Dera Blasts Don't Make Sense...

[Tulzscha]

Moved to the proper section.

[DoomFruit]

The original design for the Dera (plasma bolts coming out from the "hole" in the fork) makes more sense if you consider *how* a plasma gun would work. The only real way to accelerate it would be either gravity (not likely) or EM fields, the simplest design of which is... a railgun. Which has two "rails" and an open gap in the middle where the conductive projectile (for instance, a bolt of highly ionised plasma) goes.

[Wiegraf]

Alternating barrel fire to prevent overheating is an existing concept used even in early gatling weapons. So far, we've had two types of 'energy' weapons in Warframe :

• Projectile energy weapons :
  • Dera, which uses an alternating barrel design to fire;

  • Cestra, which likely a portable energy gatling pistol;

  • Supra, which is pretty much a energy gatling gun.

  • Lanka, which seems to rely on a charge mechanic to fire off a single, supercharged energy projectile

   

• Projected energy weapons :
  • Flux Rifle, that emits a range limited continuous beam of energy;

  • Spectra, which is basically the Flux Rifle in handheld form;

The projectile variants seems to use alternating barrels or a gatling design to vent the heat out and keep the weapon operationnal during continuous fire. The projected kind seem to use a controlled output to sustain a beam so it's a given that the weapon itself is made to sustain that output by itself.

 

None of the weapons are rail guns as it would require an electromagnetic acceleration of a physical projectile to be propulsed at a speed high enough it would classify as 'hitscan' in term of performance. The closest being the Lanka but given that the damage is purely electric, then there's actually no physical projectile other than energy being shot out. If those projectiles were physical, then at the speed they fly, they would begin to curve down early due to the weight of the physical component being affected by gravity, which they don't.

 

So best guess would be that a controlled firerate (in case of the Lanka, Flux and Spectra) or alternating barrels (Dera, Cestra and Supra) are used to prevent the weapon from overheating and having said barrels or components distort and malfunction.

 

... As for how all that truly works otherwise... well Warframe happens in an undetermined time into the future, probably a millenia at the very least.

 

 

I could be completely wrong, but I believe one of the barrels in the Lex is for air or something? Not sure about the exact mechanics, but I think I asked the same question about a gun in real life a few years ago. I'm about to go to bed or I'd look it up.

 

I always thought that 'other barrel' was actually an underbarrel tactical light simply there for cosmetic purposes.

Edited December 9, 2013 by Wiegraf