Some Missile Questions

[Bwian]

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!!

[Simetrical]

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

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

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 trajectory is modifiable in descr_projectile_new.txt.

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.

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

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...

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.