Railgun

The **Railgun** is a simple Transhuman ESC 1 weapon, capable of dealing reliable PHY damage to enemy forces. While it is extremely cheap and fairly durable, its low range and lack of any special abilities makes the Railgun subpar compared compared to the basic weapons of other races.

## Story

Magnetically-accelerated ballistic weapons, colloquially known as Railguns, were frequently used in Human conflicts since the very first interstellar Human civilizations emerged, popularized due to their respectable stopping power and simplistic design. While many improvements were created for the technology as time went on, the basic design and underlying principles remained consistent throughout all of its iterations, making it one of the oldest Human technologies known to exist. Since it retains its usefulness even now, the Transhuman military has decided to continue using Railguns in the Arena Conflict, dramatically increasing the scale of the technology in order to make it viable in the siege warfare of the future. Transhuman Railguns operate almost identically to those used by countless Human civilizations of the past, but there are a few key differences that set Transhuman Railguns apart. The magnetic acceleration of the projectiles is now aided by directional gravity emitters that provide shots with even more velocity as they exit the barrel. The shells fired by the Transhuman Railgun are comprised of an extremely dense tungsten-osmium superalloy that prevents them from breaking apart upon contact with enemy armor. Inside each shell is a low-yield atomic explosive, allowing shells to deal even more damage upon collision. Advanced QAI targeting systems built into the structure allow the Railgun to hit its targets with 99.9% accuracy, a much-needed improvement over the comparatively inaccurate Railguns used by more ancient Human civilizations.

Despite all of these improvements, the Railgun still remains limited in terms of capabilities. Due to their composition, the shells it fires are very heavy, and likewise, have a rather short maximum range. The weapon also suffers from a very significant recoil problem that forces it to be locked to a heavy-duty spinal mount on its turret platform to avoid damaging nearby infrastructure. While this mount absorbs most of the shock during firing, it also restricts the movement of the weapon to a specific set of axis, preventing it from safely attacking enemy forces outside of this range. Compared to more technologically advanced weapons, the Railgun's effectiveness is diminished, but, as of yet, there are no better replacements for the highly-specific niche it fulfills in the Transhuman arsenal as an extremely cheap, expendable weapon.

## Gameplay

The Railgun is the lowest-tier weapon in the entire Transhuman arsenal, costing only 1 RP and being available right at the start of the game. Likewise, its effectiveness lies more in the fact that it is cheaper than the basic weapons of any other race, meaning a Transhuman player can start to field Railguns without having secured any rows of territory. Their respectable durability and shot damage make Railguns a very decent first weapon, and, combined with the extra Military Block Transhumanity is allowed to field, a Transhuman player can, theoretically, output more direct damage in the early game than their opponent by just fielding multiple Railguns. Assuming they are placed near important chokepoints, Railguns can easily hold back early enemy advances and lock down important sections of the map that an aggressive player would want to seize as soon as possible, especially when combined with Disintegration Pulse Emitters.

Unfortunately, Railguns become almost completely obsolete once a Transhuman player reaches ESC 2, easily beaten out by the Triad Cannon, which deals twice as much damage, has more range, and is more versatile overall for what eventually amounts to a negligible cost increase. If a Transhuman player finds themselves short on RP, or doesn't want to invest in Triad Cannons immediately after reaching ESC 2, the usefulness of the Railgun can be extended through the Penetrator Rounds upgrade, which allows them to deal minor amounts of extra damage to enemy Blocks. However, by this point, most players, particularly those playing as more defensive races, will have invested in shields to protect their forces. If the resistance provided by a shield exceeds the damage of a weapon, its shots do nothing, which means it isn't hard for more defensive players to make themselves completely immune to Railgun fire later in the game.