coming, it is usually too late to do anything about it unless it was going to miss anyway.

Miharu is exactly right (has hell frozen over!? Did I just say that?!). Rails are too fast to dodge unless you're at a large distance. If a rail misses you, the shooter's aim was off. Once a rail fires, it's either going to hit, or not. The key to fighting against rails is to confound your opponents aim. Any predictability in your dodge pattern and you're dead.

Hmm, I guess "instinct" isn't really the right word. I meant more of what tumble's talking about...but otherwise, you're right Miharu (except for more luck needed. If anything that makes up less of it...)

ive said ti before and ill say it again

l port rail shotgun, make it weigh 3000kg and fire 12 rail mk1 pellets in a random direction within say 5 degrees of the aim point, at REALLY close range it would do catastrophic damage, but past 25m you'd probably only hit with a portion of the pellets, out at 200 m you could possibly shoot all around your target.

Point taken.

I guess I just don't want rail gun pellets to have trails, then.