Barrage Frag

A barrage frag is a fragment that has the effect of creating a barrage of bullets that look like they were shot from an artillery line.

This chapter contains a description of the barrage frag in addition to a way of achieving the same effect using barrelSpacing.

The barrage frag has four core stages. Their purposes are as follows:

1. Rotate the fragment 90° counterclockwise.
2. Almost instantly travel some distance left.
3. Almost instantly travel a random distance in between no distance and double the distance travelled from the point of firing, using rangeStdDev to do so. This stage also has a greater-than-one roundsPerBurst to make a more bullet dense artillery barrage effect.
4. The actual, visible bullet, now fired along a line. This stage also has a small rangeStdDev value of 10 to make it look more natural.

{ 17000
    features=CANNON
    cannon={   damage= 1 muzzleVel=  500 range= 50                 color=1          spread= 90*pi/180 pattern=CONSTANT explosive=FINAL              roundsPerSec= 30 power=10 recoil=0
    fragment={ damage= 1 muzzleVel=-1000 range=-100 rangeStdDev=50 color=1                                             explosive=FINAL|FRAG_NOFLASH roundsPerBurst=5
    fragment={ damage= 1 muzzleVel= -500 range=  0                 color=1                                             explosive=FINAL|FRAG_NOFLASH
	fragment={ damage=25 muzzleVel=  500 range=200  rangeStdDev=10 color=0xAAFFFFFF spread=-90*pi/180 pattern=CONSTANT explosive=      FRAG_NOFLASH
	}}}}
}

Y-Spaced Barrel Method: Y-Spaced Barrel Barrage (YSBB)

A similar effect can be created by using the Y part of the barrelSpacing field.

The primary stage has a high roundsPerSec so that the cannon cycles through its barrels rapidly. It also has a high roundsPerBurst and burstyness to avoid the tapping of the fire button causing only a few of the barrels to be shot out of. This stage also has a small range and rangeStdDev with a relatively high muzzleVel to add variation to when the secondary stage appears, making the barrage look more random.

The secondary stage is the actual bullet. Even though its muzzleVel is 460, it will actually travel at the speed of 500 because of what it inherits from the primary stage. The secondary stage also has a small rangeStdDev value of 10 to make it look more natural.

{ 17000
	features=CANNON|TURRET|
	barrelSize={0.000001,0.000001}
	barrelCount=32
	barrelSpacing={0,5}
	cannon={
		roundsPerSec=120
		roundsPerBurst=32
		burstyness=0.9
		damage=1
		muzzleVel= 40
		range=      4
		rangeStdDev=4
		color=1
		explosive=FINAL
		recoil=0
		fragment={
			damage=25
			muzzleVel= 460
			range=     460*0.4
            rangeStdDev=10
			color=0xFFFFFFFF
		}
	}
}

Compared to the frag barrage, the YSBB is more consistent, not being concentrated at the center due to the use of rangeStdDev and the standard deviation curve.

A disadvantage of the YSBB compared to the frag barrage is that the YSBB relies on utilising a turreted block, and thus cannot work anywhere but the start of a fragment.