As seen here:
Table data:
#Secondary Weapons
;Basic Meteor for cutscenes, does nothing but looks okay'ish
$Name: Meteor1
$Model File: hornet.pof
$Mass: 0
$Velocity: 150
$Fire Wait: 0
$Damage: 0
$Blast Force: 0
$Inner Radius: 0
$Outer Radius: 0
$Shockwave Speed: 0
$Armor Factor: 0
$Shield Factor: 0
$Subsystem Factor: 0
$Lifetime: 600
$Energy Consumed: 0
$Cargo Size: 1
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 93
$ImpactSnd: 101
$FlyBySnd: 75
$Rearm Rate: 1
$Flags: ( "Particle Spew" )
$Trail:
+Start Width: 150
+End Width: 0
+Start Alpha: 0.8
+End Alpha: 0
+Max Life: 15
+Bitmap: missiletrail01
$Icon: icon_harbinger
$Anim: harbinger
$Impact Explosion: none
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 300
+Vel: 0.7
+Radius: 60
+Life: 5000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 2
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.4
+Radius: 45
+Life: 100000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.2
+Radius: 30
+Life: 120000
+Scale: 2
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Pspew:
+Count: 4
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.1
+Radius: 15
+Life: 240000
+Scale: 3
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
;Meteor which breaks apart
$Name: Meteor2
$Model File: hornet.pof
$Mass: 0
$Velocity: 150
$Fire Wait: 0
$Damage: 0
$Blast Force: 0
$Inner Radius: 0
$Outer Radius: 0
$Shockwave Speed: 0
$Armor Factor: 0
$Shield Factor: 0
$Subsystem Factor: 0
$Lifetime: 600
$Energy Consumed: 0
$Cargo Size: 1
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 93
$ImpactSnd: 101
$FlyBySnd: 75
$Rearm Rate: 1
$Flags: ( "Particle Spew" "Spawn Meteor2a,1" "Spawn Meteor2b,3" "Spawn Meteor2c,6" )
$Trail:
+Start Width: 75
+End Width: 0
+Start Alpha: 0.8
+End Alpha: 0
+Max Life: 15
+Bitmap: missiletrail01
$Icon: icon_harbinger
$Anim: harbinger
$Impact Explosion: none
$Spawn Angle: 3
$Spawn Angle: 6
$Spawn Angle: 12
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 300
+Vel: 0.7
+Radius: 60
+Life: 5000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 2
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.4
+Radius: 45
+Life: 100000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.2
+Radius: 30
+Life: 120000
+Scale: 2
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Pspew:
+Count: 4
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.1
+Radius: 15
+Life: 240000
+Scale: 3
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Name: Meteor2a
$Model File: hornet.pof
$Mass: 0
$Velocity: 225
$Fire Wait: 0
$Damage: 0
$Blast Force: 0
$Inner Radius: 0
$Outer Radius: 0
$Shockwave Speed: 0
$Armor Factor: 0
$Shield Factor: 0
$Subsystem Factor: 0
$Lifetime: 60
$Energy Consumed: 0
$Cargo Size: 1
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 93
$ImpactSnd: 101
$FlyBySnd: 75
$Rearm Rate: 1
$Flags: ( "Particle Spew" "child" )
$Trail:
+Start Width: 38
+End Width: 0
+Start Alpha: 1
+End Alpha: 0
+Max Life: 1
+Bitmap: missiletrail01
$Icon: icon_harbinger
$Anim: harbinger
$Impact Explosion: none
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 300
+Vel: 0.7
+Radius: 30
+Life: 5000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 2
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.4
+Radius: 15
+Life: 100000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.2
+Radius: 8
+Life: 120000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Pspew:
+Count: 4
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.1
+Radius: 10
+Life: 240000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Name: Meteor2b
$Model File: hornet.pof
$Mass: 0
$Velocity: 200
$Fire Wait: 0
$Damage: 0
$Blast Force: 0
$Inner Radius: 0
$Outer Radius: 0
$Shockwave Speed: 0
$Armor Factor: 0
$Shield Factor: 0
$Subsystem Factor: 0
$Lifetime: 60
$Energy Consumed: 0
$Cargo Size: 1
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 93
$ImpactSnd: 101
$FlyBySnd: 75
$Rearm Rate: 1
$Flags: ( "Particle Spew" "child" )
$Trail:
+Start Width: 25
+End Width: 0
+Start Alpha: 1
+End Alpha: 0
+Max Life: 6
+Bitmap: missiletrail01
$Icon: icon_harbinger
$Anim: harbinger
$Impact Explosion: none
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 300
+Vel: 0.7
+Radius: 20
+Life: 5000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 2
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.4
+Radius: 10
+Life: 100000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.2
+Radius: 5
+Life: 120000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Pspew:
+Count: 4
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.1
+Radius: 4
+Life: 240000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Name: Meteor2c
$Model File: hornet.pof
$Mass: 0
$Velocity: 175
$Fire Wait: 0
$Damage: 0
$Blast Force: 0
$Inner Radius: 0
$Outer Radius: 0
$Shockwave Speed: 0
$Armor Factor: 0
$Shield Factor: 0
$Subsystem Factor: 0
$Lifetime: 60
$Energy Consumed: 0
$Cargo Size: 1
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 93
$ImpactSnd: 101
$FlyBySnd: 75
$Rearm Rate: 1
$Flags: ( "Particle Spew" "child" )
$Trail:
+Start Width: 13
+End Width: 0
+Start Alpha: 1
+End Alpha: 0
+Max Life: 6
+Bitmap: missiletrail01
$Icon: icon_harbinger
$Anim: harbinger
$Impact Explosion: none
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 300
+Vel: 0.7
+Radius: 10
+Life: 5000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 2
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.4
+Radius: 5
+Life: 100000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke01
$Pspew:
+Count: 3
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.2
+Radius: 5
+Life: 120000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
$Pspew:
+Count: 4
+Time: 100
+Vel: 0.1
+Radius: 3
+Life: 240000
+Scale: 1
+Bitmap: particlesmoke02
#End
All components should be part of FS2 retail and subsequently the MediaVPs.
How to use:
- Put it in a -wep.tbm for your mod.
- Use the create-weapon SEXP to spawn it ingame.
So I promised some people that I would be done with this effect today ... Didn't work out that way, for a couple of reaons., and a) I don't want to tease people anymore and b) I need a little help to make this better.
A couple of things:
a) All +Life-value in the $Pspew-sections are *overblown*, I have not scaled them back down because I originally made the mistake of thinking miliseconds, not seconds. The particle .ani itself only last a few seconds anyway. This might be a problem with the particle limit of the engine and memory usage.
b) The $Trail is the big problem that makes it look not good:
b.1) Since +Start Alpha doesn't go beyond 1, I have no trail that looks bright enough.
b.2) And the what I currently have under +Bitmap is a standard missile trail, which scales poorly to size.