Combine Mortar and flying objects

[Mr. Darkness]

I remembered something.
Combine Mortar.
If you remember the part in the fight for City 17, where you reached a huge museum-looking building, on top of it's roof there was a Combine Mortar that you had turn off via shotting off energy balls from the thing that held them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZotpNbQNkY

^This.
I am learning particle editor now and it seems quite fun and not hard to learn. I already managed to make a few particles that look like this mortar effect

As for the ballance: Since the Rebel explosive barrel tower uses some scrap to shoot those barrels, perhaps combine mortar would use only Energy (but in huge amounts) to shoot the charges? The thing should also deal at least 100 damage to all units and have a bit increased cooldown. It should also NOT have a big enough range to reach another base.

Next,
As you probably know, Strider is a flying entity (which means it does not walk), I was thinking, maybe you could make npc_helicopter, npc_gunship and npc_dropship flying entities as well (so they work without path_corners)? If those are included then we probably need something what can counter those. Lets think: rebels managed to create a jeep which has this laser attachment. And it seems they made it at quite a small factory there (which was surrounded by combines). Another thing we saw is an airboat with the helicopter machine gun attachment. I know these were already suggested but my idea is perhaps you could make an upgrade building (just like Armory) but for vehicles?

[sants1]

I think if something like this were to be added, the canisters would definitely have to be nerfed. Both of these combined would destroy the rebels.

[rui_troia]

make this a close-range defensive mortar who would do insanely ammounts of damage, and the position of the shot would be highlighted before the shell would explode

[sants1]

make this a close-range defensive mortar who would do insanely ammounts of damage, and the position of the shot would be highlighted before the shell would explode

That could work, although it diminishes the meaning of a mortar. But still, I like this idea.

[Mr. Darkness]

Alright, so I've worked on the particle system and right now I got this:

All what's left to add is a beam that goes down to the land spot.

@sants1, as I suggested, the combine mortar needs to be close range (perhaps by half further than the explosive barrel tower) and should eat up a lot of energy due to deadly damage.
But the fact that it shows the landing spot already is a nerf.

EDIT: Added a beam

[sants1]

Okay, sounds good. Hope to see this sometime in the future.

[Mr. Darkness]

I have finished the particle and made a (temporary) sound file for it.
I will upload both in a zip file (particle_mainfest included, just copy the line "file" "particles/particle_mortar.pcf" to your main particle mainfest).
I cannot make a video yet since I am lacking a screen recorder like Fraps or Bandicam which I may obtain later.
Here is the file, it includes the sound and the particle .pcf with particle manifest: http://bbq.to/Mortar_effects_fefe.zip

The effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7odfHQ ... q0te4x5x3w
First you see the white particles go up from the ground
Next you see the splash on the ground appear turning slowly in Z-axis
Following you see the beam appearing, increasing size and changing color as it charges
When the beam reaches the maximum size while turning orange, 2 more sprites appear on the bottom causing the attack effect. One of the particles rotates in Z-axis.
Lastly, everything vanishes, leaving the white particles disappear with the splash on the ground. (old)

If you are curious how it looks in the game do the following.
1. Create a map with info_player_start, info_particle_system, the ambient_generic, add anything else you want for playing the effect;
2. Compile the map in expert (copy default option and make a new one so you don't lose the default settings), edit properties removing -alldetail and -radius_override 2500 (for faster compile and better performance), remove the $game_exe line completely.
3. Get into the game, open console, type in: sv_lan 1 so you can play the game without Steam authentication errors.
4. Type in "map your_map_name", and do the stuff to get into the game (you will be in a lobby).
5. The particle won't spawn if you created the particle system without any outputs to it and the sound. As I suggested earlier, you could create a logic_relay to make the particle system spawn together with the sound to it. If you want to see the particle only, do the following in the console:

bind "p" "ent_fire particle_system stop; wait 120; ent_fire particle_system start"

Press P to spawn the particle system.

Hope you like it

EDIT: There are two models: models/props_combine/combine_mortar01a.mdl and combine_mortar01b.mdl. Mortar01a is the mortar itself while Mortar01b seems to be it's 'legs'.
EDIT 2: added the mortar base particle (so there is an effect when the mortar shoots); the new particle includes 5 sounds that could be used as random so the shoot sound doesn't sound the same all the time!

[Captain Snyder]

Shouldn't the headcrabs canister be hostile to everybody? I mean, headcrabs don't exactly favor one side or the other.

I think the biggest nerfing point would that. Make the headcrab canisters deploy enemies that target the Combine & Rebels.

Edited by Mr. Darkness: Wrong thread?