tracers!

from Sins Forums
After only finding out about this game recently (for which i'm forever thankful not sure if i could stand waiting months for this)

I've watched the beta 4 video's and I'm abit dissapointed with the fighting between the capital ships, it just doesn't look epic enough for me. I've always imagined these enormous machines of death to be full to the brim with guns of all sorts. The fighting I've seen only really shows a few kinds of guns being used what i wanted to see what hundreds of tracers being fired as in battle star Gallactica.

http://www.genarts.com/bsg-pics/bsg-battle-scene.jpg (linky linky)

Secondly surely not every round will hit it's mark, now i understand this is the future but for eye candy's sake it would look nicer if there were more misses and more shots being fired.

Just my opinion what do you all think?
9,962 views 36 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Just my opinion what do you all think?
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I agree, in principle, for the desire for both missed shots and an increased volume of fire. That said, the sheer modability of this game is incredible. The following two changes should be doable just from the .entity files, by any layman:

1. Increase the number of shots fired (no balance change): you can increase the graphical appearance of how many shots are fired by increasing the shots fired per volley, and assuming I recall correctly thats a graphical value only, with no game balance issues.

2. Include minor to moderate miss chance (small balance issues, notably revolving around Akkan's increase to hit chance -- may need a minor damage increase to maintain DPS, to avoid other balance issues).
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
True, but it may be more cpu efficient if they implemented the increased shot volume as purely graphical, not fully modeled projectiles. That way it will look much more spectacular, and you don't have any balance issues to iron out.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
lol it would look great but many a computer would probably blow up!
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
do it!

I've already upped the volley size on every ship i've messed with because it looks cool.

I'd love missed shots though. Please add them sometime, It'd just look to sweet to pass up.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Missed shots could be purely graphical so as to avoid any balance problems the ships would still do the same damage this should also be put in the graphics options to be toggled on off.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Just so you can see what you can get with a little modding (this was just a first attempt at getting the effect in an earlier beta, but serves to show what you can get with just minor modding).

Kol's with increased firing dueling it out.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
That is absolutely awesome. Just add some missed shots to that effect and it will be EPIC!
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Honestly, if the firing rates aren't to my liking in final, I'll probably just make a small "battle spice" mod to get everything looking to my liking without changing balance and upload it somewhere for anyone who's interested, so, whatever. I'm not terribly interested in adding a miss chance, as it'll affect balance (something I'm *not* out to do), but increased volley size usually results in a perceived miss rate -- as if you're firing against a moving target, the volley "trail" tends to fall off target eventually.

(also keep in mind that that was a very early video -- I've gotten effects I'm much happier with now, but before changing *everything*, I want to see the final effects, many of which are supposed to be nicer. )
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
upload it to sins.bz multi will love joo
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
That was just going into the Kol's entity file and changing the "cooldown" value for its autocannons (and decreasing damage appropriately) and increasing volley size. Really a simple change -- the only work involved is doing it for allll ships. Gets a bit tedious :p

More recently, I played with replacing TEC "lasers" with flashbeams of the Kol's beam color. Modding these things is *really* easy.


Like so -- FlashyBeam Battle

Edit: to be a bit more explicit:

Open CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP.entity in the GameInfo folder:

(areas useful to change marked with "<<")

Weapon
WeaponType "Projectile"
damageEnums
AttackType "CAPITALSHIP"
DamageAffectType "AFFECTS_SHIELDS_AND_HULL"
DamageApplyType "BACKLOADED"
DamageType "PHYSICAL"
WeaponClassType "AUTOCANNON"
DamagePerBank:FRONT 27.000000 << Changed these as appropriate to maintain DPS
DamagePerBank:BACK 49.500000 <<
DamagePerBank:LEFT 49.500000 <<
DamagePerBank:RIGHT 27.000000 <<
Range 5000.000000
PreBuffCooldownTime 4.500000 << Controls how often the ship will fire. I think in that video, I dropped it to ~1second
CanFireAtFighter FALSE
SynchronizedTargeting FALSE
PointStaggerDelay 1.000000
TravelSpeed 4000.000000
Duration 0.000000
WeaponEffects
WeaponType "Projectile"
BurstCount 15 << This controls the volley size. This is soley a visual effect -- no damage changes.
BurstDelay 0.060000 << Controls the separation of the individual burst components. Decrease to "clump" the burst more, increase to space out the individual projectiles.
MuzzleEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Muzzle"
NumMuzzleSoundIDs 3
SoundID "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE"
SoundID "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT1"
SoundID "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALAUTOCANNONHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT2"
MuzzleSoundMinRespawnTime 0.770000
HitEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Hit"
HitHullEffectSoundID "WEAPONIMPACT_PHYSICALHEAVY_HITHULL"
HitShieldsEffectSoundID "WEAPONIMPACT_GENERICHEAVY_HITSHIELDS"
ProjectileTravelEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalAutoCannonHeavy_Travel"
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Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
the bfg mod will have alot more ordanence flying around go have a look at our cap ship for one of our races ... every single gun on that will be firing shots thats 6 lasers and uncountable amounts of smaller cannons meaning there will be some serious light shows and if we can get a miss rate working all the better (unlike everyone else we *want* to upset the balance  :D )
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
If the client i'm running on is modified, wouldn't that mean that it differs from other people's then stopping online play?
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

If the client i'm running on is modified, wouldn't that mean that it differs from other people's then stopping online play?
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Yes.
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top
A question about modding in Sins, I see you guys talking about mods affecting the client and stopping online play, does this mean that mods in sins require us to edit/overwrite the game's base files every time we want to switch between regular/mod play?

I was really hoping it would be something simple, like a mod folder that you could stick copies of the modified files in, and an ingame option to play Sins vanilla or have it read the altered files out of the folder.

Not having played yet I do not know which is the case, but if the game is going to be super mod friendly (since it sounds like we are being given fancy tools) then I hope there is some kind of easy and clean way to switch between mods without copying and pasting files and folders every time.

And if this isn't included yet then it sure would be nice as a future feature. Having to muck about in the game files, potentially rendering the client unplayable online, always scares a lot of casual players from ever exploring mod possibilities.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
I'm definitely in agreement that some sort of mod control should have been implemented! However, they haven't done so in any of the beta's to date, nor has there been any mention of doing so... so we're probably SOL, and stuck with overwriting the "base" files. Bad decision...
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
I can't wait to get my hands on this game, already preordered it, battlesequences similar to BSG, WOW!!! Reminds me of good old Homeworld 2..
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
mmmm can't wait for some good mods <3
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top
I have a question, suppose i am playing my friend who has modded his ships with an increase volleys of firing, but if those extra shots are just for pretty graphics, and one of those missed shots just hitted one of my ships but does no damage, would it be pointless to increase the amount of firing in the first place.
Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top
Changing the number of shots is, IIRC, a purely graphical change -- it makes things look prettier, and not much else.
Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top

I'm definitely in agreement that some sort of mod control should have been implemented! However, they haven't done so in any of the beta's to date, nor has there been any mention of doing so... so we're probably SOL, and stuck with overwriting the "base" files. Bad decision...
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Uh, can't you just copy the folder?
Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top
i heard that we will have a mod folder but that is just me trying to use my already shoddy memory. but on the other hand i currently have 2 lots of sins installed 1 that is the current release and 1 that is the current release + mods
Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top

I'm definitely in agreement that some sort of mod control should have been implemented! However, they haven't done so in any of the beta's to date, nor has there been any mention of doing so... so we're probably SOL, and stuck with overwriting the "base" files. Bad decision...


Uh, can't you just copy the folder?
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Yeah, just keep copies of the relivant folders for various mods handy. Overwrite the ones that already exist when you want to switch between various mods or back to vanilla. Not quite as efficient as an ingame Game Manager, but still fairly simple.

Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top


Uh, can't you just copy the folder?
End of quote


Yes, but thats not as easy, can't be done from in-game, and has more opportunities for screwups.
Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top
i'd much rather they just make the shots per volley etc changeable in the graphics options, so i can still play online whilst keeping the pretty bullet effects.