[gevatter Lars]

I want to ask if its possible to change the weapon loadout so that it is possible to have more then 2 typs of guns and more than 3 types of rockets.

For example I want to have a ship 2 Photoncanons, 2 Mesonblasters and 2 Plasmaguns. Is this possible to make?

I need that for the Wing Commander mod, because some of the Wing Commander ships have more than 2 different guns, or Rockets.

Like the Thunderbold or the Longbow...

If there is a possibility tell me we from the Wing Commander mod could realy use this info.

[Bobboau]

possible... yes, it is... possible

[gevatter Lars]

What is needed to be changed? Could you make this for the Wing Commander Mod?
Or even tell us what we have to do.

[Bobboau]

well it would be quite dificult a lot of stuff, from UI control to in game weapon management there is a lot of code that assumes there are only two primaries and three secondaries,
all of wich we could change, but I don't think anyone has done a lot of work on this sort of thing

[gevatter Lars]

OK, well then this is my official request for someone to help the Mod and change the source code so that we can have more than two weapon systems.

That would be 4 different guns and 4 different rocket ports.

[penguin]

To clarify:

You want (up to) 4 primary and 4 seconday banks?

This would require changes to a few things, as Bobboau pointed out:

• Loadout screen
• Hud (may be trivial change)
• player controls (to switch between them properly)
• other (as yet undetermined) ship and model stuff

Dunno if any changes would need to be made to any "external" tools like PCS.  FRED would probably need changes though.

This request has been posted before, but that's OK.  One of the big sticking points has been the "double-fire primary" issue.  Currently it works like this, as we all probably know:[list=1]

• Primary #1
• Primary #2
• Primary #1 and #2, linked

... and then cycle back up to the top[/list]
The easist way would probably be:[list=1]

• Primary #1
• Primary #2
• Primary #3
• Primary #4
• Primary #1 and #2, linked

Discussions have been about how to link arbitrary weapons, but this would be adequate, IMHO.  Too much flight control reworking otherwise.  If you want two weapons to be linked, pick them as primaries 1 and 2...

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I want to make sure I'm not missreading your post.  It kinda sounds like you want another "type" of bank: primary, secondary and 2 more (tertiary and quaternary?)  This would obviously be a lot more work -- to the point of being unfeasable.

[gevatter Lars]

Weapon linking
It should be so that you can have primary 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or all linked together.

others
Loadout screen-> Since the Primarys are fixed in WC that shouldn't be that problem.
Hud-> Have never changed it, but I have seen that its possible.
Player controls->Same as the old one I think.
External->PCS could need a change and FRED dosn't need one if I think, because you have a fixed Primary loadout and this could be set in the TBL files, dosn't it?

Any other questions?

[penguin]

Oddly enough, looking at the source and at data/Hud/WeaponLoadout-m.PCX (in sparky-fs2.vp), it looks to me like 3 primaries and 4 secondaries are currently supported!  (not just in fs2_open, but in the retail Freespace2).

Someone w/ more modding expertise that I have should try to make a ship w/ 3 primary banks and 4 secondary banks and see if this works....

[gevatter Lars]

Mh you are right it seems as if you could use 3 prim and 4 sec, but thats only a pic. Has anyone tried to make a ship with 3 prim and 4 sec?

If its possible tell me.

[gevatter Lars]

Mh good and bad news

Good news is that we don't have to change FRED2 it supports 3 prim and 4 sec banks. click on a ship and set the weapon loud.
Modelview support more banks.
I have just tested a Thunderbold with 3 prim banks. The prog dosn't crash...and here comes the bad news
In the loadout screnn are only 2 prim and  2 sec shown and ingame you also have only the 2 / 2 loadout.

I don't know if this helps you in making a modification to the codes, but I felt I should post it.

[Zarax]

loadout screen is easy to fix...
just add another box into the model load pcx and it's ok...

[penguin]

Originally posted by Zarax
loadout screen is easy to fix...
just add another box into the model load pcx and it's ok...

That would allow the "undocumented" 3Pri/4Sec weapons to work, but to add a 4th primary would require code changes and changes to the *weaponloadout*-M.pcx mask bitmaps.

[Zarax]

Ouch... aren't 4 primaries a bit too many?
I don't remember any game with 4 different primaries...
They would also fire pretty slow...

[gevatter Lars]

Well three are ok.
Look at Wing Commander, there are some "special" weapons, thats why I asked if there could be more, but three will also work very good.
What about the problem that the third gun dosn't fire and you can't select them in the HUD.
Any way to solve that problem?

[penguin]

Originally posted by gevatter Lars
Well three are ok.
Look at Wing Commander, there are some "special" weapons, thats why I asked if there could be more, but three will also work very good.
What about the problem that the third gun dosn't fire and you can't select them in the HUD.
Any way to solve that problem?

I stand corrected:

Code: [Select]

code/ship/ship.h:279:
#define MAX_SHIP_WEAPONS 5
So you might be able to get away (w/ no code changes) with 1p+4s, or 3p+2s.  Anything else will require source code changes, I'm looking into how big an impact...

[Solatar]

Wouldn't it be cool to have Primaries, Secondaries, and then a SuperWeapon (i.e.-Nuke, beam, something like that)That would cause massive damage, but only fire once?

[LtNarol]

posted many a time before but since i cant seem to find the previous ones here it is again:

My solution to Primary weapon banks linking:

5 buttons involved:

button 1: toggles first bank between "on" and "off"
button 2: toggles second bank between "on" and "off"
button 3: toggles third bank between "on" and "off"
button 4: toggles forth bank between "on" and "off"

button 5: cycles between all 4 banks, selects only bank 1 the first time it is pressed, then the second, then third, then fourth, and on the fifth time it is pressed it links all 4 banks.  Press it a sixth time and it reverts to bank1.

and there we have the NarolSuggestion™ of the day

[Anaz]

could use number keys above letter keys for that...

[gevatter Lars]

Yup using the numberkeys for selecting and shift or other key to link them.
Like in the older Mechwarrior games...
but back to the topic.
I only need the all or one stuff.
Penguin told me that its more complicatet then he first thought. So it seems as if  I have to wait a little bit longer...
damm it I have to much to do to learn programing, beside the other stuff.

[penguin]

Just to post what gevatter Lars and I PM'ed each other about:  The 2pri/3sec is kinda hardcoded in several places in the code -- actually turns
out that MAX_SHIP_WEAPONS is never used...

So adding additional primary & secondary weapons is non-trivial  Even though it's apparently in FRED...

Hades: good suggestion re "superweapon," but it would require MASSIVE code changes... there are so many assumptions about having just primary & secondary -- from the HUD all the way to stats...