Pioneer dev forum

Saw something interesting today about targeting systems and how Pioneer might benefit from a particular type of autofire function.
Also may be helpful in reducing wasteful hail of fire scenarios that could drag down game frame rates.

Could be introduced as a weapons upgrade with an option that could allow it to be toggled on or off.

The basics are that when this "auto-fire mode' is engaged, the player may press the firing trigger - but weapon fire is discharged
ONLY if the target is within the sweet spot and at the correct range. (Likely the lead computing sight reticle location in Pioneer)

Aside from adding any laser cooling booster, this could be an extremely effective way in keeping laser weapons from overheating
prematurely due to shots wasted off target.

Also far easier on the trigger finger, since keeping it depressed will not fire the weapon unless target enters the designate kill zone.

That might be a good addition.
It really shouldn't slow down though, even with hundreds of thousands of shots flying around :(

Good to know :)

Autofire via AI oversight?

Another way to view the solution to this might be - that AI could have overide on the weapons trigger and simply won't process any commands from it unless
coinciding with the AI's own firing solution for whatever the designated target might be.

I think from a game perspective it would be strange to hit fire, and not have it fire. It kind of doesn't feel like a feature. I see two alternatives, which I like more:

1. Auto fire can be turned on/off. When on, it fires by itself (on the selected ship) anytime it deems it is good enough to hit. Player only needs to keep the enemy ship in the crosshairs.

2. Change name to "auto indicator", and with colour on the crosshairs, indicate when a potential burst would hit or not. Player is free to click fire.

However, isn't this part of the game broken anyway? At least, I can't hit anything even when flying at low speed and low altitude and shooting at docked ships.

And as far as I know, no one is about to implement any of this in the code.

No need to get so complicated with the AI. A dot-product test against the ships direction and the projected aim ahead location would do. Get within some threshold value and it allows it to fire.

impaktor wrote:I think from a game perspective it would be strange to hit fire, and not have it fire. It kind of doesn't feel like a feature. I see two alternatives, which I like more:

I agree pressing the trigger and not having the weapon fire at that exact moment could seem disconcerting. The ultra newest long range sniper rifles have this as a feature to offset a shooter's
slight breathing movements during the trigger pull to help increase long range accuracy. The delay in firing is minute in such cases, since they are single shot episodes.

impaktor wrote:1. Auto fire can be turned on/off. When on, it fires by itself (on the selected ship) anytime it deems it is good enough to hit. Player only needs to keep the enemy ship in the crosshairs.

This seems like the reverse of the previous problem - I wouldn't want my weapon to fire willy nilly in such a mode unless My finger was on the trigger saying it was okay to do so.

impaktor wrote: 2. Change name to "auto indicator", and with colour on the crosshairs, indicate when a potential burst would hit or not. Player is free to click fire.

Some way to "clearly" indicate when this mode was on would be pretty important - Iike the crosshair color change etc. seems a good idea.

FluffyFreak wrote:No need to get so complicated with the AI. A dot-product test against the ships direction and the projected aim ahead location would do. Get within some threshold value and it allows it to fire.

Sry, didn't mean to make it overly complicated :)- aside from any projected aim point, a weapon's range would need to be factored in as well, since no point in firing weapons if a target is beyond range.

[quote="baobobafet"} The ultra newest long range sniper rifles have this as a feature to offset a shooter's slight breathing movements during the trigger pull to help increase long range accuracy. The delay in firing is minute in such cases, since they are single shot episodes.[/quote]

To add, in real world applications the jitter minimizing aspect of such an autotfire system is not merely limited to negating tiny involuntary movements of the shooter.
It also takes into account a multitude of other factors, type of ordnance, gravity (bullet drop), temperature, barometric pressure, wind direction as well as target movement from optimal position before releasing any round.

It is very big achievement when firing you successfully hit the target.


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