Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: SCVanguard89 on August 29, 2009, 10:47:40 am

Title: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: SCVanguard89 on August 29, 2009, 10:47:40 am

Is there a way to make a weapon so that it looks like an anti-fighter beam, only on a fighter? I know theres a "Nutron Flux" weapon in Cardinal Spear, but its just a rapid fire weapon with a long trail.

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: Herra Tohtori on August 29, 2009, 10:50:46 am

I would suggest looking at the targeting laser table entry and modifying it to cause damage.

Or consult The Babylon Project's weapons tables; there are multiple examples of fighterbeams used there. MF Nial comes to mind first and foremost.

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: JGZinv on August 29, 2009, 11:01:05 am

Are you trying to make a beam saber, or just a beam turret like off a cap ship?

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: Nuke on August 29, 2009, 11:13:32 am

fighters can carry beams iirc.

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: Qent on August 29, 2009, 11:21:07 am

Look at the Shivans! (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,60801.0.html) mod to see some working fighter-mounted beams. I think you just need to make sure that the refire delay does not exceed 5s, or it can be overcharged.

Some miscellaneous stuff: I don't think the "cycle" flag works with beams; use $Beaminfo: +Shots: 1 instead if you need it to cycle. Energy is consumed continuously during the warmup, firing, and the warmdown, not just the actual firing.

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: SCVanguard89 on August 30, 2009, 04:00:03 pm

im having some trouble opening .tbl files, well, more getting to them...
im using VP mage and i cant open any of the files found in the .vp
i managed to create a .vp copy and that put all the files in the right window so i can open things, but all i get is "file not found"


[attachment deleted by Tolwyn]

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: Qent on August 30, 2009, 06:01:35 pm

I like to use QuickVP (http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.77) because it is simple and fast, although some behaviors aren't exactly what you'd expect. I'm not sure how VPMage works, but you might actually have to extract the files to your hard disk before you can open them.

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: SCVanguard89 on August 30, 2009, 07:03:48 pm

thanks, thats done it :)

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: The E on August 31, 2009, 06:43:46 am

Yeah, please don't do any editing of the retail vps. Extracting files is fine, but don't out modified files back into them.

If you do, expect weird issues.

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: SCVanguard89 on August 31, 2009, 08:12:06 am

only making a non-.vp copy of the retail files for study and reference to help with later mods. i've been warned of not editing retail files since i first got here

Title: Re: Solid laser on a fighter?
Post by: Nuke on August 31, 2009, 01:43:28 pm

its a good idea for people who are starting modding to extract all the table files to a freespace2/modname/data/tables directory. from there its just a matter of tweaking to make a mod that you can roll out to test fairly rapidly. of course once youre familiar it really helps to switch over to tbms.