Some questions for the weapon modders.

Ok here are my answers so get ready:

1. missile_01_rtc is basically nothing, i think it is used in the scene where the order kill the rheignland cruiser, its just a prop I think, as with all _rtc things. So no you do not need a _rtc bit for every missile/weapon.

2. Sure missiles can use or not use ammo, if your interested try out the capital ships missile turrets they don’t use ammo. Just a note i think the AI behaves differently with the requires_ammo line for example they will use it more often if it doesn’t require ammo, you better check up on that since I’m not too sure it correct.

3. there is an alternative to seeker = LOCK, which is seeker = DUMB which is found on the flak turrets for capital ships. If you want the missile to fly straight just go max_angular_velocity = 0 so it won’t turn.

4. You hit the nail on the head, exactly correct.

5. Yep I don’t think freelancer uses any other measure apart from meters but here it defiantly is meters.

6. For continuous fire i think changing requires_ammo = false makes the game think it’s a normal gun so it comes up green/activated as standard.

7. No idea whats causing that, any idea what you changed for that to occur?

8. Ok this involves editing one of the .dll’s There are two tool’s that i would recommend for this fled-ids and fl-dev you can search for them in the search box. with fled-ids just point it to the right directory and you can put in the ids_name number into the ids_name box at the top and click get ids_name, same process with ids_info but in the ids_info box. ids_name is a string entry so you just write normally. ids_info is a XML thing, i suggest looking at other info"cards" of the same type to see how you set each type out. With Fl-Dev its more or less the same deal except you have to point to the freelancer.ini in the exe folder, I don’t recomend Fl-dev if you don’t have a duel core processor since it take sages to load the .dlls which is why I use fled-ids.

9. Ok into the effects the li_capgun_01_proj bit you are talking about is a reference to an entry in weapons_ale.ini in the weapons folder. here is where the effect is referenced to a special .ale file, you are going to have to try and figure out the .ale file format yourself since I have no idea and anyone how does is reluctant to write a tut. the vis_beam = li_capgun_01_beam referances a beam entry in beam_effects.ini in the FX folder, here is where you can make your own beam effects through basic ini coding, I suggest commenting out the vis_effect = li_capgun_01_proj bit so you can see your changes.

10. You shouldn’t need to add a motor value to a gun “bullet” since all that the motor part does is accelerate the projectile, although if you wanted to still do it I would just reference the motor in the projectile block as is done with missiles. As for traking bullets I wouldn’t see why not, give it a try, the worse thing that can happen is it not work and you having to delete 4 lines of code.

11. Yep just add explosion_arch and the explosion bit you want to the projectile block and it should all work.

12. Yep if you add dispersion_angle = a number to the weapon bit you will have a very random weapon try small numbers.

13. The actual contrail for the missile engine is controlled by the .ale, I think its part of the emitter lifetime or something but you will have to get into .ale coding if you want a longer contrail. One thing you can do is make the view distance of the effect longer if you go to effect_types.ini you will find a whole heap of entries defining the different types of effects. find EFT_MISSILE_DRIVE and go to the pbubble value change the second number to something a bit bigger like 5000 and once you save that you will have missile engine effects that can be veiwed up to 5Km,this works with all effects just find their section in effect_types.ini.

14.Splitting missile’s not a chance, I know it would be cool but it doesn’t happen with this engine.

15. Really fast refire is easy, just go the gun bit find refire_delay = something and change the number, smaller means quicker, or another way of thinking of it is the time between each shot. to find the actual refire rate that is shown in the game it is 1 divided by whatever you put in refire_delay. as for multiple missiles per shot this can be achieved through multiple HpFires on the actual weapon, if you want a vanilla model with more than one HpFire’s then use br_auto_shotgun.cmp and the br_equip.mat for your DA_archetype and material_library lines. To add a new HpFire to a model you need to open the model with HardCMP which you can get from the download section. Open up the weapon model of your choice now go new (bottom right corner) then in the new window select fixed the tick not on list the write in HpFire02 in the box then go ok. you now have a red box, you can either possition it manually through editting the numbers to the side or you can go ctrl-click the spot on the model where you want it and it will go their. now save the model. make sure its the one referenced in the DA_archtype and has the right material_library (think br weapon br mat) one note if you want to have multiple HPFire’s on a small model you should use the dispersion_angle = something so that it doesn’t look too bunched up.

16. Pretty much all that will happen is that a flag will be put up in FLSpew saying you have two dualboom_ammo bits but the actual program will override the first dualboom_ammo bit with the first in the memory so it will only use the last one in the file, because freelancer reads the file down like you or me.

Huh, that was a endurace post if you ask me, I need a nap

Hope this helped someone.
Ozed

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.