Entity Manifest Questions

Um, you can't change weapon graphics from the entity.manifest file. You need to change the entity file of the ship you want to change the weapon on. Look for a segment of code like this (example is the LRM frigate).

NumWeapons 1
Weapon
    WeaponType "Missile"
    damageEnums
        AttackType "ANTIMEDIUM"
        DamageAffectType "AFFECTS_SHIELDS_AND_HULL"
        DamageApplyType "BACKLOADED"
        DamageType "PHYSICAL"
        WeaponClassType "MISSILE"
    DamagePerBank:FRONT 71.500000
    DamagePerBank:BACK 0.000000
    DamagePerBank:LEFT 0.000000
    DamagePerBank:RIGHT 0.000000
    Range 9800.000000
    PreBuffCooldownTime 6.500000
    CanFireAtFighter FALSE
    SynchronizedTargeting FALSE
    PointStaggerDelay 0.150000
    TravelSpeed 1000.000000
    Duration 0.000000
    fireConstraintType "CanAlwaysFire"
    WeaponEffects
        weaponType "Missile"
        burstCount 1
        burstDelay 0.600000
        muzzleEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalMissileHeavy_Muzzle"
        muzzleSoundMinRespawnTime 0.500000
        muzzleSounds
            soundCount 3
            sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALMISSILEHEAVY_MUZZLE"
            sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALMISSILEHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT1"
            sound "WEAPON_TECHCAPITALMISSILEHEAVY_MUZZLE_ALT2"
        hitEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalMissileHeavy_Hit"
        hitHullEffectSounds
            soundCount 1
            sound "WEAPONIMPACT_MISSILEHEAVY_HITGENERIC"
        hitShieldsEffectSounds
            soundCount 1
            sound "WEAPONIMPACT_MISSILEHEAVY_HITGENERIC"
        missileTravelEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalMissileHeavy_Travel"
        missileStartTurningDistance 250.000000
        missileSlowTurnRate 0.708997
        missileMaxSlowTurnTime 6.000000

I think changing the equivelent bolded lines on the ship you want to change should do it. Keep in mind some ships have more than one weapon as well.

The above post is more or less right about what you'd want to change for adjusting firing rates and shots fired, though it's missing one other line that should be bolded for that too.  Honestly, with the above example, the burstDelay is pretty much pointless.  With burstCount at 1, there's no actual burst, it's a single shot.  (Think like the "three round burst" on machine guns.  burstCount is the number of shots fired, while burstDelay is the delay between the shots.)  If you look up higher, though, you'll see the line: "PreBuffCooldownTime 6.500000".  THIS is the line you'll want to alter to have a ship fire once every 15 or 30 seconds, or whatever you like.  Of course, not the ever important PreBuff part.  Buffs will either increase or decrease that value by %s.

As for everything else within any given ship's entity file.. well, the mass majority of it is fairly straight forward, the lines pretty much all do what your intuition is likely to guess they do.  So I guess it'd probably be easier if any specific line comes up that you're unsure of, to ask about it.  Easier then someone posting line for line what each line means in the files, and they'd have to do seperate ones for capital ships, frigates, orbital modules, research, etc..  But don't worry!  We will answer if something specific is is eluding you!

Wow, thanks, this helps a lot. I had been fiddling with this earlier but not getting the desired results. Thank you so much, I'll keep asking questions