WingNuts and Bolts

# Projectiles

This section details the projectiles creator

Projectiles represent any kind of weapon. Bullets, Beams, Missles, and Bombs. This applies to every item in the game that can have a weapon, you, your carrier, enemy craft and bosses.

Your standard projectiles window.

All weapons start out simple and build to complex. First you need to create a new projectile. Then you need to assign it an image. All projectiles are drawn with the top of the image being the front. For instance:

A bullet facing "North"

A bullet facing "East"

The Bullet facing North will draw correctly in the game. It will be emitted from a gun with the pointed side leading the way. The Bullet facing East will draw incorrectly and will be fired from an weapon on it's side. All objects in WingNuts and bolts are drawn with North being forward. This will be more apparent in the Enemy Craft section.

Once you have your image selected, it's time ot choose what kind of projectile this is going to be.

Note: Due to a "quirk" in the Editor, you cycle between Bullets, Missiles, Energy Beams and Bombs via a pulldown menu, not the tabs.

One of the unusual "quirks" of WingNuts and Bolts.

# Bullets

Bullets are a single projectle. A bullet does not have to actually be a "bullet" in the strict sense. It's any object fired that continues on a straight path. An arrow from a bow and arrow is a bullet. Bullets can stop, the Air Mines found in WingNuts 2 are bullets. Lets detail the different parts of a bullet in the Editor.

Life time - this is how long the bullet will exist. If your bullet is rather fast, you may not want it to have a long life time. Remember it's velocity is in pixels per second, so if it can travel 800 pixels per second, you may not want it to have a life time longer than a second or it will trave a very long distance.

Exit velocity - this is the initial speed the bullet when it leaves the emitter. Bullets can speed up or slow down.

Acceleration - This controls the acceleration of the bullet. If you remember your physics, then you may remember that Accelration is is a fuction squared (I'm not a math guy, so we are not going into this too deep). Remember that acceleration is not constant, an object will continue to accelerate (or decelerate) at the rate you define. If you want the bullet to be constant, leave accleration at 0.

Side acceleration - A bullet can waver from side to side, this is the acceleration of this. Sometimes peopl will call this theta error. Think of it as a shotgun blast. It all starts in the same place, but spreads out.

Fade time - This is how long it takes the projectile to fade out. Since projectiles have a life time, they are going to vanish. Use a fade to make this seem less abrpt.

Randomize direction - Since the projectile can slide, this option will randomize the sliding left and right.

Longitudinal deviations - This is a wave pattern you can have a bullet follow, thing a "wave" beam. It's time to bring science into this.

A bullet with no forces applied to it.

Here we have our bullet, it will travel in a straight line from start to finish. There is a wave being drawn behind it. The bullet travels in a straight line and is not affected by this wave.

The longitudinal deviation refers to the forward movement of the bullet along it's straight line.

Frequency - This value is measured in cycles per second (Hz). Think of this as "How many times in one second do I want this effect to happen?"

A bullet with a high frequency.

Compare this wave to the one above. Notice how there is twice as many loops? The frequency of this wave for the bullet is twice as large as a normal bullet. This is the frequency. Without other factors, this bullet will still travel in a straight line.

Distance - This is how far the effect is going to happen.

This is a bullet with a distance applied to it.

Here you can see a bullet on the wave, now with a distance of 50 pixels. The faded bullet represents where it will be, in this case 50 pixes from the start. Notice the bullet can be both infront of and behind it's starting location. Imagine the bullet traveling in a straight line. Every time the wave is positive or dips "up" the bullet moves forward 50 pixels. Every time it is negative or dips "down" the bullet travels backwards 50 pixels.

Phase - This is where on the wave the projectil is going to begin.

A bullet in different phases

Imagine the wave from above in your head. Now Imagine you are putting the positive part (dips "up") on top of the bottom part (dips "down"). What you'll have is kind of an oval like this:

A wave visualized as a circle

As you can see the two wave parts make a sort of a circle (although not a very round circle). As we learned in Geometry class, a circle contains 360 degrees. Degrees 0 - 180 are in the top or positive part of the wave (or circle) and 181 - 360 make up the bottom of the wave (or circle). By picking a phase degree, you are telling the bullet where on the wave to begin. In our example of 50 pixels. A starting phase of 90 degrees is located at the very top of the wave (or circle), so a bullet with a phase of 90 degrees will start out 25 pixels from origon, then move the reamining 25 pixels, then back 50 pixels and so on.

NOTE: In our examples the bullet travels along the wave, this is only to help you visualize where in the wave's cycle it is. Longitudinal deviation does not affect movement up and down. It only affects the rate that the bullet moves accross a straight line.

Transverse deviations - This is the bullets movement "up and down" this is the counter part to the Longitudinal deviations. In a nutshell, the Transverse deviations control the opposite of Longitudinal deviations.

Frequency - Again, this value measures cycles per second.

A bullet with a high frequency.

Distance - This is how far the effect is going to happen.

This is a bullet wtih a distance applied to it.

Here we have a bullet wtih a distance of 50. Notice how unlike the Longitudinal devation example, this bullet moves up and down the wave. Imagine the bullet is a car on a 3 lane highway. When you start driving you are in the middle lane. With a distance of 50, the car will change to the left lane, then drive back to the middle, then to the right, then back to the middle and will repeate this path over and over.

Phase - Again just like Longitudinal deviations, this determins where on the wave the effect is going to happen. Again, think of the wave as a circle and the positions are degrees around the circle.

A bullet in different phases

You can use this setting to start a bullet out to the left or right of the starting position. A bullet at 90 degrees will start to the left of the starting point, 50 pixels away.

Time to full deviation effect - When this is 0 the cycles happen instantly. If this is set to 1, then a full cycle is 1 second. So if you set this value to 1, and the frequency 1, then in 1 second, the bullet will travel around the wave one time in that second. If the frequency is 2, it will happen twice in that second. If the time is set to 5, and the frequency is 1, it will take the bullet 5 seconds to travel around the wave.

Bearing changes randomly - While this option may not make sense for a bullet, imagine something else, that will suddently change direction. By using these following options you can set up when and how the bullet will change direction.

Largest bearing change - this vaule in degrees is the largest number the game will consider using to change bearing.

Time between changes - this is the maximum ammount of time between the direction changes, in seconds.

Rotation rate - This will rotate the bullet in flight. You can also randomize the direction.

Primary particles spawned at end - Just like the debris you can spawn particles at the end of of the projectile's life. Select the particle from the lise and set the number of particles to be created.

Secondary particles spawned at end - Set a secondary set of particles to spawn at the end of life for the bullet.

Particle emits particles during flight - While the bullet is drawn in the air, it can emit particles along the way. Think of this as a smoking bullet, or if your a fan of the matrix, contrails disrupting the space/time continuum. Choose the projectile from the list and the rate emission rate (particles per second).

Projectile creates ground glow - This will let you set a image to draw along with your bullet. This image moves on the ground. Think of this as a glow map. You can change the color with the Red, Green and Blue values. 255 represents full color, so to make a glow map red, reduce teh Green and Blue values to 0 and keep Red at 255.

Projictle is drawn glowing - This draws the projectile graphic with a luminosity effect. This can be useful for an "energy" weapon, like plasma balls.

Has death sound - this lets you play a sound at the end of the life time. A good example are the missles in WIngNuts 2. When they reach end of life, they explode and play an explosion sound. Choose a sound from the sound list. Sounds are defined in the Sound section.

Randomize life time - Not happy with it's life time? Use this to randomize the life time, fill in the percentage to do this.

Randomize start bearing - Don't want the projectile to fire straight out of the barrel? Use this to make it start at a random direction. Useful for the more "wacky" weapons you can make such as Air Mines.

No termination after collision - This will continue the path of the projectile after hitting something. A good videogame example of this is a "Rail Gun".

Animate according to life time - Much like a particle, if the graphic for the projectile animates, it will loop if this is not checked. Checking this option will slow down or speed up the projectile's animation to match it's life time.

# Missiles

The Missile setup screen

A missle behaves just like a bullet with one exception, it will "seek" out a target and home in on it. Because of this, it will be turning and twisting in the air.

Just like a bullet, you need to make a new projectile with the "New" button.

Missile type - There are two types of missles, Simple Missiles and Adaptive Missiles. A simple missle seeks out it's target along the most direct path. A adaptive missile will attempt to take a shortcut to a target and can harder to avoid.

Missile life time - This is how long the missile will exist. Remember a missile will chase down targets, so if you make this value very larget the missile may chase down the player accross the entire map.

Initial exit velocity - This is how fast the missle will be going in pixels/sec when it is created.

Maximum velocity - This is the absolute maximum speed a missile can reach.

Longitudinal acceleration - This is how fast (or slow) the missile will accelerate. Longitudinal refers to it's movement along a straight line. This value is a squared function, so the speed builds exponentially. It will be capped by the maximum velocity.

Normal turn rate - This is how fast in degrees per second the missile can turn. Remember missils track to a target, so they will need the ability to turn in the air.

Maximum turn rate - You can increase the rate of turn due to adaptive settings. This value is the maximum rate the missile can ever turn.

Missile fade time - This is how long it takes for the graphic to fade away at end of life.

Maximum capture angle - Imagine a missile is traveling along a straight line. Now imagine a target exists above or below the missile. If the angle from the Missile to the target is greater than the Maximum capture angle, the missile will not lock onto the target and persue it.

Maximum capture distance - This is how far the missile can be from a target and aquire it.

Primary particles spawned at end - Just like the debris you can spawn particles at the end of of the projectile's life. Select the particle from the lise and set the number of particles to be created.

Secondary particles spawned at end - Set a secondary set of particles to spawn at the end of life for the missile.

Particle emits particles during flight - While the missile is drawn in the air, it can emit particles along the way. Think of this as a smoking bullet, or if your a fan of the matrix, contrails disrupting the space/time continuum. Choose the projectile from the list and the rate emission rate (particles per second).

Projectile creates ground glow - This will let you set a image to draw along with your missile. This image moves on the ground. Think of this as a glow map. You can change the color with the Red, Green and Blue values. 255 represents full color, so to make a glow map red, reduce teh Green and Blue values to 0 and keep Red at 255.

Projictle is drawn glowing - This draws the projectile graphic with a luminosity effect. This can be useful for an "energy" weapon, like plasma balls.

Has death sound - this lets you play a sound at the end of the life time. A good example are the missles in WIngNuts 2. When they reach end of life, they explode and play an explosion sound. Choose a sound from the sound list. Sounds are defined in the Sound section.

Randomize life time - Not happy with it's life time? Use this to randomize the life time, fill in the percentage to do this.

Randomize start bearing - Don't want the projectile to fire straight out of the barrel? Use this to make it start at a random direction. Useful for the more "wacky" weapons you can make such as Air Mines.

No termination after collision - This will continue the path of the projectile after hitting something. A good videogame example of this is a "Rail Gun".

Animate according to life time - Much like a particle, if the graphic for the projectile animates, it will loop if this is not checked. Checking this option will slow down or speed up the projectile's animation to match it's life time.

# Energy Beam

Your standard Energy Beam/Weapon screen.

Energy weapons behave mostly like bullets, are strech as a beam and travel in a straight line. They do not waver. The image used in the beam is streched for the effect.

To begin, make a new weapon with the "New" button.

Weapon life time - This is how long you want the weapon to exist.

Initial exit velocity - This is how fast you want the beam to be traveling when it is created.

Maximum velocity - This is the maximum velocity the particle can ever attain.

Longitudinal acceleration - This is how fast (or slow) the beam will accelerate. Longitudinal refers to it's movement along a straight line. This value is a squared function, so the speed builds exponentially. It will be capped by the maximum velocity.

Weapon beam length - This is how long in pixels the beam will be. Because the image is streched, this can be longer or smaller than the graphic.

Beam fade time - This is how long it will take the beam to fade away at the end of life.

Primary particles spawned at end - Just like the debris you can spawn particles at the end of of the projectile's life. Select the particle from the lise and set the number of particles to be created.

Secondary particles spawned at end - Set a secondary set of particles to spawn at the end of life for the missile.

Particle emits particles during flight - While the beam is drawn in the air, it can emit particles along the way. Think of this as a smoking bullet, or if your a fan of the matrix, contrails disrupting the space/time continuum. Choose the projectile from the list and the rate emission rate (particles per second).

Projectile creates ground glow - This will let you set a image to draw along with your energy beam. This image moves on the ground. Think of this as a glow map. You can change the color with the Red, Green and Blue values. 255 represents full color, so to make a glow map red, reduce the Green and Blue values to 0 and keep Red at 255.

Projictle is drawn glowing - This draws the projectile graphic with a luminosity effect. This can be useful for an "energy" weapon, like plasma balls.

Has death sound - this lets you play a sound at the end of the life time. A good example are the missles in WIngNuts 2. When they reach end of life, they explode and play an explosion sound. Choose a sound from the sound list. Sounds are defined in the Sound section.

Randomize life time - Not happy with it's life time? Use this to randomize the life time, fill in the percentage to do this.

Randomize start bearing - Don't want the projectile to fire straight out of the barrel? Use this to make it start at a random direction. Useful for the more "wacky" weapons you can make such as Air Mines.

No termination after collision - This will continue the path of the projectile after hitting something. A good videogame example of this is a "Rail Gun".

Animate according to life time - Much like a particle, if the graphic for the projectile animates, it will loop if this is not checked. Checking this option will slow down or speed up the projectile's animation to match it's life time.

# Bombs

Your standard bomb screen.

Bombs are unique as they can only affect specific enemies. A player can only drop bombs on ground units or ground bosses. Enemies can only drop bombs on the player's carrier. Reember WingNuts 2 isn't actually 3D, so there is no depth. However, there is the illusion of depth, so what appears to be a bomb falling is an illusion of scale and shadow.

Initial exit velocity - This is how fast the bomb will be going when it is created.

Final velocity - the final speed the bomb will be traveling when it hits the "ground" or enemy.

Dropping itme - this is how long it takes for the bomb to "hit" measured in seconds.

Animation proportional to lifetime - This animates the bomb graphic to end the animation with the end of life, or when it hits the ground. This will either speed up or slow down an animation to match.

Normal animation - with this option the graphic will play it's normal animation regardless of life time.

Extra blast radius - THIS VALUE COMMING SOON.

Has bomb crater image for hitting land - When the bomb misses it's target and lands on land, it will leave a crater on the ground. Use this check box and pick an image from the list to be drawn.

Has sploosh image for hitting water - When the bomb misses it's target and lands on water, it will make a splash or "sploosh" effect. Use the check box and pick an image from the list to be drawn.

Has sploosh sound for hitting water - Because a bomb hitting water is a special detonation, it will not explode. You can use this to assign a sound to be played, such as a splash into water.

Has sploosh particles for hitting water - You can assign particles to be drawn when it hits the water. Check the box and choose a particle from the list.

Number of sploosh particles - If you choose a particle to be drawn when hitting water, here you can define how many particles are drawn.

Primary particles spawned at end - Just like the debris you can spawn particles at the end of of the projectile's life. Select the particle from the lise and set the number of particles to be created.

Secondary particles spawned at end - Set a secondary set of particles to spawn at the end of life for the bomb.

Particle emits particles during flight - While the bomb is drawn in the air, it can emit particles along the way. Think of this as a smoking bullet, or if your a fan of the matrix, contrails disrupting the space/time continuum. Choose the projectile from the list and the rate emission rate (particles per second).

Projectile creates ground glow - This will let you set a image to draw along with your bomb. This image moves on the ground. Think of this as a glow map. You can change the color with the Red, Green and Blue values. 255 represents full color, so to make a glow map red, reduce the Green and Blue values to 0 and keep Red at 255.

Projictle is drawn glowing - This draws the projectile graphic with a luminosity effect. This can be useful for an "energy" weapon, like plasma balls.

Has death sound - this lets you play a sound at the end of the life time. A good example are the missles in WIngNuts 2. When they reach end of life, they explode and play an explosion sound. Choose a sound from the sound list. Sounds are defined in the Sound section.

Randomize life time - Not happy with it's life time? Use this to randomize the life time, fill in the percentage to do this.

Randomize start bearing - Don't want the projectile to fire straight out of the barrel? Use this to make it start at a random direction. Useful for the more "wacky" weapons you can make such as Air Mines.

No termination after collision - This will continue the path of the projectile after hitting something. A good videogame example of this is a "Rail Gun".

Animate according to life time - Much like a particle, if the graphic for the projectile animates, it will loop if this is not checked. Checking this option will slow down or speed up the projectile's animation to match it's life time.