Feature Request: Turrets with changable weapons

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chuck_starchaser
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Feature Request: Turrets with changable weapons

Post by chuck_starchaser »

The way it was with the original Privateer game, you'd only buy a turret (turrets) for your ship once, and you could install any type of gun you wanted on them.
But right now we have long lists of turret types, one for each type of gun, which kind of pollutes not only the upgrade interface, but also units.csv.
Would it be hard to implement turrets with changeable weapons?
(I think Vegastrike (the game) would benefit as much as PU, if this feature was implemented.)
ace123
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Post by ace123 »

No it is not exactly possible because of the way subunits work. You would have to upgrade the subunit separately which would require changing the interface code.

It would be nice if we could generalize the distinction between subunits and mounts. But I don't think this is easy because subunits can be multiple levels deep, and can contain multiple weapons (in fact, many of the capship turrets in VS work this way).

I'm trying to think of ways to do this--like we could have it call python code when you try to upgrade something... so you can handle special cases like this.
chuck_starchaser
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Post by chuck_starchaser »

I think the subunit inteface could use a bit of refactoring, for other reasons as well. They need to mesh better with the units that own them. Right now, turrets don't consume energy from the ship; --at least in PU--, for instance. And their AI is a bit too strange. In PU, the turrets talk to us, sounding like friendly mercenaries. Almost spooky. :)
Deus Siddis
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Post by Deus Siddis »

On the subject of turret AI, does the current code allow you to have:

1) Turrets all aim as best they can in one particular direction corresponding to the direction of a player controlled camera view.

2) Fire only when and only as long as the player presses/holds a 'fire' key (basically the same fire control interface used currently for VS' forward fixed weapons)?

If this is not easily or efficiently possible in the current VS engine, I think it should be considered in any future restructuring of the relevant code.


Because this AI/interface system would be very, very useful to all mods (vega strike and vega trek being two examples) that have player controlled craft with turreted weapons, especially any craft that depend mostly or entirely on turreted weapons (like maybe some sub-capitals or capitals) for a couple reasons:

1) You often need precise control of your firepower, to aim your shots in the right balance between too inaccurate and too predictable spreads as well as shot timing for weapons that are slowly reloading and/or falloff affected.

2) It is fun; it gives a feeling that you are really in control of your ship and gives you something more to do if your ship is a slow capital with limited maneuvering responsiveness.

Automatic turret aiming and firing should really be like the maneuvering autopilot- something you can toggle on and off depending on how you need or want to focus your attention in different situations.


(Note: I know you can already take over individual turrets but this is not what I mean. Manning an one turret on a ship with several does little good and removes your control over the maneuvering of the ship while in this mode.)
jackS
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Post by jackS »

@Deus:

1. Not at present.

2. Sort of. You can currently manually control the target for turrets to track and then toggle their firing state. I haven't played with it for a while, so I actually don't recall off-hand if you can slave it to your own firing button, or just move between the three turret firing modes.
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