[Frankie]

Ship selection says that ships have differing numbers of primary banks, yet weapon selection and the HUD show two slots (or rarely just one) with one gun each. What exactly is going on from a numerical game mechanics point of view?

For example, Myrmidons supposedly have 6 PB and 2 SB (pretty sure that's a mistake in the VP, they have 3 SB, but I digress). Does that mean there are 3 guns each in slots A and B, therefore 3x damage and 3x energy usage?

[ Side note for SCP dev consideration: if so, wouldn't it make more sense for the weapon selector to take 3 subachs (or whatever) from the locker and show a little number 3 in the Pbank, just like missile counts in Sbank? Also, showing "3* Subach" (or whatever) in the HUD, modulo screen real estate limits? End side note. ]

Is that correct? Or is the whole primary count a scam and it's just one gun per slot? Or were both of these plausible options replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable?

p.s. What happens when you link the slots together? Do they use the fire rate of the slower weapon or is there a more complicated formula?

Thanks for any info.

[Shade]

A single weapon can be linked to several banks according to the modelers desires. It's not a game mechanic as such, but part of the model - fire up modelview and take a look at the guns tab to see it in action. On the myrmidon for instance, one gun is linked to 4 banks and the other to 2.

For energy use, it seems to increase linearly with number of banks. Damage does too, assuming you hit with all the shots which is no certainty. There's no change in firing frequency.

[Frankie]

Thanks for the info. A shame gun count isn't shown in the weapon selector, it would help.

About fire rate, I meant what happens during play when you set both slots to fire together (aka press period twice)?

Also, I don't see modelview anywhere in fs2_open either binary or source. Does it run on *nix?

[karajorma]

If you are using FS2_Open you should use the  -ship_choice_3d option.

The weapons loadout screen will now show you a rotating model of the ship with the weapon banks labelled.

[Shade]

When you link primaries, they each fire at their own rate. If i recall correctly though, there is some key you can use to synchronize them to fire at the rate of the slowest weapon, but then again maybe that was some other spacesim because I can't seem to find it now that I'm looking for it.

[Wanderer]

If you link primaries the rate of fire is slightly lowered.

[Shade]

True, forgot to add that. A subach will fire faster than a prometheus as always, but both weapons will havea refire delay slightly longer than normal when linked. And I still can't find the key to synch primaries, so I am probably dead wrong on that and just saw it in wing commander or some suchs and have had it lurking around subconciously ever since

[bfobar]

I was always curious whether you did more damage per second with subachs linked in the 4 and 2 gun banks (linked, 6 projectiles at once but slower rate of fire) or with just using the subachs on the 4 bank in faster single fire mode.

[Frankie]

If you are using FS2_Open you should use the  -ship_choice_3d option.

Wow, that's a huge help. Thanks much.

One question though, why does Perseus (possibly others, didn't check) show the PBanks as having 2 guns each?

[StratComm]

Because they have two guns each?  It's a straightforward mapping of where the weapon in the selection box will fire from.

[Frankie]

Perseus is only supposed to have 2 guns total. The model seems to show 4.

[WMCoolmon]

Ignore the stats, they are teh silly.

Unless you're using the 3.6.8 mediaVPs, which should fix that sort of thing. Unless I forgot to put that in.

[Charismatic]

[Carl]

I was always curious whether you did more damage per second with subachs linked in the 4 and 2 gun banks (linked, 6 projectiles at once but slower rate of fire) or with just using the subachs on the 4 bank in faster single fire mode.

the 4 alone would do more damage. linking guns cuts the fire rate of both in half.

[Carl]

edit: double post.

[bfobar]

Oh cool. I didn't know by what percentage the fire rate dropped. Any decrease by more than 1/3 would make linking identical weapons pointless in these cases, so the 1/2 number is good to know.

Well, I guess if you're a crack shot and all 6 rounds can destroy a target in one shot where 4 cannot, then it still is sensible, but that doesn't occur very often. I perfer higher rates of fire to more damaging shots anyway, damge over time being equal.

[Frankie]

linking guns cuts the fire rate of both in half.

Are you absolutely sure about that, aka you've seen it in the source code? Half speed would mean 2 banks of the same guns would be useless at best, or possibly even worse than leaving the second bank empty.

Ignore the stats, they are teh silly.

When you say "the stats", do you mean the text that says "Primary Banks: 2" or the 4 glowing dots on the Perseus model?

I'm trying to get an nice and accurate quantification of how this game works. So far I've seen several false or counterintuitive numbers, and I haven't even started to consider "Rotation time", "Damp", et al.

Thanks to everyone who's helping explain this.

[karajorma]

The lines pointing to the number of banks on the rotating ship model are accurate as the game actually looks at the model itself.

The text is basically read from a table file and if someone decided to change the model they'd have to update the file (which it appears they forgot to do).

As such you should trust the model rather than any text since it auto updates

[castor]

linking guns cuts the fire rate of both in half.

Are you absolutely sure about that, aka you've seen it in the source code? Half speed would mean 2 banks of the same guns would be useless at best, or possibly even worse than leaving the second bank empty.

Why not try it out? Fred a simple mission with a disabled fighter as a target..
What you'll find is that linked guns will kill it faster. Still, non-linked is better if you miss a lot.

[Carl]

look, if you have a 2 gun bank that does x damage per second, and another 2 gun bank that does x damage per second, linking them together halves there rate of fire, so you still get x damage per seond. anything else and the game would be unblanced and would take away a lot of the strategy involved in using primaries.