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Ive stumbled upon something. Make a fighter have the turret graphic, then have the accell and top speed to 0. When you launch it, it will stays 'stuck' to your ship. You turn, it turns with you. You stop, it stops. But you have to launch it first.
Really? Wow.... (Filing away in the box...)
The Cheat, on Jan 18 2005, 07:51 PM, said:
Ive stumbled upon something. Make a fighter have the turret graphic, then have the accell and top speed to 0. When you launch it, it will stays 'stuck' to your ship. You turn, it turns with you. You stop, it stops. But you have to launch it first. View Post
You have to launch it first and that is annoying. Who wants to do that? I certantly wouldn't sacrifice combat performance for somthing like that. Oh, and don't launched fighters end up under you and would never be seen?
That's nice and all, but that's only when they are in formation, right? If you tell them to attack something or hold position, they'll break formation and stop moving I think...
Besides giving a ship 0 speed is just like disableing it. So how would it move with the ship?
I've tried most of these ideas or variations thereof before posting my first question. Good news: great minds do think alike. :laugh: Bad news: none of these things work. :huh:
In another topic somebody was talking about making a basic ship frame and then building onto the ship with outfits that would change and add visible things to the original frame. Now if any of these upgrades would visibly track a target (at all times, with or without firing) they don't need to actually be weapons as such.
Wherever the spins or relDs are on the basic ship could be the location for a "real" turret that fires and behaves "normally."
Jules and some others just keep saying that it's impossible with the current engine. They are probbably right BUT....
Is it possible for one of the more clever programmer types out there to make a little "Track Current Target" check-box for the (GlowImmageID, WeapImmageID, AltImmageID, LightImmageID) field?
**I guess we'll just have to file tracking turrets with other dead/desired features such as ship husks, changable spaceports and more spob graphic spots.:)
_bomb
**
Yeah, I tried the fighter thing with accel=0. I could be flying along and tell them to attack and they'd turn to face the target while still flying with me, but if I changed course they wouldn't follow me. Plus there was the problem of them being underneath.
General11, escorts have some special way of keeping up with you even if their stats don't match yours.
J_I_Logan, that would be hacking the engine and I'm not sure matt would appreciate it. The only things that can track targets are projectiles and fighters so if they don't work for you then it's impossible. Period.
This post has been edited by Guy : 18 January 2005 - 11:02 PM
Maybe I'm way off the mark but...
If the only things that can track targets are projectiles and targets:
Could the turret have an insanely high rate of fire and the projectile be the graphic of the turret with a 1 frame life span? :huh:
(sorry, I'm too tired to try this out. I just broke a bolt in the C-clamp of the clutch assembly on my bike and that's gonna set me back a fair bit of cash and a long wait for the part to come into the Yam shop.)
That is exactly what I, and a few other people, have already suggested. I described in much more detail the things I think it would take to get it to work, back on the first page of this very forum thread.
Weepul 884, on Jan 19 2005, 09:40 PM, said:
That is exactly what I, and a few other people, have already suggested. I described in much more detail the things I think it would take to get it to work, back on the first page of this very forum thread. View Post
I know and thanks. It's just that I tried a few things that make it work...ish.
I just don't know waht's preventing it from really working.
I put a Plug in the Public folder of my iDisk. it can show you what I've got so far.
http://homepage.mac....eSharing42.html
I'm just hacking the Javelin graphics because they are so simple.
No, it doesn't really work. If you have 0 count then nothing happens (with the PD weapon I tested anyway). If you have 1 count and 0 speed then the shots point directly left or right. If you have positive speed then you see two images. One at the exit point and one where it has moved to after its 1 frame of life.
Actually, some of these suggestions work. I just made a functional tracking turret .
First, the turret needs to have a reload rate of 0 so that it will display constantly. This means that it cannot submunition into the "shot" weapon (unless you want a constant stream). However, in order for it to appear to track properly, and for AIs to use it properly, it (including submunitions) must have the same range as the "shot" weapon.
The obvious way to solve this is to set the turret to last one frame, and then submunition into a long-range invisible weapon. This does work, except that a weapon's sprite will always appear in at least two locations, even if it only lasts for one frame.
There is a solution. If you put a positive number in the CoronaFalloff field of a non-beam weapon, it will start to fade out about 30 frames from the end of its life. If you put a high enough number in the field, and the shot has a life of less than 30 frames, it will vanish after showing up for one frame.
Here are the vital statistics from my turret:
Stage One: (Turret image) Guidance: 4 (Unguided Turret) Reload: 0 Speed: 1500 (If this number is much higher, the turret will appear too far off of its position.) Life Count: 1 Inaccuracy: 0 ProxSafety: 10 (Any number higher than the weapon's life will do, otherwise it will blow up if a ship hits the turret.) CoronaFalloff: 32767 Submunitions: This weapon submunitions into one invisible long-range weapon. Also, the Fire Simultaneously and Passes Over Asteroids flags must be set.
Stage Two: (Invisible weapon) Guidance: 0 (Unguided) Speed: 5000 Life count: 10 (These two numbers give a range of 500 pixels. Adjust as neccesary to get a range slightly longer than that of your shot weapon.) ProxSafety: 20 (Any number higher than the weapon's life will do.) CoronaFalloff: 0 (There's no point in using this for an invisible weapon.) Submunitions: None Also, the Passes Over Asteroids flag must be set.
As a final note, if the turret weapon has a higher resource ID number than the shots that are being fired by the turrets, the turrets will be displayed over the shots' sprites. Also, the gun's image should probably be offset slightly from the center of the sprite (this is to counteract the offset from the true positions caused by the weapon's velocity).
Any questions? Comments?
AWESOME!!!
Just like the old C=64 demo days!!!
That is TOTALLY rad. It would of won mrxax's contest if it was still around.
I can't wait to use it! Dibs!!!
After you, of course
Ah, Falloff, of course! Have you made this plug with graphics and stuff?
I would do that but I'm too lazy.
Really? Sounds like that would be right up your alley, what with the "Lasers" plug and all.
Ya it might be but:
:blink:
Edwards, on Jan 21 2005, 05:30 AM, said:
There is a solution. If you put a positive number in the CoronaFalloff field of a non-beam weapon, it will start to fade out about 30 frames from the end of its life. If you put a high enough number in the field, and the shot has a life of less than 30 frames, it will vanish after showing up for one frame. Here are the vital statistics from my turret:
Stage Two: (Invisible weapon) Guidance: 0 (Unguided) Speed: 5000 Life count: 10 (These two numbers give a range of 500 pixels. Adjust as neccesary to get a range slightly longer than that of your shot weapon.) ProxSafety: 20 (Any number higher than the weapon's life will do.) CoronaFalloff: 0 (There's no point in using this for an invisible weapon.) Submunitions: None Also, the Passes Over Asteroids flag must be set. As a final note, if the turret weapon has a higher resource ID number than the shots that are being fired by the turrets, the turrets will be displayed over the shots' sprites. Also, the gun's image should probably be offset slightly from the center of the sprite (this is to counteract the offset from the true positions caused by the weapon's velocity).
Any questions? Comments? View Post
MY GOD! IT WORKS!!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! :laugh:
This is quite close to exactly what I was looking for. My ships will be moving very slowly (compared to regular Nova ships) so I think I can let them last a bit longer so that I can animate a recoil effect as well!
If you are EVER in Adelaide, I'll buy you all the drinks you want!
What's your name? I (and I think everybody else) would like to credit you for such ingenious design in their TCs.
J_I_Logan, on Jan 21 2005, 01:05 AM, said:
What's your name? I (and I think everybody else) would like to credit you for such ingenious design in their TCs. View Post
Edwards will soon replace Eugene Chin as Nova engine pimp.