Alright, so I made this thing a while ago, but I'm not doing anything else with it atm. After trying out a few different theories I had, I managed to get it working without the need for scripts, OS, or really anything else.
Quick video: http://youtu.be/X-6IKVaLI-0


+Purely tag based
+Uses reload key to speed up heat dispersion (represented by the .effect using the stock AR muzzle flash particles flashing yellow/red)
+Weapon age functions as well
+Weapon's ROF, age per shot, error, heat dispersion and cooldown can all be adjusted individually
+Weapon when at max 'heat' will never fire faster than 3 rps, even when shots are burst in order to bypass the way the game increases/decreases ROF (demonstrated in video at some point I hope)

-As the weapon is round based, when walking over another repeater, the game will display "Picked up ## rounds for Plasma Repeater". This does not affect its performance in-game in any way, as the weapon will still be unusable when the battery is depleted
-The rate of fire decrease had to be done linearly, instead of how it works in Reach. It is also unable to be tied to the 'heat' as it is in Reach, except for its minimum rate at 3 rps


Did I do well?

I think the ROF dropped too quickly.

Agreed. Also, the video didn't demonstrate the venting process, can we get to see some of that?

Posted By: Dumb AI on Today @ 06:48 PM
Message: I think the ROF dropped too quickly.

+2 good start though!

That's the thing with the rate of fire, in Reach it goes on at 10 rps for quite some time before it begins to slow down; I just don't have that kind of control in HCE (at least not without OS scripts).

My main concern was that since the ROF increase/decrease is determined by how long the trigger is held down every game tick rather than when the shot is actually fired, it can fire at that rate or close to it without slowing if I repeatedly tap the mouse. This is fine with non dynamic ROF weapons as it only really affects the accuracy, making bursting beneficial, but is a bane on these kinds of weapons, gameplay-wise.
Yet when I initially had the acceleration time lengthened to about where Reach has it, I recall having problems with the gun's ROF and error going out of sync often. On top of that, the gun would be at a higher fire rate (7.5~10) then immediately drop to the minimum of 3 rps.

It was some time ago, but I guess whatever the problems were, I must have felt the solution was to make the gun heat quicker so the problems are more in line with each other, and can be sorted out quicker. It's a performance vs gameplay compromise that had to be made; don't you guys hate maps with a battle rifle that's burst goes out of sync? Snow Grove



As far as the venting animation goes... thaaaaats where my secret falls flat. I had made it like the shotgun to where every 'round' is reloaded individually, the animation potentially being a loop of him waving the gun around or something. The problem is that the reload time is almost directly related to the length of the animation. This would cause 'chunks' of heat to be dispersed, or not enough dispersed. In addition, I haven't been able to prevent the game from automatically reloading the gun when I run out of ammo. This made it so that when I reached the final rps of the gun, it would continuously begin the animation, then jump back to the fire animation. Looked terrible. Instead, I focused more on a shoddy attempt at getting it to work functionally rather than aesthetically. By not using a reload animation, I made the dispersion gradual with 1 reload per tick, and instead used this fiery looking effect on the "vent" markers as a means of knowing when the gun is 'venting'.



To anyone that would like to continue on where I'm not, do it. The secret was in the 'rounds recharged' section:


Next year, I will bring you a working sticky detonator/grenade launcher theory, provided said theory works

Bobble did something like this for me a while back.
http://youtu.be/WtXVdSkljrc?t=22s

I have no idea how he did it because I only did the animations and got the model ingame.
But this is looking pretty good. Keep going dude, keep learning. This is pretty promising.

I've already got a working version. Haven't posted it, but i do. With your permission i'd like to post how it works here to see if you had a similar idea. I ask for permission because i don't want to thread jack.
Edited by grunt_eater on Dec 15, 2013 at 09:14 PM

Go for it. I planned on making the detonation the shield recharge effect on the projectile. How's that?

Thanks Spartan. I plan on making the most of my time here.
Edited by A Juicy Frank on Dec 15, 2013 at 09:22 PM

Well, for my method there are two projectiles, 3 technically. The first is the quick shot. You pull the trigger and let it go automatically. This projectile is set to bounce off of every surface except water. Then is set to detonate a half second after first bounce. This is so that if you shoot it into the air, it'll fall enough to hit the ground and then detonate after. But if one so pleased, they could set it to start detonation automatically, then set the timer to the desired amount.

The second is a charged shot. You hold the trigger in for a full second, then it's fully charged effect is it fires. This projectile is set to detonate immediately. Then it's detonation effect creates the third projectile. This third projectile has a health limit, which is quite low, and it's health depleted effect is the explosion effect. The reason is so that if someone shoots it, it will "die" and thus explode. The effect of releasing the trigger after charge doesn't actually fire a projectile, seeing as the projectile was already fired. But instead just has a damage effect with a radius far enough that it will always detonate the third projectile. They all use the same model, so it's smooth and unnoticeable when it switches between all of them.

The reason i did it this way is so that you can choose between a quick shot, and choosing the time of detonation. The reason i didn't use the second trigger is so that you can still use grenades. It's a good system, completely tag based, and works very well. The reason i haven't released it before is because i took MartinLeeBallHunter's model and unwrapped it with the reach textures. I've been working on animating it and i was going to release it all at the same time.

That is amazing. I've never even thought to have the projectile spawned in the charging effect, or really any other effect block before. I've always thought they are prone to sync issues, on top of how weary I am to have objects created on the 3rd person model. Regarding the sticky detonator, here's it from the top:

The detonator will be a 'every round must be chambered' weapon with a 'magazine' size of like 2 or 3. Either the chamber and reload animations will be the same, or the reload will be instant with no animation if it automatically does the chamber, just in case the player picks up any more ammo. The rate of fire for the gun will be set at 1 to 0.1 (not 0), with an acceleration of 0.03 (1 tick). This allows the gun to remain 'firing' without actually being able to fire a second shot. It works a lot like the 'does not repeat automatically' flag. The projectile fired from the weapon is the same that will end up exploding, and it's the standard collision_model with an unused material (sentinel, engineer...) deal. The projectile does have a shield meter that will be used by the weapon to trigger the explosion.

Now, I plan on having a function set to constantly emit a .damage_effect on the weapon that does little damage, but enough to keep the projectile's shield stunned. The function is tied to 'primary firing on', and when the player lets go of the trigger, it stops the .damage_effect, allowing the 'shield recharging' effect to happen. I've thought this to be a bit of a 'link' between the device and the grenade. If he goes too far, it will detonate on it's own. If he dies, it blows. If he switches weapons, it should burst. Melee, etc...

Don't know if I missed anything, but I feel I have quite a bit of control this way over things like the distance the damage_effect reaches, if I want the grenade to detonate after 15, 45, + seconds or not, and whether it can be destroyed by other players shooting it or not.



I'm starting to think I should have named the thread HEK Innovations or something else. I'll probably make another when I think up another concoction. Just to reiterate, I'm done with this repeater. I feel I've gotten a pretty good base with it, and am working on my own weapon tagset, but I'm just putting this out there for those that would like to work on their own.
Edited by A Juicy Frank on Dec 16, 2013 at 01:13 AM