[SUBMISSION]: Heat-Seeker Launcher

Info:
Name: Heat-Seeker Launcher
Class: Level 5
Type: Projectile, Seeker
Palette: Doom
Summon: SeekerLauncher
Ammotype: HomingMissile
AltFire: No

Credits:
Submitted: DBJ87
Decorate: DBJ87
Sprites: Apogee's Rise of the Triad
Sprite Edit: DBJ87
Sounds: ID Software (Quake), Magic Wazard
Idea Base: Own Idea

Description:
A Heat Seeking Missile Launcher. Fires very fast & accurate Missiles that lock onto the target most likely to be hit as most Doom weapons do, the closer target is to the central area of your field of vision, the more likely it will be targeted. Homing Missiles may track their own targets (excluding allies) if their original target has died before the missile hits it, but the new target must be in the player's field of vision. This weapon has a strong recoil, but it makes a better choice for taking out fast moving enemies & flying enemies, then the Rocket Launcher or most other weapons due to it's speed & very high accuracy. Uses separate ammo. Carrying 40-80 Homing Missiles.

Field of Vision:
The Field of vision is defined by a 84° cone from the shooter. This is the Player's field of vision, most noticed by how far all 40 BFG-9000 tracers spread after the the BFG-Ball explodes. Anything in that area is instantly targeted by a missile.
It then depends on how close they are to you, the closer they are, the more likely they will be targeted first.

Finding a new target:
The chances of finding a new target are 75/256, the missiles will only chase any valid target that is within a preset map unit distance of that missile. It keeps searching (traveling in direction fired) until it explodes. (Default = 50/256 if you feel this is too high)

Targeting Allies:
This weapon won't target Allies but will damage them if they get in the way of the Missile.

More information on SMF_LOOK tracking flag used, taken from ZDOOM-WIKI:


[UPDATES]


01/06/30
Added new flags to:
-Increase effectiveness of Long Distance Targeting.
-Increase Missile chance to Target Flying Enemies.

Missiles fired might track a target on their own:
-Only if no target was is acquired before shooting
-Only if that new target is in the Player's line of sight.

Missiles have an improved curve when chasing targets to increase accuracy:
-Missiles maintain speed while changing direction
-Increased accuracy does not guarantee a 100% success rate of hitting the target

09/07/16
-As requested by Administration all image files have been swapped from DOOM to PNG format.
-Key Config & Lump summon numbers removed as requested by Administration.

-The Weapon's kickback has been reduced (from 800 to 300), this does not affect damage,
it reduces the chances of enemies being pushed out of sight too easily.
Harder enemies are now less likely to be forced backward.
-The Missile's trial now appears behind the rocket instead of inside or in front of it
(Thank you for pointing this out Blue Shadow)

I only take credit for creating the weapon's decorate & deciding to make this
as my own weapon and creating the ammo used.

-Sprites taken from "99 Weapons" Wad submitted onto DoomWorld by Daniel.
-Sounds taken from "Armas29" Wad submitted onto DoomWorld by Daniel.

Formerly known as the Bazooka, until an update on 27/05/2016.

I am also crediting Magic Wazard for Sounds as he has helped me find the right people/game to give credit for these and he has shared his own version of a homing missile, using the same firing sounds, for comparison to my own.

[IMAGES]
Weapon:

Weapon Ready:

Ammo:

[DOWNLOAD]
[URL=http://www.m*diafire.com/download/ms5spqqsitgdj2w/Heat-Seeker_Launcher.zip]http://www.m*diafire.com/download/ms5spqqsitgdj2w/Heat-Seeker_Launcher.zip[/URL]

Updated version changes will not be applied to the Allied Bazooka Marine.

I think my biggest complaint with this is a rather selfish one--I was using the exact same weapon sprite set (from Apogee's Rise of the Triad) and the exact same projectile sprite to make my own heat-seeking missile launcher. I think yours has slightly better coding, though, as the seeking behavior seems more reliable than mine, and uses different pyrotechnics (and new pickup sprites, which I like). I'm not sure I care for the firing sound so much--it sounds more like an energy weapon than an explosive.

I wasn't sure I was ever planning on turning mine into a formal submission, but if you'd like to see it for comparison's sake, here's mine:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6s7jsm1htjmdivp/RoTTseekerlauncher.wad?dl=0
Uncanny similarity, am I right?

My second biggest complaint (which is probably a more valid one) is that the name "Bazooka" implies, to me, a dumb-fire weapon, not a seeking weapon. I think it could use a slightly more descriptive name.

Very uncanny, I found the weapon & missiles looking through some weapon resource wads on DoomWorld. Created a Marine with a Heat-Seeking Missile Launcher, nicknamed it Bazooka for the "Bazooka Marine".

As for names calling it the "Heat-Seeking Missile Launcher" seemed too long, but that's all this is, a homing missile launcher. Will happily rename it if it needs to be done. summon command will have to be HSML or something along those lines. If I called it a Stinger Missile Launcher now, wouldn't want anyone thinking it's a Metal-Gear reference weapon lol.

Any suggestions for name changes will be great, the Marine using this can then be a changed to Pyrotechnic, Bombardier, Seeker or Artillery Marine.

Well, the "Stinger" is a real-life missile launcher, so even if you called it that, it wouldn't necessarily be construed as an MGS reference. However, the Stinger also has a fairly distinctive look, so it probably wouldn't be the best name to choose.

I don't have a lot of good name suggestions at the moment, but maybe just "Heatseeker Launcher" would work.

Heatseeker Launcher. is good enough for me Allied Marine attributed to it (when I get around to adding the next update) will be changed to a "Bombardier" (Specialty with Advanced Explosives).

Weapon's been updated, not much else to change on this, could play about with it's tracking, make it curve better but it's no fun, if it's got near perfect accuracy & always hits its targets, it's good enough for a mid-range alternative to rocket launcher & doesn't wipe out bosses/very hard demons ridiculously quickly... like the rocket launcher, it's all about bombardment rather than killing the biggest and baddest in 3 shots. Takes about 5-7 to kill a Baron. Hopefully it's balanced out enough for everyone.

Made this mostly for taking on the fast & the flying, as well as a pretty good crowd controller.

Rather humorously, it's using the pickup sprite as the projectile, so the missile stands perfectly upright when flying. The sprite names are nearly identical, so I can see how that would happen.

There isn't much else I can do to it... I did find this elsewhere on Doomworld.com's website first (before submitting this), you asked me to change the sounds, I changed the sounds, again found on a different website before I submitted this for review, you told me to change the name, this is the best one to fit it..

As for the

Rather humorous,

messed up projectiles... they will be sorted now & update notes will be posted
... finding it very hard to focus & check over everything under stress & pressure...

I notice that even though it's got a 256 chance (always) of trying to acquire a target if it doesn't have one, it's missing the "SMF_LOOK" flag that allows it to actually acquire a target if it doesn't already have one. Therefore, it won't actually seek out a monster unless you've already auto-aimed at one--you can't aim at a distant monster and have the missile attempt to seek it. Was this an intentional change on your part?

Also, the firing sound is from Quake; credit only needs to go to id Software for that.