HowTo:Make Weapons

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Add Upgrades

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Adding weapons to the weapon list

Weapon descriptions are stored in the weapon_list.xml in the data directory.

Weapons are classified as FIXME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CATEGORIES

• Beam
• Bolt
• Ball
• Missile

Weapon XML Schema

FIXME ADD DESCRIPTIONS TO SCHEMA

Beam

<beam ... >

• • name
  • mountsize
• <Energy ... />
  • rate - Energy requirement (per second), in units of 100s of MJ
  • stability - Maximum continuous firing duration
  • refire - Rest time, in seconds, between firing
  • locktime - N/A for beams
• <Damage ... />
  • rate - Damage output (per second), in units of 5.4 MJ
  • phasedamage - Damage (per second) that ignores shields, in units of 5.4 MJ
  • longrange - Fraction of damage applied at max range
• <Distance ... />
  • speed - Speed at which beam travels linearly through space, in meters/second (usually rather fast). E.g.: all lasers have 300000000 (light speed).
  • radialspeed - Speed at which beam reaches full radius, and full damage, in meters/second
  • radius - Beam radius, in meters
  • length - N/A for beams
  • pulsespeed - Controls visual wave effect in beam. E.g.: tractor beams have negative value, so the beam texture moves not from the weapon, but toward it.
  • range - Max damaging range, in meters
  • detonationrange - N/A for beams
  • volume - ammo volume (for one shot), in meters³. If used, 1 unit of ammo is spent when the beam is fired, even if it's interrupted later. Works only if variable "reduce_beam_ammo" is set to "true" (default false). Currently the only beam with ammo is Jackhammer.
• <Appearance ... />
  • file
  • soundwav
  • r g b a - color components (with transparency) of the beam. E.g.: Tractor and Repulsor use the same texture, but different colors.

Bolt

Mostly similar to Beam, with the following difference: <bolt ... >

• <Energy ... />
  • rate - Energy requirement (per shot), in units of 100s of MJ
  • stability - N/A for anything except beams
  • refire - Time between shots, in seconds
• <Damage ... />
  • rate - Damage output (per shot), in units of 5.4 MJ
  • phasedamage - Damage (per shot) that ignores shields, in units of 5.4 MJ
• <Distance ... />
  • pulsespeed - N/A for anything but beams
  • volume - ammo volume (for one shot), in meters³

Ball

Mostly similar to Bolt, but is spherical. <ball ... >

Missile

Mostly similar to Bolt, with the following difference: <missile ... >

• <Energy ... />
  • locktime - Time to lock on the target, in seconds. Should work with any weapon but is used only with missiles, since it doesn't have much sense for most non-guided weapons.
• <Damage ... />
  • rate - Damage output, in units of 5.4 MJ. FIXME Uses a complicated formula; it looks like at zero distance the damage is twice this much, but don't count on this.
  • phasedamage - Damage that ignores shields, in units of 5.4 MJ.
• <Distance ... />
  • radius - FIXME Seems to be the radius in which the damage is applied, in meters.
  • detonationrange - FIXME The maximum distance from a target at which the missile detonates, in meters. Negative values are used for drones. Should work for any weapon except beams, but only missiles have radius damage.

Example 1: Beam Weapon

<Beam name="LR_PminusBeamMKIV" mountsize="capship-massive">
  <Energy rate="1500" stability="8" refire="2" /> 
  <Damage rate="15000" longrange=".8" /> 
  <Distance speed="300000" radialspeed="60" radius="60" length="8" pulsespeed="36" range="150000" /> 
  <Appearance file="weapons/heavylaserbeam.png" soundwav="beam1.wav" r=".6" g=".1" b=".8" a=".6" /> 
</Beam>

Example 2: Spinning Weapon

You can make it spin as well by making it an accessory of the missile/weapon:

• You make it a subunit (turret) at the center, which has the word accessory in its name (e.g call it torpedo_accessory)
• Set the max_yaw, max_pitch, and max_roll to whatever you want it to spin at.
• Make an invisible (or e.g torpedo casing) main body.

Creating a weapon upgrade

prestidigitator documented his steps to create new weapons in a forum post. Here it is:

You will need to create an upgrade file for this weapon that appears in master_parts_list.csv as well as units.csv.

Here is what I have done:

1. weapon_list.xml: Copied the entire <Beam name="LaserBeam' ...> node to the end of the file (just before the </WEAPONS> end tag), changed the name from "LaserBeam" to "MyLaserBeam", and modified the values to be what I wanted (I left the "mountsize" attribute as "light").
2. master_part_list.csv: Copied the line starting with "laser_beam" to the end of the file and changed "laser_beam" to "my_laser_beam".
3. units/units.csv: Copied the line starting with "laser_beam__upgrades" to the end of the file, changed "laser_beam__upgrades" to "my_laser_beam__upgrades", changed "./factions/upgrades/laser_beam" to "./factions/upgrades/my_laser_beam", changed the second "laser_beam" to "my_laser_beam", and finally changed the "LaserBeam" to "MyLaserBeam".
4. units/factions/upgrades/: Copied the "laser_beam/laser_beam" file to "my_laser_beam/my_laser_beam" and changed the "weapon" attribute of the <mount> node from "LaserBeam" to "MyLaserBeam".

There's an ordering problem. I moved all the additions to immediately after those entries for the laser beam, and it worked.

So, I guess if you are trying to do this, consider my steps above to be a mini-HowTo, with the caveat that you should be careful about WHERE in the files you add things.

See also

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HowTos

Add Upgrades