EVE General Discussion

Considering the level of serious online spaceship magic you preformed to get engine trails working correctly. I have confidence that you guys at CCP can get this working by next patch!!!!

It'd require remodelling all current missile platfroms to add missile launcher hardpoints.

It'd be awesome, but it'd require remodelling lilke half of all ships in eve? Unless they'd do it like with new turrets on frigates - with the turret models going way past the ship model and looking totally stupid if you look up close.

I think CCP will do it along the way at some point, especially that we had an industrial patch, now we have a gallente patch.. Time for a missile patch?

If my memory serves right, one of you guys said it would need quite some serious work on the physics engine to do that, along with re-modelling ships that have static "launchers" in them (crow, wolf, drake, scorpion, to name a few).

It wouldn't require to remodel every ship with missile hardpoints.

Let me explain.

With the turret-adding expension (Incarna I think), they've set hardpoints on ships. A very simple way to verify this is to fit your revelation like this :

Gun
Gun
Siege
Gun

Instead of :

Gun
Gun
Gun
Siege

You'll see the first three slots are linked with the proper turret placement (I mean, they are linked to where turrets are supposed to be on a Revelation), and the last slot is linked to a turret hardpoint which should not exist (It puts the turret on the very top of the Revelation, which looks stupid of course).

Same goes for the Hurricane. Try fitting your guns like this : Gun Gun Gun Gun Gun Gun Neut Neut, and then like this : Gun Gun Neut Gun Gun Neut Gun Gun. You'll see that turrets aren't in the same place. Turret hardpoints are linked to specific slots on the fitting window.

Missile ONLY (Read, ships that don't and NEVER had a turret hardpoint) will need some tweaking. But ships like the Raven...

It would just require to do a "missile launcher turret" per missile type, if you see what I mean, like a Patriot Launcher (Check it out on Google). And then, it just needs to be placed on the ship's hull like every other turrets.

Now, how to make it easy to do. Missile launchers should behave just like turrets. That means, they should be pointing toward the enemy ship. Then, make it so the missile entity spawns right at the end of the missile launcher's tubes, following the same vector as the missile launcher's tube.(Read : They should point at the target when spawning, or else it wouldn't look like they just came from the missile launcher's tube). Then add a "Wwwssshh" animation on the launcher itself. With some smoke and all that. It will look like the missile really came out of the launcher's tube, which is what we all want.

Some ships, like some of the Tengu's subsystems, or the Drake, or even the Rattlesnake would require some turret slots (not turret hardpoints, I'm talking about turret slots on the ship's model, not on the ingame ship) in order to put the new missile launchers on those turret slots.

But still, only a few ships in the game have ONLY MISSILE HARDPOINTS, so it shouldn't be a really long task.

The tricky part might be "How to make the missile entity spawn from a special location on the ship's bubble", since ships are considered as round things by EVE's engine.

EDIT : Forgot to add something.

Every ship in the game that has even ONE turret slot have in fact 8 turret slots. Actually 16 turret slots, but 8 of them are real turrets, the other 8s are for when the target is on the opposite side of the real turret slot.

If you want to check it out, "Look at" a Raven NPC ship. Like a Guristas Usurper or something. You'll see all the turret slots. Same goes for the Machariel. You can only fit 7 guns on it, but Angel cartels Machariels have 8 turret hardpoints. Look at NPC Scorpions aswell. Or Caracal NPCs. Or Blackbird NPCs. They all have 8 turret slots.

Also, CCP, if you're reading this, please consider this :

Missile launcher turrets are cool, but please redo the missile explosion effects first. Especially Torpedoes effects. Other missile types should have some love too, but torpedoes are really...I mean, they look like it's 2002 all over again :/ . Capital missiles have a pretty cool effect, but a shockwave should be added for the "WOW effect". A big, nice and shiny shockwave. They can't shoot subcaps, so at least make them look cool when shooting structures :(

Fitting the launcher models isn't the issue, the issue is the physics of the missiles, namely when grouped only 1 launcher would be able to fire as the other missiles don't actually exist, having them ungrouped defeats the purpose of missile grouping to reduce lag :)

So sure you could have launcher models but they wouldn't be as awesome as you would think they will :)

Are you aware that :

It's a tech demo.

It probably doesn't support more than 5/6 ships and their drones/fighters ?

The game's map is probably small (I mean, a few solar systems, not like thousands of solar systems).

And all the other stuff I forgot (Like how it's not a sandbox, how players have no influence on the conflicts/politics and all that).

Look at EVE videos, like that Domination video, and the "I was there" Video. Sure they look good, but the game itself doesn't quite look like those videos (yet ?).

CCP... this is thing that's must in space game, in combat game, in simulation, in every game... its must that you see your weapons... please, give us our weapons.

guns are just shiny effects in your client.

missiles live - and have to be tracked - server-side.

Until now the server has no need to know the specifics of your ships model, the location of each hardpoint, ....

Or you know...they will rework it if needed when they discuss the issue when planning the next release.....





Get that to work for 1k+ players on the same grid at the same time + all other instances of heavy load in eve at the same time with the current super computer class hardware CCP has and then you can talk. Otherwise you are just a nublet spouting a OMG IT LOOKS BETTER argument.

You might be on to something there. CCP, WHAT ARE YOU NOT TELLING US!