Defense turrets.

[Emoneg]

well interesting effect i made the weapon aspect multitarget. and it seems that once they start firing it either tries to fire at the bullets but destroys the ships or it fires at the ships but only after the shoot. not sure which.

[Aury]

Ah, yes... I can't believe that I did not think of this sooner...
If you set a single projectile to multitarget from an ICX device, will it home in?
Probably will take some rather gimmicky scripting (ie, like having a virtual no-additional-velocity projectile with a lifetime of zero that then expires to generate a single 'multitargeting' projectile which should then attack ships, not missiles. However, it is still not a real solution, as you would not be able to get one device to target both ships and missiles, and would have to rely on an even gimmickier and less easily controlled method of using virtual device on install and removing them on uninstall, and they would be firing too quickly as well...

[Emoneg]

i had to ramp up the firing speed to even get it to look right. it locks on to the bullet right away and boom goes the ships. does nothing for lasers though. so not a fix just a workaround.

Plus its freaks out when a station blows up gets just a general flurry of shots and about one in ten shots land on the target. because all the missiles flying around.

I can see why this isn't easy. it would unbalance the game if it were easy considering the modability of this game.

[Aury]

modaility and balance have nothing to do with eachother. (Unless an unnofficial balance patch is the subject of discussion, as has been seen in other games)

[Emoneg]

true enough.

[Emoneg]

Not sure how to pull this off but what about making an virtual auton? (virtual meaning not actually there. Right?) that would fire from the players location.

I wouldnt know how to get it installed or how to make it ignore the players shields and not the enemies.

[ThePrivateer]

Not sure how to pull this off but what about making an virtual auton? (virtual meaning not actually there. Right?) that would fire from the players location.

I wouldnt know how to get it installed or how to make it ignore the players shields and not the enemies.

Take it all in baby steps. First, make an Auton, a custom one and see if it can be placed in the

Code: Select all

<Devices>
</Devices>

tag of the player ship. Try that first and see how you go.

From there, see if you can make the Auton without any <image> tag and see if that works. Obviously the player will be able to control the Autons still, so it may not be such a good idea, but someone else here may have a better idea.

How experienced are you in modding? You aren't on Xelerus, so I don't know how much modding you have done...this is all really high-level stuff...

[Emoneg]

well... honestly... I'm just starting.
Your right about the baby steps part.
I tend to think big and try to make reality fit. I have already made shields that reflect everything except the currently unused and at the moment they are better at taking down the enemy than the turret I'm working on.

I want to do more than just twist existing things to what i want i want to make something unique.

[ThePrivateer]

well... honestly... I'm just starting.
Your right about the baby steps part.
I tend to think big and try to make reality fit. I have already made shields that reflect everything except the currently unused and at the moment they are better at taking down the enemy than the turret I'm working on.

I want to do more than just twist existing things to what i want i want to make something unique.

I know, it's hard. I found that too, just tweaking things, but while you're doing that you are learning how things work in Transcendence.

I made the God Mod first, before I worked on Hells Trinity. Why? Because I learned how everything worked, how to get a mod to run, UNIDs etc...before I then worked on creating an Adventure extension.

Any other modder here will say the same thing. It's frustrating, but make simple mods first, make something that creates a whole bunch of new Level 2 devices or something, polish it, learn about devices (or whatever it is), put it on Xelerus and THEN work on something bigger.

Trust me on this. Patience and practice does pay off.

[Prophet]

I found my code!!

Code: Select all

    
    <!--- Laser Turret  --->

	<ItemType UNID="&itLightAutoTurret;"
			name=				"laser turret"
			level=				"5"
			value=				"8000"
			mass=				"1500"
			frequency=			"rare"
			modifiers=			"MajorItem"

			description=		"The laser turret will auto detect and fire at enemy ships within 20 ls.  It can be switched on and off at will."
			>

		<Image imageID="&rsItems1;" imageX="96" imageY="0" imageWidth="96" imageHeight="96"/>
        
		<MiscellaneousDevice
				powerUse=		"20"
				/>
        <Events>
            <OnInstall>
                (block Nil
                    (objAddOverlay gPlayerShip &ovLightAutoTurret; (objGetPos gPlayerShip) 0)
                    (objSetData gPlayerShip "TurretActive" True)
                    (objSetKnown gSource)
                    )
            </OnInstall>
        </Events>
        
		<Invoke InstalledOnly="True" key="T">
            (block Nil
                (if (not (objGetData gPlayerShip "TurretActive"))
                    (block Nil
                        (objSetData gPlayership "TurretActive" True)
                        (plyMessage gPlayer "Turret is Active")
                        )
                    (block Nil
                        (objSetData gPlayerShip "TurretActive" Nil)
                        (plyMessage gPlayer "Turret is Inactive")
                        )
                    )
                )
		</Invoke>

	</ItemType>
    
	<OverlayType UNID="&ovLightAutoTurret;">
        
		<Events>
			<OnUpdate>
                (block Nil
                    (if (eq (objGetData gPlayerShip "TurretActive") True)
                        (block (target fireAngle)
                            (setq target (item (sysfindobject gSource "sEN:20") 0))
                            (if target
                                (block  (fireAngle)
                                    (setq fireAngle (sysVectorAngle (sysVectorSubtract (objGetPos target) (objGetPos gPlayerShip))))
                                    (sysCreateWeaponFire 
                                        &itLaserCannon; 
                                        gSource 
                                        (objGetPos gSource) 
                                        fireAngle
                                        100
                                        target 
                                        )
                                    )
                                )
                            )
                        )
                    )
			</OnUpdate>
		</Events>
        
	</OverlayType> 

It's two parts, the first is a misc device that can be toggled on/off that will apply an overlay when active.

The second part, the overlay, holds all the meat, checking for targets and generating weapon fire with script. It was developed before we had sysCalcFireSolution so you should be able to get some dependable accuracy out of it now.

Hope this helps

[Emoneg]

I have been working on some other things. I have a great weapon pair. one that disables enemies and another that damages just enough that i have bumped up my looting by a decent margin. im not working the cap ship now just this. plus i have my tester ship, shields, and armor. im making an auton right now then im going to see if i can make it into a gun emplacement.

sorry your right... that was a bit petulant. it is hard to not want big. ill keep working on it and see if i can make it work. but first ill find out a bit more about the language and coding.

[Emoneg]

hooray prophet!

[ThePrivateer]

hooray prophet!

Three cheers! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

That's great stuff Prophet!

[Aury]

Oh, that's been known for some time, but it's a very gimmicky, in part due to known bugs in sysCreateWeaponFire.