Creating charges

ToDo: instead of creating detailed guide for this, we should simply introduce a creator window that only shows the most relevant fields for editing.

Steps

All images mentioned here should be selected inside Sprite invariant->Image id in the respective flavours.

You will need these flavours:

• The shootable_charge flavour of the cartridge itself - basically, just an item that can be dropped to the ground or stored in a backpack.
  • You will need an image.
    • Examples:

      • Cyan charge:

        

      • Orange charge:

        

  • Make sure to customize:
    • item invariant’s space_occupied_per_charge as it determines how many charges fit into respective magazines.
    • cartridge invariant’s shell_trace_particles to give a unique effect to the hot shell that has just been cast out of the chamber.
• The plain_missile flavour of the round that is spawned upon shooting.
  • You will need an image.
    • Examples:

      • Cyan round (colorized in the game - the image is reused for rounds of different colors):

        

      • Orange round:

        

        • Almost identical to the charge image, but sometimes it may be appropriate.
    • It is recommended to give it a strong neon map so the round is visible in the dark.
    • It is recommended to give a proper physical shape to the bullet in the image meta.
      • The shapes for round images should remain convex to avoid some strange physics bugs.
  • Make sure to customize:
    • missile invariant
      • pe_damage_ratio. This ratio determines the amount of Personal Electricity that is required to spawn this round in a magical weapon, like Amplifier arm. A reasonable default is 0.25.
        • For example, since the ELECTRIC_MISSILE round flavour has a base damage of 42, the PE required to spawn it is floor(42 * 0.25) == floor(10.5) == 10
      • trace_particles. This determines the stream of particles that flies along the bullet in mid-air.
        • Also, trace_particles_fly_backwards
      • trace_sound. This determines the sound that the bullet will make when it passes close to your ear.
      • muzzle_leave_particles. This determines the explosion that happens during a shot.
      • The entire damage field. What it does is self-explanatory.
      • ricochet_sound and ricochet_particles. Self-explanatory.
      • max_lifetime_ms. Determines how long will the bullet live, in milliseconds.
      • recoil_multiplier - The contribution of recoil per every shot. 1 means no contribution.
      • remnant_flavours. A vector of flavours that will be
      • homing_towards_hostile_strength - The round can “magically” seek the nearby enemies while in mid-air.
        • For example, the Amplifier arm’s missile flavour has this force set to 1.0.
      • damage_falloff_starting_distance - Not implemented.
      • minimum_amount_after_falloff - Not implemented.
    • Optional: rigid body invariant
      • If you want the missile’s velocity to not be linear, but to start fast and damp over time, you will need to set a non-zero linear damping. For example, the standard shotgun pellets have a damping of 3,
        whereas all other rounds have it 0.
• The remnant_body flavour of the shell that is spawned upon shooting.
  • You will need an image.
    • Examples:

      • Cyan shell:

        

      • Orange shell:

        

  • Make sure to customize:
    • remnant invariant.
• The finishing_trace flavour of the entity that is spawned upon the bullet’s impact.
  • Usually, you should just set the Sprite invariant to be the same as of the round itself.
    • For example, finishing trace of the cyan round will smoothly shrink with the same sprite, until it disappears completely.
  • Later, this flavour might contain some explosion information for exploding rounds.
• Optional: One or more remnant_body flavours of the bullet remnant. These will be spawned upon the bullet’s impact.
  • You will need an image.
    • Examples:

      • Steel round remnant 1:

        

      • Steel round remnant 2:

        

      • Steel round remnant 3:

        

  • Make sure to customize:
    • remnant invariant
      • lifetime_secs. Obviously, to avoid bloating the scene, the bullet remnants have a very limited lifespan. This value shouldn’t be greater than a mere second or two.
      • start_shrinking_when_remaining_ms. Self-explanatory.
      • trace_particles. This determines the stream of particles that flies along the remnant in mid-air.
  • Remember to set the remnant_flavours in the missile invariant of the flavour that is to spawn these remnants upon shooting.

If the ammo is intended to be used for a shotgun with a chamber magazine,
and thus each cartridge is going to be loaded by hand, you’ll need to set a proper price in the item invariant.