A weapon that does nothing.

Please read.

Can you make a homing weapon that passes through the target? The idea is a drone weapon that shoots a small projectile (subs into itself and small laser projectile, think blaze cannon)
The drone passes around and over the target without hitting it, just passing around and over the target, firing lasers. (I know sounds like a fighter, but is there a way to make it a weapon?)

Thank you.

Ooh. I don't honestly know. Perhaps the best way to do this might be to categorize the launcher as a fighter bay and the missiles as fighters?

This post has been edited by SoItBegins : 16 November 2007 - 02:33 PM

Possibly. Maybe, maybe. But I very much doubt it. I think you should just make a fighter, because to get that to work would be much harder than making it a fighter and uneccesarily complex, with no real additional return.

You could try, but it might rip a hole in the space-time continuum and suck you and your computer into it, as well as destroying most of the known universe and pizza. But you can try.

A weapon can only submunition into one other type of weapon.

Your drone would either be able to sub into itself, or into the laser shot, but not both.

Yeah, it'd have to be a fighter.

This post has been edited by Eugene Chin : 16 November 2007 - 02:51 PM

Maybe make the fighter inertialess with high turn rate... That will give more of a zippy effect.

Three weapons:

• The guided version of the drone, which the player would fire, and when it gets the target in its ProxRadius it would sub into...

• The unguided laser shot, which would, upon hitting the target, sub into the...

• Unguided, planet-type version of the drone, pass over and away from the target ship (since it won't hit the ship) and then sub back into the original guided drone

I don't know if this would work (might test it sometime if nobody else does), but if it could, this seems like it would be a pretty good solution, and it would only be able to be hit by PD weapons, instead of (like a fighter) any weapon. The laser blast sprite would also include a picture of the drone so it would look like it is still there, rather than seeing the drone disappear from space while the laser travels toward the target.

This post has been edited by Nil'kimas : 16 November 2007 - 05:16 PM

What's wrong with using a fighter? If you don't want it to be hit by normal weapons you could just make it planet-type.

@nil-kimas, on Nov 16 2007, 05:14 PM, said in A weapon that does nothing.:

Three weapons:

• The guided version of the drone, which the player would fire, and when it gets the target in its ProxRadius it would sub into...

• The unguided laser shot, which would, upon hitting the target, sub into the...

• Unguided, planet-type version of the drone, pass over and away from the target ship (since it won't hit the ship) and then sub back into the original guided drone

I don't know if this would work (might test it sometime if nobody else does), but if it could, this seems like it would be a pretty good solution, and it would only be able to be hit by PD weapons, instead of (like a fighter) any weapon. The laser blast sprite would also include a picture of the drone so it would look like it is still there, rather than seeing the drone disappear from space while the laser travels toward the target.

I am fairly certain that you can't have Weapon A sub into Weapon B sub into Weapon C. A to B, yes, but not A to B to C. There can only be one swap.

@guy, on Nov 16 2007, 05:35 PM, said in A weapon that does nothing.:

What's wrong with using a fighter? If you don't want it to be hit by normal weapons you could just make it planet-type.

Or just check the "cant' be hit" flag. That would avoid issues if there exists planet-type weapons in the plug.

@werhner, on Nov 16 2007, 05:40 PM, said in A weapon that does nothing.:

I am fairly certain that you can't have Weapon A sub into Weapon B sub into Weapon C. A to B, yes, but not A to B to C. There can only be one swap.

You can. As long as C doesn't sub back into A. Why? Because the recursive submunition field only works with a weapon that subs into itself, and having a weapon A sub into B then sub into C and back into A is an infinite loop. But you can definetely use every single weapon resources for the subs of a single weapon if you really wanted to, as long as they don't loop.

Also, you can make a weapon that goes through targets, even homing. All you need is to give it a longer proximity delay than it has life. However, as was already said, you can't have it fire another projectile while it remains the same as there is only submunition type field.

Perhaps he needs it to be a weapon so that it cannot be given orders or recalled.

Ah, now I had an idea for something like that once. Never tested anything, the only thing I had thought of was arming the fighter with a bay holding a similar ship to itself but the bay would be a self-destructing weapon. When you first order the fighter to attack it launches it's fighter which will attack the target while the first fighter dies.

"Unlock the weapon safety, sergeant."

"Safety unlocked, captain!"

"Open the drone bay doors."

"Drone bay doors open, captain!"

"Couple the radar to the target computer, major."

"Radar coupled to target computer, captain!"

"Fire when in range, gunner."

"Range finder status light green, firing now captain!"

"Stand by for closing drone bay doors, sergeant."

"Doors closing, standing by captain!"

"Reload."

"Aye captain, ammo boys scurrying."

"Skipper, engage all engines full reverse."

"All engines full reverse, captain!"

"Captain, incoming cannon shot off the topside port bow!"

"Don't just stand there, power the shield booster matey! Take evasive action skipper! All hands to battle stations, go go go!"

"Captain, the drone is circling."

"Inform me when it fires, corporal."

"Drone firing captain, target hit."

"Will that drone be enough to take out that destroyer, sergeant?"

"Negative captain, we need a second drone."

"Just one more, corporal."

"Sir, yes sir, standing by for range, captain."

"All engines full ahead skipper."

"Aye captain!"

Okay, here's how you do it:
The drone is a homing missile that submunitions into itself. Its life outlasts its proxsafety, but it detonates and subs when it expires. The explosion looks like a random spray of blaze fire going outward, but is of course really just an explosion, with a blast radius large enough to damage anything that's in the range of the "blaze cannons".

Now you have something like every second or two a burst of lasers (with no smoke or anything, it just looks like bolts being fired) and the drone keeps going (it subs into itself with zero/small inaccuracy).

Minor detail is it fires every 2 seconds regardless of whether it's on top of an enemy. And if you want it to look like the drone isn't purposely shooting you when the ship you shot it at is right under you, make it so the drone's explosion won't hurt the firing ship.

Bootstrap_Bill said:

Perhaps he needs it to be a weapon so that it cannot be given orders or recalled.

Exactly. I only want it to be able to attack one target, then be useless. (Haven't thought about it filling up the screen though- Might give it a max number of recursive subs.)

Mumbling Psycho said:

Or just check the "cant' be hit" flag. That would avoid issues if there exists planet-type weapons in the plug.

Interesting.

Qaanol said:

Okay, here's how you do it:
The drone is a homing missile that submunitions into itself. Its life outlasts its proxsafety, but it detonates and subs when it expires. The explosion looks like a random spray of blaze fire going outward, but is of course really just an explosion, with a blast radius large enough to damage anything that's in the range of the "blaze cannons".

Now you have something like every second or two a burst of lasers (with no smoke or anything, it just looks like bolts being fired) and the drone keeps going (it subs into itself with zero/small inaccuracy).

Minor detail is it fires every 2 seconds regardless of whether it's on top of an enemy. And if you want it to look like the drone isn't purposely shooting you when the ship you shot it at is right under you, make it so the drone's explosion won't hurt the firing ship.

Hmm. I think I have an idea that may work a tiny bit more like I planned...
Maybe-

Homing weapon.
Prox radius of 1, Blast radius of 3, (explosion with blaze fire, subs at end of life) subs into planet type, with a good speed and proxsafety, subs at end of life, subs back into seeking weapon, turns around and does it again. Speed could be explained as impact of the explosion, but will assure that it clears the target before turning back into homing weapon...
Think that could work?

(note, its not a human technology. It's going in my plug. Make whatever assumption you want. :))

Any weapon directly impacting with a ship will detonate the weapon and prevent subs from firing. Prox safety does not prevent direct impacts.

@guy, on Nov 16 2007, 11:34 PM, said in A weapon that does nothing.:

Any weapon directly impacting with a ship will detonate the weapon and prevent subs from firing. Prox safety does not prevent direct impacts.

Is that only if it subs, or does it apply if its fired as well? I thought proxsafety was to give the weapon time to get away from the firing ship before it could detonate...
Could you clarify its use for me?

@guy, on Nov 17 2007, 12:34 AM, said in A weapon that does nothing.:

Prox safety does not prevent direct impacts.

Evidence?

@guy, on Nov 17 2007, 12:34 AM, said in A weapon that does nothing.:

Any weapon directly impacting with a ship will detonate the weapon and prevent subs from firing.

What? A weapon will sub on impact as long as the flag preventing it isn't set.

Solution:

Make all ships "Planetary" type, and the Drone weapon "Normal" type damage (so they pass straight through). At the end of its life-span, it submissions into a short-lived "Planet" type damage weapon, which detonates at the end of its life-span.

Problem:

In order to work, all weapons that are Typically "Normal" must be "Planetary", which makes planets susceptible to damage (and, therefore, are at risk).

Solution:

Greatly enhance Planetary durability, so that a stellar is not rendered uninhabitable by stray weapons fire. Only high-yield weapons must be able to cause enough damage to make a difference.

Wasn't this done before? I thought I read it somewhere in the Nova Hacks topic.