The chaingun, also called chain or CG, is arguably one of the most potent weapons in the game at doing its job. It's the only rapid-fire weapon in the game, as well as the only weapon in the game where the projectiles spread out. Each bullet doesn't do much damage, but assuming you hit your opponent with most of your bullets, you could kill someone in light armor from full health in about one second. If you consider amount of damage dealt over time, the chaingun is potentially the most powerful weapon in the game. For this reason, it is not only the most effective weapon you can use in player vs. player combat, but it is also the most hated weapon.
Usage
The chaingun is mostly only used when you are trying to kill someone, but it can also be used to destroy base equipment at close range just as well as any other weapon a light armor can carry.
Dueling
The chaingun is far and away the most effective weapon you can use in a duel. Many players will use it to deal damage to you when you are in the air, while others will use it on you no matter where you are. Both are good ideas depending on how good you are at aiming with it. While the chaingun is obviously most effective at close range, it's still useful at medium range too, because the rate of fire and random spread will almost guarantee that you will deal some damage to your opponent. At long range, if you have good leading skill, you can even use it on opponents with only one bullet's worth of health left in hopes that you can kill them. One thing to be aware of is that many players in the game cannot stand being chaingunned and will complain if they see anyone use a chaingun at all. More on this in the controversy section.
Keep in mind that the chaingun has a spin-up and spin-down sequence. While each of these by itself isn't a huge barrier, it can pose a problem if you ever stop chaingunning and try to start again. It might be a common reaction to let off your mouse button while chaingunning to save ammo if you feel it's not effective enough. However, if you do this, you can't start chaingunning again for almost two seconds. It's both possible and common that you will want or need to start chaingunning again before that two seconds is up, and that amount of time spent not firing could easily allow your opponent to get the upper hand. For this reason, it might be a good idea in such situations to keep chaingunning, even if you are not hitting your opponent with any bullets. Losing some ammo is much better than giving your opponent time to recover.
Chasing
- See main article: flag chaser
Chaingun is also one of the primary weapons, along with the grenade launcher, used by chasers. The rapid fire allows you to adjust your aim for every movement the capper makes while still sending bullets his way. It is an effective chasing weapon for all the same reasons that it is an effective dueling weapon. If your target gets too far away from you, you can continue chaingunning him, because every bullet that hits him will make him that much easier to kill if you or one of your teammates gets to him before he heals.
Controversy
Unfortunately, many players in the game believe that the chaingun is "lame", "unfair", "unbalance", "cheap", "a noob weapon", and many other negative things. This mostly stems from the fact that the weapon is very quick at killing people, and many non-competitive players believe that fights should last a long time... or something.
Whoring
A common term used by chaingun opponents is "chainwhore" or "whore". This term is bestowed upon anyone who uses the chaingun more than their victim would like. This imaginary chaingun threshold is completely arbitrary and differs from person to person. Sometimes it will even differ for one person each time they say it. Some factors involved in being called a chainwhore are how long you spend using a chaingun before switching to another weapon, how many bullets you hit your opponent with, and other random things. The bottom line is, people don't like being killed by a chaingun. They believe that you should use less effective weapons, because then you are less likely to kill them, which obviously makes them happier.
Skill
Another thing that chaingun opponents like to claim is that the chaingun "takes no skill" and that it's "the only weapon you can use". This is not only wrong, but absolutely preposterous. While it's true that the chaingun is the most effective weapon, it is far from the least skillful.
One possible source of this claim is the fact that people who say it are very poor at aiming. What I mean by that is: if you have terrible aim with every weapon, then the chaingun is going to seem way easier to kill people with just because it's a rapid fire weapon with fast moving projectiles. What these bad players fail to realize is the incredible difference in the weapons and the balance of the weapons when you are comparing a bad player with a good player. While to them, the chaingun seems easier, in high levels of play, the chaingun is actually very difficult to use effectively.
There are definitely more things to be said in this section, but I'm getting tired so someone else should start adding them in in place of this sentence.
Interpolate
- See main article: interpolation
Another thing that came to light a few years after Tribes 2 came out is a script that went by the name of "interpolate". For most weapons, interpolate was more trouble than it was worth. For the chaingun, however, interpolate allowed for seemingly high accuracy. For this reason, many people believed interpolate was a cheat. Regardless of whether you believe interpolate is fair or not, once it became a well known script, people wouldn't stop accusing others of using it. Any time anyone used a chaingun with above average accuracy, he was accused of "interpolating". Now, no one is allowed to just be good at chaingunning without getting accused of cheating. This added yet another thing for people to complain about when they were killed by something using a chaingun.
Technical info
| Base | Classic | Version2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Damage | 0.0825 | 0.0825 | 0.0825 |
| Reload time | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.15 |
| Spin up/down time | 0.5 / 1.0 | 0.5 / 1.0 | 0.25 / 0.5 |
| Bullet speed (dry/wet) | 425 / 100 | 750 / 280 | 850 / 325 |
| Bullet lifetime | 3000 | 3000 | 3000 |
| Inherent velocity factor | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Bullet spread | 8.0 | 6.0 | ? |
| Ammo (light/med/heavy) | 100 / 150 / 200 | 100 / 150 / 200 | 120 / 150 / 200 |