A few questions about inaccuracy.

One: When it says "9" (degrees), does that mean +/-9ş from the axis running the length of the ship (a total of 18ş), or does it mean 9ş total (+/-4.5ş from said axis)?

Two: If I were wanting to create some kind of beam that fires erratically in all directions (think along the lines of one of those glass plasma ball things), would I be able to do so by having the inaccuracy set to 180/360 (as per the answer to question one)?

Three: Would said beam need to be turreted or not?

This post has been edited by erikthered : 20 June 2008 - 11:05 PM

1. Total of 18, 9 to either side.
2. 180 would work, but anything over would, too.
3. Nope. Beauty of the system. Having it turreted would work, but might be a little weird.
Also, if you want something to fire backwards, use negative inaccuracy. -180, for instance, makes it always fire 180 off target, or in the exact opposite direction.

@0101181920, on Jun 21 2008, 12:21 AM, said in Inaccuracy:

1. Total of 18, 9 to either side.
2. 180 would work, but anything over would, too.
3. Nope. Beauty of the system. Having it turreted would work, but might be a little weird.
Also, if you want something to fire backwards, use negative inaccuracy. -180, for instance, makes it always fire 180 off target, or in the exact opposite direction.

1. Wow, that means the light blaster is pretty inaccurate.
2. Cool.
3. Interesting. Do you think that the turreting would then make it even more erratic than just a fixed beam? I asked because I was originally inspired by a Tesla coil, think that that might be kind of a neat weapon.

So, are you also saying that you could create flame-shaped beam with -180 accuracy and a given amount of recoil to make some kind of deadly afterburner?

1. Yeah, but consider how small 9 degrees actually is, over the range of the light blaster? Doesn't make a huge difference. Yeah, it's noticeable, but nothing huge.

3. No, I don't think so. It's firing anywhere already, you just give it a new base point, and then it fires anywhere in relation to that point.

Yes. It works just fine. Take anything and tell it -180. It'll fire straight out the back. Beams, rockets, blasters, whatever.

@0101181920, on Jun 21 2008, 12:48 AM, said in Inaccuracy:

1. Yeah, but consider how small 9 degrees actually is, over the range of the light blaster? Doesn't make a huge difference. Yeah, it's noticeable, but nothing huge.

3. No, I don't think so. It's firing anywhere already, you just give it a new base point, and then it fires anywhere in relation to that point.

Yes. It works just fine. Take anything and tell it -180. It'll fire straight out the back. Beams, rockets, blasters, whatever.

Hmm, I was just thinking about that afterburner idea might not work as I thought. If I remember correctly, beams don't really have graphics, so it would either need to be a beam with the corona or whatever it's called, or a weapon that fires every frame, whose range doesn't extend past the length of the weapon sprite.

It's completely possible with the weapon that fires every frame. Anyway, beams don't fire every frame. You just can make it so they do.

@0101181920, on Jun 21 2008, 01:51 AM, said in Inaccuracy:

It's completely possible with the weapon that fires every frame. Anyway, beams don't fire every frame. You just can make it so they do.

I know, but my biggest concern about beams was the lack of a graphic (like a cool flame).

Well, there's always the old standby: download a picture from the internet, cut it, scale it, and run it through SpinApp. Make a mask of that. It'll work.

@0101181920, on Jun 21 2008, 12:48 AM, said in Inaccuracy:

Yes. It works just fine. Take anything and tell it -180. It'll fire straight out the back. Beams, rockets, blasters, whatever.

Some clarification regarding negative inaccuracy:
If the firing port is directly on the central axis (i.e. x == 0), then the neg-inaccuracy trick won't work properly; however, if the firing port is at least x == 1 or greater (or -1 nacht), then neg-inaccuracy will work from that port.

Potentially interesting use of this: if the firing ship has gun ports at x={-1, 0, 1}, and a weapon with inaccuracy = -45, it'll fire shots in three streams: one forward, and one to either side.

I've also had trouble getting neg-inaccuracy to work with seeker weapons. For my purposes, submunitioning from some unguided weapon into the desired seeker has been sufficient; but the submunitioned seeker will launch forward relative to the firing ship, not in the direction the parent shot was going in.

Just thought I should elaborate on some of the problems I've had with negative inaccuracies. There's a lot of potential with it, but if you decide you want to use it you should be aware of what it can, and cannot, do.

That's why there's subTheta, and all shots are measured relative to the ship anyways, not the parent.

Having an innacurate forward-firing beam will make it randomly flicker around within its innacuracy angle. However, it will not "turret" or aim at the enemy.

Yeah, I forgot to mention, seekers are exempt to the negative inacccuracy. They always fire in the direction of the enemy, as I remember. So if it's to your right, it'll fire straight out your right side.

You can also use the negative inaccuracy in the SubTheta field.

This post has been edited by Eegras Studios : 22 June 2008 - 11:30 AM

@eegras-studios, on Jun 22 2008, 12:30 PM, said in Inaccuracy:

You can also use the negative inaccuracy in the SubTheta field.

Yes, but that has a radically different effect than Ship-Fired neg-inaccuracy weapons.

Negative Sub-theta will cause the submunitions of a weapon to be evenly, and exactly, spread: if you have a sub-theta of -15, then the submunitions will fire in a spread with 15ş intervals between every shot.

Negative Inaccuracy will cause shots fired from the ship to travel in Only two directions: if you have an inaccuracy of -45, then shots will fire diagonally from the ship, and Only at diagonals to the ship.

I don't think he was saying that that was another way to produce the same effect; he was talking about another place where adding a negative has a similar effect, right?