Twin Plasma Cannon?

[lave]

Hi all.

I am running Oolite 1.74.2

The Wiki says that Twin Plasma Cannons are available at Tech 2 planets however I can't see any.

Thanks.

[X]

You'll need to edit the game resource files, they're not available by default.

Oolite\oolite.app\Resources\Config\equipment.plist

Change this:

Code: Select all

	(
		2, 2000, "Twin Plasma Cannon",
		"EQ_WEAPON_TWIN_PLASMA_CANNON",
		"Basic cannon delivering charged plasma bursts at sublight speed."
	),

To this:

Code: Select all

	(
		2, 2000, "Twin Plasma Cannon",
		"EQ_WEAPON_TWIN_PLASMA_CANNON",
		"Basic cannon delivering charged plasma bursts at sublight speed."
			available_to_all = true;
	),

I wouldn't bother with them though; as a main weapon they're inferior in nearly every way.

[Kaks]

None of the standard player ships are supposed to have plasma cannons, and only a few oxp ships do have them. Maybe the entry on the wiki should reflect that.

One thing about X's advice: it's fairly easy to 'break' .plists, especially if it's the first time you do it, so do make a backup. Also, if you're on windows, never ever use windows' notepad to edit them, it tends to add extra hidden characters that make the plist unreadable to Oolite. The freeware notepad++ editor is a much better alternative!

Also: I wouldn't change the .plist inside Resources, I'd place the modified .plist inside AddOns\Config (create the Config directory if it's not there).

That way, you can always revert to the standard behaviour by deleting the copy inside AddOns and/or you won't have to redo the edit if you upgrade to a new version of Oolite...

Before I forget: once you've modified a configuration file, you need to restart Oolite while pressing shift, to rebuild the game cache with the new information!

Hope this helps,
Kaks.

[lave]

Thanks for the replies.

I remember all what you said now. I haven't played Oolite for ages so some basic things I have forgotten.

Thanks.

[Ganelon]

Admittedly, a military laser on the front can get the job done a lot faster and surer than plasma turrets. But when I was testing the Vortex (an OXP ship that has them mounted mostly for taking out missiles), they certainly can be useful at times. They wouldn't be my first choice for a primary, I'd agree. But they definitely can manage some damage if you stay close enough to he target.

[Commander McLane]

Admittedly, a military laser on the front can get the job done a lot faster and surer than plasma turrets.

The question was about plasma cannons, which are a completely different thing to plasma turrets.

For once, turrets cannot be installed as a primary weapon, they are by their very nature an extra weapon.

[Cmdr James]

The Twin plasma cannon is a pretty useless weapon, you are better not buying it but I dont think there is any harm in enabling it. I had some for some time and other than fights lasting hours it was ok.

[lave]

Is there any way to boost the power of plasma cannons to match, say, a pulse laser?

There must be some variable somewhere that determins weapon power.

Thanks.

[Cmdr James]

Its not so much the power thats a problem, its more that they are short ranged and fire slow moving balls of plasma. Its like trying to shoot down a fly with snowballs.

Weapon power in oolite is not hugely elegant anyway, so its not that easy to change power. There are a few places where the weapon type is checked and damage calculated accordingly, whereas ideally the weapon would know its own power and the code would simply ask it how much damage it thinks it should cause. Rant over, simple answer no, not as easy as you would think.

[lave]

OK thanks.