[StratComm]

OK, I'm in need of a very large (radius=500+ meters) blue beam for a ship I'm working on.  I've put a little something together, but I'm not entirely satisfied with the results.  My beams always come out too flat.  Any help would be most appreciated.

[karajorma]

Working on the death star or something?

[vyper]

this sounds like a challenge

[vyper]

Stick this in yer weapons.tbl and smoke it!

;###########
;DeathStar beam
$Name:                     DeathStar
$Model File:               none             ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:               laserglow02
@Laser Color:               128, 128, 255
@Laser Length:               0.0
@Laser Head Radius:            0.3
@Laser Tail Radius:            0.3
$Mass:                          100.0
$Velocity:                      1600.0            ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                     35.0            ;; in seconds
$Damage:                        1900            ;; NOTE: for beam weapons this is kind of a "continuous" damage applied every few fractions of a second that the beam is on.
$Armor Factor:                  2.0
$Shield Factor:                 1.0
$Subsystem Factor:              5.0
$Lifetime:                      30.0            ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed:               0.30            ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                    0.0                ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                        NO
$LaunchSnd:                     125                ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                     88                 ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
+Weapon Range:               5000            ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags:                         ("Big Ship" "huge" "beam")
$Icon:                          icongun05
$Anim:                          LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion:              ExpMissileHit1
$Impact Explosion Radius:       120.0
$BeamInfo:
   +Type:                  0               ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
   +Life:                    4.0               ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
   +Warmup:                 5000            ;; warmup time in ms
   +Warmdown:               3500            ;; warmdown time in ms
   +Radius:                 360.0            ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
   +PCount:               150               ;; particles spewed every interval
   +PRadius:               0.4               ;; particle radius
   +PAngle:               60.0            ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
   +PAni:                  particleexp01      ;; particle ani
   +Miss Factor:            1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4            ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
   +BeamSound:               148               ;; the looping beam-firing sound
   +WarmupSound:            155               ;; associated warmup sound
   +WarmdownSound:            160               ;; associated warmdown sound
   +Muzzleglow:            beamglow2         ;; muzzle glow bitmap
   +Shots:                  0               ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
   +ShrinkFactor:            0.1         ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
   +ShrinkPct:               1.8         ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
      +Width:               300                ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-white1         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         255 255 255 255      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         150 150 150 10      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.0               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               4.0               ;; hehe
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               400               ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-white2         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         233 233 253 255      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         60 60 0 10         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.045            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               3.0               ;; hehe
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
      +Width:               500.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-saph         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         138 169 249 255      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         138 169 249 10      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.04               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               2.0               ;; hehe
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               600.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-saph2         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         0 0 255 255         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         0 0 255 10         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.02               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               0.0               ;; hehe

;#############

[StratComm]

I actually think I found what I was after.  Go to this thread and you'll see what it's for.  I adjusted the Zadd values and found my weapon to work quite nicely.  And though that death star weapon looks pretty cool, it is a bit too small for my needs.

[Sesquipedalian]

You think that's big?  Try this:

$Name: SathStarNuke
$Model File: none ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap: laserglow01
@Laser Color: 50, 254, 50
@Laser Length: 0.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.30
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.30
$Mass: 100.0
$Velocity: 1000.0 ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait: 90.0 ;; in seconds
$Damage: 40000 ;; NOTE: for beam weapons this is kind of a "continuous" damage applied every few fractions of a second that the beam is on.
$Armor Factor: 1.0
$Shield Factor: 1.0
$Subsystem Factor: 1.0
$Lifetime: 20.0 ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed: 0.30 ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size: 0.0 ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 125 ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd: 88 ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
+Weapon Range: 64000 ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags: ("Big Ship" "huge" "beam")
$Icon: icongun05
$Anim: LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion: GSbspcRiftExp
$Impact Explosion Radius: 70000.0
$BeamInfo:
 +Type: 0 ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
 +Life: 5.0 ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
 +Warmup: 21780 ;; warmup time in ms
 +Warmdown: 1200 ;; warmdown time in ms
 +Radius: 2000.0 ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
 +PCount: 0 ;; particles spewed every interval
 +PRadius: 1.9 ;; particle radius
 +PAngle: 65.0 ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
 +PAni: particleexp01 ;; particle ani
 +Miss Factor: 0 0 0 0 0 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
 +BeamSound: 194 ;; the looping beam-firing sound
 +WarmupSound: 192 ;; associated warmup sound
 +WarmdownSound: 193 ;; associated warmdown sound
 +Muzzleglow: SathanasRiftGlow ;; muzzle glow bitmap
 +Shots: 0 ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
 +ShrinkFactor: 0.1 ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
 +ShrinkPct: 1.8 ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
 $Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
 +Width: 6.0 ;; width of the section
 +Texture: invisible ;; texture for this section
 +RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
 +RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
 +Flicker: 0.1 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
 +Zadd: 2.0 ;; hehe

Included in the SubspaceRift Sathanas mod. (Yes, Tiny Tim, you too can supernova entire starsystems!)

[StratComm]

Yeah, that's big, but you are using a muzleglow effect, not an actual beam.  My beam actually has a diameter of 1000 meters.

[vyper]

Well I tried making it that size and my eyes still have blue dots on them.

[CP5670]

I once tried making a beam with a 100000m radius but it looked pretty stupid in the game.

[Killfrenzy]

TIP: Don't make rediculous sized beams unless you've got a turret and muzzle glow big enough - look at the SBFRed on the Beta version of the SSJ Gigas, and you'll see what I mean.

[Martinus]

*Remembers back when he made a pirahna spawn 40 helios torps.*

Silly weapons rule  

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Maeglamor
*Remembers back when he made a pirahna spawn 40 helios torps.*

Silly weapons rule  

Indeed.... wait 'till you see some of the lunacy I've created for CoW

[Pera]

Originally posted by Maeglamor
*Remembers back when he made a pirahna spawn 40 helios torps.*

Silly weapons rule  

I once made a piranha spawn 50 piranhas

You can probably guess the result

[Unknown Target]

The size of the beams in this thread could scare small children.

[CP5670]

TIP: Don't make rediculous sized beams unless you've got a turret and muzzle glow big enough - look at the SBFRed on the Beta version of the SSJ Gigas, and you'll see what I mean.

The game does not render anything properly beyond a certain size limit, anyway. All the really big beams I tried making looked very flat and blurry.

I once made a piranha spawn 50 piranhas  

You can probably guess the result

I did that once as well but the game froze up after a while when too many missiles were getting on the screen.

One other funny thing I tried out some time ago was to replace the Piranha missile's pof with the minicap.pof file (a very low-poly Sathanas but of the same size) along with the constant spawning method. Things started to look very weird in the game.

[Unknown Target]

I made the Veritech in the Robotech MOD (I work for them, see siggy) be able to carry over 200 heat-seeking Short Range missles, and fire 20 per shot (doble fire disengaged).

The cool thing is, they actually looked like something from the series, and were...gasp, balanced!

[Pera]

Originally posted by CP5670
One other funny thing I tried out some time ago was to replace the Piranha missile's pof with the minicap.pof file (a very low-poly Sathanas but of the same size) along with the constant spawning method. Things started to look very weird in the game.

If you want to see something really freaky, make a primary weapon that is using the minicap.pof, and make it heat seeking.

[Vasudan Admiral]

that would be funny
alpha2: lead, you've got a sathanas bearing down on you, fast, and another, and another and another.