(This article is currently under construction!)
1 Information
The machine guns/autocannons are auxiliary support weapon that are available to many combat units in the game. This article covers them in details.
2 Overview
Many vehicles appearing in the game are equipped with extra machine gun and autocannon type weapons alongside their primary weapon systems; which can further augment their combat effectiveness against the enemy. The types and firepower of the machine guns/autocannons used by the units vary greatly, but their mechanics are identical.
In the game data, these types of auxiliary weapons are collectively labelled as 'machine guns' for description reasons; even though their actual specifications in the game vary greatly from standard heavy machine guns to high-calibre autocannons in both appearances and performances. This article will adopt this convention for simplicity as well.
3 Mechanics
Machine guns can be fired by pressing down the key (Default: 'X') while occupying the unit equipped with them in the first-person mode. The AI-controlled units will always employ their machine guns when aiming down and attacking enemy units in range along with their main weapons during combat. Similar to primary projectile weapons, firing machine guns will cost energy from the unit -- 1 (100) energy point is required for 300 (30000) weapon damage output.
There are many notable differences between the mechanics and behaviours of the normal projectile type (primary) weapons and the machine gun (auxiliary) type weapons:
- The machine guns of all vehicles possess identical mechanics aside from their individual firepower output and visual/sound effects. This is in contrast to the normal projectile-type weapons in the game, which possess fully distinct physics properties and unique attributes, and so their individual characteristics and performances can vary greatly from each other with different types of advantages.
- The machine guns are 'hit-scan' type weapons. Unlike the normal projectile weapons, the hit registration of the machine guns is instant, and there is no particular projectile travel time to inflict damage on target. Therefore, the machine guns are not bound to the normal physical limitations of the projectile type weapons, and can damage the target instantly as long as it is fired at the target in reticule that is within the effective range of machine guns.
- The machine guns possess the universal range of 1000 in-game distance unit regardless of their types and firepower, which is slightly shorter than the length of a full sector. This distance is notably shorter than the ranges of the most primary weapon projectiles and therefore it practically limits the applications of machine guns to close 'in-range contact' combat situations, which also somewhat compensates their hit-scan type registration advantage.
- The machine guns can damage more than one target as long as there are multiple units aligned into the tracer vector of the machine gun's reticule arc. Therefore, their effectiveness is dramatically increased when fired upon a closely packed or lined up group of enemy units. The default weapon radius of the machine guns is 5, which is significantly smaller than the normal projectile weapons to compensate their unique hit registration mechanics.
- The machine guns can attack targets placed behind the obstacles by penetrating them, such as buildings/structures or terrains. This feature allows them to be more effective in a terrain environment with numerous obstacles, where the normal projectile weapons cannot otherwise hit targets. Conversely, the machine guns cannot be used to damage non-unit type buildings/structures (such as power stations), as they will simply pass through them.
4 Damage Output
Different units are equipped with different types of machine guns/autocannons, and therefore there is a great variation in firepower. This list will contain the damage output of the machine gun/autocannon for each unit.
<Placeholder>
This section is currently under construction. For now, this information is separately covered under the individual 'Statistical Database' sections under the individual unit entries on Lexicon.
5 Trivia
- Each faction possesses unique machine gun sound effects for their own vehicles.
- Dragonfly and Thor's Hammer are two vehicles that possess distinct machine gun/autocannon firing sounds to represent their superior firepower and damage output.
- The Resistance machine gun sound effect is used for Taerkasten Phantom. This could be either a legacy design from the development phase, or to represent the fact that Phantom is armed with a modern jet fighter autocannon.
- Myko Ground Cube is the only Mykonian vehicle equipped with a machine gun. It does not have a sound effect and employs a same type of machine gun as human factions.
- Sulgogars machine guns (only equipped and used by Blue Spore) do not have sound effects and have distinct visual effects of blue particle beam pulses.
- Some vehicles have unused machine gun firing animations even if they are not armed with machine guns anymore in the final version of the game. This can be reinstated by re-enabling their machine guns in the data scripts.
6 Notes
Under Construction.