T1M4: FRG Warspite fires on player too soon

[J. King]

In XWVM, the first instance of FRG Warspite will fire on the player as it zooms off into hyperspace. In X-Wing Warspite does not fire, despite briefly coming to within approximately 1km (i.e. well within firing range) of the player.

Correction: Warspite fires on the player in X-Wing as well, but much later, causing the lasers to miss.

[Random]

This seems to normal behavior consistent with X-wing. FRG Warspite is top ace and fires quickly, which fills the projectile limit, and can give the illusion that it stops firing for a while.

It is capable of firing while launching fighters, and during its hyper jump. As long as a target is in range when the turret cooldown cycles, and there is an empty projectile slot.

Also, if the frigate hasn't fired at anyone yet, there is a short cooldown delay (varies based on skill level) before each turret can make their first shot.

These videos show the behavior in X-wing and the projectile limit. In the first video it starts shooting a moment before it begins its hyper jump, then continues shooting as it accelerates out. In the second video, the overlay in the top right shows the turret cooldowns, how they operate or freeze whether a target is in range or not.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dO9IjYpdAfi6lfPKW4MetQ9qr5678SVX https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GEvULTZ1KGQY8hXg2fLn-WdNXaMInev0

[J. King]

Here are some videos to better illustrate what I experienced:

https://youtu.be/A1016wXIjIY

https://youtu.be/KqcNolYwnZo

In both videos I circled beside FRG Redemption at 150m/s until FRG Warspite appeared. Sorry, I should have posted videos from the start. :(

[J. King]

Videos with the external camera in DOS and Windows:

https://youtu.be/YVz-oI3E-os

https://youtu.be/IisQM2iZH0Y

[Random]

In X-wing, turret cooldown uses the same variable that stores the cannon energy accumulator. Every hardpoint has its own accumulator.

When the mission starts, all accumulators are set to 127.
The accumulator only counts down when a target is in range. If no targets are in range, it stops counting.
When the counter reaches zero, a laser is fired if there's a free projectile slot. The counter always resets to 59, regardless of if a laser was fired or not. Range is determined from individual hardpoints, not the ship's origin.
Every hardpoint maintains its own counter separate from the others.

The counter decrements each frame at a rate determined by AI skill level.
Assuming 32 ms per frame, these are the times to reach zero and fire.

         Step   From 127   From 59  
Novice   -1     4064 ms    1888 ms  
Officer  -1     4064 ms    1888 ms  
Veteran  -2     2048 ms    960 ms  
Ace      -4     1024 ms    480 ms  
TopAce   -4     1024 ms    480 ms

[David Esparza Guerrero]

The warmup times and cooldown reduction only if target available have been implemented. However the ship is still able to fire its weapons while hypering out.

Either the weapons must be disable when hypering out (I don't think this is the original behavior), or something else is causing this divergence.

I will await until you have a chance to test the next build and get more data to deal with this issue.

[Random]

Firing its turrets while hypering out is normal behavior in that mission. It is not a bug.

It is good that the warmup/cooldown timings have been corrected though.

[J. King]

As of build 20180808 the frigate no longer seems to fire at all.

[Xwvm Art]

Ai turrets seem to be behaving after rework.