[WIP][0.23+] AKSTechnologies Weapons Pack (release very soon)

[LORDPrometheus]

The weapons should have limited ammo.

List of wanted weapons:

Railgun / Mass driver

Hydrogen plasma cannon

If you read the first post you'll know that Panzer has the intention of making ammo a resource like fuel. Guns will come with a set amount but external ammo packs and tanks will be avaliable it will be 1 resource where the difference between guns is the amount used. Also he is working from the bottom up finishing small arms then heavy weapons then special heavy weapons. I am unsure if he intends to make a rail gun but I'd be surprised if he didn't. However I believe he is going to stick to existing or near future technology and useful plasma directed energy weaponry is several decades off. This is just the first release so don't expect too much. Panzer is just one person who is doing all the modeling and coding by himself. However I will say he is very progressive among mod authors in that he is very active efficient and listens to his fans alot.

[panzer1b]

If you read the first post you'll know that Panzer has the intention of making ammo a resource like fuel. Guns will come with a set amount but external ammo packs and tanks will be avaliable it will be 1 resource where the difference between guns is the amount used. Also he is working from the bottom up finishing small arms then heavy weapons then special heavy weapons. I am unsure if he intends to make a rail gun but I'd be surprised if he didn't. However I believe he is going to stick to existing or near future technology and useful plasma directed energy weaponry is several decades off. This is just the first release so don't expect too much. Panzer is just one person who is doing all the modeling and coding by himself. However I will say he is very progressive among mod authors in that he is very active efficient and listens to his fans alot.

ok, here is a list of what im working on this current moment:

*adding sound

*adding multicolored tracers

*adding different caliber shells and casings (as a prelude to the heavier guns that will be eventually added)

*adding ammunition resource useage

*adding turrets which for now are going to be controlled by arrow keys ( i may or may not release a turret with the bugfix, depending on whether i can get the code to work flawlessly)

*fixing lack of science unlocked in guns aside from the mg13 (i forgot to do this, sorry, but most of us are human (or well programmed to think we are human )), before i release a small patch update to fix these problems, i will likely add my own science branch, but i still need to look at other mods to figure out how to do this, if you guys know of a good example mod to see how this is done, i will download it and see how they coded the new branches (as the mods i have now use default science already coded into the game)

* rewriting code from scratch as DYJ's code, while readable, is way messier then im used to working with, i very much prefer nicely commented and organized code when given the choice, and its not that much work to do this (actually its already done)

* and finally making casing ejection work right (there is a bug that i fixed which made casings persistent and not delete themselves like bullets would, this is fixed now, so shell ejection SHOULD work properly, also considering giving casings collisions, at itd be at the least interesting to have casings rolling down the side of a tank ect), also not going to be enabled on all weapons (since some are either using caseless ammo, are energy weapons, ect

also, the old mod will be INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE BUGFIX, so you will need to use one or the other, deleting the old mod entirely, as too many things have changed in the bugfix or should i say new release, to make old one still work.

as a side though, most of my guns are futuristic in general, as i just like the look of sci-fi stuff, now whether they use earth tech or not to work is up to you guys to decide, all weapons function for now as either kinetic projectiles (effectively the same as if you were to launch a ibeam at a enemy at some velocity except different bullet weights and kinetic energies), explosive weapons (not yet implemented but the larger guns are planned to create a shockwave on collision, basically creating forces on nearby parts, or deletion weapons (which basically force delete the collided part, and usually add a small explosive force to surrounding parts (similar to the sunbeam laser, except without any heating involved, also similar to the romfarer lazor guided missiles, which also appear to force delete parts within a certain radius of detonation along with creating forces to surrounding parts)

Edited December 31, 2013 by panzer1b

[Galane]

Given what's capable now or envisioned as potentially near future possible, plasma weapons would at beast be a short range weapon only useful in space.

Plasma is a HOT gas. What happens to hot gasses in an atmosphere? They rise. Fire a plasma gun in an atmosphere where there's gravity and you're only going to set fire to the ceiling.

There's another gotcha with plasma weapons and atmosphere, resistance and turbulence. Fire the plasma and it will very quickly disperse. That's a very quick way to set a whole compartment in a space station on fire.

[panzer1b]

Given what's capable now or envisioned as potentially near future possible, plasma weapons would at beast be a short range weapon only useful in space.

Plasma is a HOT gas. What happens to hot gasses in an atmosphere? They rise. Fire a plasma gun in an atmosphere where there's gravity and you're only going to set fire to the ceiling.

There's another gotcha with plasma weapons and atmosphere, resistance and turbulence. Fire the plasma and it will very quickly disperse. That's a very quick way to set a whole compartment in a space station on fire.

i agree with this, the only way plasma weapons would work is similar to a old sci-fi RTS ive played a few years back (basically once of the races used plasma grenades and plasma beams, grenades fired a shell containing plasma that would penetrate partially, then plasma would destabilize exploding the grenade (devastating if it fully penetrated and the plasma exploded inside a structure or tank), and the beam weapon was short range and fired a stream of plasma or something liek that, honestly the more sci-fi of the two, teh grenade being way more plausible)

so i may or may not add plasma weaponry, but at most, they will just be a different look on the explosion, muzzleflashes, tracers, ect, they will still effectively function as either a kinetic, or explosive, or deletion weapon

also, i have considered making weapons that heat up a vessel therefore overheating it, but since there is already such a mod i see no reason to try to code this myself, if you want overheating weapons just use the sunbeam laser and modify it in whatever way is desired for balance

finally, although it will not be any part of this mod, i do plan to add a defensive technologies pack to help make multipleyer with weapons a bit more fun, i will have a shield generator (perhaps make its hitbox generation based on procedural fairings), and a few armor plates that can resist anything but deletion code based weapons

also, one more question for the community who weants this mod, do you guys prefer sci-fi or would you like me to make more realistic looking models (the 37mm and 13mm machinegun is sortof the style i like, but i am willing to and actually plan to have both my styled guns and more conventional stuff, such as the 23mm, the 20mm, the 30mm, and the planned 8mm entry machinegun i m making (its heavily based on a vickers machine gun, with a top mounted drum mag, which will rotate similar to a russian DT machine gun from WW2)

and should i continue to make weapons animated or do you guys think its a waste of time to bother modeling moving belts that feed the guns?, its not that much work but it does add to the time to make a good model, and also adds to the polycount)

Edited December 31, 2013 by panzer1b

[Melfice]

I'm assuming that when you'll work on the turrets, they'll work much like the Sunbeam does now? Including the auto-lock functionality? That would be ideal, in my opinion.

The turrets would have limited range of articulation, I'd suggest, based on their function: a point-defense turret would have 360 degrees rotation with the gun being able to "rise" 180 degrees from the horizon. Where a particular offensive turret would then have maybe 45 degrees rotation and 5 degrees rise.

Also, maybe I'm just a really lousy shot, but I'm having a huge amount of difficulty hitting stationary ground targets when flying. I don't know how everybody else feels about this, but when you have the turrets figured out, maybe you could add whatever targeting functionality you'll have for the turrets to the stationary guns as well?

Obviously nothing overpowered, but give them maybe a degree or two of swivel? Just so that when I'm aimed at the target I'm hoping to destroy, the "targeting computer" compensates for any minor inaccuracy.

I hope this post was clear. If not, I'm willing to make some drawings to make it clearer.

[Galane]

In WW2, guns on some ground attack planes were mounted with rubber bushings so they'd wobble around a bit, spreading out the bullets. Those movie scenes where a plane is strafing and making two perfect lines of hits are BS. Watch old gun camera films and you'll see the hits scattered across a wide area. In any case, trying to run straight away instead of perpendicular to the flight path would just get you shot, most likely dead.

The idea was to get hits on vehicle size and up targets without the pilots having to do precision flying, kind of essential when the guys the targets belonged to got upset about all those bullets and sent some of their own bullets the other way.

[Melfice]

In WW2, guns on some ground attack planes were mounted with rubber bushings so they'd wobble around a bit,

Ooh, excellent suggestion. This for the lower-tech guns, and targeting computer for the higher tier guns?

EDIT: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64211-InfiniteDice-Skillful-Combat-Damage-Weapons-Mod?p=885033#post885033

Consider working together with InfiniteDice.

Edited January 3, 2014 by Melfice

[KvickFlygarn87]

How can you fire, like, anything?

[rpayne88]

Does it simulate recoil. I personally have never been one for weapons in KSP, but I would like to try to build an ornothopter. IIRC, that used the recoil from machine guns to provide lift.

[KvickFlygarn87]

Does it simulate recoil. I personally have never been one for weapons in KSP, but I would like to try to build an ornothopter. IIRC, that used the recoil from machine guns to provide lift.

Nope, an ornithopter is something that flies by flapping its wings.

[Avalant]

Holy flying jeezus monkey! Finally! Someone with the god like powers of creating add ons for KSP has answered the cries of many to create weapons! You sir, are going places! Can't wait till the next release!

[Galane]

Nope, an ornithopter is something that flies by flapping its wings.

Which is a fact the David Lynch movie completely missed, so have many 3D animators and model builders. Many such depictions of Dune 'thopters with flapping wings have them stuck way out on the back end. Aerodynamics? Balance? Don't need any of that! IIRC the books don't mention 'thopters having anti-gravity, which all those WTF designs would require to fly. (No stupid "weirding modules" either, nor do the Sardaukar wear pressure suits with green lights inside.)

I tried to find some images of 'thopters from the "Frank Herbert's Dune" TV miniseries but came up empty, so I don't know if that one got them completely wrong too.

[Boosterspice]

Looking great, testing the weapons now

[NelsonIñigo]

sorry, but my weapons not shoot..... That I do? Or, that happens with this?

[LORDPrometheus]

sorry, but my weapons not shoot..... That I do? Or, that happens with this?

Default key is 0 on the numpad turn on numlock and fire away

[panzer1b]

im going to take about a week's break from modding due to my computer being close to dead

ive ordered a new one, which should be shipped to my place in about a week or so, so once i get it and KSP running on it, ill get back to modding this

sorry for the short delay in my work, but since KSP has become unplayable due to random crashes every few minutes requiring a computer reboot, i just cant really test mods reliably until i get a new computer

at least blender works without crashing, so expect more then just 1-2 extra guns in my updated release, ive already finished my 170mm railgunish looking cannon and 75mm anti-tank gun

Edited January 9, 2014 by panzer1b

[tetryds]

Default key is 0 on the numpad turn on numlock and fire away

Nope, didn't work

Remapping keys didn't work either

Will try to reinstall

Edit: still nothing

Is there any detail about it's instalation that I am missing?

I just sticked it to the GameData like every other mod

Edit2: Re-downloaded and reinstalled twice on fresh KSP installs and nothing.

The shapes are there but they don't do anything

And please, could you assign a better default key too? (or allow action groups)

Several people play on notebooks without a numpad (I have a numpad but still)

Edited January 14, 2014 by tetryds

[zavdan62]

same so i hope we can get help?

[Comrade Jenkens]

Going to follow this mod! Could you allow the weapons to simply be added to hotkeys like other parts?

[NelsonIñigo]

Default key is 0 on the numpad turn on numlock and fire away

Okey but I press all the numbers and letters and they do not shoot .....:-(

[tetryds]

I figured out the problem.

Open the ZIP file and drag the AKSTechnologies folder to GameData, not AKSWeaponsPack... one.

panzer can you fix it to make that more intuitive?

[tetryds]

Double post, but im planning to host a server using this mod.

If enough people are interested i will post it here.

Edited January 20, 2014 by tetryds

[LORDPrometheus]

To everyone still having trouble firing the guns it is 0 on the Num pad you also need to have Num Lock on I say again num lock needs to be on it works great otherwise.

[The Spacemonkey]

Double post, but im planning to host a server using this mod.

If enough people are interested i will post it here.

I'm VERY interested.

[panzer1b]

i lost some of my modded code when i went to my new machine, so some stuff ill have to redo, but sofar this works:

*bullets shoot out of guns

*bullets damage things

*bullets have random spread, finally a reason to not always use the 30mm cannons which have apparently little drawbacks but low velocity rounds

*alot more customization options (different physical shell sizes, muzzle flashes, tracer colors still being worked on but will have this)

*working casing ejection (well it worked before but the issue was with the shells not having a removal script, meaning once spawned itd stay rendered for a very very long time until it flew past 2KM from you, not to mention still rendered underground after clipping thru it)

*and alot of other features

i could use some help with getting teh sound to work, so if anyone knows how to get the game to play a sound file once every time the firing code cycles through, id greatly appreciate it and add you into credits

note: i do not want any looping sounds, they cause glitches like the SPH/VAB symmetry bug in the gau19, and just dont sound good with anythig that isnt a rapid fire weapon, its impossible to sync the sound properly without forcing the guns into legit semi auto (not fun unless its the howitzers which reload 5-20 seconds anyways)

And is it possible to give a object selective collision? perhaps make it collide with teh ground but nothing else, or collide with everything but say a specific object? ITd be nice to make casings have ground collision but not hit the plane, and also nice to have bullets interact with everything BUT other bullets

also, im trying to fix a few errors and unnecessary crap in the code, not to mention now everything is documented

im also willing to add anyone who would like to help me make 3d models to the team, i can only do so much, and any 3d model of a gun would work well given proper naming and orientation of the bones

if anyone is interested to make model compatible with my plugin, the one bone that must be named properly is the bone called "MuzzleLoc" case sensitive without quotes, oriented in the same direction the barrel is. This is where the bullet effects are spawned, and the bullet itself spawn a little bit in front of it, to avoid clipping issues. Also, the hitbox should preferably be nowhere near the "MuzzleLoc". try to keep the models fairly low poly, since KSp generally speaking isnt super graphics anyways, so lower polys allows mounting more guns without framerate issues.