[shiv]

I don't have any expariance in making fighter beams. Culd you tell me how it's working?

[Wanderer]

My notes about beam weapons....

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Tutorial_-_Beam_Weapons

[shiv]

Thanks! I'm starting to studying this article

[DarkShadow-]

Well, there are two ways:

You can create a beam that has a short lifetime and refire rate (< 0.5 sec) so if the player stops pressing the fire button the beam stops shooting right away, like the usual primaries. Problem here will be the sound. Everytime the beam launches the game will play the beam_shot1.wav which sounds weird. Only way to remove that is to change sound 124 (in sounds.tbl) from beam_shot1.wav to empty.wav because the usage of that sound is hardcoded. And, of course, you'll have to make a new wav for the beam itself because most beam sounds are too long for such a small period of time and sound weird, too.

Other way would be to use a standard timing (e.g. 3 secs) so the beams behaviour fits to the premade sounds. Personally I don't like that way, it just feels "wrong". Btw, i use beam type 3 for fighters with a number of shots that's at least as high as the gunpoints of the primary bank with, yeah, most gunpoints so the beam doesn't cycle between the gunpoints. Atm I just don't remember if that's really necessary if you use another beam type or whatever, you just have to try.

[Snail]

I heard they were making proper fighterbeams.

[Dysko]

I once made a fighterbeam (just the AAA ported to another beam type, no stats changed because I only wanted to see how fighterbeams work). It was all ok, except for the fact that it didn't pierce shields
So you can destroy a destroyer (duh!) in few minutes, but fighters are invulnerable

[EAD_Agamemnon]

Another one of my projects.

Of late I been enjoying flying ships that have turrets along with normal weaponry. How do I get the turrets to fire beam weapons? As a test to see if I got it right...I made the Subach HL7 a beam....now I get shot up by nmes using them. My ship has 2 of the 4 firing points on one of its turrets to the Subach beam....but it wont fire them. How come?

[Wanderer]

Did you 'beam free' the ship with the turret or set the global 'beam free all' option?

Errr...

My ship has 2 of the 4 firing points on one of its turrets to the Subach beam.

Can you post table entry?

[EAD_Agamemnon]

how do i do that

[Wanderer]

In FRED, Mission Specs Editor, check the 'All Ships Beam-Freed By Default'

[EAD_Agamemnon]

Okay. Sounds like of trouble just to get the beam turrets on the ship I'm flying to work but I'll see if that works.

[Snail]

It's a checkbox. How much trouble does it take to check a box?

[Getter Robo G]

You need that checked or even cap ships won't fire beam weapons....

Personally I think it should have been reversed, beam-free by defualt with option to stop all for testing or sexp individual ships off)...

[jr2]

I once made a fighterbeam (just the AAA ported to another beam type, no stats changed because I only wanted to see how fighterbeams work). It was all ok, except for the fact that it didn't pierce shields
So you can destroy a destroyer (duh!) in few minutes, but fighters are invulnerable

- take out the -nobeampierce flag in the launcher, should be under "No beams pierce shields" or something like that.

[Dysko]

I already tried that... it didn't work anyway.

[Getter Robo G]

Just a quick question... Um, shields aren't forever you know... IF you do enough damage the shields GO AWAY, just like when you attack a cap ship with shields. (not talking about lucifer)..

Sounds like a table problem. you might have given too high shield recharge time and thus MADE your fighters invulnerable or hit a box some where that beam protects them possibly?

Other than those examples I could think of I never seen a shielded ship that was "Invulnerable"...

ok I just thought of something. You beam does too little damage and the fighters normal table entry recharge time for shields is too high so you THINK they are invulnerable to beams...?

If you need some beams to try I could post some tables?  (My fighter phasers and variants are based on the B5 Nial's table)

I give fighters for testing about 1000-2000 points for shields and cap ships from 10000-300,000 (depending on class etc)

This is because of my weapons table.

As you can see the Rommie is protected by shields, for the moment.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/rfhk1.jpg

Soon as the Feddie batters them down however, the Rommie is wide open
http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/rockhardplace.jpg

A better look at when shields are up.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b321/Star-Dragon/FighterPhaser.jpg

 Hope this helps you a little.

Oh and that Fed ship in the pictures had no shield mesh at teh time so it was invulnerable to beams! Only fighter weapons and missiles could damage it.

If you are testing a ship out that you did not add a shield mesh for yet, make the shield power ZERO.

Just remembered that...

[Dysko]

The only ship table I modified is the Perseus' one, to allow the fighterbeam, so I don't think the recharge rate is the problem.
Anyway, the fighterbeam table:

Code: [Select]

$Name: Fighterbeam
 +Title: XSTR("Fighterbeam", -1)
 +Description: XSTR(
"Fighterbeam", -1)
$end_multi_text
 +Tech Title: XSTR("Fighterbeam", -1)
 +Tech Anim: Tech_Subach_HL-7
 +Tech Description: XSTR("This is a beam that can be used on fighters.", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Model File: none
@Laser Bitmap: laserglow01
@Laser Color: 136, 243, 249
@Laser Length: 0.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.60
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.60
$Mass: 100.0
$Velocity: 1000.0
$Fire Wait: 5.5
$Damage: 5
$Armor Factor: 2.0
$Shield Factor: 9.9
$Subsystem Factor: 1.8
$Lifetime: 40.0
$Energy Consumed: 15.0
$Cargo Size: 0.0
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 124
$ImpactSnd: 88
$Flags: ("in tech database" "player allowed" "beam")
$Icon: iconPromS
$Anim: PromS
$Impact Explosion: none
$BeamInfo:
 +Type: 4
 +Life: 2.5
 +Warmup: 1500
 +Warmdown: 1200
 +Radius: 2.0
 +PCount: 12
 +PRadius: 1.2
 +PAngle: 65.0
 +PAni: particleexp01
 +Miss Factor: 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 1.5
 +BeamSound: 149
 +WarmupSound: 151
 +WarmdownSound: 161
 +Muzzleglow: thrusterglow01
 +ShrinkFactor: 0.0
 +ShrinkPct: 0.0
 $Section:
 +Width: 2.0
 +Texture: beam-white
 +RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255
 +RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10
 +Flicker: 0.1
 +Zadd: 1.0
 $Section:
 +Width: 6.0
 +Texture: beam-dblue2
 +RGBA Inner: 160 160 0 255
 +RGBA Outer: 60 60 0 10
 +Flicker: 0.1
 +Zadd: 1.0
 $Section:
 +Width: 8.0
 +Texture: beam-dblue
 +RGBA Inner: 255 0 0 255
 +RGBA Outer: 60 0 0 10
 +Flicker: 0.4
 +Zadd: 0.0
As you can see, due to desperation I gave it an high shield damage factor.

[Getter Robo G]

I never tried a warmup/warmdown for a fighter primary...

try this:

$Name:                          Fighterbeam
+Title:                         XSTR("Phaser, Fighter", -1)
+Description:
XSTR(
"Fires a stream of neutrons.
Level 3 Hull Damage ", -1)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Title:                    XSTR("Phaser, Fighter", -1)
+Tech Anim:                     Tech_Subach_HL-7
+Tech Description:
XSTR(
"Phasers cause molecular decay on the targets hull plating. Using powerful gravimetrics  to control the confinement of the beam, Federation craft use this to great advantage and are able to  bring significant firepower on their target.", -1)
$end_multi_text
$Model File:                  none
@Laser Bitmap:                fedphas
@Laser Glow:                  laserglow01
@Laser Color:                 255, 40, 0
@Laser Color2:                255, 40, 0
@Laser Length:                1000.0;500.0
@Laser Head Radius:           .50
@Laser Tail Radius:           .50
$Mass:                        0.01
$Velocity:                    3000
$Fire Wait:                   0.10
$Damage:                      50 ; 50
$Armor Factor:                1.0
$Shield Factor:               0.7
$Subsystem Factor:            0.8
$Lifetime:                    0.9
$Energy Consumed:             0.75 ;0.45
$Cargo Size:                  0.0
$Homing:                      NO
$LaunchSnd:                   84
$ImpactSnd:                   85
+Weapon Range:                1600
$Flags:                       ( "in tech database" "player allowed" "stream" )
$Trail:
      +Start Width:                 1.0
      +End Width:                   1.0
      +Start Alpha:                 1.0
      +End Alpha:                   0.7
      +Max Life:                    0.19 ;0.3
      +Bitmap:                      fedphas
$Icon:                        iconSD4
$Anim:                        SD4
$Impact Explosion:              none

Tell me what happens.  Change the two bitmap entries to any other. It's been so long since I made an entry I forgot what FS2 uses for names, mine are all custom. It's an energy hog not for continuous use, but for strafing or precise targeting unliek the cap ship versions.

or you can use this image for bitmap: http://upload2.net/page/download/k7YxV9ZAJLf70yC/fedphas.pcx.html

Goes in your effects folder.

[Wanderer]

That aint a fighterbeam... Anyway all beams pierce shields by default unless "no pierce shields" flag is used. I have had no issues in my test when taking out enemy shields with fighterbeams.

[Snail]

That's one of the fighterbeam wanna be things used in the days of retail.