Ship weapon arcs...

I know that this has been suggested, in several ways, before. I thought I would throw in my two cents, and make it as complete as possible. If this is inappropriate to have in Space Empires 5, then maybe in SE6? I guy can hope...

Here is a way that Weapon Arcs could be incorporated in to SE5. This is meant to be a holistic suggestion, touching on all aspects of the game which would need to be changed, and going in to specific detail as much as I can. Some of this might have been suggested before (I honestly can't remember) so don't be angry if it looks like I'm copying someone else's idea(s).

Definition:

First, a weapon arc is defined as a 90 degree slice out of a circle. The circle would be centered at the center node on an object, as defined by the Starting Position Offset entries in the _XFileClasses file for a particular race.. Front would be centered at the 0 angle, Back at 180, Left at 270, and Right at 90. The game would only fire a weapon that has one or more of these arcs set for it.

The components:

Each weapon component would have an entry like this:

Size Per Arc Formula                            := formula

This value would result in a float. Its purpose is to increase the size of a weapon as that weapon occupies more than one arc at a time. If it results in 0.10, then the weapon goes up by 10% in size for every arc beyond the first that it can fire in to. Using this as a formula instead of a value allows modders to make changes to incorporate new techs or racial traits which adjust the result.

The calculation is:

weapon_size = weapon_size + (weapon_size * (size_per_arc_result * number_of_arcs – 1))

The nature of this calculation is such that if Size Per Arc Formula is equal to 0.00, then the weapon doesn't get any larger as it is included in more arcs. This is useful for weapons that are always considered to have turrets (like Point Defenses, or whatever).

This formula is applied to the size of the weapon BEFORE weapon mounts. Though, given that its all multiplication, the order of operation really doesn't matter.

The interface:

There are three adjustments to the interface which would be made:

1 – In the Create Design screen, there would be a panel in the upper left corner of the area which shows the ship layout (or whatever other corner makes you happy). This area has four blue buttons on it: Front, Back, Left, Right. The player may select as many of these buttons at once as they like, with a minimum of one button selected at any time. Each button represents the arc(s) that a weapon is set to be able to fire in when it is selected from the components section in the lower left of the screen.

2 – The weapon icons on the Design Details window have a series of letters across the bottom of them (similar to the “O” and “I” that is the top left, or the number that is in the top right). These letters are: F, B, L, R. Each letter present corresponds the arc(s) which that component can fire in.

3 – In the lower left of the Ship Report window, on the damage tab, you have four buttons (Front, Back, Left, Right). Selecting a button causes all the weapons which can fire in to that particular arc to be listed in the left hand size of this window. On the Damage tab, weapon arcs are listed the same as on the Design Details window.

4 – Component damage percent, when shown, is changed to list in the middle of the component. This gets it out of the way of the weapon arc listing, and increases its prominence to the player. Perhaps the visual icon can be “greyed out”, with the damage percent printed over it?

The AI:

To have the AI design ships with discrete weapon arcs, we will first need a few Interface Constants. The changes and additions to the AI script files listed here are meant to be basic, and could be modified and expanded by modders for greater detail. These represent arcs and combinations of arcs:

ARC_FRONT = 1
ARC_BACK = 2
ARC_LEFT = 3
ARC_RIGHT = 4
ARC_FRONT_LEFT_RIGHT = 5
ARC_BACK_LEFT_RIGHT = 6
ARC_LEFT_FRONT_BACK = 7
ARC_RIGHT_FRONT_BACK = 8
ARC_FRONT_LEFT = 9
ARC_FRONT_RIGHT = 10
ARC_BACK_LEFT = 11
ARC_BACK_RIGHT = 12
ARC_FRONT_BACK = 13
ARC_LEFT_RIGHT = 14
ARC_ALL = 15

A value of 0 would indicate a component with no arc, like the bridge, etc.

Sys_Add_Component_To_Vehicle_Design would have to be changed to be like this:

Sys_Add_Component_To_Vehicle_Design: boolean
plr_index: long
design_id: long
comp_id: long
comp_enh_id: long
ship_section_id: long
comp_spread_type: long
comp_spread_id: long
arc_id: long

We would also need a new system function:

Sys_Number_Of_Component_On_Vehicle_Design: long
plr_index: long
design_id: long
comp_id: long
arc_id: long

Returns the number of a particular component on a ship design. Plr_index is the index of the player. Design_id is the id of the design that is being checked. Comp_id is the id of the component that is looked for. Arc_id is the arc that the component is assigned to (0 gets all components of the type we want without regard to arc).

Next, a bunch of global variables would be needed in the GlobalVariables file:

  lst_Weapon_Arc_Percent:                                     longlist

  lng_Weapon_Arc_Front:                                       long      := 100
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Back:                                        long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Left:                                        long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Right:                                       long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Left_Right:                            long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Back_Left_Right:                             long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Left_Front_Back:                             long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Right_Front_Back:                            long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Left:                                  long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Right:                                 long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Back_Left:                                   long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Back_Right:                                  long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Back:                                  long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_Left_Right:                                  long      := 0
  lng_Weapon_Arc_All:                                         long      := 0

These are for use by the AI to design ships. Each AI might define this set differently in its _Main file.

The longlist is used in GlobalSettings like this:

//------------------------------------------------------------------------
// AI_Set_Weapon_Arcs
//------------------------------------------------------------------------
function AI_Set_Weapon_Arcs returns boolean
vars
  index:                 long
  weapon_percent:        long

begin
  return TRUE

  for index := 1 to 15 do
    set weapon_percent := 0

    case (index)
      1:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Front
      2:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Back
      3:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Left
      4:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Right
      5:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Left_Right
      6:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Back_Left_Right
      7:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Left_Front_Back
      8:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Right_Front_Back
      9:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Left
      10:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Right
      11:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Back_Left
      12:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Back_Right
      13:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Front_Back
      14:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_Left_Right
      15:
        set weapon_percent := lng_Weapon_Arc_All
    endcase 
 
    call lst_Weapon_Arc_Percent.add(weapon_percent)
  endfor
end

When adding non-weapons to a ship, the AI uses the following code INSTEAD of what it uses now:

        call Add_Components_To_Vehicle_Design(design_id, comp_id, comp_enh_id, SHIP_SECTION_OUTER_HULL, num_to_add, FALSE, 0)

When adding primary weapons to a ship, the AI uses the following code INSTEAD of what it uses now:

        set arc_to_add := Get_Weapon_Arc (design_id, comp_id, comp_tonnage,  lng_AI_Design_Tonnage_Ship_Pct_Primary_Weapon)
        call Add_Components_To_Vehicle_Design(design_id, comp_id, comp_enh_id, SHIP_SECTION_OUTER_HULL, num_to_add, FALSE, arc_to_add)