Monster Railgun aiming

[Anakin S.]

It's very hard to dodge a monster railgun because of its near-perfect aim. Is there a way to make a monster fire not at the target itself but rather in the direction it happens to be facing (so the player can dodge it)? That way A_FaceTarget can do the aiming in a frame before that and the player can run out of the way when the monster shoots. Unless this is how it's done already.

[HotWax]

I believe that's how it's done already, but am not 100% sure. (It may just do it so that the sprite visually faces the target and the imp doesn't end up shooting a fireball out its ass...) Try putting a delay between A_FaceTarget and the firing frame and see what happens.

[Nanami]

At least with projectiles, the shot itself will be toward the player even if the monster isn't. This can be seen with large delays between face and shot, or even freezing the game at the right time and moving.

Don't know about railguns though, but it's likely the same.

[Graf Zahl]

A_MonsterRail does not contain an A_FaceTarget. As doesn't A_CustomMissile. All old attack functions do however. A_MissileAttack is just a generalized clone of the old attack functions and does also contain A_FaceTarget.

[Anakin S.]

Thanks for the info. I put 15 duration for the A_FaceTarget frame before the firing frame and the monster still scored a few direct hits as I ran out of its path.

But whether or not the monster faces the player does not determine the direction the projectile is aimed. If an imp shoots a fireball out of its ass, it means that although the imp doesn't face the player (no A_FaceTarget), it still shoots toward the target. It seems as though A_FaceTarget really does only have a visual effect. The railgun would still shoot toward the player, even if the monster doesn't use A_FaceTarget.

So is it possible to make the monster shoot the railgun in the direction it's facing, rather than directly at the target so that the player can dodge it?

[BouncyTEM]

SPEAKING of railguns, how much damage does the Railgun in Railgun.bex do? i needed this info YESTERDAY.

[Bio Hazard]

enough to kill the player in almost 1 shot

[BouncyTEM]

that doesn't tell me the numerical value.....
i'll never get the railgunner done....

[The Ultimate DooMer]

Set missile damage to 100.

[Giest118]

Or if you're working with decorate, just set the monster's damage value to 100. (missiledamage is for DeHackEd)

[BouncyTEM]

Or if you're working with decorate, just set the monster's damage value to 100. (missiledamage is for DeHackEd)

same effect. the railgunner Decorate is done.

[Anakin S.]

I was hoping that the monster railgun would be done the way the quake 2 gladiator does it. He has to aim for a few ticks, then fire in the direction he's facing. The player can move out of the way while he's loading his railgun and dodge the blast since the monster can't fire directly at his target, only in the direction the monster is facing. Can this be done in zdoom? Suppose the railgun is fired with the monster's facing angle, and if a target happens to be in the way as it is fired, then the railgun would shoot up or down to auto aim at the target.

[HotWax]

It'd be even better if both the horizontal and vertical aiming were done separately. That way a falling player isn't toast just because he can't dodge horizontally.

[Anakin S.]

How about having some function in the frame before the firing frame like A_MonsterRailAim which takes in a target's location so that A_MonsterRail can use those coordinates to shoot the railgun at that location, whether the target is there or not. But if the designer doesn't have A_MonsterRailAim before using A_MonsterRail or its equivalent, then A_MonsterRail could operate like it does now (doing the aiming as it is fired) so that other mods wouldn't be broken. But I don't know whether it can be done with doom's code, so this might just be wishful thinking.

[HotWax]

If nothing else, a function to spawn a Mapspot at the target's current location, and then use that as the target for the next firing frame, would be sufficient.