Railgun.oxp v 1.3 now available

[Commander McLane]

Version 1.3 of the OXP with the added sound effect and some other tweaks is now available. See the readMe for details, and the first post of this thread for a short summary.

 Enjoy!

[Cody]

Many thanks McLane... I've just noticed it has a projectile count now, as well as sound and the ability to discard and rebuy slugs... brilliant!

[Spartan]

My thanks also, very nice. Was waiting at the dealership with an order for the Mining version before they opened the doors. I still have a problem with collision detection if I am too close, but from further away it does much better. I can live with this, it is probably due to my old system anyway.

[Commander McLane]

I still have a problem with collision detection if I am too close, but from further away it does much better.

I notice that as well. I find it difficult to hit boulders when I'm sitting right in front of them (couple of hundred meters), which usually happens because I tend to break them up one by one and scoop each boulder's splinters first. So I am in the middle of a boulder field.

I am not completely sure why the railrun projectiles fly through very close targets more frequently than through distant targets.

One tip of saving your ammunition: I combine my laser with the railgun. Firing four single laser shots at the asteroid, and then using one railgun projectile only for the kill. That saves a lot of ammunition an makes my mining trips last much longer.

[Ad_Astra]

Phlogiston eh, same element group as handwavium?

Same element group as unobtanium, as well... maybe that's what the slugs should be made from... depleted unobtanium.

Unbelievium, surely?

[Ad_Astra]

Phut!

That's the sound you make when you break the seal on a new jar of coffee.

[CommonSenseOTB]

Phlogiston eh, same element group as handwavium?

Same element group as unobtanium, as well... maybe that's what the slugs should be made from... depleted unobtanium.

Unbelievium, surely?

Definately weapons grade bolognium!

[Ad_Astra]

I love this OXP but... shouldn't each Railgun come with a full complement of ammunition, rather then require one to be purchased afterwards? The ACS comes fully loaded and ready to use after all, as do the missile racks...

Also, if excess rounds are discarded, are they bought back by the seller and the excess cost refunded to the Commander in same way as Chaff rounds from a full cartridge are for the ACS?

[Commander McLane]

I love this OXP but... shouldn't each Railgun come with a full complement of ammunition, rather then require one to be purchased afterwards? The ACS comes fully loaded and ready to use after all, as do the missile racks...

Maybe other manufacturers have different policies about bundling?

Also, if excess rounds are discarded, are they bought back by the seller and the excess cost refunded to the Commander in same way as Chaff rounds from a full cartridge are for the ACS?

No, that's why you are explicitly warned that they're discarded. If there was a refund, it would be mentioned somewhere.

[ADCK]

Ah, I always wanted to make a railgun for an NPC ship on one of my OXP's but could never figure out how, well at least it can be done for player ships.

[Commander McLane]

Ah, I always wanted to make a railgun for an NPC ship on one of my OXP's but could never figure out how, well at least it can be done for player ships.

It wouldn't be hard to generalize the script in order to make the projectiles independent of the player ship.

The tricky part would be to teach NPCs how to aim and shoot. I have only a very sketchy idea about how that could work. The problem is that you have to estimate where your target will be in a couple of seconds instead of firing at your target's current position. (And that's apart from implementing a firing mechanism in JS, and taking care that it plays nicely with the firing mechanism of the front laser, which is out of a script's control anyway.)

[ADCK]

Hmm, couldn't you give the projectiles themselves an AI that's similar to missiles but give them no turning ability...wait no that wouldn't work... I think it could be done with the projectiles AI, just not sure how...

[Alex]

Moved from "the main chat" area (or indeed the bugs in Oolite thread) to the actual thread posting was about

Wasn't sure where to post this;

Bought a new heavy rail gun and ammo, it cost thousands.
Ammo is 100 rounds, emptied about half into a standard cobra at close quarters, less than 7Km.
Virtually no effect?? Did see the impact bloom each time.
Resale value at best 10Cr?

I must be missing something..
Or at least a full refund!

[Cody]

Resale value at best 10Cr?

That's just the fee for removal... you do get the refund price.

[Commander McLane]

Well, the Railgun is not designed to be an über-weapon.

I just tried with a standard Cobra at about 7000 meters, and with NPC-shields installed. It took me a total of 24 projectiles to kill it. Six or seven were needed just to take the shields down, so without NPC-shields I probably could have done it with 18 projectiles.

Note that the railgun is a kinetic weapon. It is far more effective against an approaching target than against a stationary target. Best effect is if you fly at top speed and hit a ship that's flying head-on against you at top speed.

As for the resell value: all numbers you see on the F3-screen are prices. A price is generally what you pay, not what you get. In other words, you have to pay a fee of 10 credits in order to resell the item. I think that's fair. Once you vote for that option you are refunded 60% of the original retail price (no refunds for the ammunition, though).