[KARMA]

some ppl reported problems with some SW ships (well, mainly the xwing, but others will be affected). The problem is that their firepoints are very offset from the center of the ship and as result it's hard to hit small targets like the ties.
Obviously, this is somewhat positive (ties are intended to be difficult to hit due to their size), but difficult is different than almost impossible.
We may try a couple of things, like changing the firing points positions, making them different than the cannon position, but it may be a little odd obviously.

I was wondering if it could be possible to make the lasers converge changing the normals?We can edit the normals into modelview, but as others told me it doesn't work and the lasers will fire straight ahead whatever you do.  

Also, would it be possible to make an autoconverge system?
a system that automatically change the normals of the lasers depending by the distance of the target, in order to have the laser shots crossing the point 0,0 at the same distance of the target (and if nothing is targeted they'll just fire straight ahead). Something like this exists in XWA, so this is the reason for I'm asking for it

[Hippo]

Oh, yes, and the SW people would be interested in an ai_no_afterburner flag in the ships table that would give a ship afterburners, but not allow the AI to use them... Possible?

[TopAce]

Originally posted by KARMA
..
Something like this exists in XWA, so this is the reason for I'm asking for it

Just to be exact:
The laser convergence system XWA:[/u]

In the case of many fighters, you can simply chose to have convergence or not. If you choose yes, the lasers will 'hit' each other at the maximal range(where the laser blasts 'evaporate'.) If you choose no, it is like having the 0, 0, 0 normal in the FS2 POF.
There are some other choices at different craft(Z-95), where you can choose at which distance you want your lasers to meet. It can be 0.25, 0.5 or any other up to the maximal range of the laser.

[Bobboau]

I tryed implementing this once, it didn't work out all that great.

[KARMA]

you talking about the autonvergence thing? well, ok...
and what about making the normals of the gunpoints editable?

[Alan Bolte]

I'm pretty sure that on at least one XWA craft the lasers didn't just converge at max range, but litterally autoconverged to the targetted range. I noticed this because I would occasionally fire a full quad burst at a distant TIE when the TIE I had just been dogfighting with slipped just out of my reticle, and the guns fired almost 90 degrees off axis because I was at point blank range to the target.

Besides, if you really want to program targetting, have fun with the TIEs and watching ANH again. That's some weirdass targetting there, it's like the first burst fires straight ahead and the following bursts track closer and closer to the target, as though the computer is getting better targetting info as you're firing.

[Drew]

the xwing has one of the most advanced targeting systems in the SW uni IIRC?

[IceFire]

Virtually all WWII types had convergence settings.  This was done before flight but it was an important part of the conflict.

Maybe this can be a toggleable option....which can be increased and decreased in 50 meter increments.

[Flipside]

True, possibly Autoconvergence using the lead indicator would be good? That way it would be a small step to smart targetting

[phreak]

I'd think the convergence settings would be controlled by the ships targeting computer in the 2300s

perhaps the best way to do this is to define either ship-specific or weapon-specific gimbal mounts that have a specified field of fire.  think freelancer(ship-specific) or IW2(weapon-specific)

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by Alan Bolte
Besides, if you really want to program targetting, have fun with the TIEs and watching ANH again. That's some weirdass targetting there, it's like the first burst fires straight ahead and the following bursts track closer and closer to the target, as though the computer is getting better targetting info as you're firing.

Not all that weird; it could be correcting for the lasers getting knocked out of alignment or some such, which wouldn't show up normally.

Bobb, what were the problems when you implemented it (And do you have the code?)

[KARMA]

Assuming that it'd be possible to make the normals of the firing points editable, I see 2 possible solutions for autoconvergence:

1-the convergence depends by the distance of the target (you'll need to have something targeted obviously), i.e. it change automatically the normals of the firing points so that the laser shots cross the 0,0 point at the target's distance

2-you make 3 different states (close, medium, long distance) of the normals and it change between the different states either manually or automatically depending by the distance of the target.

since the normals are ship dependant, it'd be better to have an autoconvergence system on a ship basis, instead of a weapon basis. A key to make it toggleable would be the best

[Flipside]

I would have thought a 'smart fire' tag in the ships.tbl would be better, that way you could have some ships that are capable of it, and some ships that aren't? Though I'm not sure how the AI would handle it, it would probably just ignore it

[TopAce]

What's the status of its implementation? We, at SWC need it.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

why not have a simple toggle placed in PCS that allows us to set the normals for guns to something other than 1.  we can toggle "auto normal" off if we need convergence.  then we simple set the firing normals.