Well, I'm no physicist but after reading about
Gauss Rifles, their representation in ZK really makes no sense at all (not even physicsey sense). A gauss cannon is just accelerating a conventional projectile, so passing through buildings/units/
terrain without slowing is not explained to my satisfaction.
The gauss rifles in ZK look (and behave) more like super-heated plasma bolt launchers (as opposed to the plasma cannons common in artillery). I think that's a better (but still imperfect) explanation of their behavior:
1. They're hot as fuck, so they evaporate water easily
2. They cool rapidly after moving through any medium for a short distance, so their range is very limited.
3. They're small in diameter, so the actual damage from an individual bolt is not that great, but its ability to penetrate things is vastly superior to artillery-grade plasma ordnance, which have larger contact areas and so can not withstand impact without detonating.
4. Charging a plasma bolt in a containment field takes a while, so they have low rate of fire.
Alternatively, I think "phase" weapons are hand-wavey enough to fit here.
On the issue of carrying sufficient power to generate such a projectile on a light hovercraft chassis: this is not the most glaring impossibility in ZK. Have you ever wondered how metal can be instantly transmitted between builders regardless of distance and lack of physical connections between them? Ultimately ZK is a game, the whole point of which is to
not be like real life.
Finally, I leave you with a
US Navy test of a huge ass railgun
