[Mav]

Just a small idea that might look nice:
If one could give missilepoints a "missile-path" like currently a dockpoint is assigned a docking-path... As a start-route for the missiles, so to say. That might not have too much effect on your average FS2-fighter, but on capships or on fighters that are heavily missile-equipped it should look interesting, given some modding .

What I mean is: The fired missile starts as usual at the firing point, but then runs through the path-points (maybe even accelerating thereby, depending on the tbl/tbm-entries), before starting to track by itself...

The question then would be, if those points should be relative to the position the firing ship was in when it fired (which would look better on fast-moving ships), or to its actual position (as dockpaths are, so that this might be easier to code...) .


So, is this already possible?
Or, if not, might it please be added sometime in the (distant? ) future?

[Wanderer]

ATM you cant path the missiles, but you can set a time it flies straight before its starts homing. IIRC it runs the 'free flight time' at velocity = launching ships velocity + ( missiles set velocity / 4 )

[Mav]

So it isn't possible right now. Ok, thanks for the info .

But you seem to have missed the point of   "Or, if not, might it please be added sometime in the (distant?  ) future? "

So (question to the SCP staff), could it?
And (question to all forumites), would it be interesting?

[DarkShadow-]

Definitly! I could need it for one of my destroyers.

[achtung]

Sounds neat.

You could script some sort of pinnacle moment or something where the missiles have to come from the other side of the vessel, and they could curve around the ship itself.  Think umbrella effect.

It would be more aesthetically pleasing than anything else, but neat nonetheless.

[JGZinv]

I'd vote yes for it. 

I can see using it a few different ways, perhaps even eventually creating those
"curving beams" that were discussed in another thread earlier.

[Charismatic]

I'd vote yes for it. 

I can see using it a few different ways, perhaps even eventually creating those
"curving beams" that were discussed in another thread earlier.

And wasen't the curving beams idea horribly shot down?

[JGZinv]

I believe it was - I'd have to check the end of the thread.

However, that doesn't mean...

A. There isn't the possibility that the same general effect can't be created due
to the mixing of other things. This has happened in the past.

B. That I can't still look forward to that possibility, whether or not it actually exists. 

[Flipside]

I think the missile always leaves the firepoint along the normal of the weapon, so if you set the free flight time to, say, 1 second, and point your missile normals out to the side, they should produce a similar effect The only downside to the is the FOF for the missiles is defined around the normal, so you'd have to be careful when defining it.

[JGZinv]

Hmm - interesting.
A friend of mine may decide to try and model that ship - so I may get
the chance to try it yet.

I was thinking, is it possible to put lats on a missile or beam model and
get it to produce a one time side burst for a very short time in order to get the beam curved
for that short duration before returning to a straight path?

What is "FOF"?

[G0atmaster]

Sounds neat.

You could script some sort of pinnacle moment or something where the missiles have to come from the other side of the vessel, and they could curve around the ship itself.  Think umbrella effect.

It would be more aesthetically pleasing than anything else, but neat nonetheless.

I'm thinking of the missile launchers on the Vagyr Battleships in Homeworld 2, or the Dreadnought in Cataclysm

[Wanderer]

Vaygr type 'vertical launch' thing is somewhat doable already now.. Something like making a static singlepart turret, giving it fov of 360 and then either making missile aspect seeker or heat seeker with cone of 360. Then just make the missile a '$swarm: 1' weapon and it ought to handle the issue

And no... missiles wont fire in the normal unless they have been defined to do so.

[JGZinv]

Wanderer - will that work for my application above (replacing Flipside's idea entirely) or
is that only in direct response to the Vagyr?

I've never seen a Vagyr, much less one fire something - so I have no idea if it's the same.

[Wanderer]

http://shipyards.relicnews.com/hw2/index_vaygr.html
See Vaygr cruiser and destroyer.

Faking beams with extremely fast missiles is possible (was done in FS 1) and with similar procedure might produce 'curved beams' but.. well.. its upto you.. it has some downsides

[JGZinv]

Downsides being..?

Non sustainable damage? Too many missiles? Lock on vs. pilot life span?

[Wanderer]

Unless you are planning real missile spamming (hundred or so) then too many missiles aint going to be an issue. Damage is also single hit type but as you can tweak that to have higher single hit damage it really doesnt matter either.

However if missiles are too fast and exist in the game for fraction of a seconds then game engine might not render those nor their trails at all IIRC nor will the collision detection be flawless. Or is what has happened earlier. Also the trail (=beam) fading or disappearance might be difficult to get right

[JGZinv]

Well those are all things I believe are minor compared to just saying it's not possible...

Speed of missile and the trails is just a duration/timing issue and would mainly
be more to the other pilot's taste (external vantage point), per say, because they would be seeing more of it
than the person under attack.

Really, the two ships that I know use those weapons as shown - do not have typical
weapons. They are beam only. The current surface shield system that FS uses is perfect
for what I need visually. So it pretty much all fits nicely. Missile spamming... eh..
by my count I see 12 turrets on the ship above. The other one is a battleship class
and about 15-20 times larger... which has around 16 turrets per quarter (90 degrees)... then we'd have a
maximum of 64 turrets on it alone.

So even if they all shot at once... you have a potential maximum of 76 "beams."
Really there's no point in doing that, because with all the blue beams, you couldn't tell
which beams belonged to which craft.

As to fighters - I can simply have separate turrets for caps/fighters and have the AA beams
set to a lower damage amount. That will keep the pilots form being pulverized with one shot
and if someone is foolish enough to get in between the caps - they'll receive a full power blast.

But thanks for the info - I'll be looking this up again when I have a model to work with.