Air strike Target

Okay I dont know if this is possible or not, but what I want to do is have a controlable airstrike that targets where you want it to hit, just like in single player HL, but with a twist, cause now I want a red laser (sprite possibly) targeting the ground where it will hit.

So here is what I have in mind for what I want: You walk up to the control platform like in single HL, and you control the x and y orientation with the levers, along with a targeting point on the map. But once again the part that im asking for is how to make a red laser (just a dot) on the ground where the air strike will hit.

Now I know how to set up a regular air strike like in the game, but I don't know how to make a red laser (red dot target) move in the x and y directions to where the air strike will hit.

Please give details on entity set up, and a suggestion for a red target (sprite maybe). Thanks.
-omega

I would imagine you use an env_beam and move it with the controls along with the blow-up effect (on the ground). The beam its self you can make red or whatever color you want. (you'd see a beam coming out of the sky, not just a dot on the ground)

Think of when you move cranes and stuff (I remember this being in spirit, but I can't remember if regular HL has that sort of controllability).

Anyway I hope that helps...I'm not entirly sure on the making of these though.

[EDIT]
I'm giving a stab as putting this up as an answer. The last three times I posted on the edit forums I actually unknowingly answered the persons questions so I though "what the hell." :smile:
[/EDIT]

Well I'm not quite sure how the airstrike was done as I've never tried to make one. Would you mind explaining how you intend to do this or point me in the direction of a tutorial that explains it?

JFry said:
Well I'm not quite sure how the airstrike was done as I've never tried to make one. Would you mind explaining how you intend to do this or point me in the direction of a tutorial that explains it?

There is one at the collective: http://collective.valve-erc.com/index.php?doc=1047437464-86983400

But I want this and a beam coming down, crono knows what im talking about, thanks ill try that concept.

Something like this would be a real entity undertaking.... better speak to Gollum :razz:

wasnt there a Sven-co-op with something like that, it was a box map with a square hold in the bottom with monsters etc in and u can teleport there

Myrk- said:
Something like this would be a real entity undertaking.... better speak to Gollum :razz:

Ya gollum if your there and you read this, plz help I need your vast knolege of this setup.

Crono I havent found a way through your suggestion, and since you said "what the hey" I wont mark you wrong.

thanks, and on that note I changed it to a comment lol.

You should use a sprite for the red dot, not too sure how you'd go about getting it to move though.

-AS, but how do I tie it to a momentary brush? I would also like it to move in the x and y direction, so its like a laser comming from the sky.

In the game they had a small dot thingy that moved, didn't they- so simply just scale that up for the whole map (perhaps with a small 'dot texture' in the middle? I doubt that you can use a sprite in this way)

lep-
What game, regular HL? (I dont think there was one).

... Regular HL has this ability. It's also in Opposing Force (Slightly tweeked if I'm not mistaken).

HL1 had something like this, had 2 linesa that moved and where they crossed is where it shot, much more simple than it seems...

Yep, when you kill the (2nd) gargant outside with the strange mortar-from-nowhere.

nm me

Ok, I've looked at the tut on VERC (which is a good tut btw) and thought about the problem, and here is what I have come up with. The intuitive way to do this would be to use an env_beam targeting something. This is because then you can use the "end sprite" feature to display a sprite at the bottom, while turning off the visibility of the beam itself, allowing for a dynamically moving sprite.

Now, what to target. Well, to set up your co-ordinate system for the func_mortar_fields, you have used momentary_doors. It is possible to create simultaneous invisible momentary_doors over the entire region of the playing field, which can then have an origin brush in them, which allows for targetting via the env_beam. Play with movement values to get the scale right. Now, if you had the start of the beam some point in the sky, you should quickly realize there are two different momentary doors, which you would like to target as one, at their intersection. The way you can move the origin brush attached to each, however, will not allow you to knowingly always move it onto the intersection of the two momentary doors.

An alternate effect that uses lasers to pinpoint on the map where the mortar should hit is to set up the same extra set of momentary_doors, but then put the origin brush at one end of each momentary_door. Then, copy these doors, same properties but then but the origin brush at the other end. In fact, you don't need the other part of the brush at all, but it visually should help you set up the brushes in order. Now, it should be fairly simple to see how to set up a laser or beam between the two momentary_doors that will trace the path and will provide an intersection hovering over the spot that will be hit, as described in the picture below:



There's still one problem however. The momentary_rot_button needs to target the doors to move them. But the doors need to be named differently in order to make the laser work. Having the button target a multimanager which targets all the doors sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, I wouldn't think the doors would work properly. Likewise, the doors in the minimap need to be named differently in order to allow for them to move in scale.

Frankly, I came up with some bizarre idea for how to use the door hack flag to get around this, but I reread how door hack works and it doesn't look promising. Basically, it can allow for you to move a whole mess of momentary_rot_buttons named different things with the turning of one button, however it seems not to be able to work the other way. All momentary_doors need to be named the same thing. I then thought to work on a scheme whereby the laser is pointed at the moving momenaty_rot_buttons, but quickly realized the lasers point at the center of the attacher origin brush, and that's not gonna move when the rest of the momentary_rot_button does. This leaves me at my conclusion:

1. Try the having the momentary_rot_buttons target a multimanager. If HL blows up on you, don't say I didn't warn you.

2. Code a minor mod with an entity specifically designed to do this.

3. Don't do it.

Not everything is possible with the given entities, that's why mod designers write their own.

Edit: Since no one else seems to have comments, and I am about 94% certain of my answer, I am marking this as correct. Feel free to reopen topic if you have a better solution.