Laser cannon/turret

[The Ace]

Once again, I decided to mess around with some entities in Hammer. This time I came up with a heavy combine laser cannon. The cannon itself looks a bit corny, but that's more or less intended
The base entity is a func_tanklaser, the rest is a bunch of effects for coolness factor.
I guess this is useful to few, but I find releasing & downloading small prefabs like this is a nice way to learn to use a wide variety of entities.

Here's a video of my beautiful assistant "npc_citizen" showing how it's used. For some reason no sound is being recorded, sorry:

NOTE: The NPC's override the normal rate of fire for some reason. A player is not supposed to be able to shoot that rapidly

The .VMF for the testmap is HERE!
Use it for whatever you like!

[burninwater]

wow that looks cool :O, gj

[Altaire]

Oh damn, I wish i had something like that on my balcony.

[1447]

Looking awesome, nice job;)

[nub]

Saw this over at Facepunch. Good work man.

[The Ace]

Thanks guys

Glad I could spawn an NPC to use it for me to give a better overview on how it looks, but wish I could have captured sound as well (added some for further immersion).

[Mangopork]

Holy Shit. That's amazing.

[nub]

If/when you update this, you should totally put some particle systems in it so you can make it look more realistic. That would definitely help it visually.

[The Ace]

If/when you update this, you should totally put some particle systems in it so you can make it look more realistic. That would definitely help it visually.

If I had a clue about how those worked, I definitely would

I had quite a bunch of eye-candy I wished to add, like plasma embers billowing out of the vents on the sides, a nice quantum-bulge at the muzzle, stuff like that. Env_smokestack bugged out sometimes, env_shooter crashed and env_sprite didn't work with strider effects.
Hopefully I'll figure particle systems out some day!

[YokaI]

It's pretty awesome, but have you tried modeling these? You've done a good job with some of the lazy effects, but it would cool to see you use a model for your next one.

[The Ace]

It's pretty awesome, but have you tried modeling these? You've done a good job with some of the lazy effects, but it would cool to see you use a model for your next one.

I did make an attempt to learn basic modeling with Milkshape 3D, but it didn't go that well. Probably because I couldn't find any modeling tutorial equivalent to "Creating your first room" for Hammer.
If I had models or modeling skills, I would put them to use in the weapons, ofcourse

[nub]

Particle effects are very easy to implement. Valve has a list of all the particles for Portal, Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2 that you can use in your maps.

You use an info_particle_system and you just put down the name of whatever particle you want to use. You set a trigger to activate the particle when you shoot it and it should work just fine. Some particles may need to be deactivated in case they're looping ones, but for most of them it's a one time thing.

Unfortunately the media fire link won't load the download for me. It just constantly loads and loads and loads...

EDIT: Ok never mind, I got it. If you want I can try and put in some particle effects for ya and see how it works out. Up to you however.

[The Ace]

Particle effects are very easy to implement. Valve has a list of all the particles for Portal, Episode 2, and Team Fortress 2 that you can use in your maps.

You use an info_particle_system and you just put down the name of whatever particle you want to use. You set a trigger to activate the particle when you shoot it and it should work just fine. Some particles may need to be deactivated in case they're looping ones, but for most of them it's a one time thing.

Unfortunately the media fire link won't load the download for me. It just constantly loads and loads and loads...

EDIT: Ok never mind, I got it. If you want I can try and put in some particle effects for ya and see how it works out. Up to you however.

Go ahead, I'm sure it'll look better than the env_tesla and sparks =]

[Undead Caesar]

Does the cannon fire at the NPCs by itself or is that scripted?

[nub]

The cannon is operated either by a player or NPC, so no, it's not automated.