[blowfish]

It fires at a cargo container called "U Missed" which arrives (with no warp) right before the beam fires (it has a departure cue, but the beam will probably destroy it 90% of the time).

[Goober5000]

Exactly the way people have been suggesting.  By making a small target ship appear a large distance away using "no arrival warp", then firing a beam at it.

[blowfish]

You should be able to replace the texture with invisible in most cases as well.

[Kopachris]

Make a small model with no texture, no engines, no anything.  It will appear gray in FRED, but invisible in the game.  Or at least, on FS2 open, converting the cob to pof with PCS1.

[Droid803]

But using a Nav Buoy is so much easier

[haloboy100]

To me people are making too much of a fuss over weather the object will be seen or not. If you actually do get a glance at a nav bouy or something the beam is firing at, you're only going to see it for a few seconds before the object is destroyed or disappears.

[blowfish]

Navbouys don't get destroyed.  They have no_collide enabled.  Its a good idea to have things depart before they can be seen though (eg. while the beam is firing)

[Droid803]

Yea, but I need it to shoot there periodically. Tis a chase scene.
I should probably have more targets arrive and depart, however.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Here's a thought.  Put something small way off in the distance and limit the radar range so it can't be seen on radar.  Also make it invulnerable, stealthy, and invisible.  Then every time you want to fire at it you just use an event something like this

when
--> (what need to be true for it to fire)
-->set object position
----><target>
---->+
------->get-object-x
----------><ship to miss>
-------><x axis distance you want to miss by>
---->+
------->get-object-y
----------><ship to miss>
-------><y axis distance you want to miss by>
---->+
------->get-object-z
----------><ship to miss>
-------><z axis distance you want to miss by>
-->fire-beam
----><ship firing>
----><turret with beam>
----><ship to miss>
-->set object position
----><target>
----><original x position>
----><original y position>
----><original z position>


Note I've never tried this so I have no idea if it will work.  If it does you could even make it miss by random distances for a more realistic effect. 

[haloboy100]

How hard would it be to make a fire-at-coordinate SEXP? Sorry I have to stress this idea, but it might be worth the effort?

[Kopachris]

How hard would it be to make a fire-at-coordinate SEXP? Sorry I have to stress this idea, but it might be worth the effort?

I think it would definitely be worth the effort!  Especially for a campaign with a mission in which one of your squad mates is being attacked with telepathy and goes crazy and shoots at one specific spot that doesn't have anything there.  Perhaps in a nebula...
Alpha 3: "What?  What's going on?  Who are you?"
Alpha 4: "Who are who?
Alpha 3: "Them!  They're here!"
Beta 1: "Who's here, pilot?"
Alpha 3: "I don't know!  Them!  They're in my mind!  They're sitting right in front of my ship!"
[Alpha 3 starts shooting at nothing, while a Shivan AWACS jumps in behind them]
Alpha 2: "Incoming jump signature, unknown configuration!"
Command: "Sensors are picking up some strange quantum pulses coming from that ship, not unlike what was used in Aken Bosch's ETAK project a few years ago."
Alpha 2: "Aken Bosch?  The rebel leader during the Second Shivan Incursion?"
Command: "Bosch's ETAK project was used to try to communicate with the Shivans.  It worked and Bosch escaped on a Shivan transport.  This ship appears to be the Shivan version of an AWACS device.  Sending in Delta wing now; destroy that ship, pilots!"

Kind of a challenge to destroy a ship when you're both getting bombarded with EM and your wingmen are going crazy...

[karajorma]

How hard would it be to make a fire-at-coordinate SEXP? Sorry I have to stress this idea, but it might be worth the effort?

You'll really have to ask someone who knows more about the weapon code but I do know that the fire beam SEXP, the function it calls and the struct used to pass the info to it all require a target object.

[Snail]

Yeah, it can't be so hard to just add in a new Pharos beacon with invisible textures, friendly-ship-stealth and checking "no warp".

[blowfish]

Yeah, it can't be so hard to just add in a new Pharos beacon with invisible textures, friendly-ship-stealth and checking "no warp".

This apparently doesn't work in subspace though (not a problem for most missions).  Also disable glowpoints for future-proofedness (Firecrack's HTL pharos has glowpoints).

[Snail]

A better thing to do is to leave it there for the entire course of the mission. In this case, there will be no "Target Blip Arrived" in the F4 Mission Log, and no warp either.

[Droid803]

Yea, I left it there the whole mission. The closest you get to it is around 15 clicks, and its stealth, and tiny. I guess you could see it if you really tried, but under normal circumstances, it should be stumbled upon. I hope.

I think it'll work in subspace if I gave it something like a texture that's got no alpha channel, but setting it to "invisible" (as in, no texture existing) didn't work as well as I wished.

[haloboy100]

Well, since the texture of a pharos is white and blue, it might not even be visible > 20 klicks away in subspace, and in blank space, it might just be disregarded as part of the star field background.

[Kopachris]

What's wrong with in subspace?  Does FS2 make your jump drive not work in a subspace mission?  Then how are you supposed to exit subspace?

[haloboy100]

Huh? how does this relate to this thread?

[Kopachris]

They said that the invisible ship idea wouldn't work in subspace, then they thought it might.  I'm confused