[morris13]

So how exactly do these work? If you have a three-barrelled flak gun does it fire three rounds a time, effectively tripling the turret's effectiveness, or does it work like a secondary bank, just rotating through the turret firing points every shot?

[Shrike]

Rotates through firing points.

[morris13]

yah, thats kind of what I thought. Too bad.

[Sandwich]

Ok, here's a question about 'em: They turn to face their targets. So usually the barrel is in line with the target, and the shot comes out along the normal (I think that's the right term...). Anyway, say that the turret's elevational axis is limited to -5 degrees below the plane of the face that the turret is situated on. Say that's an AAA turret, and that there's a fighter, within range as far as distance is concerned, at -10 degrees below. Will the turret be able to hit the fighter, since the AAA beams usually have a wide angle of fire from the normal of the turret?

Or in other words, does the movement and aiming of the turret change the direction of the normal, or does the turret simply rotate throughout the firing arc of the weapon that is mounted upon it?

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"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"Just becase you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
"To err is human; to really screw up you need a computer."
Creator of the Sandvich Bar, the CapShip Turret Upgrade, the Complete FS2 Ship List and the System Backgrounds List (all available from the site)

[Snipes]

I always thought that the normal was always facing one way, and the turrets can only move in the arc of the fov, like if the turret is right side up, and it has a normal of y=1, and a fov of 90, it'll fire 45 degrees in any direction around it. Am I right?

[Bobboau]

yes, thats how it works

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Bobboau, bringing you products that work.............. in theory

[Sandwich]

Ok, so an AAA beam on a triple turret will ALWAYS shoot out along the same line as it's originating barrel, right? And, for example, if I loaded up a triple turret with a Mjolnir beam (not the #home), the turret will not elevate the barrels because the Mjolnir Beam has no FOV, correct?

------------------
"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"Just becase you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
"To err is human; to really screw up you need a computer."
Creator of the Sandvich Bar, the CapShip Turret Upgrade, the Complete FS2 Ship List and the System Backgrounds List (all available from the site)

[Bobboau]

no the turret will point at what its firing at but the beam will move faster than the turret, but it will only fire at things within the FOV around the normal.

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Bobboau, bringing you products that work.............. in theory

[morris13]

Okay, so here's another question. I notice that many ships have turrets with two different weapons listed ie:
$Subsystem:      turret04, 2, 1.0
$Default PBanks: ( "Subach HL-7" "Terran Turret Weak")

OR

$Subsystem:  turret01, 2, 1.0
$Default PBanks "Terran Turret Weak" "Terran Turret Weak" )

My first impression would be that whenever the gun fires it has a choice between the two different gun types. Why then have the entries that list the same type twice? It might make sense for a multibarrel turret if you had a different weapon assigned to each barrel and they just rotated every time the gun fired, but these turrets are from the charybdis and they're not multi-barreled. Most of the non-combatant ships like the Faustus and the Zephyrous do the same thing - multiple guns for a single gunpoint.
The big three-barrelled turrets on the Orion do both:
$Subsystem:Turret01a, 1.875, 3.0
$Default PBanks "BGreen" )
$Subsystem:Turret02a, 1.875, 3.0
$Default PBanks "Terran Huge Turret" "Terran Huge Turret" "Terran Huge Turret" )

despite the fact that both of these are identical three barrelled turrets. Why have the THT listed three times? if you replaced the THT with different weapons, would it fire a different weapon each time, or would it decide which one it wanted like AI fighters use their secondaries? The Hecate also has multi-barrel turrets, but none of its turrets have more than one primary listed. Likewise ALL of the guns on an Aeolus are mutibarreled, but only have one listing per turret.
So far the following ships do this: Orion and Colossus (multi-barrel turrets only), Zephryus, Ankh, Faustus, Charybdis, and Setekh. I'm doing some experimentation on this myself, but if anyone knows exactly why this is like this i'd appreciate some feedback =)

[Snipes]

That is all very true... and I understand 0% how it is done. lol

[morris13]

well, I've been playing with it and it only seems to ever use the first primary on the list.

[Snipes]

Odd indeed... I realized that if a ship has beam turrets, but they are not freed, they shoot subachs, it seems... lol

[Tachnyrus]

What happens if I create something like: "AAAf" "AAAf" "Shivan Super Laser" for a turret point which only has one, like for the Fenris-Class Cruiser? Will two beams and the superlaser shot come out of the single point, or will it shoot: AAAf, AAAf, Shivan Super Laser?

[Snipes]

That's what we're trying to figure out

[Shrike]

It'll shoot AAAf.

[Snipes]

Then why have 3 banks?

[morris13]

well, thats exactly the question we're trying to answer. I've tested this on the Aeolus and wether its a single, double, or triple barrelled turret it only ever uses the first weapon on the list. Although... the comment about beams is interesting. It might be the case that if the first weapon in the list doesn't have a valid target it'll switch to the next one? This certainly isn't the pattern that the weapons like this in the .tbl file follow though... it might just be some kind of wierd oversight or leftover from a discarded engine element. Who knows. It doesn't seem like there's a practical use for this though, unfortunately.

[Snipes]

Well... I could see having ( "Bgreen" "UD-8 Kayser" ) so if the turret has no real target, it gets one.. but I don't know.

[Snipes]

This whole thread is a big  

It really doesn't make sense... probably a defunct engine feature... but sometimes I could swear I was being shot at by more than one weapon from those turrets... I just can't tell...

[morris13]

Well, I kinda thought so too, So I put an Aeolus in a mission where it had both capships and fighters to shoot at and put different weapons on every turret so I could tell if it switched, but it never did. Defunct engine feature is my guess too. Its a rather odd collection of ships that use it though.