Sniper Gun

Description

Developed as a next step after the Military Laser, placed outside the hull where a better cooldown is achievable.

One can now find costly 'sniper variants' of ships in high-tech shipyards with a visible big Sniper Gun installed:

Asp SG, Boa SG, Cobra Mark III SG, Fer-de-Lance SG, Krait SG, Viper SG.

Boa SG has 2 Sniper Guns but the second can only fire from Oolite v.1.83, where together they also produce double the heat!

Krait SG has 3 Sniper Guns which produce single heat with Separated Lasers due to being mounted distantly enough from each other.

For the Heavy Sniper Gun you need a Python HSG, Python BattleCruiser or Prototype Boa.

Auto Crosshairs and Xenon HUD are supported with custom crosshairs.

Sniper Gun

The strong and long range (20km) Sniper Gun fits onto ships only with a specially large laser mount on the hull itself. It delivers almost as much damage as a Military Laser, using less energy thanks to the costly high-tech components. Moreover it can mine asteroids and heats up half as fast due to its position outside the hull.

The big sniper gun subentity model is within this package, based on the gun on a Krait's wingtips made by Griff.

This could motivate ship builders to mount spectacular guns outside the hull, where a better cooldown is imaginable.

Sapper

The Sapper is a Sniper Gun in 'overdrive mode': delivering 5x more damage at point blank range than at max. range but using 5x the energy and generating double the heat. The 5x damage occurs within 500m, 2x within 2km, 1x within 20km. Note the base damage/second value is only half that of Sniper mode, so at and within 500m it does 2.5x more damage than a Sniper Gun.

Can cause some damage when the shot narrowly misses the target and can also mine asteroids. Unmasks your cloak when firing. Such lasers cannot be separated and so much heat is generated in ships with multiple lasers.

Overheating can damage a Sapper and reduce its effectiveness to that of a Sniper Gun. In this case you should fix your Sapper Mode equipment.

Sappers revert back to Sniper Guns when less than a full energy bank remains.

With Auto Crosshairs a box appears on the crosshairs when your target is precisely centered, but in Sapper mode the box appears only when the target is within 500m and centered.

Heavy Sniper Gun

This is a twice as powerful variant of a Sniper Gun with a longer range (25 km), mining ability and super-effective cooling outside the hull. This allows twice the fire rate without faster overheating! Designed for ships over 250t mass like Python HSG or Prototype Boa.

The crosshairs of a Heavy Sniper Gun are similar to but larger than the crosshairs of a normal Sniper Gun.

Heavy Sapper

The Heavy Sapper is a Heavy Sniper Gun in overdrive mode: delivering 5x more damage at point blank range than at maximum range but using 10x energy and generating double the heat. The 5x hit is within 500m, 2x within 2km, 1x within 20km. Note that the base damage/second value is only half that of Sniper mode, so at and within 500m the Heavy Sapper delivers 2.5x more damage than a Heavy Sniper Gun.

Can cause some damage when the shot narrowly misses the target and can also mine asteroids. Unmasks your cloak when firing. Heavy Sappers cannot be separated so they become very hot in ships with multiple lasers.

Overheating can damage a Heavy Sapper and reduce it to a Heavy Sniper Gun. In this case you should fix your Sapper Mode equipment.

Heavy Sappers revert to Heavy Sniper Guns when less than a full energy bank remains.

Anti-Sapper Equipment

Limits the point-blank damage caused by Sapper weapons to 2x instead of 5x but gets damaged 10 times more than other equipment and needs a TL14 planet or Repair Bots to fix. SG ship variants (like Asp SG) usually hold one by default so you should not use your Sapper against these at all, Sniper Gun is equally effective while use less energy and make much less heat.

Anti-Sapper equipment detection implemented at the first hit with Sapper on the target, so will not auto switch to Sapper against that target once revealed.

There is a Sapper Nullifier equipment in TL15 worlds if HardShips OXP is installed which negates the bonus damage of Sappers, reducing it to 1x level: so the Sniper Gun is two times more effective against a Nullifier even at point blank range. Cost: 30,000₢

Sapper Mode

Buy this primable equipment for 6000 credits then you can switch your Sniper Gun between Sniper and Sapper mode when activated. You must wait 2 seconds before the other weapon will be ready. You get this equipment with Sapper weapons for free, but you must fix this if Sapper Mode gets damaged - else you can use Sniper mode only.

The mode ('b') key can set auto, preset, target distance, heat or manual Sapper modes. In auto mode Sapper switches back to Sniper either if the weapon is too hot or the active target is too far for the Sapper. It is activated again if cooled down (needs only a few seconds) or you run near to the target. Sappers revert to Sniper Guns when the alert condition changes to green or docked.

Weapon Comparison

	Minimal Ship Mass (t)	Separation needed (m)	Range (km)	Damage/s	Damage /Heat	Damage before OverHeat	Energy /Shot	Damage /Shot	Delay	Heat /Shot	Tech	Cost	Color
Sniper Gun	30	50	20	100	5	1560	1	40	0.4	8	12	20000	Blue
Sapper	30	-	20	50-250	1-5	250-1250	5	10-50	0.2	10	12	26000	Red
Heavy Sniper Gun	250	100	25	200	10	2720	1	40	0.2	4	12	200000	Blue
Heavy Sapper	250	-	25	100-500	2-10	500-2500	10	20-100	0.2	10	12	206000	Red
Military Laser	0	30	30	120	2.82	700	1.1	12	0.1	4.25	11	6000	Magenta

Sniper Ships

Asp SG

Has 1 forward and 1 aft Sniper Gun.

Boa SG

Hold 2 central Sniper Guns, not separated.

Cobra Mark III SG

Has 3 Sniper Guns, not separated.

Constrictor SG

Use 4+4 separated Sniper Guns both in front and aft view!

Fer-de-Lance SG

Hold 2 central Sniper Guns, not separated.

Krait SG

Has 3 separated Sniper Guns! Available in shipyards for the player.

Prototype Boa

Griff's Prototype Boa contain a Heavy Sniper Gun over the nose and 4 turrets around the ship.

Python HSG

Use 3 separated(!) Heavy Sniper Guns and 3 aft normal separated Sniper Guns.

Python BattleCruiser

Use 3+3 separated Heavy Sniper Guns in forward and aft views also!

Viper SG

Equipped with a single Sniper Gun. Available in shipyards for the player.

Screenshots

Using Cobra Mark III SG:

Twin Sniper Guns of Fer-de-Lance SG:

Subentities

Ship builders can use these gun models on any ships or even make different lookout and allow to mount Sniper Gun if a "snipergun-dummy" subentity is added into the ship.

There are 3 model variants in this package: "snipergun" is the central weapon, "snipergun-l" and "snipergun-r" could be used in wingtips.

For heavy mounts use "snipergun-heavy", "snipergun-heavy-l", "snipergun-heavy-r" or "snipergun-heavy-dummy".

If you make a new gun subentity and want to be usable for Sniper Gun then name the datakey like "snipergun-yournewgun". The condition script allow usage of sniper guns in any subentity which start the datakey with "snipergun". If your gun is really big and your ship.mass is over 250t then you can use "snipergun-heavy-yournewgun" which can hold Heavy Sniper Gun.

For aft guns you must give orientation="0 0 1 0"; (so design to forward looking and rotate in shipdata.plist like in Asp SG) else the condition script will not allow to put sniper gun into the aft mount.

Side mounts are not usable for sniper guns at all.

Asp SG use the following lines in shipdata.plist:

       "asp-sg" =
       {
               like_ship = "asp";
               accuracy = 7;
               auto_weapons = 0;
               aft_weapon_type = "EQ_WEAPON_CANNON_SNIPER_GUN";
               forward_weapon_type = "EQ_WEAPON_CANNON_SNIPER_GUN";
               frangible = no;
               has_ecm = 1.0;
               has_energy_bomb = 0.1;
               has_escape_pod = 1.0;
               has_shield_booster = 1.0;
               has_shield_enhancer = 0.75;
               name = "Asp SG";
               subentities = ( //forward and aft guns
                       { subentity_key = "snipergun"; position = "0.0 -2.2 38.0"; },
                       { subentity_key = "snipergun"; position = "0.0 4.5 -30.5"; orientation = "0 0 1 0"; }
               );
               view_position_aft = "0.0 7.7 -39.5811";
               view_position_forward = "0.0 2.62065 50.1318";
               weapon_facings = 3;
               weapon_position_aft = "0.0 4.5 -58.1";
               weapon_position_forward = "0.0 -2.26444 65.1456";
       };

The orientation within the second subentity is set to "0 0 1 0" which turn the gun backwards for the aft mount.

Boa SG and Fer-de-Lance SG use "snipergun-l" and "snipergun-r" models to make a Twin Sniper Gun:

        forward_weapon_type = "EQ_WEAPON_CANNON_SNIPER_GUN";
        subentities = (
                { subentity_key = "snipergun-l"; position = "-1.15 5.0 54.0"; },
                { subentity_key = "snipergun-r"; position = "1.15 5.0 54.0";  }
        );
        weapon_mount_mode = "multiply";
        weapon_position_forward = ("-1.15 5.0 82.3", "1.15 5.0 82.3");

Ships like Prototype Boa with custom gun models must use a "dummy" subentity to tell to the Sniper Gun equipment condition script that the usage of Sniper Guns is allowed in this ship.

       "griff_prototype_boa-PLAYER" = {
               forward_weapon_type = "EQ_WEAPON_CANNON_HEAVY_SNIPER_GUN";
               subentities = (
                               { subentity_key = "snipergun-heavy-dummy"; },

Python HSG has separated heavy guns but this need at least 100m distances in 3D between weapon positions. The horizontal width of the ship is 74m only so must use a shift in z axis to get more than 100m diagonally, this is why the third numbers are not equal in the last two weapon positions.

               forward_weapon_type = "EQ_WEAPON_CANNON_HEAVY_SNIPER_GUN";
               subentities = (
                       { subentity_key = "snipergun-heavy"; position = "0.0 0.3 65.5"; },
                       { subentity_key = "snipergun-heavy-l"; position = "-37.0 0.0 -35.0"; },
                       { subentity_key = "snipergun-heavy-r"; position = "37.0 0.0 -35.0";  }
               );
               weapon_mount_mode = "multiply";
               weapon_position_forward = ("0.0 0.3 123.0", "-37.0 0.0 29.3", "37.0 0.0 -38.0");

Sniper Gun Rebalancer OXZ

You can install Sniper Gun Rebalancer OXZ package. This will reduced a weight of roles NPC-ships to 5 times lower (20% from basic), but will added ships with sniper gun from other ship OXPs.

Ship OXPs with Sniper Gun fit:

• gsagostinho's Texture Packs (5 ships - Asp Mark II (2 textures), Cobra Mark III (2 textures), Fer-de-Lance (1 texture)),
• Griff's Retextures (4 ships - Cobra Mark III (2 textures), GalCop Viper, GalCop Viper Interceptor),
• Staer9's Shipset (1 ship - Iguana).
• wildShips's Shipset (3 ships - Chatu, Duma (has SGs), Duma Fleet Hauler (has HSGs)).
• Laser Cannons (7 ships - basic set of ships).

Also this addition will:

• Setup the lower size of sniper guns: "model_scale_factor = 0.75".
• Corrected weapons position for SGs.
• The names of ships will not contain the words 'SG'.
• Added a "snipergun-ship", "snipergun-heavy-ship" and "interceptor-sg", "interceptor-heavy-sg" roles.
• Added a density for Griff's Viper Alternative Model for minimal ship mass req.
• Fixed a ship mass by "model_scale_factor = 0.65" for Duma and set a "max_cargo = 125" for Duma Fleet Hauler.
• Adjusted a pitch and roll for Duma Fleet Hauler due to the mass of Heavy Sniper Guns.
• Simulated the EEU and NEU for police ships.
• Set condition script for some uber-ships(has 'dog' word) and police-patrol.
• Updated a view positions for some ships.

Credits

Gun model made by Griff, Textures and fragment shader are from Iguana in Staer9's Shipset.

Sapper sounds are modified from breakpattern.ogg, laserhits.ogg and bgs-c_hullbang.ogg.

License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License version 4.0. If you are re-using any piece of this OXP, please let me know by sending an e-mail to norbylite at gmail.com.

Downloads

Sniper_Gun_1.3.oxz (1244 downloads).

Sniper_Gun_1.2.oxz (1043 downloads).

Sniper_Gun_1.1.oxz (177 downloads).

Sniper_Gun_1.0.oxz (313 downloads).

Sniper_Gun_rebalancer.oxz (43 downloads).

Changelog

2016.12.10. v1.3  Constrictor SG added, need TL14 and 20MCr.
                  Python BattleCruiser added, 3+3 separated Heavy Sniper Guns in fw and aft mounts, speed 160, pitch 0.6.
                  Python HSG got +2 aft normal Sniper Guns (3 in total), speed lowered to 180, pitch to 0.7.
                  HSG2 model added, used in Python BattleCruiser. Hold the same weapon than HSG so visually differ only.
                  Model of previous Heavy Sniper Gun is modified for shorter length (visual change only).
                  Fixed a TypeError: other.script is undefined.
2016.03.12. v1.2  Sapper will switch back to Sniper Gun when less than a full energy bank remain.
                  Anti-Sapper equipment detection implemeted at the first hit with Sapper on the target.
                  Animated crosshairs when switching between Sniper and Sapper modes.
                  With Auto Crosshairs a box appear on crosshairs when target is precisely centered.
                  In Sapper mode a box is appear only when the target is within 500m and centered.
                  Sapper switch back to Sniper Gun when alert condition change to green or docked.
                  Prototype Boa got Anti-Sapper and Sapper Mode equipments.
                  Guns on Fer-de-Lance SG, Krait SG and Viper SG are moved nearer to the ship body.
2016.03.06. v1.1  Sapper is a faster Sniper Gun for dogfight, strong within 500m but rapidly dissipating.
                  Sapper still cause some damage when narrowly misses the target and play hit sound.
                  Heavy Sapper is a monster with colossal damage but 10x energy usage and fast heatup.
                  Anti-Sapper Equipment reduce the damage caused by Sapper weapons to the half.
                  Sapper Mode primable equipment can turn on/off Sapper when activated.
                  Sapper activation need 2s and play sound to notify the player (made from breakpattern.ogg).
                  The mode ('b') key can set auto, preset, target distance, heat or manual Sapper modes.
                  Sapper can be damaged if fired in red heat before overheat. Auto and heat modes prevent this.
                  NPC SG ships has refined roles and switch automatically between Sapper and Sniper mode.
                  All SG ships contain Anti-Sapper and Sapper Mode equipments by default.
                  In Xenon HUD custom crosshairs are set and switch when Sniper Gun or Sapper is selected.
                  Sniper Gun is refined to somewhat slower (0.4s) and less damage/second than before.
                  Heavy Sniper Gun is 2 times faster than Sniper Gun, resulting double damage/second.
                  No side lasers on Cobra3 SG and Python SG as a cost of 3 forward Sniper mounts.
                  Python SG got an aft (not heavy) Sniper Gun mount.
                  Fixed Asp SG forward laser mount position.
2016.02.13. v1.0  First release.

Quick Facts

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Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
1.3	2016-12-10	CC BY-NC-SA 4	Spectacular guns	Weapons OXPs	Norby	BB-Link