Editing Beam Overview (section)

==Kinetic Weapon Types==

* '''[[Railguns]]''' shoot four projectiles at once and their total damage is approximately one third higher than a laser of similar technology. The damage falls off in the same way as lasers and their range can be extended by researching Railgun Launch Velocity. Because each shot does less damage than the total damage of an equivalent laser, the range is shorter and the damage is spread across the armour rather than penetrating in a single area. The range differential may not be an issue though if you don't have the fire control technology to take advantage of the laser's greater range. Although railguns cannot be mounted in turrets, they are still often used for point defence at lower tech levels because their high rate of fire compensates for their inaccuracy against fast moving targets.

* '''[[Gauss Cannons]]''' are primarily a point defence weapon and in that role their performance is superior to the other weapons under most circumstances. They inflict only one point of damage but fire several shots per volley. They can be mounted in turrets and on a full size ship it is unusual to see a gauss cannon that isn’t turret mounted. Their background technologies are Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire, Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity and Gauss Cannon Size vs Accuracy. Unlike other beam weapons, there is no 'larger' version with a greater focal size. The max gauss cannon size remains 6 HS. However, you can reduce the size of the gauss cannon, while retaining its rate of fire, at the cost of reduced accuracy. This makes it useful as a weapon for very small spacecraft such as fighters. In a fighter vs fighter engagement the low damage output of the gauss cannon is offset by the fragility of the target. Another advantage of the gauss cannon is that it does not require reactor power in order to fire. It will always fire every 5 seconds.

* '''[[CIWS|Close in Weapons System]]''' (CIWS) is a fully automatic, self-contained, non-military defensive system. It offers lighter and cheaper solution compared to a dedicated gauss turret in the same role, however, it has a set tracking speed and can only protect the mounting ship. CIWS allows the designer to add a self-contained anti-missile system without having to worry about anti-missile-oriented sensors and fire control systems and the player doesn't have to be concerned with allocating weapons or fire control systems. Meaning, if a missile is about to hit the ship, it will open fire.

:It is intended to be added to non-escort warships as a last-ditch defensive system. However, they are of limited use in large fleets. Since CIWS can only protect the mounting ship. Which means that for the mass of 5 CIWS systems, each ship only gets 1 CIWS worth of protection. By using equivalent turrets, for a small amount of extra mass, you can give 5 CIWS worth of protection to EVERY ship in the fleet at once, because turrets are able to protect not just themselves, but their fleet-mates as well.