[starbug]

I am trying to create new weapons for a new race i am working in for my mini campaign Dark Origins, and i seem to have hit a bit of brick wall and need some advice. The Weapon i am trying to create is similar to a beam but instead of being an instant hit weapon, the beam would move towards the target, like the Thanix Cannon for Mass Effect 2 see images below.




Now i have tried to create this type effect using Particle spew and missiles trails and the effect well to be honest looks crap, so i was wondering if any of you brilliant modders out know any better ways of achieving this?

Edit Sorry about the size of the second image its the only one i could find and i don't have access to photoshop on my laptop to alter it.

[General Battuta]

The only possible theory I have is using 'substitute' to create a weapon that fires several weapons in a row - first a blob, then several 'body' projectiles, then several 'tail' projectiles.

Even then the effect would only work if the individual weapons blended and the target was stationary.

[Spoon]

Interestingly enough, I was recently thinking of creating a weapon like this as well
but after much meditating I couldn't think of a way to acomplish it.

[IronBeer]

Hm. Tough question indeed. I don't think there's a way to cleanly translate such a weapon into FS-verse. I suppose if this weapon isn't meant to be player-usable, perhaps you could use SEXPs to lock the vector of the firing ship; use that in conjunction with a flashy tail, and you'll replicate the effect, at least.

But, I think you're looking for something like a lightsaber blade that darts out of the ship's forward gunpoint, and I don't know if that's even possible under the engine.

[Dragon]

Could be doable under certain circumstances, on a capship and without a "projectile".
Think Lucifer's beams from FS1, it SSLs are a good example of this working in FS.
It would not be easy to make it look good though.

[starbug]

Yeah the only way i can think of doing it is the same way the super laser is done, Maybe i need to think of something else. hmmmm......... How do you guys get inspiration to come up with weapons that aren't beams just to add a bit of difference but are also balanced against GTVA beams?

[-Sara-]

You could create a very detailed projectile with a lot of graphically detail stuff going on with it, like the BP frigate cannons, but which blend into a missile trail almost seamlessly. That should just about do that.

[Delta_V]

Would there be a way to make something like that with continous damage?  Maybe something like Battuta suggested, where there are lots of smaller projectiles.  The problem with something like the SSL is that, even if the effect lasts for 3-4 seconds, all of the damage is done on initial impact w/ the target.

[Spoon]

Currently $substitute doesn't work on turrets yet (will cause the game to crash)

[StargateSpankyHam]

If it is a player weapon, you could just turn the rate of fire up VERY high, give it a long trail, and rely on the firing ship to run out of energy in a few seconds.

If it is a turreted weapon, you could do the same, except with a burst fire effect.

The real problem is going to be getting it to look good and not kill your framerate. For any kind of real 'swept beam' effect, you're either going to need a very slow projectile, a very wide trail, or hundreds of projectiles at once.

[Getter Robo G]

If you are looking for ideas:

Try the bottom of page 1 and all of page two for past weapon attempts (now all lost from HD Crash)

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/Test%20Concepts/#!cpZZ1QQtppZZ16


[Edit] Oh and please ignore teh musical notes (That was for a Macross 7 - Basara weapon test thing that failed utterly).

[starbug]

Thanks for all the tips guys, i think i have got something in the works, sort of like the wraith weapons in Stargate Atlantis. I have made a Heavy plasma/pulse cannon with a velocity of 3500, i am trying to balance it out at the moment, so it dosen't do to much damage but still makes a viable replacement for beams etc...

So heres what i have come up with at the moment and i am using the effects from ASW and the Vishnan effects from BP as its BP i am playing, until i can come up with my own. I am struggling with getting the balancing done.

$Name: Tal'Seth Heavy Cannon
$Model File: none
@Laser Bitmap: X_Anibitmap
@Laser Glow: maxim_glow
@Laser Color: 110, 30, 255
@Laser Color2: 200, 80, 255
@Laser Length: 35.0
@Laser Head Radius: 45.00
@Laser Tail Radius: 45.00
$Mass: 3.0
$Velocity: 3500.0
$Fire Wait: 10
$Damage: 2500
$Damage Type:             HugeWeapon
$Armor Factor: 1.0
$Shield Factor: 0.1
$Subsystem Factor: 0.5
$Lifetime: 15.0
$Energy Consumed: 0.10
$Cargo Size: 0.0
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 321
$ImpactSnd: 88
+Weapon Range:                   12000
$Flags: ( "Big Ship" "huge" "particle spew" "same turret cooldown" )
$Trail:
 +Start Width: 10.5
 +End Width: 1.0 
 +Start Alpha: 1.0
 +End Alpha: 0.0
 +Max Life: 2.0
 +Bitmap: AESBeam1CoreHaze
$Icon: none
$Anim: none
$Impact Explosion: HFlakExp
$Impact Explosion Radius: 140.0
$Muzzleflash: AncCMuzzle
$Pspew:
   +Count:      6
   +Time:      1
   +Vel:      0.0
   +Radius:   6.0
   +Life:      0.1
   +Scale:      1.5
   +Bitmap:   Vishnan_Particle

[StargateSpankyHam]

ASW and Blue Planet - both mods with exceptionally beautiful special effects.

When I went with capship plasma cannons, I actually took (almost) the exact opposite approach - fast firing, reasonably low-damage rounds. On the other hand, I was making a 'slow and steady' type weapon, since beam cannons would fill the job of providing huge bursts of damage. If you're making a projectile weapon intended to replace beam cannons entirely, then yes, I would expect such a weapon to do enormous damage. Sort of like that huge cannon the Akrotiri had in ASW.

You can test the balance very easily with one-on-one capship fights. Just save the mission, and open it up in the tech room.

Overall, the only potential balance issue I see with it is the extraordinarily long weapon range and lifetime. 12 kilometers is a very, very long ways in freespace 2. This gun has over three times the reach of the GTVA Trebuchet. I don't know exactly what kind of ships you're using, or if 2500 damage is all that much in your mod. The long range infers a sniper-type weapon, and I generally find that extreme long-range weapons shouldn't have excellent damage output (though, of course, exceptions do exist).

That is, unless you've completely redone how fighters and capital ships maneuver, and made it so that 12 kilometers isn't really that far. In that case, you might have just finally fulfilled my secret desire to see a Freespace 2 mod, with ships that fly as fast (or faster) than modern fighter jets.