[Singh]

I've been trying to mod a few weapons lately, but i can't get them to work for some reason. in the test mission, the beams don't fire at all, and i'm not sure if it is an error with the code or FS2.

Here is the actual code of the weapon:
;---------------------------------------------------------------
; NOTE : most of the fields here are irrelevant and are only included so as not to break the parser
;        beam weapons are a very special case weapon

$Name:                     STS Lasher Cannon

$Model File:               none             ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:               laserglow01
@Laser Color:               0, 255, 54
@Laser Length:               0.0
@Laser Head Radius:            0.3
@Laser Tail Radius:            0.3
$Mass:                          100.0
$Velocity:                      1000.0            ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                     15.0            ;; in seconds
$Damage:                        15000            ;; 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:                      1.0            ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed:               .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:               7000            ;; 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:       100.0
$BeamInfo:
   +Type:                  0               ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
   +Life:                    1.0               ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
   +Warmup:                 5000            ;; warmup time in ms
   +Warmdown:               350            ;; warmdown time in ms
   +Radius:                 50.0            ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
   +PCount:               15               ;; particles spewed every interval
   +PRadius:               1.8               ;; 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:            beamglow3         ;; muzzle glow bitmap
   +Shots:                  0               ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
   +ShrinkFactor:            0.0         ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
   +ShrinkPct:               0.0         ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
      +Width:               30               ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-red1         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         255 255 50 150      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         125 200 50 30      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.0               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               3.0               ;; hehe
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               50               ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-white3         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         160 100 0 55      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         60 60 0 10         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.45            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               2.0               ;; hehe
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
      +Width:               60.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-green1         ;; 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:            0.4               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               2.0               ;; hehe


$Name:                     LRBGreen

$Model File:               none             ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:               laserglow01
@Laser Color:               0, 255, 54
@Laser Length:               0.0
@Laser Head Radius:            0.3
@Laser Tail Radius:            0.3
$Mass:                          100.0
$Velocity:                      2600.0            ;; 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:                  1.0
$Shield Factor:                 1.0
$Subsystem Factor:              1.0
$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:               8000            ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags:                         ("Big Ship" "huge" "beam" "supercap")
$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:                 199.0            ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
   +PCount:               25               ;; particles spewed every interval
   +PRadius:               1.4               ;; particle radius
   +PAngle:               60.0            ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
   +PAni:                  particleexp01      ;; particle ani
   +Miss Factor:            0.4 0.5 0.9 1.2 1.7            ;; 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:            beamglow3         ;; 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:               90               ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-red         ;; 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:               110               ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-green2         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         160 160 0 255      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         60 60 0 10         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.45            ;; 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:               130.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-green         ;; 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:            0.4               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               2.0               ;; hehe
   $Section:                              ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               180.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            beam-green3         ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         255 0 0 255         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         60 0 0 10         ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.5               ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               0.0               ;; hehe



; Bright light green         R 137   G 252   B 96
; High Energy Green          R 102   G 255   B 0
; Puke pale green             R 192   G 255   B 200
; Forest Green               R 2    G 142   B 18
; White Streek Green Tint      R 215   G 249   B 219

Can anyone help please?

[Raptor]

Hate to sound really silly and lame, but...

are you sure that you have 'Beam-free-all' set, either via SEXP or the general mission flag?

If yes, then maybe you should set +shots: to 1, just in case.

[Singh]

yup, beam free all is set.
The test is against a demon class destroyer, and it fires its beams just fine.

[TopAce]

Isn't the $Lifetime: 1.0 a bit ..... few?
Otherwise make sure none of the ships in your test mission has the 'ignore ship' order at the ship you want to test the beams on.
You can also try the 'Fire-beam' SEXP in a single event to see if it fires at all.

That's all I can say about this. I ran into this problem before. The solution was with the 'Ignore ship' order, but it was in a complex(and completed) mission. I guess you are not using the 'Ignore ship' order much in a test mission.

[magatsu1]

do the turrets face the target ?
hey, "check the easy stuff first" right ?

do your weapons appear when you change the weapons in the ships editor ?

[Singh]

The life time is short because the damage is 15000 - i was hoping to make a nice rail gun of sorts (if you want full description of the weapon, just ask) with a radial effect on impact (like the cyclops bombs). Ignore ship is not on either, and I'll try the fire beam SexP now.

I put in the weapons in the ship editor in FRED2_Open and it shows up as STS Lasher Cannon in there, but it won't fire in game. The turrets show up though, and i can target the beam cannons. I first tried it with an Orion, and then the colossus, but still no luck.

[Star Dragon]

when I have some time I will try out your Lasher cannon.. what about the LRB Green? what is the purpose for that? (Long Range Beam?)

L8tr..

[Singh]

I've managed to get it working (yay!)
Problem now is, I want it to look orange or a different color at least (its a faded red atm).
What RGB values should i use for it to look remotely orange, or at least have something along those lines?

[Killfrenzy]

Beam colour is governed in the section textures. You'll need to use beam-gold or beam-yell in order to get the colour you're after. RGB doesn't affect it.

[Taristin]

IIRC RGB will change the color of the light it casts on vessels...

[Killfrenzy]

Oh? I didn't know that......but my point still stands!

[Singh]

Tried it and got some results!

Here they are, several shots in sequence:

First a red Ravana to show off SCP features

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/133822/redravana.JPG

The Shivans attempt to stop the remnants of the GTVA from returning to the mirror-earth

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/133822/Shivanattack.JPG

A seraphim succesfully dodges the Morning Star's beams

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/133822/dodge.JPG

It then climbs up after a succesful strafing attack

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/133822/seraphimrun.JPG

And finally, the S.F.C.F. Morning Star Opens fire with it's port Lasher Cannons

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-3/133822/retfire.JPG