Particle Cannon

Particle cannons, also known as PACs or Particle Accelerator Cannons, are highly customizable weapons that launch light speed projectiles that can be finely-tuned for a desirable combination of range, accuracy, damage, firing rate, and energy draw, as well as whether you want to have the particles explode on impact, punch through armour, deliver an EMP-payload, or deal thump-damage similar to hollow-point shells.

Each arm of a PAC will fire one particle (potentially more for the scatter lens) from its lens and all of the arms attached to a lens will have the same settings and time of firing. The number of arms that can be attached to a lens varies from one for the short range lens up to five for the standard long range lens. Each one of these arms can be up to 1000 meters long for a maximum arm length per lens of 5000 meters.

A particle cannon can be turned into a close-range weapon by use of the Particle melee lens.

Specifics on some of the different factors are discussed below.

## Energy

When ever a PAC fires it will instantly draw energy from the crafts battery reserves. If there is not enough energy stored in the battery to meet the demand for the total energy per shot, the damage dealt will be reduced to an amount proportional to how much of the total demanded energy per shot was available.

The total energy used per shot by a PAC, assuming that there is enough energy available, depends on the total arm length L, overclocking value C, and charge time T. Thus, the energy use per shot is:

# E
80
×
L
×
T
×

C
2

{\displaystyle E=80\times L \times T \times C^2
}

## Damage

The damage potential for any PAC arm is the amount of impact damage it would be capable of doing at a range of zero meters and with sufficient energy to meet its energy demand. If there is not enough energy to meet the energy demand per shot the damage will be reduced to an amount proportional to how much of the total demanded energy per shot was available. The damage potential depends on the energy use per shot E, charge time T, focus F, overclocking value C, lens damage modifier MD, and whether the arm is using a particle tube terminator or a particle input port.

The damage potential with the use of a particle tube terminator is thus:

D
# p
E
×

M
D

×
0.169496049122185
×

F

−
0.3

×
ln
⁡
(
7257.65539077636
∗
T
)
÷
C

{\displaystyle Dp=E \times M\_D \times 0.169496049122185 \times F^{-0.3} \times \ln (7257.65539077636\*T) \div C

}

The damage potential with the use of a particle input port is thus:

D
# p
E
×

M
D

×
0.135596839297748
×

F

−
0.3

×
ln
⁡
(
7257.65539077636
∗
T
)
÷
C

{\displaystyle Dp=E \times M\_D \times 0.135596839297748 \times F^{-0.3} \times \ln (7257.65539077636\*T) \div C
}

The damage modifiers for the various lenses are given in the following table.

 Vertical lens
 Scatter lens
 Short range lens

The damage potential for the different damage types varies depending on the damage type. Their potential can be found by multiplying the damage potential of that PAC arm by the damage type factors in the table below.

*(actual for 3.2.9.7)* total damage output is the following:

2.0336\*L\*T2\*C\*Dtm\*Lm\*0.8I\*F-0.30068

where L is total tube length (with particle injectors, if any) T is charging time, C is overclocking Dtm is damage type modifier, Lm is lens modifier, I is number of particle injectors, and F is focus/10 (i.e. 10% focus=0.1).

 EMP
 Piercing
 Explosive shock

The damage type modifier for explosive shock damage depends on the charge time T, focus F, overclocking value C, lens damage modifier MD, and whether the arm is using a particle tube terminator or a particle input port.

When a particle tube terminator is used the explosive shock damage type factor is:

D

t

E
s

=
0.3355
×

D

−
0.1

×

F

0.03

×

C

−
0.1

×

T

−
0.1082736

{\displaystyle Dt\_{Es}=0.3355 \times D^{-0.1} \times F^{0.03} \times C^{-0.1} \times T^{-0.1082736}
}

When a particle input port is used the explosive shock damage type factor is:

D

t

E
s

=
0.2684
×

D

−
0.1

×

F

0.03

×

C

−
0.1

×

T

−
0.1082736

{\displaystyle Dt\_{Es} = 0.2684 \times D^{-0.1} \times F^{0.03} \times C^{-0.1} \times T^{-0.1082736}
}

## Attenuation

As the particles fired from a PAC travel their damage will decrease with increasing range, regardless of the damage type. This attenuation factor depends on the lenses damage loss modifier ML, range in meters R, and whether the arm is using a particle tube terminator or a particle input port.

When a particle tube terminator is used the attenuation factor is:

# A
(
1
−
D

)

R

/

100

{\displaystyle A=(1-D)^{R/100}
}

When a particle input port is used the attenuation factor is:

# A
(
1
−
0.5
∗
D

)

R

/

100

{\displaystyle A=(1-0.5\*D)^{R/100}
}

The damage loss modifiers are given in the table below for the various lenses.

 Vertical lens
 Scatter lens
 Short range lens

To find the damage potential at a given range the damage potential Dp needs to be multiplied by the attenuation factor A. When this is done for a generic arm length and PAC settings the following relative damage potentials can be graphed.

Taking into account the net values of inputed and non inputed arms one can see a clearer arm/distance picture:

0-870 m - short-range lense

870-1080 m - vertical or scatter lense

1080 - 2100 m vertical or scatter lense with an input port OR a long-range lense

2100 - 2400 m long-range lense with two input ports and one additional arm without one (arms/ports 3/2)

2400 m long-range lense with 1/1 arms/ports ratio

## Beam path

The bending of the beam is proportional to the fraction of maximum range travelled, so a smaller attenuation factor does improve accuracy.

The beams do not go in a straight line. Rather, they curve around in a neat pattern that can resemble a tree or a tuft of hair with a high rate of fire and a low accuracy.

*the spread formula is somewhat this:*

smax=a(f^0.96b)(1-1.03c)

smid=a(f^b)

smin=a(f^1,04b)(1-0.97c)

where

f=focus in absolute units (i.e. 10, 20, 40,etc)

a=9.4(d^3)-80.31(d^2)+292,04d-35,24

b=0.03d-0.01(d^2)-1.02

c=0,04-0.01lnd

where

d=distance to target in kilometers