[Stormkeeper]

I'm wondering if its possible to create a capital ship weapon that fires multiple laser blasts what seek out targets.

For example, when the turret fires, it fires 6-8 bolts, which each seek after their own targets. Is it possible to do this?

I was thinking about just modifying the weapon .tbl for the MX-52, maybe replacing the missiles with blobs, and making the trails blend with the blobs so that it seems like one long, thin bolt.

=edit=
The tracking for the mini bolts will be passive, obviously.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Target seeking lasers are physically impossible, light/plasma doesn't have homing technology.

However, you could do it by modifying a missile, like you said.

[Stormkeeper]

Apparently not, because I'm intending it to be a laser weapon, so I've decide to take a Terran Turret laser field and change it to match the MX-52's statistics somewhat.

[T-Man]

If you check the weapons .tbl, i think you can set missile flags (like homing) to primary weapons (i know they can be given a model file too). Perhaps that can achieve the effect you want.

[Stormkeeper]

I have the results of the first test!

Visually impressive and scary...

.... ignore the puny trails....

... there were some... turning issues...

... but the weapon sounded awesome ...

... however ...

... the Herc in red got splashed by a full volley and flew away barely scratched.

And the laser got its first kill 1 minute into the test, while the Aeolus went down slightly under 3 minutes with about 5 kills.

There seem to be some problems with the target tracking ... It is passive tracking, but I'm not sure why it doesn't zoom off after the targets. The bolts' start velocity is equal to that of the Harpoons ...

[JGZinv]

Maybe because they are blobs and not something else?

A leftover from the stats you copied?

Very interesting idea, I thought about something sorta similar before but didn't work on it.

[Stormkeeper]

Maybe because they are blobs and not something else?

I did think about that, and was thinking maybe I needed a laser model of some sort, but I seriously hope that's not the case.

I'm going through the stats now, and making references with the Rockeye.

[Wanderer]

Primary weapons do not (or rather should not) home on target. All you should get is that the laser orients it self toward the target but nothing else. You can do homing energy thingyes in several other ways however. All as 'secondary weapons'. (i) One kinda obvious is to make a modelless secondary (ie. with small invisible model) and add particle spew and trail to it (ii) next one is to make another small model and the add thruster effects to it (six of them... one for each direction with normals pointing away from the model) and a trail. Then there is option of (iii) making that small model and adding standard glowpoint and a trail to it. Also (iv) if the weapon is very slow then you might be able to use just particle spew alone as well.

I would probably choose the 3rd method...

And last but not least (hopefully) there is an option of using scripting to (a) generate particles attached to the weapon or (b) make really, really homing primaries using similar method as with the reflective/doom sphere script ( http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,48287.msg980359.html ) that is to change both their real flying vector as well as the orientation.

[Stormkeeper]

*snip*

Yea, I figured that out after forcing the lasers to my primaries. I've thought about making them into secondaries, but then I'm wondering about the ammo count. But then again, capital ships don't take ammo counts, do they?

=edit=
On another note, I found this screenshot to be rather funny. They look like music notes to me.

[Colonol Dekker]

Someones been playing Zone of the enders or R-type.
 ;D

[Stormkeeper]

Ahahahah. Well, I did play ZoE before, but for some strange reason, it was the Star Wars thread that sparked off this idea.

I tested this weapon on a capital vs capital scenario, and it fared pretty well, with a slightly better damage dealt than an SGreen. And it looked freaking cool.

=edit=
Its not possible to have laser tags on a secondary weapon, is it?

Nope, apparently not. Looks like I'll have to do it like [V] and make an inviskible laser head.

I just refitted the one in the screenshots into a primary capital weapon.

Tested it against a Lilith, Cain and Rakshasha. Used the GTCx Blade, slightly modified Aeolus with surface shields and slightly faster turning speed.

The Blade won all 3 rounds. Because against the Lilith, a full volley from the swarm laser hit the LRed and kablammed it right out....

[Getter Robo G]

I actually need glowing musical notes.... 

Can you post the (current) working homing laser table entry?

[Stormkeeper]

Its not working yet; but should be done by today. I just decided to steal the SSL's invisible head.

=Edit=
I can't find the .pof in the FSPort's VP, does anyone have an original FS VP?

[Warp Shadow]

Well if you try to make primaries homing, they just point towards the target but don't change course (it would be nice to have this feature soon!) but if you want them to seek out independent targets, you could try a spawning weapon where the turret just detonates it again and all of the children are heat seeking rockets, so they'll just seek out whatever's closest.

[Stormkeeper]

If I make a small cube to serve as the laser's head, I just put it in the data/models directory, right?

=edit=
Success! It homes! On the bad part, its a secondary, and it looks like a hornet. Just have to add the particle spew to make it look more laser-like. Only got one screenshot though, because the Fenris died too fast. Yea, I know, it looks like a hornet atm.


So i tried to use $Pspew to make it laser like, but it crashed:

Error: weapons.tbl(line 4127:
Error: Required token = [#End] or [$Name:], found [$Pspew:]
in weapon: Blutsucher.

File:J:\src\cvs\fs2_open_3_6_9.final\code\Parse\PARSELO.CPP
Line: 659
[This filename points to the location of a file on the computer that built this executable]

Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the current working laser table entry:

Code: [Select]

; ---------------------------------------------------------------------
;; Experimental swarm laser
;;
$Name:                                  Blutsucher
+Title:                                 XSTR("GTW Blutsucher", 3400)
+Description:
XSTR(
"Standard Issue
Fire and Forget", 3401)
$end_multi_text
+Tech Description:
XSTR(
"The GTW Blutsuch is an experimental swarm laser. Multiple attractors are launched shortly before the beams are fire, each beam tuned to the an individual attractor. The attractor itself is a magnetic missile, attracted to metallic objects with a foreign IFF signature.", 3402)
$end_multi_text
$Model File:                  blut_head.pof
$Mass:                                  1.5
$Velocity:                              350.0
$Fire Wait:                             3.0
$Damage:                                240                                              ;; damage applied when within inner radius
$Armor Factor:                  1.0
$Shield Factor:                 2.0
$Subsystem Factor:              1.0
$Lifetime:                              25.0
$Energy Consumed:               0.0                                     ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size:                    1.0                                     ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing:                               YES
;; the following indented fields are only required when $Homing is YES
+Type: HEAT ;; Legal: HEAT, ASPECT
+Turn Time: 0.3
+View Cone: 80
$Swarm: 10
$Pspew:
+Count: 60
+Time: 3
+Vel: 0.75
+Radius: 1.2
+Life: 25.0
+Scale: 1.0
+Bitmap: laserglow04
$LaunchSnd: 111                                              ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd:                 85                                              ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
$Flags:                                 ( "Big Ship")                                          ;;
$Trail:                                                                      ;; Trail cannot be set if Exhaust is set
+Start Width:  1.30                                            ;; Width of trail nearest missile
+End Width: 0.25                                             ;; Width of trail before it "evaporates"
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life:      1.0                                             ;; how many seconds before trail disappears
+Bitmap:        MissileTrail02                  ;; Bitmap used to draw trail
$Icon:                                  icongun03
$Anim:                                  LoadGun02
$Impact Explosion:      none

And for some, obscure reason, line 659 is the entry for the Kayser-D, but I've not touched it, and its exactly the same as the original Kayser-D entry.

[Wanderer]

Second line number just refers to the line in the sourcecode file which triggered the error.

Problem seems to be that you have placed the pspew entry to the wrong place in the table file.

[Stormkeeper]

So where exactly should the PSpew entry be placed? Sorry if its a n00b question, this is the first time making new weapons, I usually just modify existing table entries.

[Wanderer]

http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Tables
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Weapons.tbl
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Weapons.tbl#.24Pspew:

[Stormkeeper]

Oh. The wiki lists the order in which the tags should be placed... I see... Didn't realize that.

... Okay. It worked .. kinda. Now I gots popcorn lasers.

Image is off center cause it makes my FS2 lack like mad, see the fps? too many particles. 60 per bolt X 10 bolts = 600 particles. Crazy me. Only one I have of the popcorn lasers, cause after that my FS2 crashed.

[DarkShadow-]

... Okay. It worked .. kinda. Now I gots popcorn lasers.

Mmmh, popcorn 

In my mod, some ships have a secondary weapon looking like the Star Trek Quantum Torpedoes (that blue thingie), created by using an invisible model, no trail and spawning a particle (which looks like the torpedo) every 0,1 seconds (or so) with a lifetime of 0,1 seconds... I'm not really sure about the time, can't look it up right know.

Perhaps you can change the lifetime or particle so it looks like you want, dunno, just trying to show you a different way of approaching the problem.