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Units don't turn in order to fire their arc-ed weapons

Posted: 24 May 2006, 00:18
by Caydr
If a unit has, say, 16 weapons, all of them with arcs, it doesn't know to orient itself so that weapon1 is in its firing arc. Baaaad implications here. Any unit with that many weapons probably has to have arcs in order for the extra guns to be useful, but almost certainly will have a direction that it's "supposed" to point so that its main weapons can fire at the main target.

Anyone know a workaround? I really hope there's something that can be done about this.

Posted: 24 May 2006, 17:07
by Drone_Fragger
Soo.... your saying that the Biggest, Baddest ship in GEM can't turn to fire its forward facing doom-lazor-of-dewm?

Posted: 24 May 2006, 17:50
by Min3mat
hmmm.
i think its fair enough the way it is as you just give move orders to micro em, but maybe a way to determine which weapon it will turn to fire when given a attack order (OR even a superduper thing like 'target selected = fighter' 'uses antifighter weapon' :>)

Posted: 25 May 2006, 14:43
by Caydr
This is ground unit behaviour I'm talking about here. Say, for instance, if EE got a tank with a bunch of turrets... when told to attack something, as long as ONE of the guns was capable of firing, it wouldn't rotate so that it was facing its target. Micromanagement isn't the answer.
Min3mat wrote:a way to determine which weapon it will turn to fire when given a attack order
Would be ideal.

weapon1=laser;
weapon2=laser;
weapon3=laser;
weapon4=freakinghugemotherlaserofdoom;
weapon5=laser;
weapon6=laser;
weaponprimary=4;

Posted: 25 May 2006, 15:06
by FLOZi
It should prioritise them by number, no need for extra tags.

Posted: 25 May 2006, 15:36
by zwzsg
Caydr wrote:
Min3mat wrote:a way to determine which weapon it will turn to fire when given a attack order
Would be ideal.

weapon1=laser;
weapon2=laser;
weapon3=laser;
weapon4=freakinghugemotherlaserofdoom;
weapon5=laser;
weapon6=laser;
weaponprimary=4;
Weaponprimary is primary weapon! I mean, weapon1. That new tag is entirely unnecessary.

Use:

weapon1=freakinghugemotherlaserofdoom;
weapon2=laser;
weapon3=laser;
weapon4=laser;
weapon5=laser;
weapon6=laser;

Posted: 25 May 2006, 15:43
by Min3mat
sorry :oops: didn't know this was possible already

Posted: 25 May 2006, 15:46
by Caydr
I've already got units with weapon1 being the primary. They don't rotate to fire.... so I made this post.

Posted: 25 May 2006, 15:53
by Fanger
We need attack behavior tags anywho... ie.. we need some way to determine from which angle from center a unit will attack at or something like that... For example take Homeworld 2 (yes not the same sort of game but bear with me) they had several attack sorts, one was called broadside, in that mode the ship would just turn sideways depending on which side was easier and start shooting from a broadside position.. it would be helpeful if i could put a tag on my giant tank/ship/whathaveyou that said turn to side when attacking so that it would broadside, or stay front, or whatever other retarded angle I want..

Posted: 25 May 2006, 19:33
by Caydr
Couldn't you just rotate the base by 90 degrees?

Posted: 25 May 2006, 21:19
by zwzsg
But then it would fly sideway!

Posted: 25 May 2006, 21:46
by smoth
The problem is also if a unit has their fire arc limited then they have a tendency to just sit there as an enemy aproaches from behind. They will only turn around once the enemy has hit them or bumped them. Otherwise they have cranial rectitus.

Posted: 25 May 2006, 22:47
by Fanger
no you cant caydr because you can do that scripting but if it doesnt rotate really fast (which would look odd with a ship) it might move sideways which would look odd.. I suppose you could rig up some annoying scripting but it would be nice if the game code could do it for me to save time..

Posted: 25 May 2006, 23:03
by SinbadEV
all I think he wants, is for the ship to choose a primary target (or be microed one) and then move in such a way that it aims it's body at that target, meanwhile all the smaller weapons would independently target any available items that happen to be in range as the main body moves to fire on the primary... what it does now is, chooses or gets assigned a target, and then moves until ANY of it's weapons are able to fire on it, and then stops manouvering... not the desired effect...

Posted: 26 May 2006, 01:43
by Caydr
SinbadEV wrote:all I think he wants, is for the ship to choose a primary target (or be microed one) and then move in such a way that it aims it's body at that target, meanwhile all the smaller weapons would independently target any available items that happen to be in range as the main body moves to fire on the primary... what it does now is, chooses or gets assigned a target, and then moves until ANY of it's weapons are able to fire on it, and then stops manouvering... not the desired effect...
YEEEHAW! That's what I want exactly.

Posted: 26 May 2006, 02:42
by SinbadEV
Caydr wrote:
SinbadEV wrote:all I think he wants, is for the ship to choose a primary target (or be microed one) and then move in such a way that it aims it's body at that target, meanwhile all the smaller weapons would independently target any available items that happen to be in range as the main body moves to fire on the primary... what it does now is, chooses or gets assigned a target, and then moves until ANY of it's weapons are able to fire on it, and then stops manouvering... not the desired effect...
YEEEHAW! That's what I want exactly.
Problem is, despite my excellent ability to read minds... I am very very poor at acctually coding.

Posted: 27 May 2006, 05:41
by Argh
This looks like a job for Krogothe or AF.

Posted: 07 Jun 2006, 13:54
by centurion-1
I second this request, it is vital to the functioning of my Gears in Gear Commander but also realstic infantry is impossible without this feature. Otherwise the upper torso of human soldiers would swivel in a 360 degree manner and we all know that is impossible and looks quite stupid. That is why I think it'd be quite important.

Posted: 07 Jun 2006, 14:29
by Caydr
If a unit has only one weapon, and it has an arc, the unit will turn itself so that the turret piece an aim within that arc. But if it has more than one weapon, as long as one of them can fire, it will not turn. So, your infantry would be fine, but that's not so with your "Gears" I'm guessing (not familiar with gc)

Posted: 07 Jun 2006, 17:58
by Egarwaen
Caydr wrote:If a unit has only one weapon, and it has an arc, the unit will turn itself so that the turret piece an aim within that arc. But if it has more than one weapon, as long as one of them can fire, it will not turn. So, your infantry would be fine, but that's not so with your "Gears" I'm guessing (not familiar with gc)
Gears would be fine - most of their weapons have the same arc. A lot of the Tanks from Heavy Gear would be a bitch to model, though.