Well, that was quick. Good ol' summer vacation. Thanks to Shas'ui answering my call for help earlier today (well, yesterday now...), I was able to rapidly complete (erm, see notes) this project. Let's DO THIS.
(http://i.imgur.com/Kcnnwik.png)
(I spent way too much time on this logo)
What is The Gun Range?
The Gun Range (subsequently abbreviated as TGR) is an eXperimental Computing Facility (.xcf) file utilized by GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program (available for free here (https://www.gimp.org)). Using GIMP you are able to open the .xcf file and display (or hide) the ranges and gun arcs of every weapon in the game, many with multiple ranges (listed below).
Why did you make this?
I'm a visual learner and a very spatial thinker. I can fairly easily visualize how to keep guns shooting while piloting in the thick of a tense battle, but I wanted concrete visual evidence of theories and of strategies I'd been executing. Plus, I like helping people get better and potentially benefiting and therefore growing the community. This project has been very revealing and informative to me as a pilot, so I hope it helps other pilots as well, and it should also help gunners and engineers! I will be even more of a murder machine now. It's like I'm Robocop and killin' shit is my directive. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1aTzZPyRUk)
Okay, GIMP is ready. What now?
Glad you asked. Here we go...
1. Download and save this file (https://www.dropbox.com/s/btbbpiivuya7fbt/TheGunRange.xcf?dl=0) from my Dropbox.
2. Once you've opened the file with GIMP, locate the "Layers - Brushes" window. If it isn't visible, click "Windows" on the toolbar at the top of the screen and select "Layers - Brushes."
3. Once you have the window up, simply click on the space to the left of the "lock" icons. When the eyeball is active, the layer is visible. Click again and the eyeball is gone; now the layer is hidden. It's simple! Observe:
(http://i.imgur.com/Fs4BK7e.gif)
(yes, that overlap should be green; see the notes and help me!)
4. Now you can experiment with however many guns you want! TGR allows you to see if these guns would work well together with overlaps and angles. In the above example, the Banshee and the Mercury have a fairly large overlap, but the Banshee has a much greater range of motion while the Mercury can hit targets much farther away.
Any other details I should know?
Certainly.
- I recommend you back up TheGunRange.xcf in case you fuck something up. Otherwise you'll have to re-download it every time you derp.
- Complete is an interesting word... I did everything I wanted to do before I released it, and it's very helpful. That isn't to say I won't or don't plan to update it. If there's enough demand or feedback, I'm open to additional features and/or changes.
- This was all done "by hand" using a mouse. The arcs and ranges are NOT "pixel perfect," but they're damn close and should be helpful enough. Further, all guns are "spawned" from the same origin point and face directly north. This means the gun overlaps are not 100% accurate because guns don't spawn INSIDE EACH OTHER in the game. Duh.
- The guns are not specific to any ship. You'll have to pretend the Galleon is turned 90 degrees to starboard and giving a FULL BROADSIDE toward the north if you want to know what three weapons could overlap and work well together.
- The Mobula and Spire are particularly problematic at this juncture. In the game, the Mobulas guns are fanned out 50 degrees on the port and starboard sections of the ship ( >:() , while the front gun faces completely forward (in other words, that gun is fine). There is a high chance I will add a guide on how to tweak these angles in the future so you can dick around and be really, really creative :D
- The only map background is Battle on the Dunes. If there's a demand, I'll add other layers for other maps. But until I know people actually give a shit about this thing, I don't see the point in putting any more work into it. I'm already satisfied and so much knowledge has been revealed.
- As Richard pointed out, just because a ship is in range and arc doesn't mean you'll hit it. The further away a target is, the less likely you are to hit it, either from lack of skill or weapon mechanics. For example, weapons with "jitter" (random accuracy) or bullet spread decrease in accuracy as distance increases. Lesmok won't help; if anything, it'll make you less effective. Yes, your bullets will travel much farther and faster, but they'll be so spread out you're probably better off just waiting until you're in range for normal ammunition. Jitter is of particular concern with Minotaurs and Carronades and that's why heavy clip is so popular with them.
- Each square (A2, J10, Bingo!, etc.) on the map is 500 meters in the game.
- Each square is 79 or 80 pixels on the map image.
- Weapons typically responsible for disabling weapons/engines and popping balloons are indicated with blue overlays.
- Weapons typically responsible for stripping the armor are indicated with yellow overlays.
- Weapons typically responsible for killing are indicated with red overlays.
- I used these three primary colors because I thought it would look pretty on the map and create magenta, green, and orange gun overlaps. It didn't. Yes, I made the layers partially transparent... I'm dumb. Help?
- If you think the color system sucks, make a better suggestion. But I'd prefer to just fix it.
- Disabling weapons: Artemis, Banshee, Flamethrower, Light Carronade, Heavy Carronade, Flare Gun, Hwacha, Lumberjack
- Stripping weapons: Gatling Gun, Hades, Mercury, Harpoon, Minotaur
- Killing weapons: Light Flak, Mortar, Mine Launcher, Heavy Flak
- Feel free to disagree, but deal with it ;D
Here are the currently "programmed" weapons with their available ammunition options:
- Gatling - Normal, Greased, Lesmok
- Light Flak - Normal, Greased, Lesmok
- Mortar - Normal, Greased, Lesmok
- Light Carronade - Normal, Greased
- Banshee - Normal, Greased
- Flamethrower - Normal, Greased, Lesmok
- Hades - Normal, Greased, Lesmok
- Mercury - Normal, Heatsink, Lesmok
- Artemis - Normal, Lesmok
- Flare - Normal, Heatsink
- Harpoon - Normal, Lesmok
- Mine Launcher - Normal, Incendiary, Lesmok, Lochnager (you're welcome!)
- Heavy Carronade - Normal, Incendiary
- Hwacha - Normal (that's it... if you aren't using burst or heavy, which have the same range as normal ammo you're doing it wrong)
- Lumberjack - Normal, Greased, Lesmok, Lochnager
- Heavy Flak - Normal, Greased, Lesmok, Lochnager
- Minotaur - Normal, Greased, Lesmok
Finally, here are some examples...
(http://i.imgur.com/ix19I63.png)
Every available range and arc in the file is active in the above image.
HEY THAT'S WHERE THE LOGO CAME FROM
(http://i.imgur.com/VXwt4t7.png)
Any guesses?
...
Lesmok Hades in yellow, Lesmok Heavy Flak in red, and Lesmok Lumberjack in blue.
That's why it's such a formidable loadout on a Galleon IF YOU CAN AIM.
Do note the minimum effective ranges, though, as the overlays do not reach to the typical origin.
(http://i.imgur.com/bVZiXtu.png)
A Golden Age Pyramidion with Light Flak and a Gatling gun.
This image presumes the Gatling gunner has Lesmok ammo and the Light Flak engineer has greased.
The Lesmok Gatling in yellow has a significantly increased range while the Greased Light Flak in red has a shorter range than usual but matches up much more closely with its partner.
All that orange is great for keeping your crew in effective range!
Do note how much shorter the range is compared to the Galleon above, however...
Anyway, that's all. Feel free to post your own images here using TGR to show off potential loadouts and help scrubs git gud. Feedback, compliments, and worship are welcome.