[AllStarZ]

You can make an "invisible" missile right?

[jr2]

Color its texture transparent?

[Mobius]

Don't forget the thruster!

[gevatter Lars]

What about creating a skipper missile like in Wing Commander?
That is a missile cloaks itself for a short time, then decloaks, ensures that is targetlook is still valid and then it cloaks again. The missile seams to change it curse with every cloak and decloak so its hard to predict where it would reapear but makes it also necessary that the missile decloaks to get back its target look.
I think that would be a nice idea to work on.

I think the most simple way to do this would be to have an animated texture that changes from visible to transparent. If the missile dosn't have a bomb flag it would be hard to track down even if the missile itself would be pretty big.
The difficulty part is to make it not fly in a straight line.

Well just my two cent ^_^

[jr2]

Well, you could always flag that type of bomb as non-targettable, and it would show (barely) as an intermittent blip... that way, you could make it targetable by AWACS only or something.

[AllStarZ]

Because my idea is this: Make an invisible TAG missile with extreme velocity, invisibility, heat seeking, unable to be shot down or diverted, to act as a pseudo-targeting mechanism for warships. The missile would probably come out of some invisible secondary launch point on the hull.

Its an idea I'd like to try out to see if it works.

The only problem is the warning system of target fighters. That and capacity. I don't want it to be limited.

[Mobius]

What about creating a skipper missile like in Wing Commander?
That is a missile cloaks itself for a short time, then decloaks, ensures that is targetlook is still valid and then it cloaks again. The missile seams to change it curse with every cloak and decloak so its hard to predict where it would reapear but makes it also necessary that the missile decloaks to get back its target look.
I think that would be a nice idea to work on.

I think the most simple way to do this would be to have an animated texture that changes from visible to transparent. If the missile dosn't have a bomb flag it would be hard to track down even if the missile itself would be pretty big.
The difficulty part is to make it not fly in a straight line.

Well just my two cent ^_^

There are some torpedoes in Inferno that change their course continously and taking them down is difficult. Do you know how to have that effect?

[jr2]

Umm, use the targeting laser.    The one that was originally designed to call in subspace missiles. 

[AllStarZ]

Umm, use the targeting laser.    The one that was originally designed to call in subspace missiles. 

The problem is that you will have to move the entire warship to use it.

[Einstine909]

There are some torpedoes in Inferno that change their course continously and taking them down is difficult. Do you know how to have that effect?
[/quote]

The $Swarm flag does that IIRC

[BengalTiger]

$corkscrew would be my guess

[jr2]

Umm, use the targeting laser.    The one that was originally designed to call in subspace missiles. 

The problem is that you will have to move the entire warship to use it.

If it's a fighter, no big deal.  If it's a capship, mount it on a turret. 

[AllStarZ]

How could I make the targeting laser work with cap ship turrets?

[jr2]

IIRC, it's a primary weapon, right?  You'd have to add it to the allowed weapon list for the ship(s) you're using it on, AFAIK (via the ships.tbl - here is the weapons entry in the weapons.tbl ; both table files are in root_fs2.vp)

Code: [Select]

; ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; Targeting Laser
;
$Name:                                  @Targeting Laser
+Title:                                 XSTR("Targeting Laser", 3306)
+Description:
XSTR(
"", 3307)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Description:
XSTR(
"", 3308)
$end_multi_text
$Model File: none
; The following fields (preceded by @) are only required for laser
; rendering, which requires that "Model File:" be none.
; These are the same values that used to be hard-coded:
@Laser Bitmap: newglo6
@Laser Color: 190, 150, 250
@Laser Length: 10.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.90
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.30
$Mass:                          0.2
$Velocity:                      450.0 ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                     0.2 ;; in seconds
$Damage:                        0
$Armor Factor: 0.9
$Shield Factor: 0.7
$Subsystem Factor: 0.3
$Lifetime:                      0.0 ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed: 0.20 ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size: 0.0 ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                        NO
$LaunchSnd:                     115 ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                     27 ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
$Flags:                         ("beam")
$Icon:                                 iconKayser
$Anim:                                 Kayser
$Impact Explosion: none
$BeamInfo: ;; for beam_lite beams - we don't have any associated warmup or warmdown
+Type: 2 ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
+Life:   0.0 ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
+Warmup:   0 ;; warmup time in ms
+Warmdown: 0 ;; warmdown time in ms
+Radius:   1.0 ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
+PCount: 0 ;; particles spewed every interval
+PRadius: 0 ;; particle radius
+PAngle: 0.0 ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
+PAni: particleexp01 ;; particle ani
+Miss Factor: 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (1 for each skill level)
+BeamSound: 115 ;; the looping beam-firing sound
+WarmupSound: 0 ;; associated warmup sound
+WarmdownSound: 0 ;; associated warmdown sound
+Muzzleglow: thrusterglow01 ;; 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: 0.5 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-white ;; 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
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 0.75 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-dblue2 ;; 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: 0.1 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 1.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 1.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-dblue ;; 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: 0.1 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 0.0 ;; hehe


[AllStarZ]

No what I meant to say was, how could I make it so that using it makes ships target my current target?

[jr2]

Beg Nuke to cook up a script for you, or bet an SCP dude to program a change to allow TAG missile attributes to be applied to a targeting laser... otherwise, what happens if something else gets in the way of those invisible missiles?  They will be hit, and targeted.  Although the same might be true for a targeting laser, too... hmm.

[AllStarZ]

Is it possible to make the missiles not be able to be hit by anything, or to go straight to their target regardless of obstacles?

[jr2]

How about just using an "is-targeted" SEXP, with a "target" SEXP??

[AllStarZ]

Me idiot. Me no understand.

[jr2]

I'm not a FREDder, so I was just trying to say, you could hook whatever you're going to use into a "Is-targeted" SEXP, which checks to see if one ship is targeted by another.  Before that, use a "Target" SEXP to make the ship target its target.. you understand?