Question about the gauss rifle

[TheOriginalEvilD]

Hey guys, does anyone know for sure what the damage situation is with this gun? Outside VATS you can either semi auto click-fire or charge/release fire. Obviously charging it is more powerful. My questions are:

 

1. The damage rating that shows in the weapon stats...is that the 100% charged damage or click-fire? If the damage in the game stats/Pipboy is click-fire, then how much damage does it do fully charged, or if that damage rating is fully charged then how much damage does it do on semi auto?

 

2. Inside VATS, which type of shot is happening? Does your character charge it in VATS?

 

Seems to be a gray area here and I'm not sure how to figure out the numbers. I would also ask these same questions for the 6 crank musket...seems like a similar ordeal.

[Vagrant0]

The information is not clear, even when looking at it with FO4Edit since not all forms are decoded. Actual values will likely not be available until a GECK is released.

 

But to add even more problem to the mix... The gauss rifle also has an explosion tied with the weapon hit. If this is like the gamma gun explosion, it also means that damage is dealt twice, once for the projectile, once for the explosion, with the explosion damage possibly being calculated twice depending on framerate.

[TheOriginalEvilD]

Geez...the plot thickens. At any rate I'm having fun with it. I just wish the thing was smaller and less bulky.

[Vagrant0]

Also, good luck figuring out damage for things like scatter attachments for lasers or shotguns which have their damage split between projectiles... Then factor in something like exploding shot or bleed damage which works on a per-projectile basis. A double automatic scatter laser rifle looks great from a statistic perspective since it has the highest combination of fire rate and damage, but ends up being completely horrible in use since only about 1/3 the projectiles hit the target if more than a few feet away, meanwhile the recoil makes it impossible to aim while shooting.

 

As I was trying to explain before, the weapon system here may have math components to it, but a large part of it is based on things that devs added without too much thought towards how it actually works in the game, or not really testing projectile and hitscan physics very well. Damage values that you see in the world are an approximation at best, offset further by the armor of whatever you're shooting at.

[TheOriginalEvilD]

Yeah I have noticed my double projectile gauss doesn't seem quite as accurate. You can even see the two projectiles spread WAY apart from each other in VATS. When they both hit...wow, and most of the time they actually do hit, but a few times I've seen them spread quite a bit. Those are usually the VATS shots that are completely missed. It seems they either both hit target or both miss. It does 650ish damage with the perks I have (and I still have more damage related perks to get) but amazingly it's still not overly powerful, there are still quite a few mutants I've ran across that take 3-4 VATS hits to kill.

[frozenkex]

Yeah I have noticed my double projectile gauss doesn't seem quite as accurate. You can even see the two projectiles spread WAY apart from each other in VATS. When they both hit...wow, and most of the time they actually do hit, but a few times I've seen them spread quite a bit. Those are usually the VATS shots that are completely missed. It seems they either both hit target or both miss. It does 650ish damage with the perks I have (and I still have more damage related perks to get) but amazingly it's still not overly powerful, there are still quite a few mutants I've ran across that take 3-4 VATS hits to kill.

If you miss vats, both shots miss, if you hit vats both will hit.

[NewmanLim]

Got a Mighty Gauss Rifle by accident and I can say it's kinda OP once you upgraded it fully and played on Normal, coz I pretty much just one shot everything (which also includes the Rifleman and Sneak perk's power I assume?).

Edited December 2, 2015 by New_man

[Warmaker01]

Got a Mighty Gauss Rifle by accident and I can say it's kinda OP once you upgraded it fully and played on Normal, coz I pretty much just one shot everything (which also includes the Rifleman and Sneak perk's power I assume?).

Any weapon with the right mods and the right perk, especially a maxed out perk, is OP as f*** at Normal. Unless you're facing Legendaries, you can Sneak Attack and 1 shot anything with anything once your character is specced and equipped for it. Even then, you can sometimes get away and 1-shot snipe a Legendary on Normal. A Tommy Gun / SMG with the best mods and Full Commando Perk is a wall of lead that cuts everything down and has a terrific 100-rd magazine. I dare stuff to try to rush me.

 

Edit: Actually, by the time you're getting the Gauss Rifle, your character should be very well developed, very well equipped with decent ammo. Unless you're purposefully gimping yourself, at this stage of the game on Normal, you can sleepwalk through everything.

Edited December 2, 2015 by Warmaker01

[TheOriginalEvilD]

I only play on the hardest level under Survival.

[Warmaker01]

I only play on the hardest level under Survival.

When I rolled my first character, I played her under Normal to get the feel of the game. But once I developed her a bit more, she starts steamrolling everything. Every combat zone was a mere reflex exercise with no sense of danger. So the difficulty was pumped up to Survival but I think I did it too late since she's now very well developed. Still, there were occasions when some Legendary enemies surprised the hell out of me and got me.