mass driver weapon

[light wind]

6 tile wide modular weapon that fires gigantic slugs/scrap balls/whatever that should deal grievous damage and have a very big knockback effect on the enemy.

i figure since smaller weapon types have direct upgrades (cannon -> large cannon, small laser -> big laser) why shouldn't rails have an upgrade too.

this won't make rails obsolete, as this mass driver won't launch projectiles at anywhere near as fast a velocity as rails, and will probably be a more close range weapon to make sure your slugs actually hit, and it will be logistically expensive, needing a lot of crew to make sure it has as much uptime as possible. each section will need more power, and the launcher itself will have a large delay between shots (10s?).

[proven thicket]

I believe with the description you provided, it can be easily made into a mod with the current modding we have today. Since there are a few variant weapons being made on the workshop.

I may be wrong, so this is just my point of view.

[velvet bison]

I have a few weapons I am working on
one is a hyperium launcher that does something very similar (uses massive amounts of power to launch at hypersonic speeds
very high risk weapon as if you miss it could take a minute or 2 to charge it up and spin the barrel up again

[ornate bridge]

Do ship engagements last long enough for it to fire more than once or twice? It seems like it would be good for the initial hit, but then it would be mostly useless

[velvet bison]

it is a long range supportive weapon