Would that be possible to somehow force computer controlled burst fire on player?
For example, a gatling gun which, after pressing the trigger (even if it's just a single tap) spins up and fires 10 rounds.
This is the way modern gatling guns like GAU-8 Avenger operate and I'd like to be able to create something similar in FS.
I think that it could be done as a burst flag for a weapon.
On a side note, a few requests from this thread: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=71262.0 (namely recoil and overkill piercing) would also help with creating realistic cannons on FS engine.
thats not how gatling guns operate. in a modern gatling gun (non-russian) the feed system is geared to the gun itself, so if the gun is spinning ammo is feeding. the firing pins are connected to a rack system so every time a barrel passes the firing position, any round in the chamber goes off. so long as the barrels are spinning the gun is firing. the firing rate of the gun is proportional to the rpm. so during spin-up the firing rate ramps up from 0 to its target rpm, and likewise when the motors are shut off after firing the firing rate ramps back down to 0. gatling guns also produce a lot of heat, so firing more than 100-300 rounds is bad for the gun and can affect accuracy. so the pilot has a selector switch for the maximum length of the burst (old a-10s also had a speed switch, but it was found that the low setting was effective, better conserved ammo, and didnt overheat the gun as fast, so the switch was removed) and the trigger would be locked out when the limit was reached and the gun spins down.
russian gatling guns are a little bit more fun. they are gas powered so they gan get really ****ing fast. were talking 10,000 rounds/min. the problem is they are not powered, so the barrel is started spinning with a pyrotechnic charge (which were somewhat limited, so you could only pull the trigger so many times regaurdless of if you have ammo left or not). once the barrel starts spinning the gun itself provided mechanical power for the feed system (unlike the a-10 where both were driven by hydraulic power on the same drive shaft), which as far as i could tell was a simple belt feed systems. they also did not have the epic ammo capacity of the a-10. the russians considered it a secondary weapon system, and probably only equipped them because we had done the same after gunpod tests with the f-4s proved favorable (missiles back then were horrible wastes of taxpayer's money, and couldn't hit a damn thing most of the time). also the only way to stop them was with breaks, and a problem with the design is if the breaks failed with the gun firing, there was no way to stop it, the gun could have melted down and failed catastrophically if it had enough ammo in the magazine.
*edit*
that went way off topic.
what i would suggest is battletech-ish weapon heat tracking. each shot would produce a certain amount of heat, and the weapon bank/or ship would have a certain heat capacity and cooling rate. cooling rate would be the rate of heat loss. and heat capacity would be the maximum heat that can be generated before bad things start happening. bad things could be damage to the weapon subsystem, loss of ammunition, weapon jamming, weapon inaccuracy (higher fof), the whole ship explodes, etc. each of these effects would need their own $heat_threshold:, a $chance_percent:, $chance_penalty:. once heat passes $heat_threshold: there is a $chance_percent: % likelihood that the effect will occure, for every heat unit above $heat_threshold: $chance_percent: is added to (heat-$heat_threshold)*$chance_penalty:. at some point the percentage will reach 100% and the effect will happen every time. this kinda thing need not be limited to gatling guns, and could be used on all weapons. these values would be specific to the ship and would look something like:
$overheat condition: weapon subsystem damage
+value: 10 ;amount of damage
+heat_threshold: 1000 ;number of heat units when effect starts to be applied
+chance_percent: 10 ;percent chance that effect will apply to a shot
+chance_penalty: 1 ;how much extra percentage of a chance per heat unit beyond threshold that is added to chance percent
$overheat condition: weapon jammed
+value: 5 ;how many seconds to clear jam
+heat_threshold: 500 ;number of heat units when effect starts to be applied
+chance_percent: 5 ;percent chance that effect will apply to a shot
+chance_penalty: 0.5 ;how much extra percentage of a chance per heat unit beyond threshold that is added to chance percent
i would also add a flag to enable fire rate ramping based on weapon model rotation speed as well. instead of a spining delay up before firing that it uses now. this one is more gatling specific though.
