Add reload bar to Summits

[SC-Account]

What about adding a reload bar for Summits like the one missile launchers and artillery got?
It is really annoying to micro their shots due to no indication of there readiness. Other units like the tempest at least indicate when they are about to fire...

[pip]

Good idea.

EDIT: Though it has 3 canons / weapons, so I'm not sure it would work well.

[Golol]

i think a lot more units need reload bars

[The Mak]

Well the good news is that it is really easy to add a reload bar or fire clock as it is coded in the game. All you need to do is add

RenderFireClock = true,

to the weapon that you are most interested in seeing if it is ready to fire. Now be aware that this can get kind of messy interface wise on units with multiple weapons of the same type (summit has three gauss cannon turrets).

First issue is each bar stacks on top of the other, so if one is firing you cannot easily see when it is ready or if the other cannons are ready. If you only want to assign it to one turret, the you need to decide which one (center one most likely).

Now to the point Golol made, I have been trying to place a fire clock on bombers for instance by using the above method. The problem is the fuel bar and the fire clock bar occupy the same location. When a bomb drops it will show the yellow fuel bar till the fire clock (which is orange) reaches the same point as the fuel bar and then the bar switches to the fire clock hiding the fuel bar (which now makes it difficult to see if T1 bombers are out of fuel, if they last that long). I am still trying to find where the actual health bar, fuel bar, fire clock, and shield bar are coded so they appear on screen to see if I can move the bars down vertically. The only unit which has three bars is the UEF T3 Transport as that shows health, shield, and fuel all stacked one on top of the other neatly. If we can figure that out then perhaps we can put fire clocks for each turret on the Summit or other units and have them stacked neatly.

[SC-Account]

I think adding a fire bar to one of the centre weapons of the summit would already be pretty useful. If there are 2 or 3 bars that probably would be even more useful as it is not so important to know which of the weapons is ready to fire as long as you can tell when the next shot will be fired. Maybe that would look rather ugly, though...

[pip]

In the Test Mod, I've added a reload bar for the 2 main canons that usually shoot together and not for the third one that shoots most of the time a bit later. You can check how it looks in the Balance Testing featured mod.

[SC-Account]

Yup, this is awesome
Maybe a second bar for the other single weapon would be even cooler.

Thx anyway

[pip]

Yup, this is awesome
Maybe a second bar for the other single weapon would be even cooler.

Thx anyway

You can't have another bar if the other canon has a bar too, it will just owerwrite the other one all the time, and when you move the unit, the difference in timings between the rear and front canons will be increased, messing your knowledge of when the main damage will be dealt.

[SC-Account]

AH, thought it would be on top of the other when you have two. Never mind then.

[MushrooMars]

You could probably add separate bars with a LOT of messing around with scripts. That, or it is another one of those lamesauce things that GPG put in the Source Code.