Possible?

I've been trying to make a cannon that fires straight backwards. Not a rear-quadrant turret that requires a target and all that, but a fire-at-will cannon. I've tried submunitions with a rear quadrant turret, didn't work. Tried setting inaccuracy to 360 and putting blind spots on front and sides. Didn't work.

I need to know, is this possible? And if so, how?

Yes, I'm sure if you do a search you will find it. Set the inaccuracy to -180 (the 1.0.10 bible describes this).

Set the speed to be negative. Always worked for me...

This post has been edited by Mumbling Psycho : 12 July 2006 - 08:32 PM

Mumbling's method worked, setting inaccuracy (with 1.0.10) just caused it to fire everywhere. Funny when the A.I. is trying to shoot you with a weapon that fires backwards, since they think it goes forward. Oh well, the A.I. probably wouldn't put the weapon to good use anyways, so they won't miss it.

@joshtigerheart, on Jul 12 2006, 07:01 PM, said in Backwards Fireing Cannon:

...setting inaccuracy (with 1.0.10) just caused it to fire everywhere.

NEGATIVE 180. Positive 180 will indeed cause shots to spew all over. If negative 180 is doing anything other than shooting straight back (assuming the exit points have x-coordinates other than 0), you've found a significant bug.

Edwards

Whoops. Well, I must have found a bug. Heres the best way to show what happens.

Inaccuracy 0 + Speed 1500 = Shoots forwards

I 180 + S 1500 = Scatter shot

I 180 + S -1500 + Scatter shot

I 0 + S -1500 + Shoots backwards

I -180 + S -1500 = Shoots backwards

I -180 + S 1500 = Shoots forwards

And the A.I. still thinks it shoots forwards with negative inaccuracy and negative speed. I guess I found the first 1.0.10 bug?

Are you certain that the weapon is firing from exit points that have non-zero x coordinates? Also, what guidance type are you using?

Edwards

Does the exit point have to be behind the center of the ship (negative y-value) or can it be anywhere except (0, 0) or can it even be (0, 0) if z isn't 0?

The exit point must not be along the central axis of the ship, e.g. Exit point X value cannot equal 0.

Taking the example of the Starbridge:
The gun ports on a Starbridge are at the front of the ship, but directly along the center (X=0). A weapon with -180 inaccuracy, or any negative inaccuracy, firing from here will travel straight forward.

The Guided ports are along the body of the Starbridge, and are on either side (X=5, -5). If the same weapon as above is fired from here, it will shoot backwards.

Additionally, if we use a hypothetical ship with gun ports(X,Y,Z) of (1,0,0), (0,1,1), (-1,0,0) and (0,-1,0) again, and a weapon with -90 inaccuracy; . . then the weapon will have the appearance of shooting alternately forward and to either side from this ship.

It is the value of the X coordinate, and only the X coordinate that matters.

This post has been edited by Eugene Chin : 13 July 2006 - 11:55 AM

Doh, I forgot about that too. I'm using unguided projectile, and, without trying to give too much away yet, was trying to make it look like it was shooting out of the engines. Currently it looks that way.

By the way, does the A.I. every use backwards weapons properly? They always act like they're supposed to go forward...

Well, it's possible to give a reason for an AI ship to want to fire a weapon that shoots backwards. Countermeasure would be a very good example used by wimpy and perhaps brave traders.

This post has been edited by Coraxus : 13 July 2006 - 02:08 PM

Maybe you could use a turret that submunitioned into a backwards fireing weapon?

@eugene-chin, on Jul 13 2006, 09:35 AM, said in Backwards Fireing Cannon:

Additionally, if we use a hypothetical ship with gun ports(X,Y,Z) of (1,0,0), (0,1,1), (-1,0,0) and (0,-1,0) again, and a weapon with -90 inaccuracy; . . then the weapon will have the appearance of shooting alternately forward and to either side from this ship.

And with an even more hypothetical* ship, with all of one type of exit point on one side of the centerline, and all of another type of exit point on the other side, you can create "sideways thrusters".

*Not quite hypothetical- I've made this ship.

@joshtigerheart, on Jul 13 2006, 09:58 AM, said in Backwards Fireing Cannon:

By the way, does the A.I. ever use backwards weapons properly?

No. It can't handle negative inaccuracies, so if it also can't handle negative speeds, you're out of luck.

Edwards

Yeah, I tried to make a rear firing gun using negative inaccuracy too. I wish I had seen this topic first. It would have saved me some frustration