Author Topic: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?  (Read 8866 times)

Offline Align

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Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« on: February 11, 2015, 10:25:37 pm »
Is it possible to give a firearm with an arcingShot:true a specific force for its shot so you can get higher or lower arcs, and a resultant maximum range?

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2015, 10:45:46 pm »
You can set the maximum range of a weapon (of any kind, not just the arcing ones), but the angle of the shot and its force are automatically calculated depending on where you want to shoot.

Offline Align

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2015, 08:46:04 am »
That's too bad, I was hoping it'd be possible to have a high-force shallow-arc grenade launcher that would be useful even indoors, along with a lower-force higher-arc mortar sort of weapon that would be useful for hitting behind cover.

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2015, 04:19:41 pm »
It could be interesting to have different trajectories depending on the bulletSpeed property of weapons. Faster bullets needing less of an arc.

The problem with that is trying to hit behind cover with a weapon that fires fast bullets, which means a parabola that goes really high, which means it'll clip the "map ceiling" and not work.

Offline kikimoristan

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2015, 05:53:01 pm »
arcing shot behaves odd anyway for  example if my dude is kinda close to an object a bit above him his LOS tells him he can shoot but he doesn't shoot anything because that object blocks it. LOS calculations might not consider the parabolic trajectory and might calculate as if is straight.  you probably want something more like a grenade launcher. is probably possible to make a grenade launcher item that throws anything you want on the battle field. grenades-type weapons can be thrown anywhere even above and they fake the parabolic throwing of what you're thinking.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2015, 06:32:49 pm by tollworkout »

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2015, 06:22:41 pm »
is probably possible to make a grenade launcher item that throws grenades on the battle field.

Yup.  That mod is out there right now.  Its one I can't wait to try out, though I heard it may be a bit over powered.

Offline kikimoristan

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2015, 06:33:25 pm »
Yup.  That mod is out there right now.  Its one I can't wait to try out, though I heard it may be a bit over powered.

grenade launcher should probably be a HWP weapon only

Offline ivandogovich

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2015, 06:38:01 pm »
I think someone even made one of the 1x1 scout variants with the Grenade Launcher.  #2Op

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2015, 06:42:16 pm »
There is indeed a grenade launcher out there. I thought that was what we were talking about? Having different grenade launchers with different amounts of "kick" to them.

Grenade launchers are infantry weapon, no more necessarily OP than a rocket launcher. The XAE has a version of the grenade launcher, which is taken from Riiskelini's "Guns and gadgets" mod and modified to balance it a little. I'd suggest trying it. It's a really cool weapon. Awesome to be able to have "artillery support" for your soldiers early on, and less outright OP than the blaster launcher/mind missile with their multiple waypoints.

It is not a super easy weapon to work with as a modder since it is a powerful starting weapon. The arcing shot does make it harder to miss (being a tile off with a pistol shot is a bad miss, hitting the floor a tile away with an explosive, who cares?), so it does need to be balanced carefully by accuracy/TUs/damage so it doesn't become the one weapon to rule 'em all. But once your soldiers become more accurate, a good sniper or even a few shots up close are usually a better solution. It is difficult to get line of fire in crowded maps anywhere but down streets (so terrain pack helps balance it) and a simple roof will protect you. It's also useless indoors.

Any ways, if you guys use it, let me know!

Offline kikimoristan

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2015, 08:22:55 pm »
Arthanor one question. Is grenade launcher affected by throwing skill or firing accuracy skill? Just wondering. If you choose weapon battle grenade but damageType stun for example which skill governs what?

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2015, 08:31:45 pm »
A grenade launcher is a "gun", so it is affected by shooting accuracy. The aiming advantage (hitting the floor next to aliens instead of missing, and maybe even hitting multiple aliens) allows you to give it to relatively inaccurate operatives to increase their skill.

There are stun/HE/Incendiary/Smoke "explosive" grenades, and you could presumably make anything else but it would be weird as the other damage types can't explode. There is a "buckshot" AP shell, which is devastating at close range and devastating to computers because of computing ~20 arcing trajectories at once.

As far as I know, the damageType property has no bearing on the skill used. Grenades use throwing skills, grenade launchers (which really in game have nothing to do with grenade except the name and sharing the arcing trajectory) use firing accuracy regardless of damage types.

Offline kikimoristan

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2015, 09:36:58 pm »
i gotta try this . second question is ..can you prime a grenade launcher? or does it explode instantly or at the end of the turn?

Offline Align

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2015, 09:49:07 pm »
Explodes on contact. Priming only works with an item itself, not its ammo. I think...

Offline Arthanor

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #13 on: February 19, 2015, 10:10:04 pm »
Yes, a grenade launcher has nothing to do with the "grenade" type of items. You don't prime the ammunition, it's not thrown (or using the throwing skill), it doesn't use the unit's strength for distance, it doesn't use grenades as ammunition (you have to create its own ammunition), none of that.

All it is, really, is a gun that fires bullets that follow an arcing trajectory. It could be an acid "watergun", a bow or whatever else you want to follow arcing trajectories. We just chose in this case to use the functionality to fire explosive ammunition since it mimics well what a grenade launcher is.

Offline kikimoristan

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Re: Arcing shot - custom force behind shot?
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2015, 10:20:20 pm »
got it. thanks. I gotta try it out instead of asking 50000 questions :)