Some Missile Questions

I have been giving this a lot of thought and testing time, and I wondered if anyone can give me some supporting evidence to back up what I think I am seeing...

Range of engagement:

I don't seem to be able to get a very consitant set of results here. I want a missile weapon that will be used in VERY close combat, but can't get the missile troops to hold that close to the enemy without pulling back to fire. Is there a minimum range that results in either a switch to secondary weapon, or retreat if no secondary weapon is possible. Ultimately, I want missile enagement at about half the range the Hastatii currently do.

Missile trajectory:

Do they HAVE to loop so much? Can we control the trajectory so that the weapons appear to travel in a more direct manner.

Missile 'spawn' point:

When I make a close inspection of the point at which the missiles actually appear on screen in a battle, they seem to materialise just in front of the unit for archers, and above for javelin throwers.

Missile Rate of Fire:

I can't seem to reduce this or make this work as I expected. I reduced the fire animation to 6 frames, does this alone speed up the rate of fire? I seem to still get 'bursts' of fire at the same intervals as before...almost as if there were 'turns' for firing...

I want to make some compressed air powered 'railguns' for Metal Meyhem, along with rivet guns, nail guns and a couple of...'surprise' weapons. At present, my efforts just look too much like stock RTW missiles for my liking!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bwian

Is there a minimum range that results in either a switch to secondary weapon, or retreat if no secondary weapon is possible.

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I believe 20 meters is the minimum range for missile weapons specifiable in export_descr_unit.txt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bwian

Do they HAVE to loop so much? Can we control the trajectory so that the weapons appear to travel in a more direct manner.

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Missile trajectory is modifiable in descr_projectile_new.txt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bwian

When I make a close inspection of the point at which the missiles actually appear on screen in a battle, they seem to materialise just in front of the unit for archers, and above for javelin throwers.

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Not sure on this one. I've seen missile spawn points listed for towers and siege engines, I think, but not units.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bwian

I can't seem to reduce this or make this work as I expected. I reduced the fire animation to 6 frames, does this alone speed up the rate of fire? I seem to still get 'bursts' of fire at the same intervals as before...almost as if there were 'turns' for firing...

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Hmm, I don't know. Possibly this is coded somewhere in the DAT/IDX files that Verci hasn't gotten to, I don't know.