[Wanderer]

I tried to built a fighterbeam as suggested by StratComm some time ago and ended with the following table entry (mainly copy-pasted from HLP forums):

$Name: Beam
+Title: XSTR("GTW Beam", 3246)
+Description:
XSTR(
"Standard issue
", 3247)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Title:             XSTR("ML-16 Laser", 3248)
+Tech Anim: cb_ml16
+Tech Description:
XSTR(
" ", 3249)
$end_multi_text
$Model File:                           none
@Laser Bitmap:                        laserglow06
@Laser Glow:                        2_laserglow03
@Laser Color:                        190, 150, 250
@Laser Color2:                        190, 150, 250
@Laser Length:                        7.0
@Laser Head Radius:                   0.90
@Laser Tail Radius:                   0.30
$Mass:                              0.0
$Velocity:                           500000.0      
$Fire Wait:                         0.35            
$Damage:                           5.0
$Armor Factor:                        0.1
$Shield Factor:                         1.0
$Subsystem Factor:                     0.1
$Lifetime:                           2.0         
$Energy Consumed:                        5.0      
$Cargo Size:                        0.0          
$Homing:                           NO
$LaunchSnd:                         83            
$ImpactSnd:                         85            
+Weapon Range:                        100000         
$Flags:                            ("player allowed" "beam" "no Pierce shields")
$Icon:                                 iconPromS
$Anim:                                 Kayser
$Impact Explosion:                     none  
$BeamInfo:                              
   +Type:                  2            
   +Life:                   0.1            
   +Warmup:                0            
   +Warmdown:               0            
   +Radius:                1.0            
   +PCount:               0            
   +PRadius:               0            
   +PAngle:               0.0            
   +PAni:                  particleexp01   
   +Miss Factor:            0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0         
   +BeamSound:               0            
   +WarmupSound:            0            
   +WarmdownSound:            0            
   +Muzzleglow:         beamglow5      
   +Shots:                  0            
   +ShrinkFactor:            0.0         
   +ShrinkPct:               0.0   
   +Range: 900   ;   Maximum range of a beam
   +Attenuation: 0.5   ;From 0.0 to 1.0 indicates the point at wich the beam's damage will start to degrade      
   $Section:                        
      +Width:               0.5            
      +Texture:            beam-white      
      +RGBA Inner:         255 255 255 255   
      +RGBA Outer:         150 150 150 10   
      +Flicker:         1.0      
      +Zadd:               2.0            
   $Section:                        
      +Width:               0.75         
      +Texture:            beam-purple2      
      +RGBA Inner:         160 160 0 255   
      +RGBA Outer:         60 60 0 10      
      +Flicker:            1.0            
      +Zadd:               1.0            
   $Section:                        
      +Width:               1.0      
      +Texture:            beam-purple
      +RGBA Inner:         255 0 0 255
      +RGBA Outer:         60 0 0 10
      +Flicker:            1.0
      +Zadd:               0.0

Haven't given it to AI pilots yet but i'm getting odd effects when i'm firing this thing at any fighter. If i aim at the center of the fighter the beams fire at targets edge (ie. deviating from primary banks normal). They do still hit the target (shield effects can be seen)  but it looks very odd. It seems like these beams would never ever hit the model itself but will still damage it. Against capships and any target without shields (including fighters with badly damaged shields) they work fine when they are fired.

I'm using the 3.6.7 release

Pic here if this later one doens't show

[Prophet]

In response to your question is it normal - Hell NO!
Could it be the beam type? It's long time since I've done any tabling and I don't remember what type that (type 2) is. What is it supposed to be on a fighter beam? Or is it relevant?

[Wanderer]

Hmm, in ZylonBanes Beam FAQ the type 2 beam is a targetting laser type beam, and type 4 is fixed firing beam. But it really doesn't matter, i get similar result with both beam types (both miss the target AND do damage to the targets shields). It seems that it doesn't randomly miss the target but rather fires the beams at the same location close to the model (missing the target model) as long as target has any shield power remaining. And if only one of the two beams (mounted on Ulysseus) misses the other one gets twisted alone and that looks really freaky.

From ZylonBane's FAQ

BEAM TYPES
These numbers appear in the weapons.tbl entry for each beam.
0       anti-cap (only targets capital ships)
1    anti-cap slash (also only targets capital ships)
2    targetting laser (not used in the game; only fighter-mountable beam; no damage)
3    anti-fighter (fires three short bursts at fighters, or single long burst at caps if no fighters around)
4    fixed (only fires straight forward)

EDIT:
I haven't used fighterbeams ever before so i didn't know what to expect, hence the question 'is this normal'...

[Trivial Psychic]

Coud it be due to incorrect normals on the firepoints?

[Wanderer]

I'm using the standard SCP media vps, not mv_adveffects.vp though. There seems to be a fighter01.pof in mv_effects.vp and it has good firepoints (IMHO) so it doesn't seem to a problem with incorrect normals of the firepoint... (Ulysseus did use fighter01.pof?)

[StratComm]

Shouldn't matter what the firepoint normals are.  They game uses a hardcoded value IIRC.  Could be the low-polyness of a typical shield mesh doing goofy things with beams, or it could be targeting retical drift due to an uncentered eyepoint.

[DaBrain]

It' like every weapon (not only beams!) hit the shield in exactly the same spot. A bit like auto aming. They have to be close enough to the target though.

I was able to achive this kind of effect. It's pretty cool somehow.

[Descenter]

See what we need is a beam that does a corkscrew.  That would be funny to see on some capital ships.

[FireCrack]

Autoaiming... like in I-war 2? Someone sugested a "Tracking" flag a long while back for things like this, but now it's a bug (and an odd one at that)

[Wanderer]

Should this be... well... um ... mantisfied?

EDIT: Bug reported to Mantis

[BlackDove]

Hmm you have the Markules 3....

[Getter Robo G]

Try this... Before Omni's fixed phasers I made one (actually a Getter Beam for the Mecha) same thing.


$Name:                          Getter Beam
+Title:                         XSTR("Getter Beam", -1)
+Description:
XSTR(
"Fires a stream of Phased particles.
Level 3 Hull Damage ", -1)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Title:                    XSTR("Getter Beam", -1)
+Tech Anim:                     Tech_Subach_HL-7
+Tech Description:
XSTR(".", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Model File:                  none
@Laser Bitmap:                beam-red
@Laser Glow:                  beam-red
@Laser Color:                           69, 42, 172
@Laser Color2:                           69, 42, 172
@Laser Length:                           15.0
@Laser Head Radius:                     5.5
@Laser Tail Radius:                     5.0
$Mass:                                 4.08
$Velocity:                             1800.0                           ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                            0.15                             ;; in seconds
$Damage:                               10
$Armor Factor:                           1.3
$Shield Factor:                        1.0
$Subsystem Factor:                     1.0
$Lifetime:                             2.0
$Energy Consumed:                        1.0                              ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                           0.0                              ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                               NO
$LaunchSnd:                            179                               ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                            88                               ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
$Flags:                                ( "beam" "player allowed" "stream")
$Icon:                                 aroraicon
$Anim:                                 Newton
$Impact Explosion:              ExpMissileHit1
$Impact Explosion Radius:       10.0
$BeamInfo:
   +Type:         2         ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
   +Life:         3.5         ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
   +Warmup:      5000         ;; warmup time in ms
   +Warmdown:      1000         ;; warmdown time in ms
   +Radius:      3.0         ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
   +PCount:      82         ;; particles spewed every interval
   +PRadius:      1.2         ;; particle radius
   +PAngle:      95.0         ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
   +PAni:         particleexp01      ;; particle ani
   +Miss Factor:      2.4 2.0 1.5 1.25 1.0    ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
   +Miss Factor:            2.0 3.0 2.0 3.0 0.1    ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
   +BeamSound:         179         ;; the looping beam-firing sound
   +WarmupSound:      182         ;; associated warmup sound
   +WarmdownSound:      189         ;; associated warmdown sound
   +Muzzleglow:      sfx2      ;; muzzle glow bitmap
   +Shots:            6         ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
   +ShrinkFactor:      0.0         ;; what
   +ShrinkPct:         0.0         ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
   $Section:                           ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
      +Width:               6.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-white      ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         255 255 255 255   ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         150 150 150 10   ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.1            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               2.0            ;; hehe
   $Section:                           ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               15.0         ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-red2      ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         160 160 0 255   ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         60 60 0 10      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.1            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               1.0            ;; hehe
   $Section:                           ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               20.0         ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-red      ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         255 0 0 255      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         60 0 0 10      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.1            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               0.0            ;; hehe


Note this was with 3.1

[Wanderer]

Same effect though it was harder to see it due those impact explosions. With large explosions it seemed like beams were firing straight but that the impact points (ie. where the explosions are seen) were not there where the beams were fired (explosions always happened at the same point regardless what part of the target you hit, just like that beam twisting). Without explosions that beam got twisted as well.