Some questions for the weapon modders.

at least one lil mistake: whether to the game the weapon is a gun or a missile/torpedo is not defined by the requires_ammo entry but by the seeker line. if you have not seeker line, the weap is a simple gun.

Heheheh… number your questions so we can reply more easily.

1. Dispersion angle does not exist in weapon_equip.ini

2. Max ammo is one setting for all weapons, you can set it in DATA\constants.ini, it’s the line

MAX_PLAYER_AMMO = 800

Don’t set it too high, I forgot the limit but 1000 or 999 causes intermittent character loading problems if I remember correctly. So mine is well clear at 800.

3. Your problem is caused by setting force_gun_ori = true with seeker = lock. The two are fighting.

force_gun_ori means this is a Force-gun Orifice, not Force it to be a Gun Orifice. The ammo will go only straight.

It is meant for large guns that are fixed like the liberty cruiser forward gun. I use it for a fixed cannon and for the Planet Killer beams.

seeker = xx belongs ONLY in the [Munition] sections

force_gun_ori = true/false belongs ONLY in the [Munition] and [Mine] sections

To disable your guns from swivelling just make your ship hardpoints min and max angles = 0 but this will only have effect when they are mounted on those ships.

3. Your problem is caused by setting force_gun_ori = true with seeker = lock. The two are fighting.

force_gun_ori means this is a Force-gun Orifice, not Force it to be a Gun Orifice. The ammo will go only straight.

It is meant for large guns that are fixed like the liberty cruiser forward gun. I use it for a fixed cannon and for the Planet Killer beams.

I also use it for the A-10 photon gatlin canon system, Where is fires extraly fast, in a narrow path of fire, and eats power like nothing else. So in theory You will HAVE to point the whole A-10 at your target and then rip off a ten second burst of photonic hell on your target. Works WELL with slow moving targets, but is heck in dogfighting though I have been able to finish off ships with it in a dog fight.

But I’m thread hijaking with my a-10 mod anyways . . .

I feel you are going in the right direction with your weapon messing around. For a shotgun effect, You would have to have a weapon with multiply hp-fire points and the dispersion angle for the gun. HOWEVER as with ALL multi-hpfire weapons You have to work harder ro make it have sound. I have yet to try and do the workaround for it. But it envloves making a custion ale sound for that gun. I think thats it, but I may have missed something.

Lonestar out . . .

Our modification uses force_gun_ori = true on missile weapons to create an arcing trajectory. It looks pretty neat, though issues with close-range engagements can arise.

HOWEVER as with ALL multi-hpfire weapons You have to work harder ro make it have sound. I have yet to try and do the workaround for it. But it envloves making a custion ale sound for that gun. I think thats it, but I may have missed something.

One could attach a sound to the muzzle flash for the weapon.

Dragonkat42 wrote:
Is there anyway to alter the max ammo for a weapon? such as max 200 count for jav missiles.

AmmoLimit plugin.

lonestar wrote:
HOWEVER as with ALL multi-hpfire weapons You have to work harder ro make it have sound. I have yet to try and do the workaround for it. But it envloves making a custion ale sound for that gun. I think thats it, but I may have missed something.
Lonestar out . . .

You’re not kidding. There is no such thing as custom ale sound files. Ale files are nothing to do with sound files, they are fx files for visuals.

On the other hand, this might be what you seek. Open up your effects.ini

[Effect]
nickname = li_capgun_01_proj
effect_type = EFT_WEAPON_PROJ
vis_effect = li_capgun_01_proj
vis_beam = li_capgun_01_beam
snd_effect = fire_capship <–----------- ADD THIS LINE

All this does is add a sound effect to the projectile, simple and easy. No custom sound ale required
.

StarTrader wrote:
1. Dispersion angle does not exist in weapon_equip.ini

Not in vanilla, but it is still usable in the gun entry.

dispersion_angle =

StarTrader wrote:
To disable your guns from swivelling just make your ship hardpoints min and max angles = 0 but this will only have effect when they are mounted on those ships.

Change the hardpoint max and mins in the weapon model’s hpconnect.

Dragonkat42 wrote:
Thanks again for the helpful replies. Couple more questions as I play with missiles.

#2 Speaking of this. It’s when the lifetime under the munition tab runs out that a missile will self explode, regardless of being near anything? Or does it just disappear?

#3 The accel value under motor combined with muzzle velocity under gun, how does that speed translate in game? I know all non modded ships have a max speed of 80. But that would seem to give a jav missile a speed of only about 52 if you added it up directly.

Just curious for balancing issues as I’m trying to make some faster missiles, but not impossible to dodge ones, probably just play around with tweaking values a few steps at a time and go from there?

#4 seeker_range, obviously the max lock range right?

#5 seeker_fov_deg, does this only dictate the angle range you need to be within when first firing the missile for it to lock? And after that it all depends on the max_angular_velocity value? Or can missiles lose a lock once fired?

#6 If seeker_fov_deg was set to something silly high like 90 or even 180, would that pretty much create a fire and forget missile so long as the target was in front of you?

#2 once missle lifetime is up it will explode, I try to use that as a limit to the missles range. I only have one such missle that will fo some 30km before exploding, but thats my Cruise missile like mavrick missiles.

#3 Muzzle volecity = starting speed, Accel speed is how fast the missle incresses per second on the motor liftime. So
Motor lifttime = 3
Accel = 100
Muzzle volecity = 100
Would give the missle a top speed of 400, Reamber its motor liftime times the accel speed plus muzzle volecity.

#3 second part, For a faster missle incress accel , but do not adjust max_angular_velocity that is how fast a missle will turn.

#4 Yes seeker range is at what range a missle will start to seek the target. Againi go back to my Mavrick missle it only has a seek range of 10km, so if you fire it outside 10km it will go straght and then seek the target. Its kinda neat I think.

#5 A missle will not lose lock that I know of, If you add a lock delay, there is a chance the missle will not lock the ship and if its max_angular_velocity is too low it will ot be able to turn around to see the target, or if the target is out of the seeker FOV.

#6 So If you have a seeker FOV of 90, it will see only 45 degress to the left and right of tha missile. And so farth, I have NOT been able to get any angle higher than 340 to work as I have a fire and forget missle the sidewinder.

Please note: The Mavrick and sidewinder missles are part of my A-10 mod, and I have not released them out yet.

Quarks wrote:

StarTrader wrote:
1. Dispersion angle does not exist in weapon_equip.ini

Not in vanilla, but it is still usable in the gun entry.

dispersion_angle =

Really? How come? Who implemented it?

And more importantly - What does it do?

Quarks wrote:

StarTrader wrote:
To disable your guns from swivelling just make your ship hardpoints min and max angles = 0 but this will only have effect when they are mounted on those ships.

Change the hardpoint max and mins in the weapon model’s hpconnect.

Agreed. I forgot it is a Revolute Hardpoint.

Could perhaps also change it to a Fixed hardpoint.

So - there are many ways to skin this cat!

dispersion angle was an unused feature built into the FL engine. what it does is create an angle range in which a shot may deviate, creating a spray effect. So essentially, inaccuracy.

Another way to make or limit guns side to sid emotion is to make them a revalute(sp) hardpoint and edit the min and max for the angles, this is the way I use to limit all my guns.

Lonestar out . . .

<smirks>:D</smirks>

Dragonkat42 wrote:
What exactly is the equation that dictates refire delay? As this one doesn’t seem like a straight number given that .12 on a laser turns into a refire rate of 8.33 in game. Basically trying to set a missile with a 9 second refire delay is the goal.

Refire Rate = 1 / Refire Delay, and vice versa:

Ex: 1 / 8.33 = 0.12

Ex: 1 / 9 = 0.11

Refire delay is what it says it is - the delay between each shot, in seconds. Reciprocate it to get the shots per second. So 0.12 means fire a shot every 0.12 seconds, which equates to 1/0.12 = 8.33 shots per second. So if you want a nine-second delay, simply use 9 for refire_delay (but if you wanted 9 shots per second, use 1/9 = 0.11…).

Edit: Beat me to it.

lonestar wrote:
#3 Muzzle volecity = starting speed, Accel speed is how fast the missle incresses per second on the motor liftime. So
Motor lifttime = 3
Accel = 100
Muzzle volecity = 100
Would give the missle a top speed of 400, Reamber its motor liftime times the accel speed plus muzzle volecity.

You also have to add the ship’s speed.

lonestar wrote:
#5 A missle will not lose lock that I know of,

They do. At least as far as I have experimented.

lonestar wrote:
Another way to make or limit guns side to sid emotion is to make them a revalute(sp) hardpoint and edit the min and max for the angles

The question was how th limit the angle only for one gun, regardless of the hp’s angle settings it is mounted on.