Unleash Electromagnetic Devastation – Coilgun

Building your Coilgun

Every Coilgun consists of four core components that work together as a single weapon system:

• Chamber - the starting point where projectiles are loaded.
• Modular Barrel - acceleration segments that boost projectile performance.
• Muzzle - the exit point where projectiles leave the weapon.
• Magnetic Accelerator - an enhancement on a Barrel segment that yields the largest performance gain.

Construction rules

• You can place an unlimited number of Barrels between the Chamber and the Muzzle.
• Each Barrel can connect up to 4 Accelerators.
• Shared Accelerators - a single Accelerator can boost two Coilguns at once if both weapons touch it with their Barrels, but it will not boost two Barrels of the same Coilgun.

How Coilguns work

New damage type: Piercing

• Coilgun bullets fly with such force that they pierce through power shields and armor layers.
• Every power shield they hit slows the bullet and removes nearly half of its damage.
• It works similarly with debris.
• When a Coilgun bullet hits a spaceship it penetrates instead of exploding. Damage decreases depending on the armor stat of the block it pierces.

Coilgun physics (simplified)

• Exit velocity (and damage) scales with √(ΣI²), where I is the effective current. Each Barrel segment contributes; each Magnetic Accelerator boosts that segment's current.
• Magnetic energy stored in the coils is proportional to I². More Accelerators → higher current → exponentially more stored energy converted to kinetic energy.
• For balance, projectile mass, magnetic susceptibility and coil geometry are held constant; damage scales by the same multiplier as exit velocity.

Formulas, damage, penetration

• Base values: Damage 50, Speed 50, Max penetration 0.8 (rarely reached because damage drop blocks penetration first).
• Scaling multiplier = 1 + 0.5 × √(Σ(1 + 4n)²), where n is Magnetic Accelerators per Barrel and (1 + 4n)² represents one Barrel.
• Example damage scaling:
  • 1 barrel + 4 accelerators → 9.5× (475 dmg and speed)
  • 2 barrels + 8 accelerators → 13× (650 dmg and speed)
  • 4 barrels + 16 accelerators → 18× (900 dmg and speed)
  • 8 barrels + 32 accelerators → ~25× (1252 dmg and speed)
  • 16 barrels + 64 accelerators → 35× (1750 dmg and speed)
• Each additional Barrel increases firing delay (time between pressing the fire button and the weapon firing). Delay = 0.1 s × number of Barrels.

Shields and Debris nearly halve the bullet's damage and slow its speed (they still take full damage to their own HP), but they do not stop the bullet as long as it has remaining damage and speed.

When a bullet hits the spaceship, it penetrates and deals damage block by block. Remaining damage after each block:

Damage × 0.9 − (blockArmor × 30 + blockKineticArmor × 70)

Composite Armor

The new Composite Armor is the best - and effectively the only - block-side counter to Coilguns (power shields are also a strong counter). If you are facing a Coilgun and you don't have power shields, place Composite Armor between your ship's interior and the enemy's line of fire.