Plasma weapons

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

No thanks, I don't want to use torpedo code, plus asymmetric torpedo will switch orientation depending on viewed object.
But enlarged Doomsday looks way better, so thank you for that.

Here is simple workaround plan (not without display glitches, but still a nice showcase for unfinished plasma code):

1. add new enlarged cone.hob (or current name of Doomsday hob if changed)
2. keep old shiplist(s) using Doomsday A phaser
3. add copy of yellow combat sun animation renamed to aplasma.hob
4. set Doomsday trek.exe hob slot +10h plasma marker = 1

Done! Monster rapid fire masks some of the display glitches while sun animation is big enough to notice firing and get an idea of the feature.

[thunderchero]

1. add new enlarged cone.hob (or current name of Doomsday hob if changed)

change phaser slot scale of tmp slot (t10 has no dedicated slot)

2. keep old shiplist(s) using Doomsday A phaser
3. add copy of yellow combat sun animation renamed to aplasma.hob
4. set Doomsday trek.exe hob slot +10h plasma marker = 1

Fail... still displays a sideways green same as kplasma.hob

looking at code, plasma will only use C, F, H, K, R, M
if mplasma.hob is used it will fire sun animation, but still relies on perspective on how it displays.
plus as scale of doomsday is increased so does scale of plasma. currently double + size of doomsday model
if shiplist is using Doomsday A phaser, code uses kplasma.hob (green and sideways)

I am at the point this is a waste of time.

here is mplasma using yellow sun hob

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

Sorry, I didn't realize ECM has no code for ship specific plasma preinstalled (just phaser & torpedo): viewtopic.php?f=152&t=2262&start=15#p32043

Here is patch code: (or keep mplasma - doesn't matter)

>> 0x95759 66 66 83 FB 05 73 5C 31 C0 88 D8 E8 18 48 FA FF
<< 0x95759 8A 84 24 3A 01 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90

---

Yes, using plasma code even round 'billboard' objects like standard torpedo or sun get perspectival distorted (which sucks, no question). E.g. in direct trajectory it looks like a flat line. However, it can't change the heading/orientation (the sideways issue I was referring to), since it has no asymmetric, target oriented animation part (like a rifle bullet or plasma bolt). This is far from great, but good enough for a demo of this flawed/unfinished BotF feature I want to showcase. Your test is good to go in my book. I like it and expected worse.

[thunderchero]

look what I found...



004A0E3C 0xa023c 73 73 -> EB 73
allows phaser model radius and placement to be edited to change size of phasers (I think it ignores ship scale calculations?)

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

Nice start, but requires special check for e.g. Borg (my query) to not worsen many of the other phaser animations. Details look semi broken.
E.g. via attacker ds:597864 GTcEntity_block_3C8h entry +1DC = owner race ID. And currently I don't have the time or nerve to do this.

[thunderchero]

Nice start, ....

got me thinking though, most hobs ignore model radius and placement editing. It might be nice to be able to fine tune any/all hobs.

004A161D 0xa0a1d looks to be explosions
004A1660 might be photons?

[Spocks-cuddly-tribble]

Size modification depending on dimensions of reference objects (source ship/station/monster for phasers and explosions) is a reasonable feature.
It's just bad implemented for phasers. Also the handling of the HOB and trek.exe slot scale might be inconsistent, worsening the issue.

Be careful, many relative scaling codes are shared. Torpedoes most likely have hard coded size/scale values, you need to replace them with a read HOB function. I haven't even found simple features like the torpedo speed/agility yet.