Weapon and Lightning Gun Testing

In my efforts to get the Arc (lightning gun) and weapon system updates ready for merge, a test server has been started for players to test, give suggestions and report bugs.

The server name is (SMB) Weapons/Lightning Gun Testing - Denver, chat is linked with IRC on the SMB duel channel (#smb.1v1 on QuakeNet).
Arc replaces machine gun spawns on the map. This option is for testing, and will probably be removed when system is merged to master.

Test a little LG, kinda cool thing in general, but sound not best part of this weapon

I also played around with the Lightning Gun quite a bit. It does good damage, but it feels terrible to use. Not only is the sound underwhelming, as Finko pointed out, but the beam is also inconsistent and unresponsive. I often saw the beam unexpectedly disappear while it was still firing, which actually cost me a frag on the test server (I almost said "a frag or two", but let's be honest, the other one was my fault) as the lack of beam distracted me mid-fight.

Now this is probably me assming, but I noticed that it takes the 3 slot. Now, the machine gun is by far one of my favorite weapons. It feels really powerful and its alt fire makes it usable both over short and long range. If the Lightning Gun is going to replace the machine gun, I'll be very disappointed, even if it is made to feel more potent.

Anyways, I also had a good time playing with the new Electro, which has always been my second-favorite weapon. I like the change to the alt fire. Although the damage numbers have probably changed, I really appreciate the leeway it offers, and I also like the visual changes. So solid work on that one!

Lg as new crylink secondary? (Just random thought )

I was also already asked by someone if this is to replace the MG, since it essentially does the same (keep the crosshair on enemy as long as possible and spray). No idea on that one, but I feel that'd be a step backward at this time, since the MG actually has a good wepon model, has been balanced, and code which works.

Anyway, I dedicated Friday to add some effects to the gun, as I so shortsightedly volunteered to Mario.
Now I don't know at all what this weapon was envisioned to be, so I tried to add some LG-like particle effects, though the result fell short of what I was trying for.

While doing that, I found the code still somewhat flawed, and I'm not sure we can fix it without divVerent's help.
The intended effect is great (a beam trail that behaves realistically, like a water hose) by using stiched-together vertexes instead of (just) particle effects,
and it has, afaik, the most complex weapon code in the game so far as a result.

But the beam drawing is done all client-side, as is the hit indication, making it pretty much a guessing game that doesn't at all indicate a verified hit by the server, as divVerent already pointed out in the code.
You can see how that fails when you pause the game or use slowmo -- the beam will still behave as if in realtime.
Without particle effects it's not as obvious, but once I added some to the trail it is, since they keep getting spawned while the game is paused; which looks truly atrocious.

In reality the beam should freeze while paused, or slow down in slowmo, as does every other wepons shot. I can't say how much work it would be to fix that.

Some screenshots to close with:

The beam as of now:
   
   

Added particle effects, sadly looks more like electro discharge than fizzling lightning :|
   
   
   

I haven't figured out yet where that muzzleflash comes from, or I'd have removed/changed it

---

And where it fails...
   

The muzzle flashing is handled around line 1014 in w_arc.qc.
I'm not entirely sure how slowmo issue can be fixed, it doesn't look like the client code has anything to do with slowmo.

I REALLY wanna try it out,but my connection don't wants me to play xon.And definetely not on a american server,there i am just teleporting around.But the screenshots look good!I am excited about the new weapon!

The muzzle flashing is handled around line 1014 in w_arc.qc.

But `self.beam_muzzleeffect = FALSE;` so I don't really understand.
Also I tried commenting out this block and it doesn't make a lick of difference.
(Recompiled of course)

Thanks to all who tested, the weapon updates have been loaded on the regular duel servers (without arc).

For muzzle flash, make sure you set every instance to FALSE, as there are multiple places where it is set.

I was just looking at the Denver SMB Duel Server, but I was kinda ... surprised about the physics there - is that something considered for official?

For muzzle flash, make sure you set every instance to FALSE, as there are multiple places where it is set.

Thanks for your vote of confidence in my code reading abilities

But as I don't have enough knowledge to really dig into that code and figure out how to fix that beam to paint serverside anyway, I didn't look any harder for the solution.
I'll push my work on the effects though once I know where to.

I was just looking at the Denver SMB Duel Server, but I was kinda ... surprised about the physics there - is that something considered for official?

Denver uses the reversion tourney settings.


Drawing the lightning gun beam on the server would probably waste more bandwidth than would be worth it, and would make the beam laggy.
I can take a look and see if there really is no way to fix the slowmo issue client side later.

Can you post some kind of changelog of these "weapon updates" please?

As for Arc: Healing is OP (atm), spectator bug and weaponreplace seems to be bugged as well.
I will elaborate in the team channel later.

My thoughts on secondary (what is Arc Burst?): Does not really need one, could be just zoom like with Nex.

A rough changelog is available here: https://github.com/MarioSMB/esk-modpack/...-changelog

The arc burst will eventually be a more powerful version of primary, which uses more charge (weapon will eventually have an electric charge counter or something, maybe). Zoom as a temporary fix could be nice.

I haven't seen any bugs with spectators/weaponreplace, but I should be able to fix them once they've been pointed out.

Semi-OT: Why the rename of Nex and uzi?

I have fixed the spectator issue and some bug with weaponarena and bots.

machine!: The weapon name changes were voted upon, I think the discussion was here: http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=142

Okey, thanks for clarifying!

Mario is providing a test server for EU located in Paris: 94.23.24.92:26001

Jumped on one of the servers in Europe that had it and save the expected issues with it, the Arc is pretty damn cool. I shocked to see it didn't lag at all with my ping (probably because it's client side). A little tweaking and it will be a proper machine gun replacement. Now the next major issue after this weapon gets sorted out will be redistributing the ammo so that all the ammo types have the weapons evenly distributed to them.