[blowfish]

Planetary-based beam weapons can still work if you set their +Range values appropriately.

[Fury]

Huh? For something like that you can just do a custom beam weapon table entry, which would be required anyway considering how far away you need to put the mjolnir or any other dummy ship with a turret. And +Range entry under $Beaminfo controls visual distance of the beam.

[Bobboau]

Well, the beam fade effect is screwin' with the range.

you've got that backwards, beam range effect is screwing with fading.

[Renegade Paladin]

The end has come.  Before the final jump, there was still a hope that it was only our ships or our nodes or our resources that they wanted, not our people, but now that hope is gone.  It slides out of subspace, enormous, engorged with a horrible power pulsating beneath its shining alien skin.  The Lucifer.

It glides lightly towards us.  It is not like a Terran vessel, bound by treaty and ideology and humanity.  It will not hesitate to take everything that we have, everything that we are.  There is nothing we can do but watch as it draws from its bottomless reserves, preparing to end us without thought or meaning.  Blasts of incomparable destruction stream forth from the the vessel's potent prongs, expending the energy of a thousand fusion weapons in a second.  The Emperor, watching from afar, intones the sacred royal funerary chant for his race's lost home. 

Then a miracle happens.  The impossible columns of death peter out a pathetic six kilometers from their points of origin, the energy dissipated long before reaching the furthest reaches of the atmosphere.  Vasuda Prime is saved by free space!  Elated sand eating bookies collect a surprising windfall of cash from gullible Terran gamblers, while the younger generation exchanges high-threes and fist-bups!

The destroyer hangs silently in the void, its glow maps turning a shade of green.  It broadcasts a short signal before slinking back into subspace, never to call again.  Years later a team of Terran and Vasudan cryptographers translate the Shivans' message as "Sorry, we've had a rough week.  You know, this happens to a lot of guys..."

[Shivan Hunter]

How did I miss that post?! Swashmebuckle wins the Internet.

[Renegade Paladin]

At any rate, I haven't tried it yet, but the thing that occurs to me that this is going to break (apart from the obvious of the MTD Auriga in Derelict) is Dilmah G's remake of Their Finest Hour, where the Colossus makes pinpoint beam strikes on a Sathanas' beam cannons from maximum range.  It'll just look ridiculous if the beams fade out and then the cannons blow up anyway.  Besides, beam weapons are supposed to be capable of orbital bombardment; if they flare out a mere few kilometers from the firing point in a vacuum, then the very concept of being able to glass a planet with them is absurd. 

[Snail]

I think the point is if you want to achieve something like that go ahead and make a new tabled beam that has a longer +Range: defined.

[Droid803]

Which is silly, since people didn't have to do that even with retail data.

[NGTM-1R]

At any rate, I haven't tried it yet, but the thing that occurs to me that this is going to break (apart from the obvious of the MTD Auriga in Derelict)

Actually, it'd break at least three Derelict missions by my count. Possibly more; I can't recall whether the blockade against the Demon involves firing outside ranges.

[Commander Zane]

I took a quick look into comparing the beam behavior between the No Mod FS2 and FS2 MediaVPs.

So I find out there is beam fading even when no mod is being used, but it does some really, immensely retarded stuff when being used at maximum (30km) range.
I was 30.5km from the target ship just to make sure that the beam would completely fade, which it did...until I pointed my ship at my target. At this point the beam suddenly extends itself that additional 500 meters to show the beam scratching at the hull (This damaged the target).

What.

MediaVPs, the hit range for the beams are heavily cut down to 10km, but in this case, the beam isn't doing that go-go-gadget Extend-O Beam jabberwocky.

Obvious details for most, and my memory in missions that use beams at such ranges is rather poor, though I know the Auriga in Derelict does this, and the Vassago on VD (A custom beam however), but not much else that I can immediately think of.

Since I did this I sure as hell don't want the beams behaving like they originally do, since if I as much as see a beam grow to hit things beyond their intended range it will drive me bat**** insane, and the fact that beams now have short ranges isn't much to look at either. The beam fade distance does need to be higher, maybe 25km for compromise.

[blowfish]

Sure you didn't move closer to the target?  The beam length shouldn't be anything but constant, whether +Range is defined or not.

[Commander Zane]

Why would I move to test beam ranges? That defeats the purpose of doing it at all.
I was completely stationary, with the exception of changing the orientation of my ship in order to go from missing the target to hitting it, I didn't move any closer to it by a micrometer, the beam then jumped 500 extra meters, when I pulled back up, the beam shrunk again.

[blowfish]

How were you measuring this?

[Commander Zane]

What?

I targeted a ship, flew 30,500 meters away (Beyond supposed maximum range).
I fired just above the ship on purpose, it faded 500 meters short from the ship.
I put my aim to the center of the ship, this time the beam was hitting it and the beam was visually hitting it.
Then I aimed below the ship as the beam was firing, and the beam suddenly shrunk back 500 meters again.
The view was from the target.

Not saying it again.

[Droid803]

IMO that's fine, it makes sure that a fire-beam will always hit.
Which is good.
If you change it you risk breaking missions that worked with retail data! Which is bad. Very bad.

Or, it's just a behavior with player-fired beams (which didn't work in retail), and therefore is of no concern.

Test with a turret-mounted beam.

[Commander Zane]

How often does a mission actually use the 30km range with the Retail weapons?
Hell, I'd be fine with the beam fade the way it is, but fading at 30km.
The way it does it on Retail though is a mind****, it should not do that.

[Droid803]

Now to think of it I don't think any mission uses 30km or more, but there are quite a number that go beyond the 6-10 km of the current mediavps beams.

So I guess if you really wanted to get rid of the extendobeam, it wouldn't break much? I donno, I guess a +Range: 30000 would do the trick.

[blowfish]

Err, I have been entirely unable to replicate the behavior you mention.  Beams do fade visually approaching 30km, but they will do their full damage up to that range, and will do no damage beyond it, regardless of where they are pointed.

With +Range defined, the only difference should be that 30km becomes whatever the tabled range is.

[NGTM-1R]

How often does a mission actually use the 30km range with the Retail weapons?

In retail? None.

In Derelict, a minimum of three.
In Homesick, a minimum of once.
Technological Superiority, dead as it is, used this trick, as have a number of other campaigns and demos that were designed for retail.

If you're breaking stuff that uses retail data, you're modding. The Upgrade is not a mod.

[Kolgena]

Could we at least temporarily get instructions on how to restore longer beams (without reverting to old MVPs)? It seems like this debate isn't going to end any time soon.