Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?  (Read 6963 times)

MesoTroniK

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1731
  • I am going to destroy your ships
    • View Profile
Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« on: January 18, 2014, 08:21:10 PM »

I suspect it can be faked with a weapon firing animation somehow.

Now if it can be made this badass?

Challenge accepted, Exigency needs some new toys...

If someone thinks of a better way to do it, then please let me know :)

kazi

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 714
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2014, 11:13:39 PM »

Hah, that's actually one of my sort-of long term to-do's. Although I sorta want to save the idea for my mod, the easiest thing to do would be to make an energy torpedo-ish weapon and have the engine create the illusion by manipulating the amount of glow and engine trail.

Also, check your PMs  ;)
Logged

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2014, 11:15:51 PM »

ANROCs on the Nautilus.

Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

Debido

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1183
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2014, 05:08:51 AM »

If I remember correctly the fairy empire mod had VErtical Launch Missile Systems.

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6155.0

I can't remember it very we'll or if different animations or effects were used. But yes, vertical missile systems make a lot of sense.
Logged

c plus one

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 170
  • 'Make Jumpgates Great Again!'
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2014, 07:20:55 AM »

Aside from how Starsector only has a polar-projection view, the concept of "vertical" in space is, ah, an extremely loose one and I dont see how VLS there can be said to "make a lot of sense".

(switches hats)

That being said, any friend of a Macross Missile Massacre is a friend of mine. Five-star fun ;D

/dakka
Logged
Quote from: Lopunny Zen
you are playing them wrong then..

Don't tell me I'm playing anything wrong in a singleplayer sandbox game. Just don't.

Debido

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1183
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2014, 08:39:59 AM »

We'll if you have missiles loaded along the aft-forward axis of the ship, then you need to usually rotate the whole ship in the direction of the enemy so the missile tips are facing the enemy before firing. With VLs missiles fire vertical from the middle of the ship and can go in any direction they like after launch with no restriction on the bearing of the enemy before firing.

Using VLS also preserves space, and looks less unsightly than things like the typhoon launcher hanging off the front of the ships. Missiles are only a few pixels across, so a a large normal weapon slot could hold multiple launch tubes.

Also having your missile systems closer to the centre of the ship would make them less prone to damage and going offline.

That and it makes sense if missiles or torpedoes are being reloaded in combat, instead of them magically reappearing on the rack the reloading occurs within the ship out of sight.

The only downside is they have a slower initial velocity? And wouldn't want the engines to burn out before they were clear of the top of your ship.
Logged

PCCL

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 2016
  • still gunnyfreak
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2014, 04:18:58 PM »

the main problem I see is we can't actually have missiles "turning" in that way (what with them being sprites and all

otherwise it's just a missile with initial velocity of 0, really
Logged
mmm.... tartiflette

MesoTroniK

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1731
  • I am going to destroy your ships
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2014, 04:24:29 PM »

You are technically correct, but with some clever animation trickery or maybe a metric ****ton of missile submunition stages to "animate" it.

Maybe creating the illusion is possible :)

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2014, 05:19:27 PM »

If we could do anything with DamagingProjectile sprites, then we could pretend it's moving "upwards" by scaling the sprite over time until it transformed into the final version.  Doing it with an animated weapon sprite probably wouldn't work all that well; just having a dot for the initial missile that spewed a few smoke particles with a timer function that transformed it would work fairly well.
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

Debido

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1183
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2014, 05:31:38 PM »

Lazywizard could probably hax an API or something up in weekend for VLS animations.
Logged

MesoTroniK

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1731
  • I am going to destroy your ships
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2014, 05:42:13 PM »

Xeno you just made me realize something that is incredibly obvious.

We could use a modified version of the exigency_MacrossMissilePlugin script. It would fire a missile, and keep removing it and replacing it with a different missile with slightly different sprite, speed, and engine each time until the missile "arcs over" and then the actual missile is hurled at the enemy :o

xenoargh

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 5078
  • naively breaking things!
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2014, 05:48:10 PM »

Yeah, that could be done, and it probably doesn't need very many frames of animation to work; 3-4 is probably enough.
Logged
Please check out my SS projects :)
Xeno's Mod Pack

dmaiski

  • Captain
  • ****
  • Posts: 422
  • resistance is futile
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #12 on: January 21, 2014, 05:43:27 AM »

you should be able to temporarily "shorten" the missile sprite using setSize from SpriteAPI, and just tweak acceleration using AI or missle.proj settings, that should let you do what you want appearance wise (something else i was thinking of pre-hiatus)
Logged
BISO
(WIP) lots of shiny new weapons ( :-[ i have more weapons then sprites :-[ )

i got a cat pad
its like a mouse pad but better!

Debido

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1183
    • View Profile
Re: Vertical launch missiles in Starsector?
« Reply #13 on: January 29, 2014, 05:45:32 PM »

The next thing you want with the vertical launch missile is having it able to perform plunging fire over the top of the enemies shields, directly into the enemies aft/engine section where shields are mostly likely left out.

The downside with 'plunging missiles' is that they are exposed to anti-missile fire for longer. As from a 2D perspective they move slowly towards the target at first as they are launched, but quickly increase in speed. At the other end, as they plunge down they would appear to decelerate to about half speed for a short time before impact. You also wouldn't have to worry about allied ships being in the way. You could implement some very nice 'long range' missiles ships/frigates that are able to avoid harming allied ships.
Logged