Difference between revisions of "Hybrid turret"

Latest revision as of 13:48, 18 December 2011

A Hybrid Turret is a turret which utilizes a magnetic field to fire a charge at extremely high velocity at a target. Hybrid turrets are relatively advanced weapons, and require energy to operate (though they consume less capacitor than Amarrian Lasers). Hybrid turrets are notable in the fact that they are the most widely used type of turret in the universe - they are the primary weapon of the Gallente, and many Caldari ships also eschew missiles in favor of Railguns.

As with all turrets, Hybrid turrets are available in both short ranged and long ranged variations, with blasters and railguns performing these functions, respectively.

Blasters

Blasters are an extremely short range, highly destructive weapon system. Blasters possess high tracking speeds, short cycle times, and high volley damage, and as a result are one of the most powerful weapons available.

Blasters consume ammunition quickly, though this is mitigated by high capacity magazines. With their very short effective range, a Microwarpdrive or Afterburner is mandatory for combat, lest pilots rely on their superior range to deny blaster equipped ships a chance to land a hit.

Blasters are almost exclusively used by the Gallente, although the Rokh is often equipped with these short ranged turrets, as are other Caldari railgun platforms. Template:Blasters

Railguns

Railguns are the long range version of the Hybrid Turret. Railguns feature longer optimal ranges than Beam Lasers or Artillery. With the right fittings, a railgun equipped sniper battleship can hit targets at distances greater than 200 kilometers. These weapons have poor tracking and are restricted to kinetic and thermal damage types.

Railgun optimized ships can be found across new eden, with the Caldari Merlin, Cormorant, Moa, Ferox, and Rokh serving as prime examples of ships designed for ranged combat.

Railguns are primarily used as a Sniping weapon, especially on the Rokh Battleship which serves as the Caldari's premier long range weapons platform. The Megathron is often equipped with Railguns (with these ships colloquially referred to as Sniperthrons), giving the vessel a potent long range combat capability in fleet engagements. Template:Railguns

Technology

'The weapon commonly referred to as a 'Railgun' does not utilize rails within the barrel of the gun that the charge slides on - mounting lugs are not visible on images of the charges. However, they are more likely to be what we call Coilguns (also known as Gauss guns), which operate by accelerating a magnetically-charged projectile with electromagnets.

As a Railgun does not have to traverse a heavy large-caliber barrel or generate a beam of high-energy light, it can be made smaller and lighter (and thus use much less powergrid than Artillery Cannons or Tachyon Beams).

Conversely, a Blaster first processes the Hybrid charge and turns it into a ball of plasma, held together by a strong electromagnetic containment field. This ball is then accelerated out of the weapon by the same method as a Railgun, but the containment field quickly dissipates once the ball leaves the barrel of the gun. This greatly affects effective range.