Gatling Tracers

[Thaago]

Small suggestion - could the tracers that the gatling fires be made to match the actual flight pattern?

It makes it very difficult for new people to use the gun when moving - they see the rounds going through the enemy ship, but no damage indicators. Some know they aren't hitting, some don't . They don't know if the 'actual' rounds are ahead or behind the tracers so don't know which way to adjust - heck, I still get confused by them sometimes!

[Sgt. Spoon]

Well actually the rounds you see fired from the gun have nothing to do with the actual damage. The gun itself is a direct ray-cast weapon with a cone of fire in front of it. If I remember correctly it'll deal damage at random locations inside that cone. Unfortunately that location have nothing to do with the effect you see fired. They are also randomised on their own.

So with the current setup that is pretty much not doable I'm afraid

[JaegerDelta]

actually since they updated the gatling, the physics of it are much better. if you watch the flight path of the bullets and extrapolate from when you cant see them anymore, it actually lines up with the ship.  the problem is you have to aim the gun kinda counter-intuitively, you have to adjust for your own ships velocity.  The bullet velocity is both forward and the direction your ship is moving. Then you have to make that stream line up with where the enemy ship is headed.

[Thaago]

Well actually the rounds you see fired from the gun have nothing to do with the actual damage. The gun itself is a direct ray-cast weapon with a cone of fire in front of it. If I remember correctly it'll deal damage at random locations inside that cone. Unfortunately that location have nothing to do with the effect you see fired. They are also randomised on their own.

So with the current setup that is pretty much not doable I'm afraid

Even though it may be ray cast, the actual 'projectiles' still are affected by the motion of the firing ship. And currently the tracers and the actual 'projectiles' (rays) do not match up. All I want is for them to match up - the cone the tracers lie in to be the same as the actual effect.

actually since they updated the gatling, the physics of it are much better. if you watch the flight path of the bullets and extrapolate from when you cant see them anymore, it actually lines up with the ship.  the problem is you have to aim the gun kinda counter-intuitively, you have to adjust for your own ships velocity.  The bullet velocity is both forward and the direction your ship is moving. Then you have to make that stream line up with where the enemy ship is headed.

Well yes, but it really doesn't help that the tracers don't line up with the real bullets. I'm quite good at firing the gatling, but thats born of experience. New people will try to line up shots by watching the tracers. And they should, because it makes sense. But thats a trap.



All I'm asking is for the visual effect to match the damaging effect.

[Twinkie D-Lite]

We all had to learn the hard way. No need to drum down the game for everyone, new or not.

[Sgt. Spoon]

Well actually the rounds you see fired from the gun have nothing to do with the actual damage. The gun itself is a direct ray-cast weapon with a cone of fire in front of it. If I remember correctly it'll deal damage at random locations inside that cone. Unfortunately that location have nothing to do with the effect you see fired. They are also randomised on their own.

So with the current setup that is pretty much not doable I'm afraid

Even though it may be ray cast, the actual 'projectiles' still are affected by the motion of the firing ship. And currently the tracers and the actual 'projectiles' (rays) do not match up. All I want is for them to match up - the cone the tracers lie in to be the same as the actual effect.

Well since the gatling is currently designed in the way I explained, they'd probably have to rework the whole system for that gun to be able to line them up properly.  ...that is if my memory isn't failing me too much. Granted, it might not have been the most elegant solution.

[JaegerDelta]

the tracers do line up with where you are firing, it looks like they dont because of the nature of two bodies in motion.

as it is a gatling gun it can only fire in a straight line from its perspective. the tracers too can only go in a straight line from the gatling guns perspective. yes the tracers may not be the actual shots that hit the ship but you can not actually see the bullets hit at any sort of range.

[Moo]

The problem is that the crosshair, the tracers, and where the bullets hit (or rather don't) are all completely different when the ship is turning.

[Thaago]

Yeah... the tracers really really DON'T line up with where you are firing. I've had many different times when I'm nailing the enemy with the gatling and heavy clip - leading a bunch to do so - and the tracers are no where near the enemy.

[awkm]

They do not line up with where they are going.  That's always been the case.

We'd like to fix it... but eventually.  We have more pressing things to take care of.  We don't like it either but it's a small problem that will need a lot of work when we can do that same amount of work elsewhere and yield even more positive results.