Point Defense Blind Spots

Alright, I've spent about 5+ hours on this.

I'm trying to get the effect of having three outfits, each a PD non-beam turret. They each have their own firing arcs, accomplished by using blind-spots to front, side, or rear via the weap resources. I have three identical weapon resources, except for their respective blind spots. They run on their own kind of ammo, and I have 6 outfits (3 PD turrets, 3 ammos). I don't think that I am doing anything wrong 'administratively'.

Here is my problem. In the game, surrounded by missile-launching baddies, I can only get my forward firing PD turret to defend me, even when my tail is pointed straight at the missiles. In the event of having all three, only the forward PD fires. If I sell it, then only the side PD fires. After selling that, then only the rear PD fires (it is the only one left, actually, so that scenario makes sense). Basically, the effect I wanted was to have the ability to attack a enemy cap ship from the same angle over and over again to simulate that side weakening under the assault.

I think the possible problems are these:

1- EVN only looks at the lowest ID numbered Point Defense weapon and ignores all others you may own. I've confirmed this fact by simply swapping the blindspot checkboxes out with each other, effectively making the front protecting PD a rear protecting PD. Sure enough, I get plastered from the front and sides, but defended from behind.

2- I am still making a blunder somewhere, either in testing or in my expectations.

3- There is a bug in EV Nova that makes the blind-spots for one PD turret the blind spots for all of them, looking at the first one it sees as the reference (the lowest ID numbered one, i.e. the first one, which happens to be the forward firing PD).

So, are there any takers on trying to figure this out with me? Or, even better, is this something that someone else has already struggled with. A few minutes spent searching the forums suggests 'no', but perhaps someone has been holding out.

Thanks,

Werhner

ARPIA has forward and rear PD turrets (forward covering the sides as well) and I think they work fine together. Check it out and see if the data can be of help.

@guy, on Sep 11 2007, 01:09 AM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

ARPIA has forward and rear PD turrets (forward covering the sides as well) and I think they work fine together. Check it out and see if the data can be of help.

As I recall, they were actually a bit erratic, for me at least. Also, the PDs in ARPIA were beams, whereas Werhner is trying for non-beams. Might matter, might not.

I've always found their behaviour to be, indeed, rather erratic. Which actually would make sense then given your explanation of the lower ID choice

I'll take a look.

The things people do when they have too much time on their hands...

Make sure the weapons aren't set to prevent others from firing when they fire.

drops jaw
We have a genius in the house.

@nil-kimas, on Sep 11 2007, 08:41 PM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

Make sure the weapons aren't set to prevent others from firing when they fire.

That would be an awful thing to have on a weapon on automatic control.

Who would make that kind of mistake?

Heh heh. Throw in an invisible hostile ship that always follows you around and prevent you from firing any weapons at all

@guy, on Sep 11 2007, 10:13 PM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

Heh heh. Throw in an invisible hostile ship that always follows you around and prevent you from firing any weapons at all

Now all we need is a way to make this affect an enemy ship, and you could deploy fighter-like munitions that cling to enemy ships and prevent them from firing.

@otter, on Sep 12 2007, 12:03 AM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

Now all we need is a way to make this affect an enemy ship, and you could deploy fighter-like munitions that cling to enemy ships and prevent them from firing.

Wow, that's an incredibly creative way of using that... but it would actually be easier with homing submunitions, because a fighter would never miss if it is fast and agile enough to "cling" to a ship. You'd also need to make sure that the point-defense weapon has a really really short range so it doesnt interfere with regular point defense and homing projectiles. Still, there's a lot of ways this could screw up...

@mumbling-psycho, on Sep 12 2007, 01:40 AM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

Wow, that's an incredibly creative way of using that... but it would actually be easier with homing submunitions, because a fighter would never miss if it is fast and agile enough to "cling" to a ship. You'd also need to make sure that the point-defense weapon has a really really short range so it doesnt interfere with regular point defense and homing projectiles. Still, there's a lot of ways this could screw up...

As Martin Turner (among others) has pointed out, some of the most creative ideas are just mistakes turned to a new purpose.

Maybe have an invisisble PD weapon and Guy's invisisble ship to simulate a weapon malfunction on the player's ship for some storyline reason or another.

Just Not Your Day

"<PN>, we need you to run the blockade and land at <DST>!"

"No problem, the guns on the <PSN> will make short work of the enemies. This will be a breeze!"

"Oh, by the way, your weapons were sabotaged and they haven't been fixed yet."

"Oh crap...well, at least I have my afterburner."

"They broke that too."

"Ok, fine, I'll just go buy a new ship with new weapons with my ridiculous amounts of cash I made abusing trade routes."

"Did I mentioned they also stole all of your credits? And that all the shipyards, outfitters, mission computers, trade centers, and spaceport bars are closed since this is a holiday?"

"..........................................."

:laugh: I like that.

@otter, on Sep 12 2007, 05:03 AM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

Now all we need is a way to make this affect an enemy ship, and you could deploy fighter-like munitions that cling to enemy ships and prevent them from firing.

Well, you could, conceivably, make all the ships planetary type, so only planet-damaging weapons can actually damage them, then make your proposed projectile normal , so it passes straight through your target. As it circles around and around the target fruitlessly, it would give the appearance that it is 'orbiting' the craft.

Of course, you would have to greatly increase the health of planets so they are not accidentally blown to tiny pieces.

Are planets even shot by point defense? since theres no flag to set planets to be able to be hit by point defense.... hmm... that could work. If planets aren't hit...

@-visitor-, on Sep 12 2007, 12:35 PM, said in Point Defense Blind Spots:

Of course, you would have to greatly increase the health of planets so they are not accidentally blown to tiny pieces.

Or make them invincible.

Quote

Of course, you would have to greatly increase the health of planets so they are not accidentally blown to tiny pieces.

Or make them invincible.

Or you could just let them get blown into tiny pieces.

Awwww, just let 'em die. I like tiny pieces better, anyway.