Ryujin wrote:Well, not really; Soren's & Joshua's word always supercede mine. I basically pitch ideas & it's up to them whether to run with it or not.
I suspect you and I read a lot of the same stuff, and in this case your answers are at least as authoritative as mine would be - if not better, especially regarding things you drew.
Frame-scale automatic weapons are typically revolver cannon in the 25-30mm range, firing conventional cased ammunition at around 450-750 rpm; usually electrically-fired, and sometimes with more exotic propellants than nitrocellulose, but nothing a modern tank armorer couldn't figure out in an afternoon. Simple cheap reliable stuff. Some unguided rocket launchers use
gyrojet-style ammunition for simplicity and to achieve a higher rate of fire.
Railguns: I love me a good railgun, but they're support weapons due to rate of fire and power supply issues. The main advantage of a railgun on land is penetration, and there's not much need for that. They're mostly used as long-range artillery and spacecraft weapons.
Coilguns: the biggest advantage to a coilgun is that Free Colony cells with access to a lot of industrial power-switching gear can make weapons that will throw cheap, inert ferrous ammunition. Otherwise, lots of the same problems as railguns for not much advantage.
Caseless ammunition: Atavism has it in one; fractionally beneficial in certain corner cases, big disadvantages in logistics and handling safety. It's easier to cook off caseless ammo during sustained fire, it's harder to keep it shelf-stable or salvage it if it gets wet, it degrades more rapidly over time, it's harder to manufacture, etc. There are probably a few weapons with combustible/consumable casings, disposable weapons or magazines that are factory-packed, but as there's little need for higher rates of fire against land targets and lasers are more effective against aircraft (and where they're not, missiles work just fine), not many of them.