Hidden Cannon Tutorial

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Zalausai
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Hidden Cannon Tutorial

Post by Zalausai »

Hidden Cannon Tutorial
The purpose of this tutorial is to help users learn how to make a hidden cannon.

The weapon will not fire until a button is pressed. this is usually accompanied by moving sections hiding a depthed weapon (press w with the weapon selected), but the main focus of this tutorial will be how to get a weapon to function only when the "cover" of the ship is opened.


The ship that I will be using for this demonstration is the "Eligor Final" by: Anna
Why, because it has the weapon that we want to create.

Eligor Final
Spoiler!
Eligor Final.png
That's all very nice, but we are here to learn how it works, To learn anything, wel'll have to open it up and take a look.
Some doodads have been removed from this area and the weapons have had their "alpha" value set from "0" to "1" to make them visible for greater clarity while working.
Spoiler!
Tutorial 1.jpg
The weapons are attached to a section (Dst-swnc134, flipped) that moves out of the front of the ship when the comma (,) key is pressed.
They are parented to this section at it is the one that they get their trigger settings from.

This would be the first step in creating the cannon.
1. Create the section that is to hold the trigger command. (In this case, it is the moving section that the weapons are parented to). Note: There are two weapons, a pulsebeam and a teslabeamer.


2. The trigger is set to make the section move.
Spoiler!
Tutorial 4.jpg
On Action 1: Key press comma.
Off Action 1: The section itself will stop when it reaches the target spot
Off Action 2: The section itself will stop when it has returned to the origin spot (press the activation key again after it already moved out to make it move back)

It also has some movement parameters.
Spoiler!
Tutorial 6.jpg
You only need to care about these, though.

Target Distance: The distance that the section will move. (Plus all of its children)
Target Direction: The direction that the section will move. Input any value between 0 - 359. 0 = Right, 90 = Up, 180 = Left, and 270 = Down. (Plus all of its children)
Advance Frames: Game time for the movement from start to target location. 30 = 1 second
Return Frames: Game time for the return movement from target location to start.

Example (Eligor Final): When the comma (,) key is pressed, the section representing the cannon will extend out 20 points over a period of 30 frames (1 second). There is a delay involved, but that is not important at this point.


3. Set the "shooting" option on both weapons to "disabled". and set their "mode" option to "shooting".
Spoiler!
Tutorial 5.jpg
4. Select the Primary weapon (the pulsebeamer in this case) and right-click the parent section (the one with the triggers). A menu will pop up. Select the option "set on trigger 1", repeat the process and select "set off trigger 1" as well. The teal arrow will then be blue, indicating trigger on and off commands for option 1. It will now only fire when the section that it is parented to is moved out.
Note: Remember the weapon must be selected and the section that it is supposed to get the trigger information from is right-clicked (Weapon to section, Not section to weapon)

5. Set the secondary weapon (the teslabeamer in this case) to the same section under "set on trigger 1". (As in step 4) It will have a teal arrow.
Note: The teslabeamer does not shut off after the front is re-closed, even if the "set off trigger 1" is added.

6. Select the primary weapon (pulsebeamer) and select "set link" on the secondary weapon (teslabeamer), so it will fire only when the primary weapon fires. The red arrow will point to the weapon(s) that it controls. If you do it wrong, select

That is all. The weapon will now function in the intended manner. You don't have to use the same weapons as this ship either, you can use your own.

Anna
Spoiler!
You may edit and correct this tutorial as necessary.
Special Thanks
Spoiler!
Anna, for reviewing the pre-release of this tutorial and letting me reverse-engineer the "Eligor Final".
No ships were harmed in the making of this tutorial.
Last edited by Zalausai on Wed Apr 03, 2013 11:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Has written a series of tutorials for the newbies
Zalausai's Tutorial Index

Created: Elements of Discord, Heaven's Grace, and Hell's Last Battalion.

I stop in from time to time to check in on the community. Though I don't spend much time with shipmaker anymore.
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Miram
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Re: Hidden Cannon Tutorial

Post by Miram »

Thanks again i was search for this to making the Snake Sun beam more realistic thanks
again
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I'm rare akuma you argument is invalid.
jwa8402
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Re: Hidden Cannon Tutorial

Post by jwa8402 »

This is cool! Its been awhile since anyone did a detailed tutorial and its nice to see how active you are. Keep it up!
Am I the only one who thinks it would be hilarious to watch a 'lets play' video of Battleships Forever by Anna?
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Zalausai
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Re: Hidden Cannon Tutorial

Post by Zalausai »

jwa8402 wrote:Am I the only one who thinks it would be hilarious to watch a 'lets play' video of Battleships Forever by Anna?
He has a few videos with his BSF ships, though no commentary on the BSF videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw5LyU8odXg
Has written a series of tutorials for the newbies
Zalausai's Tutorial Index

Created: Elements of Discord, Heaven's Grace, and Hell's Last Battalion.

I stop in from time to time to check in on the community. Though I don't spend much time with shipmaker anymore.
Proud parent since: 8/15/2013 (Baby Boy)

Good shipbuilders never die . . . they just fade away.
jwa8402
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Posts: 1988
Joined: Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:09 am

Re: Hidden Cannon Tutorial

Post by jwa8402 »

Oh I know, it was mostly sarcastic. Just thought it would be funny to hear all the rage about the inner workings of the game and how people design ships. He has a pretty good caster voice actually.
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