Kinetic Weapons and bullets

Just wondering:

Working on some hi-speed autocannons and I think it looks way cooler if you can actually see them spew tons of rounds when they fire. The only problem is that the kinetic weapons have no bullets, and using the bullet weapon type results in awesome looking bullets but creates it’s own problem. The turret blast texture is displayed incorrectly, instead displaying the full image from the relevant blast texture in a weird little square superimposed on the turret. Anyway the fix for now is to just have them stay kinetic weapons, but…

I asked the same question earlier in the forum :slight_smile:
Because I too wanted to see tons of red hot depleted uranium fill the void - but alas it was not to be. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4652

Below is a method i used to get the muzzle effect from a kinetic weapon on a Bullet weapon. (well sorta)

The blast effect for these 2 weapons work like this:

  • Kinetic weapons use several images to get the muzzle effect, <<“kinetic_blast.dds”>>
  • Bullets use one image that fades out. <<turret_blast_red.dds>>

To get the effect you want, you copy one of the kinetic blast images and place it into a seperate .dds file and use that as your blast texture in your bullet weapon. This method is not perfect, but it is as close as i can get it.

Hope this helps
Darkstar

Hmm interesting. So far I’ve been using the missile type weapons for a substitute, at least for my cannon type weapons. With a small projectile and high speed, it is possible to make a bullet-type weapon. Plus, the trail looks cool as long as you set the fade duration to something low. Just make sure to turn off the flare effect!

P.S. Ah, you literally asked the exact same question. I just didn’t think to read the “stealth bullets” thread :slight_smile:

Thanks!

yeah, the thread name was a bit misleading :stuck_out_tongue:

you might find a slight drawback with using missiles for bullets.
the next missile will not fire until the first one is destroyed
so salvo firing is not possible :frowning:

Disclaimer
In truth the salvo code does work
If you make a missile system with very fast rockets and a long reload time you will see a salvo effect as it fires the individual missiles.

As an example
a ultra fast limited fuel missile with the following:
fire_interval = 20
salvo_size = 5
salvo_interval = 5000

you will see a missile fired and die/hit 5 times with no more missiles fired until the 5000 reload time.

i`d see the confusing the enemy EW/PD as a bigger balance issue tho…
missile bullets are actually a good idea

Cliff,could you add a parameter to missile weapons for being able to fire more than 1 shot (didnt realize its limited before lol) and then a parameter if the missile can be PD`d or not?
Would be better if you would add “HasGuidance = 1/0” for if it can be scrambled and “PDTargettable = 1/0” if it can be fired upon by point defence cannons. Would allow more variability.

good example is the Babylon 5 mod (which makes me cry because it seems dead)… there i would want “missile bullets” being shot at by PD (B5 interceptor defences) but not being shot at by guidance scramblers (cuz it wouldnt make any fkin sence lol)

Found a solution I like for now. Using GIMP I just cut out the muzzle blast from the kinetic turret file, moved the glow around in turret_blast red, changed the color a bit to orange, pasted and combined with the muzzle blast and voila! I have a decent looking muzzle effect for a bulletweapon that shoots bullets, yay!

If you have any need I’d be happy to post up a copy for everyone. Also, don’t know if anyone else has experimented with using the targeting laser texture on beam weapons, but I think it looks cool… I’ve got a green retexture of the laser if anyone wants that either.

A few guns I decided to keep as the superfast missiles, thinking more along the lines of a projectile with limited correction capabiltiy and shaped explosive warheads… good for taking out armor or fighters with a lucky hit.

in the case of hybrid kinetic weapons,you could also use a beam
since were talking several hundred years into the future,they probably figured out a way to make railguns work on really high speeds

in this case,why not use a thin white beam which would blink and decay real fast (as a trace of particles left behind from the superfast projectile) and add a cool sound to it (those who know eve online,medium railgun sound is pretty damn cool)
just so you know,railguns sorta do sound like regular cannons

but then again you could run into problems with the beam duration and the fact that beams that miss like to zip around aimlessly for a bit

possible?

While that is interesting I feel like the beginning and end to a beam takes something away from the effect of a superfast projectile.

This is actually the whole reason I started messing around with missiles after I couldn’t get the kinetic weapons to display bullets. Missiles have the same problem (despite multiple useful flare colors), abrupt end to the cool looking “trail” (which you can set to disappear real nice and quick with the trail duration), plus no salvos. The only redeeming factor is that missiles explode at the end, which would work to limit the amount of high velocity explosive debris flying endlesslessy off into eternity.

Also, although I prefer to suspend my reasonable scientific belief greatly in favor of stuff that looks cool, the trail would really only appear in atmosphere… right? I like to think that the bullets gradually “fade out” as the superheated jacket cools below the visible spectrum. I’m sure the ships radar can pick up the bullets even if we can’t see them but why not find an excuse to make them visible.

On an unrelated note, I really want to make a custom explosion that resembles the nukes from BSG. Alas, I move over the next 2 days, that will have to wait.

basically,yes,but that would be gas condension trail
when a railgun fires,the huge,often white or blue flame appearing at the end of the “barrel” is a superheated plasma cloud of metallic particles that get shaved off from the rails, as the projectiles travel at very high velocities while sliding along them… thats unavoidable,there needs to be a conductive connection between the rails and the projectile - thats why the rails on high-end railguns are designed to be gas-propelled alongside the projectile for several microseconds,to mitigate the friction

you could just assume that the rail shavings, remains of the gas coolant and whatever trash you can think of travels with the projectile for a bit… coolness vs realism,coolness wins every time :smiley:

and yes,i do love explaining railguns to people,i love those things :stuck_out_tongue:

Railguns are pretty darn cool, thanks fer the info!

A couple of men wearing grey clothes and sunglasses enter the thread.

Suspicious man 1: Mr Thunderbird, we have heard rumors talking about your extensive knowledge in advanced weaponary. In the case that rumor is true, we are interested in… um, ‘hire’ your services to help our cough scientists in the creation of new weponary for our cause.

Suspicious man 2: But before signing the ‘contract’, please first fill this form with your personal opinion. Please, be completely subjective.

Suspicious man 2 hands Thunderbird a paper with a grey title which says “How evil is the Empire?”.

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.
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Okay, strange stuff aside.
@Thunderbird
If you allow me, I can add railguns for Rebels applying your method (using a thin beam). Of course I’ll add your name in the credits.
You’ve got some great knowledge about weapons :smiley: Keep filling the forum with them :wink:

P.s. Sorry for the hijack…

meh you dont need to ask me,i just posted a wall of text,didnt make anything :slight_smile:
yeah,whatever,ill only be happy if someone finds my ideas and/or crazy rambling useful

if you need any more info just go ahead and ask :stuck_out_tongue:

Good to know that ^^
I’ve got a good amount of weapons to add in my mod yet, but if I run out of ideas I’ll ask for cool new weapons :wink: