Weapon ranges in steps instead of abstract?

[Bandobras]

This must have been talked over many times, but why don't we change the range units in weapon scripts to game steps (e.g., "10") instead of the current abstract units (e.g. the equivalent "331"; is it 331 feet?)? I volunteer to rewrite all scripts (I know them by heart, already). Then we may multiply them by 32 to get the old values, if anybody needs them...

The abstract units can be claimed to be independent of game mechanics and so scalable, but it's not so simple. If the Plasma Grenade description says that it has bigger splash damage range (140) than Frag Grenade (120) then the description will be rendered false by scaling ranges not with 32, as it's now, but 29 or 36. Such problems exist also when fine-tuning other weapons and, overall, the units are less readable and look bad in GUI (those strange fractions --- your sniper rifle can fire at 50.1 steps and not at 50.2).

[Mattn]

this can be easily done. i've already made a patch for this. all we need are fixed range values in script file....

[Bandobras]

Cool! My next patch will have all ranges fixed.

P.S. Patch uploaded:

Not much tested, unfortunately, since my computer is overheating (UFO:AI takes 100% CPU). For the new research costs to work the player should probably get one scientist after each mission for a total of 100.

What does not work: incendiary things only do fire damage, multiple ammo for the same weapon cannot be reloaded, grenade ranges are hard-coded, some models are missing (can be substituted by similar ones, but now it's easier to see them), many particles and sounds missing or just plain wrong, lots of unnecessary ".0" in the GUI, lots of fine-tuning still to do.

Sorry for any problems and see the wiki [[Equipment]] page for some more details and to report balancing problems, wrong names, etc.

[Bandobras]

So, could you please try my patch with the last SVN trunk and report any problems (balancing, name, description, stat problems on the wiki, bugs in the Sourceforge or here).

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1521566&group_id=157793&atid=805244

Thanks!

[Bandobras]

The patch is in svn trunk now.

If you want to test all weapons at once, use "campaign test", as explained in the wiki (Equipment/tweak weapons).