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[Jordan]

I just saw Abourror's tutorial on boning a unit, and I decided to make the ultimate boner's guide. [Gee, that probably sounded really wrong...]

Anyways, on to buisness.

Here is just how complex boning a unit can be, in those extreme cases: [Taken from USA Battleship]

  Draw                             = W3DTankDraw ModuleTag_01
        OkToChangeModelColor = Yes
        InitialRecoilSpeed   = 120
        MaxRecoilDistance       = 8
        RecoilSettleSpeed       = 6
        ConditionState     = NONE
          Model                   = AVBattleSh
          Animation               = AVBattleSh.AVBattleSh
          AnimationMode   = LOOP
          Turret                         = Turret01
          TurretPitch           = TurretEL01
          TurretArtAngle         = 180
          AltTurret               = Turret02
          AltTurretPitch         = TurretEL02
          WeaponFireFXBone   = PRIMARY Tur1Muzzle
          WeaponRecoilBone   = PRIMARY Tur1Barrel
          WeaponFireFXBone   = SECONDARY Tur2Muzzle
          WeaponRecoilBone   = SECONDARY Tur2Barrel
          ParticleSysBone   = TreadFX02 BattleShipWaterRipples
          ParticleSysBone   = TreadFX03 BattleShipWaterRipples
          ParticleSysBone   = TreadFX04 BattleShipWaterRipples
        End

But really, it's very simple. This guide will show you all the different tags you might experience in coding.

;-------------------------------------- Lesson #1: The Turret:
Lets start from the beginning, with the turret and its codes.

          Turret                         = Turret01
          TurretPitch           = TurretEL01
          TurretArtAngle         = 180

Turret - Very simple, the object which holds the barrels and rotates 360 degrees.

Turret Pitch - The object linked to the turret which controls up-and-down movement, like a gattling cannon.

Turret Art Angle - A rare tag, used for when you have a unit like a battleship where one turret has to point backwards when idle.

You usually have your primary weapon on the main turret, so you may have barrel coding similar to this:

          WeaponFireFXBone   = PRIMARY Tur1Muzzle
          WeaponRecoilBone   = PRIMARY Tur1Barrel

WeaponFireFXBone - Where your tank muzzle smoke and all that good stuff comes out from.

WeaponRecoilBone - A fancy name for the object that recoils as the shot is fired.

;---- Others not seen in battleship's coding:
WeaponMuzzleFlash - Units with a modelled muzzle flash object have the bone name here. Often named things like MuzzleFX or TurretFX or BarrelFX

WeaponLaunchBone - Where the projectile comes out from, like a cruise missile or a tank round. I don't know why the battleship doesn't have this, but nearly all units except those that fire bullets will have this tag.

;-------------------------------------- Lesson #2: A second turret
When your unit has two turrets, you see these codes:

          AltTurret               = Turret02
          AltTurretPitch         = TurretEL02

AltTurret - The name of the object which is the second turret.

AltTurretPitch - As stated above, the object that controls pitch for the second turret.

You most likely have a secondary weapon fired from the secondary turret, so your barrels' coding may look like this:

          WeaponFireFXBone   = SECONDARY Tur2Muzzle
          WeaponRecoilBone   = SECONDARY Tur2Barrel

These codes work the same way as the regular turret coding.

Also, one quick thing, how to code this turret to work is very simple. Find the unit's AIUpdate tag and paste this somewhere inside the AI Update:

        AltTurret
          TurretTurnRate         = 80
          TurretPitchRate       = 80
          FirePitch               = 15          &#59; Instead of aiming pitchwise at the target, it will aim here
          AllowsPitch           = Yes
          RecenterTime     = 5000&#59; how long to wait during idle before recentering
          ControlledWeaponSlots = SECONDARY
        End

Make sure the ControlledWeaponSlots area reads secondary, as the altturret controls the secondary weapon.
Everything else is very self explanatory.

;--------------------------------- Lesson #3: Still to come


If you have any requests for additions to this tutorial, please feel free to ask in this thread. It can be anything, as long as it is about boning units.

Edited by Jordan, 24 July 2010 - 18:45.

[Futschki]

Great Tutorial ... I didnt knew about the TurretArtAngle That's A Good Info ...