Beam Weaponry

[IceDreamer]

Over the next few weeks, I plan to take a look at every Beam wielding unit in the game, and see what can be done about their... Eccentric aiming behaviour and characteristics. My objective? To make the units and weapons in question behave more like how you would imagine them behaving in real life, to make them target and switch targets better, and to just 'Feel' better.

I am NOT setting out to rebalance anything here. This is a behaviour and bug fixing exercise. That being said... A side effect of success may be more efficient weaponry on units such as the Galactic Colossus, the Monkeylord, the Cybran ACU, and the Neptune, which does constitute a shift in balance. Whether or not it will be big enough to notice, I don't know, but I need to warn of the risks here first.

If anyone feels they already have an understanding of how beams work, where the problems lie, and (In particular) can tell me how to edit and/or move target bones of certain units (Ythotha), the input would be most welcome.

[Krapougnak]

The target bones are defined in the unit_bp (at the begining), you can add new ones or erase old ones as you like. To see the unit bones in game and choose a new one just Alt+v and Alt+b.
Otherwise you have to go into modelling and 3D softwar (Blender, 3DSMax...)

[IceDreamer]

OK so I fixed the Czar's beam behavior, turning it from a huge Mercy into the flying Laser Platform it was always supposed to be...

Before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-skBi62xkKc

After: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3cdNf5FQYI

[Ato0theJ]

Any luck on the battle cruiser or seraphim pd/ destroyer?

Very nice work with the donut BTW.

[IceDreamer]

Not had a chance to look at them yet. Add the Monkeylord and Colossus to the list of units now behaving better.

[jmd3au1]

This is so awesome! Does it work on Novax, too? Its beam has similar issues, when youre trying to fry some weaker units with right-click attack, it destroys only one and then it stops for another 20 sec reload...

I remember how confusing was this CZAR beam-behaviour for me when I started with SupCom... I couldnt understand why its suddenly not firing. This fix should be implemented into main game as soon as possible.

GJ!

[Petricpwnz]

Awesome work! Its really how they are supposed to behave.

[IceDreamer]

Thanks for the support guys, I'm really hoping this lot make it in game.

I've not looked at the Novax yet jmd, but I suspect is is a similar issue, and will do my best to make Novax behave more naturally when I get around to it.

[Ato0theJ]

If you have the fixes for the beam units before the balance team starts implementing changes, you will probably be able to try and get this into the game.

[IceDreamer]

@PilOt - I see in the past you have used the function ProjectileLifetimeUsesMultiplier = n

Can you explain to me by PM exactly what it does?