Some questions for the weapon modders.

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.

hp_trail_parent (munition section) is the hardpoint on the missile’s cmp where the trail emition relates to. const_effect (munition section) is the effect the projectile has constantly (from shot to hit). if it is a simple gun projectile, it could have a trailing effect to, you would just to let out the hp_trail_parent and ofc the model reference.
the effect parameter is used often. if it is within an explosion section it is the explosion’s very effect (which does not deside on the strength of the explosion or debris or anything else but only refers to the nickname in an [effect] section).

Well I have heard that you can if coded right have contrails on your ammo based guns, But i never had it confumed nor tried it myself.

if you ever want: you can put just about any value to the const_effect parameter that is equal to a value of a nickname parameter within an [effect] section. what ever you know to be a trail effect can be your projectile’s constant effect. ofc some fx are too small, such as the artifact glow, some others are too large, such as e.g. the nomad hypergate, but technically all are possible. even engine trail effects. it’s just about whether you’d like your projectiles to emit such effects or not. you could also make it a sound fx or null fx and create an admin gun with irrecognizable projectiles. for not challenging you too much that soon i won’t go further into the possiblities of effect making by coding entirely new ALEs.

Want to try something even funner than what you have done?

Go in and edit the gun to have four hpfire hardpoints, then you would have a true shotgun. Just you will have to do one of the workarounds that are needed with the multi hpfire weapons.

lonestar out . . .

But beware that every HpFire will cause an energy drain…

Quarks wrote:
But beware that every HpFire will cause an energy drain…

Thanks for reminding me that, So your guns power usage for six hpfires that is hte max i belive, is engery_usage*6= totaly power used. So If you have 100 and usage your gun will use up 600 engery.

I had a six shot turret like gun, it was anti-fighter defence for a huge carrier ship I was making. But I was unable to get sound for it and i think gave up. Plus I was having issues with my models and stuff. The ship carryed one MASSAVE triple barrer turret, and then six of the other turrets three on the right side, and three on the left. But it just keep crashing out on me and I gave up on the weapons.

Oh on a sidenote, Has anyone been able to make a single gun barrel model that has a recoil animation when fired?

Plus I was having issues with my models and stuff. The ship carryed one MASSAVE triple barrer turret, and then six of the other turrets three on the right side, and three on the left. But it just keep crashing out on me and I gave up on the weapons.

The reason for this crashing is that freelancer can only support up to seven HpFire’s on a single model.

Oh on a sidenote, Has anyone been able to make a single gun barrel model that has a recoil animation when fired?

Some of the vanilla models have animations with them, i don’t know if freelancer will actually call on them even if they are referenced with the use_animation = in the gun block. but it is worth a try.

Ozed