[Ravage]

I'm not sure if this is possible, but I wondered if there was a way, or could be a way to make slight inaccuracies in the primary weapons.

I always mod the weapons.tbl to increase the rate of fire of primaries, they're just too slow in my opinion, to at least double the normal.

For some of the faster weapons like the Subach or the Mekhu, it allows for a "stream of fire" but I thought it might be interesting to have some travel to the shots, like a machine gun might travel from recoil vibrations, etc.  This would make for a real spraying cone of fire like you see on old WWII gun cameras.

It's just a thought.

[Pnakotus]

So you want to totally change the balance of the primaries?  Hooray!  This is 'mod' material, not 'upgrade' material.

Most people increase the speed or damage of capguns too: it actually makes them useful.  But it's completely changing the game, and makes many missions much easier or harder.

[Ravage]

I realize implementing something like this would be mod material, but as far as I know, there is nothing in the code that allows for this in the first place...sorry if it's in the wrong place, mods feel free to move it...

[Pnakotus]

I think there *is* an inaccuracy function in the tables: the Maxim uses it.  No bally idea how it works though.

[Ravage]

Ah, you're right!  THere is a "shudder" and "stream" flag on the Maxim...but it just seems to make the screen shake, not actually cause any deviation in the shots.  It's ok though, thank you for mpointing me in the right direction!

Looks like it would take a special weapons table flag...and I have no idea how to make one.

[Pnakotus]

Oh, it only shakes the screen?  Maybe it never got implemented, but there was talk of making the Maxim a bit chaotic.  Hopefully someone who knows will be along. 

What about the AAAf beam inaccuracy?

[Trivial Psychic]

The use of $fof will allow you to set a fire-cone for the weapon, though it may also require the use of $shots.  Check the Wiki for these.

[Bobboau]

shots and fof are not needed for each other

[redsniper]

I believe $shots fires several shots at once, like a shotgun.

[Herra Tohtori]

Yeah, I always wondered. Because if you jump into external camera (with HUD in FS_Open), the screen stops shuddering and Maxim becomes a sniper rifle with fire rate of a machine cannon.

It was very useful in Derelict campaign... remember the one mission where you must save a Deimos and destroy energy mines that are disguised as cargo? My standard tactic is to stop at 2-3 clicks from the corvette, change to external view, pound the cargo one by one, destroying every mine in sight while ordering the wingmen to attack the enemy fighters.

Certain amount of dispersion might be good in strong projectile weapons. I would make the cockpit hud shudder somewhat less and add a small dispersion factor to every projectile weapon - like Morning Star, Avenger and Maxim, and of course the BtRL Rattlesnake et al.

[CP5670]

Oh, it only shakes the screen?  Maybe it never got implemented, but there was talk of making the Maxim a bit chaotic.  Hopefully someone who knows will be along. 

I did this for my campaign (it's easy to do with the FOF flag), but it certainly shouldn't be added into the game by default.

[Ravage]

Thank you for all the input guys.  As Trivial Psychic mentioned, it looks like $fof is the flag I want to use.  As usual, someone has already thought of something before I ever imagined it!

One question though, how exactly does the syntax for the $fof flag work?  Is it like -fov?  If I want a 2 degree deviation, would I flag the weapon $fof .02 ?

[Herra Tohtori]

Hard Light Wiki: Weapons.tbl

 

[Ravage]

When I tried adding the $fof line to the weapons table, it caused an error...is there some special way of inserting this into the standard weapons table?

[Wanderer]

If you want to place the entry to the main weapons.tbl then you have to make sure the entry is at correct position (parsing order is the same as the order of the entries in wiki). Alternatively you can use modular tables (something-wep.tbm) for that...

[spartan_0214]

Yea, I like this idea. Sorry, but one of the reasons I like to play Freelancer more than Freespace (I admit it, sorry guys) is because Freespace is too clean. Freelancer, you get muzzle flash (which is a little wierd, and a little tiring on the eyes, but hey, I'll trade realism for that), the heavier weapons ACTUALLY make you run out of energy, and the energy ACTUALLY recovers like a powerplant should. In Freespace, you get little muzzle flash, the weapons either take 0 energy or take %10 energy every shot and recovers too quickly, the secondary weapons trail behind the enemy fighter, not go charging on an intercept course.... etc.

Granted, Freelancer doesn't have the fire cone, it's nice to have one. In Halo 1, you can't aim at a jackal's head with the .50 cal and expect it to hit. The .50 cal has a large cone that makes it real enough to be believeable, but not overdone enough to make the weapon useless. The Assault Rifle also has a cone to reduce the beastly-ness.  Oh yea, and they both shake the screen, just like it would in RW.

[Pnakotus]

'Recovers like a powerplant should'?  Hilarious.  Also, conefire is a crime against humanity, and should only ever, EVER be used when it absolutely must.  The fact that you honestly think the AR in Halo1 is a *GOOD* example of confire just ****ing scares me: the gun is famously useless, and they've 'fixed' it for Halo3.  Yeah, awesome stuff.

That said, Freelancer might look like ass but it has a much more consistent, polished look.  But hey, if you've never run out of energy, you've never used a Maxim! 

[wolf]

the heavier weapons ACTUALLY make you run out of energy

Try double Kaysers on Erinyes.

recovers too quickly

Play on higher difficulty level.

the secondary weapons trail behind the enemy fighter, not go charging on an intercept course....

Harpoons work for me.

[spartan_0214]

But hey, if you've never run out of energy, you've never used a Maxim!  Big grin

I have run out of energy, but then the recover rate is WAY too slow. I'm sitting there trailing a hostile wing, watching the pretty lights go off on the ship, waiting for my energy to restore to where I can get off a three-shot burst. Freelancer, you can still shoot your lasers when the energy is at minimum, but wait .5 seconds, and your able to open fire once again.  And the weapons are more realistic, you fire weapons, all of them drain the power plant, but the plant recovers quickly enough, sos you're not sitting there all but begging the Shivans to kill you, you're blasting the crap out of their paper planes.

[Pnakotus]

Oh, so you prefer it where it's easier - a system where you have a shallow battery that fills up really fast, so it never really interferes with play at all?  Like... the FEAR flashlight, running off a magic battery that lasts for a minute but charges back up in five seconds?

This is why people consider Freelancer to be a nobrainer game, by the way.

In any case, nobody is going to change it because that's just how Freespace is.  But having to manage your power ahead of time is quite fine in my opinion: once your battery is gone, you are indeed ****ed, so hey maybe you should put some thought into your loadouts and power settings!  I did put the power use per second in the loadout text for a reason, you know.