Gauss Lance is scary but awesome tho, like it could one shot an enemy through an enemy. But I can't help but be frustrated when it hits my pawn all the time. I swear, this weapon don't miss. I guess the best way to use this weapon is to equip when enemy is far away then change to its secondary when they're close. The Weapon is still very effective, especially the Lance, because how far it can shot.

Having the same friendly fire issue as Baron.
With normal weapons, as long as people are in a formation, they will shoot over one another with no issue but with these weapons it's like the penetration mechanic just doesn't care about it.

To better illustrate: if I have colonist A directly in front of gauss rifle equipped colonist B, B will (pretty much always) hit B. B is a pawn with 15+ shooting skill.
AFAIK, the "over the shoulder" rule should apply.

I'm also experiencing the same in regards to low cover (sandbags, half wall etc.) with gauss pawns behind them.

Yeah the "Within 4 tiles over the shoulder" rule just doesn't apply to these weapons it seems. You must place gauss-equipped pawns at the front of formations and be mindful of damage to buildings in their line of fire.

Yes, please fix this if possible. These guns are great but the friendly fire problem is frustrating.

I think its an intentional downside of the gauss weaponry. They are extremely powerful, but pierce through anything in front of them no matter what. Turrets, sandbags, walls, crops, all get shredded to bits with gauss weapons during longer raids. I feel as though its a justified downside considering these weapons are actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane when it comes to accuracy and damage output.

With these guns there is only a safe area of 1 tile around the shooter. so someone can stand directly in front of the shooter and be fine but leave a 1 tile gap and they'll get hit. seems a fair trade off given their power. Tip, shoot enemies down a long narrow corridor, each shot will damage 10 pawns. Great for bug attacks.

Wait, people complain aoe attacks having friendly-fire? Position your pawn carefully so that all of them will shoot towards enemies, or if you want to play brainlessly, equip your pawns with masterwork+ cataphract sets and let your pawns shoot each other.

I realize it’s probably supposed to be a downside to these things being so powerful but good grief they go extremely over the top with it. You have to be way too mindful of your pawns positions or one of them is basically guaranteed to die

Originally posted by MrUglehFace:

I realize it’s probably supposed to be a downside to these things being so powerful but good grief they go extremely over the top with it. You have to be way too mindful of your pawns positions or one of them is basically guaranteed to die

You have no idea how many times friendly fire from these weapons have killed my pawns--I mean *seriously*

I don't even mind FF usually, but when my pawns are behind cover and are shooting through EVERYTHING just to hit one enemy because of the AI and mortally wound several colonists, I do indeed consider that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
You either have one way the enemy can attack from (which, unless you're living in mountains or cheesing the game with killboxes can't happen) to make sure some dumbass colonist doesn't try to shoot over EVERYONE because one enemy got to their side, or micromanage the hell out of who they actually aim for