[Iain Baker]

Bit of a noob question perhaps, but is there a way of seeing what weapons on a cap ship are what – i.e. which are anti-cap ship beams, AAA beams, missile launchers, blobs, etc? on an easily understandable diagram, 3D model etc? This would be very handy for training, both for players IRL, and perhaps could be worked into the game, as a TSM mission or similar? I have been after something like this for, oh, 20(ish) years  :

As an aside, it would also be very handy if a highlighted beam turret said more than just ‘beam’. Distinguishing between an anti-capship beam and a AAA beam would be fantastic. If it could distinguish between light, medium and heavy anti-capship beams as well that would be the icing on the cake.

PS - FS2 is 20 years old next year! Anyone else read that and think "Bloody 'ell, I feel old now" 

[Galemp]

Well, targeting tells you if it's a laser, missile, or beam turret. Ships.tbl lets you override this, but that doesn't account for mission designers changing it up.

Maybe there's a weapons.tbl entry that could define how a specified weapon is labeled when targeted?

As for training, this sounds like an opportunity for a TSM as you mentioned, or maybe a command brief animation.

[Mito [PL]]

I remember that some mods actually introduced other names to beam turrets, IIRC antifighter beams had their names visible as "AAA Beam" and anticap beams as "Beam cannon". Seems like it was done on the table level.

Also, you might want to check out the latest version of Exile, it uses a special targeting gauge (not sure how to call it though) independent of targeting systems to highlight mission critical beam cannons and show their remaining hitpoints. I could provide you a couple screenshots if you don't feel like playing that right now.

Also, the F3 Lab used to have a "Show paths" option that also highlighted a vertical path for every turret on the model. Maybe this could be used for the purpose, if adapted into missions and showing only turret paths?

[Nightmare]

Does Exile have that turret highlight thing as well or did you mean INF?

[Mito [PL]]

Exile definitely highlights specific turrrets, so I guess it could originate from Inferno. Got a screen: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/223511363807346691/519960393809002497/screen0175.png

[Nyctaeus]

Both Exile and Inferno share the same script.

[Spoon]

It's a very handy script indeed. Made by Axem for use in JAD, and then it quickly spread to basically every mod ever, because it is so useful.

[Nightmare]

But I think the idea to define properties like "AAA Beam" in weapons.tbl rather than ships.tbl has potential as well. It's indeed useful to know, and it's MUCH easier than to write it under every single turret subsystem. Just look at the ships.tbl of Exile and INF (and SG IIRC too) and you'll know what I mean.

Same could go for "check hull" flags as part of ai_profiles. It's quite often that this is the only thing specified there.

[Spoon]

But I think the idea to define properties like "AAA Beam" in weapons.tbl rather than ships.tbl has potential as well. It's indeed useful to know, and it's MUCH easier than to write it under every single turret subsystem. Just look at the ships.tbl of Exile and INF (and SG IIRC too) and you'll know what I mean.

Same could go for "check hull" flags as part of ai_profiles. It's quite often that this is the only thing specified there.

Agreed.

(Kind of too late to be useful for WoD at this point, but regardless, agreed.)

[Nyctaeus]

But I think the idea to define properties like "AAA Beam" in weapons.tbl rather than ships.tbl has potential as well. It's indeed useful to know, and it's MUCH easier than to write it under every single turret subsystem. Just look at the ships.tbl of Exile and INF (and SG IIRC too) and you'll know what I mean.

Same could go for "check hull" flags as part of ai_profiles. It's quite often that this is the only thing specified there.

I would like to have both.

While Exile keeps this simple, SG has quite complex alternate subsystem names system. There are Main Beams, Primary Beams and Secondary Beams. BGreen for example is mostly Main Beam on most ships, but there also BGreens which are less important than other cannons. Trio of spinal beams of Boreas is an example.

As for "check hull", it should be implemented by default to every turret, or as you said, it should be specified in ai_profiles. Your idea is better, because it covers backward compatibility with older mods. Certain flag allowing turrets to ignore this value like "ignore check hull" would be needed for turrets with larger than 180° angle of fire, like swarm torpedo launchers of UED Solaris.

[0rph3u5]

Also, the F3 Lab used to have a "Show paths" option that also highlighted a vertical path for every turret on the model. Maybe this could be used for the purpose, if adapted into missions and showing only turret paths?

... uhm, turret FOV is different from the path that belongs to the turret. And it is defined in the model file AFAIK.

[Nightmare]

I think the turret-hot key script is the better option for that anyway, the rest can be handled via the highlight script. If you have a ship with 25 turrets, it'll probably get confusing very quickly. Of course you could modify the highlight script to automatically display, say AAA beams, with smaller markings, but I don't think it's a good idea to highlight everything.

[General Battuta]

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare (which had a very good space shooter sub-game) was very good about highlighting turrets, it kind of made me think that 'highlight everything' could work.

BP2 act 4/5 was going to ship with a subsystem escort list.

[bomb3rman]

Ehm... where can I find this script? Or what's its name in the exile folder? Would like to have and use it 

[Nightmare]

Ehm... where can I find this script? Or what's its name in the exile folder? Would like to have and use it 

Which one do you mean? The turret highlight script (released) or the subsystem escort list (unreleased)?

[bomb3rman]

I mean the turret Highlight Script

[Nightmare]

Here you go...

to use it you need following SEXP:

Code: [Select]

   ( script-eval-block
      "MarkBox:AddSubsys("
      "'SD Lucifer',"              ;Ship
      "'Beam Cannon',"             ;Subsystem description
      "'Turret01')"                ;Turret
   )
[attachment eaten by a Shivan]

[bomb3rman]

Thx a lot!

[Axem]

You can also grab it from my github and if you've got a nightly past January 2018, you can use the scripted sexps to make adding the boxes even easier!

[Nightmare]

You can also grab it from my github and if you've got a nightly past January 2018, you can use the scripted sexps to make adding the boxes even easier!

BTW could you include some screencaps that show how the things look like in your repo? I know how they look like, but without the connection to the related forum thread others might not.