Oolite Bulletins

Following Thargoid's valid point about the turrets needing to rotate I have been thinking about how we could incorporate different styles of turret whilst taking into account of the way in which they move and track targets.

In simple terms we seat the turret model on a spherical mount. The turret then rotates about the centre of this base.

The base itself can be positioned such that it is set half within the ship or station model so that as a turret tracks a target the base does not appear to disconnect with the model it is attached to.

I screenshot below shows the principle that I have applied to turret type 1 shown earlier in this thread with the 3D rectangular section of the model simply there to show how you could drop the spherical base in to the surface of a model.

If this would work you can then create any style of gun/turret on top of a base of this style.

Can it be based on the mounts that you see on police helicopters for camera?

Tricky wrote:

Can it be based on the mounts that you see on police helicopters for camera?

That was my line of thinking.

I have had a quick play with a turret but am having trouble getting the turret to appear in Oolite.

I suspect that it is to do with the code I have put in to the shipdata.plist (See below).

I have tried to use the new style sub-entity definition method but to be honest I am not 100% sure how to fully define a specific turret.

Is anyone able to have a look at the code below and advise where I am going wrong/provide a corrected section of code ?

Shipbuilder wrote:

Is anyone able to have a look at the code below and advise where I am going wrong/provide a corrected section of code ?

You seem to be mixing your subentity definition and your entity definition.

Code: Select all

		<dict>
              		<key>type</key>
			<string>ball_turret</string>
			<key>subentity_key</key>
			<string>galtech_turret_1</string>
          		<key>position</key>
			<string>0 35 -2</string>
          		<key>orientation</key>
			<string>1 0 0 0</string>
          		<key>fire_rate</key>
			<string>0.5</string>
          		<key>weapon_range</key>
			<string>6000</string>
          		<key>weapon_energy</key>
			<string>10</string>

These should be in the "subentities" section of the ship which is mounting the turret.

Code: Select all

			<key>ai_type</key>
			<string>nullAI.plist</string>	
		 	<key>model</key>
			<string>galtech_turret_1.dat</string>
			<key>name</key>
			<string>GalTech Industries Corporation Turret 1</string>
		  	<key>thrust</key>
			<string>1.0</string>
			<key>roles</key>
			<string>turret</string>			

These should be in the separate entity definition of your turret (with key "galtech_turret_1").

Thanks cim - I'll have a look at that

EDIT That was spot on - it's working now thanks for the assistance

David and Goliath.

Wildeblood wrote:

David and Goliath.

Is that a ... what ship is that? And how many shots would that thing need to destroy a Torus station? Also, what are those docking lights along the base of the barrel?

Wildeblood wrote:

David and Goliath.

[img]http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7892/doomdodo.png[/img]

"DoomDodo.png"

It could also be the Bubble Space Telescope. Or the Star Lolly.

BuggyBY wrote:

Is that a ... what ship is that? And how many shots would that thing need to destroy a Torus station? Also, what are those docking lights along the base of the barrel?

That's a Griff Moray viewed from the bottom. I think it needs exactly one shot to destroy anything, unless it misses. The docking lights are exactly that, to instantiate it in game I just used a coriolis shipdata, and I neglected to remove the dock sub-entity.

SandJ wrote:

"DoomDodo.png" It could also be the Bubble Space Telescope. Or the Star Lolly.

Doomsday Orbital will be coming to your planet, cheeky git.

.....

Wildeblood - You're doing a great job with that. With planetary defence stations like that Thargoids will really get a big surprise on their next planet raid

Wow wildeblood that looks better than the texture I put on mine! The problem I'm having at the moment is trying to put a docking bay onto it, as none of the sides are perfectly flat and the docking bay I'm using (the standard one) only really works with flat surfaces and I also can't get it to go exactly where I want it. Trial and error at the moment!

Pleb – Do you have Wings 3D ?

If so you should be able to use edit the file I posted for you to download by using the flatten command to give you some flat surfaces.
I’m not at home so I am trying to remember this from memory but I think you should be able to do the following: -

I don’t know where you intend putting a docking bay but assuming that you are looking to place a docking bay on the side opposite the barrel select the face selection tool, then click on the panel/panels which you would like to flatten, (i.e. make vertical), right click and select flatten from the menu then I think select axis z.

If you have any problems let me know what exactly you are trying to do and I will try to look at the 3D model I have, see if I can achieve what you are looking for and post a new file for download.

Yes I'm using Wings 3D, and you are correct in assuming it is the rear of the model of where I am trying to insert a docking bay. I know the hole I'm trying to create has to be 192x64 (which is the size of the standard docking bay) but its getting a dock to sit at the back that's confusing me, not to mention flattening the surface.

I've managed to retexture the station with a flatter texture than the one Wildeblood used, so that although it doesn't quite have the same feel as Wildeblood's it does look like it matches up, without parts of the texture being at the wrong angle. Perhaps the dock will be too big for the station, and I will need to make the station larger? I did think about doing this, just to create that sort of "That's no moon" feel to the station...