I don’t know how to do the math on spread or even how to approach it.
tan(radians(A))*D
where A is the spread angle and D is the distance.
One could sub it with probability stat IIRC where people can come up with a linear equation and I’d sub in range and get the average damage value for a given spread.
you have to get the size of the hitbox (ie: 100m x 100m), add the spread diameter to W+H, round the corners off (just approximate it by subtracting 1 times the spread W+H area).
ie: at 2.0 degree spread and 3000 meter distance, the spread diameter would be ~100 meters (actually 104.762). tan(rad(2))*3000
therefore, spread radius is ~50m.
first, we need to round some corners off of the final product.
get the square area of the spread diameter: 100x100 = 10,000m^2
get the area of the spread circle: pi*r^2 = 7853.98m^2
subtract the circle area from square area: 2146.02m^2
now we need to adjust for aim discrepancies, so add the diameter of spread to the hitbox width + height.
hitbox W+H: 100m x 100m. spread diameter: 100m x 100m.
therefore 200m x 200m. get the area: 40,000m^2.
subtract the previous corners we cut off from this area: 40,000-2146 = 37,854m^2.
that’s basically the area where your shots will land as long as you aim within the 4 corners of the hitbox.
that only accounts for square hitbox, it you’re looking at it from the side, it will be a hexagon. therefore larger, as is usually the case.
then just take a percentage of the actual size of the hitbox vs the area your shots will land in.
10,000/37,854 = 0.264 or 26.4%
not always reliable since you have a tendency to aim for the center of the target more than the sides, so it can be raised slightly. i use a figure 1/3rd of that, so 8.8+26.4 = 35.2%.
also, given the projectile itself has a hitbox (which i don’t know the size of), but you can approximate that the hitrate will be higher than 35%, probably in the neighbourhood of 50%.
of course, none of this is accurate without the sizes of the ship and projectile hitboxes.
the chance is actually exactly the same for 3.0 spread at 2000m, 2.0 spread at 3000m as illustrated above, and 1.5 spread at 4000m. but these are beyond the distances of rails. without mods anyways.
so as long as you keep closing the distance, you should maintain 50%+ accuracy. technically above that as you start to close to within 2000-3000m, which is the technical range of a railgun anyways. anything below 2000m is negligible in terms of accuracy,
also, remember that as you close the distance, you put the gauss at an accuracy disadvantage. harder to hit CQC with a slow ROF weapon. well, unless its a blue ball the size of a fighter :\
basically, even if the railgun doesn’t fire a shot for the first 6 seconds (to close 2000m), they will still kill 16k ehp in 8 seconds or less. 8+6=14
a gauss cannon would take 14 seconds to kill 16k ehp, if they hit the first shot…
if you add 6 seconds of 50% accuracy… it’s like adding another 3 seconds of full dps. 3 out of 8 seconds it another 37.5%…
therefore gauss cannon is off low by about 20-30% DPS. that’s my guess anyways.
AND this is all assuming that distance needs to be closed anyways… the enemy could be 3000m beside you behind a rock…
basically, what i did was that. the hitbox is green, and is the percentage of the grey area, in which you shots need to land.
edit, the calculation for average spread on railgun (1.5) at 2000m is >80% hit rate on a 100m hitbox.
Some guns have a team aspect
what? just balance the guns, lol 
Layman: If you use Gauss alot you’ll notice
- It’ll pop an inty in 2 shots in ‘regular’ combat engagements that none of the other weapons can do.
it’s 4 shots, 3 seconds for 5760 damage. sure, you could boost that to 7300-7500 maybe with mods. but you’d lose some other stats.
sure, you can wait out the 3 seconds and make it 2 shots instead of 4, same thing… it’s the number of seconds that count.
but even 7300-7500 isnt enough to kill an inty with resistances. ehp 10-15k+…
9 seconds (10 shots) for 10k ehp, and 13 seconds (14 shots) for 15k ehp…
and thats ONLY if you hit the first shot… otherwise it’ll take you 10-15 shots to kill an inty (at 10k ehp, more at 15k), already mentioned. and if they’re being healed, you won’t even dent them…