Dream Weapon (No, I'm not proposing another OXP here)

[Ganelon]

Then for another "non-lethal" measure, there's always Witherspoon's Thargoid Fakes. Life sized mylar balloons in the shape of Thargoid warships. Usually released in groups, a few seconds after being deployed, a small gas capsule inside inflates them to their full size, and a counterfeit Thargoid transponder is activated. The inflation gas is a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, so if they are lasered, they will explode.

When a WTF cluster is deployed, from the pursuing ship's point of view it seems that several Thargoid warships have appeared from nowhere and are directly between them and their intended prey. If they laser them as a reflex action, the WTFs harmlessly explode, but the resulting debris may act as chaff if a missile happens to be enroute at the moment.

(Edited to correct a couple words out of order.)

[drew]

Personally, I would like a dogfighting weapon, like an auto-cannon on modern combat aircraft. I do hard level random hits contracts, and just about any fight I have been in has degenerated to a dogfight. I generally choose a target and stay on him until he is dead. I think that a redone version of the twin plasma cannon, with rounds traveling 1-2 LM and at least as much range as a civilian beam laser, would be my ultimate weapon. My military lasers are nice, but I personally need a weapon that has decent range and that can keep firing for long a period of time while putting out a lot of rounds. I wouldn't care if each round only did 2.5-5 damage as long as I could keep firing quickly for a long. My military lasers put out a lot of damage, fast; but in a dogfight they don't last long, and my target especially when I am on a random hits mission can come back for a second or third helpings.

I'll take one of those too.

Cheers,

Drew.

[Bugbear]

snip... Witherspoon's Thargoid Fakes.

...snip...

When a WTF cluster is deployed ....snip

and that is what I call a tortured acronym. Nicely done!

[Okti]

Personally, I would like a dogfighting weapon, like an auto-cannon on modern combat aircraft. I do hard level random hits contracts, and just about any fight I have been in has degenerated to a dogfight. I generally choose a target and stay on him until he is dead. I think that a redone version of the twin plasma cannon, with rounds traveling 1-2 LM and at least as much range as a civilian beam laser, would be my ultimate weapon. My military lasers are nice, but I personally need a weapon that has decent range and that can keep firing for long a period of time while putting out a lot of rounds. I wouldn't care if each round only did 2.5-5 damage as long as I could keep firing quickly for a long. My military lasers put out a lot of damage, fast; but in a dogfight they don't last long, and my target especially when I am on a random hits mission can come back for a second or third helpings.

There is one dogfighting cannon, Commander McLane's Railgun. But it only simulates the kill, the bounty and the offense comitted. So you can kill a target with that gun but the kill will not be counted on you. And you will get a your target has been killed by someone else message when you dock while you expect a reward.

My OXP workshops "Uber Equipment Division" worked on couple of projects like this in the near past. I did not release them, just couple of friends tested them. I found a way to overcome that as well and it is ready. But releasing is postponed due to the other projects going on.

[Thargoid]

And very good they were too! Albeit as you say rather uber.

[DaddyHoggy]

And very good they were too! Albeit as you say rather uber.

You'll be badgered by Dragonfire for a copy of the OXP now - no such thing as too uber...

[Okti]

And very good they were too! Albeit as you say rather uber.

You'll be badgered by Dragonfire for a copy of the OXP now - no such thing as too uber...

You can send me a PM Dragonfire

[Okti]

And Commander Wilmot is welcome as well.

[Commander McLane]

As yet I've not written a poodle cannon though, I'll leave that one to McLane. My mind is evil and devious, but not quite that much so

Being a cat person, I can't help thinking that being a bait in a cannon would be just the right use for a poodle.

Still, I'm going to pass on the opportunity. I have to admit, though, that right now I'm contemplating the possibilities for a Plasma Accelerator...

[Commander McLane]

There is one dogfighting cannon, Commander McLane's Railgun. But it only simulates the kill, the bounty and the offense comitted. So you can kill a target with that gun but the kill will not be counted on you.

Regarding the railgun? I assure you, the kill is counted on you. Or have I misunderstood something?

[Eldon]

Sounds like you only get the kill counted for your elite rating, not for things like taking out your random hits target.

[Okti]

There is one dogfighting cannon, Commander McLane's Railgun. But it only simulates the kill, the bounty and the offense comitted. So you can kill a target with that gun but the kill will not be counted on you.

Regarding the railgun? I assure you, the kill is counted on you. Or have I misunderstood something?

Unfortunately if a shipDied event is checking for the player as whom, will not get the whom.isPlayer but something like railgun_projectile. So it may not work well with the mission OXP's checking for that. And they must check for it as well.

[Commander McLane]

Sounds like you only get the kill counted for your elite rating, not for things like taking out your random hits target.

Ah, I hadn't caught the Random Hits reference. And yes, the observation is true.

For the game a railgun projectile is not connected to the player ship, therefore none of the usual hit or kill events are triggered, and the OXP has to "manually" manipulate the appropriate game counters. Obviously that doesn't help other OXPs which rely on the normal triggers.

Spontaneously I'd say that's an unfixable glitch, and I can only advise you to not use your railgun for the final shot on a mission-relevant target, if the mission requires you to kill your target personally.

[Eldon]

Random thought, but could the is_submunition key be used to get round this, or will it only work from things that are missile based?

[Commander McLane]

Random thought, but could the is_submunition key be used to get round this, or will it only work from things that are missile based?

As far as I understand, is_submunition will indeed only work for missiles. It also requires the entity to be released by something which is recognized as a weapon, which isn't the case for railgun projectiles. Technically those are spawned out of nowhere. For the game they aren't even part of a weapon.