I have installed retract laser cannons on the bottom of my CV and I want them to automatically retract when the landing gear is extended. I understand custom signals but beyond that signals as implemented in this game is an incomprehensible language to me. I need a clear understanding on what signal I'm looking for as the trigger and how to set this up. Any help and step by step instructions/pics would be appreciated.
Here is a quick setup I made to show how it works. We can not "control" the landing gears, as they will automatically detect when they are close to a surface and extend, and automatically retract when going away. But landing gears can send a signal when being activated so this is the signal I will use in my setup. I have 2 turrets on my example CV : one on top and one under, and the landing gear is "retracted" because too far from the landing platform : When getting "in range" of the landing platform : I only want the one under to "react" ( Turret B) to the landing gear's signal, so before I start assigning signals I make sure that I am not close to the ground (to avoid triggering the landing pad) and I make sure all weapons are "on" in the control panel's "main" tab : Then in the "Signal Logic" tab I give a name to the signal that the "landing gear" will "broadcast" when activated/ deactivated : Finally, in the same "Signal Logic" tab, I choose my turret B and choose the appropriate signal that should now appear in the little dropdown menu : In the second dropdown menu I choose "follow" so the turret will "react" each time the "landing gear" is activated, either "on" or "off". And last I will select the little green box at the right where I wrote " Invert state" in red. This will make the "active/ extended" signal of the "landing gear" to toggle the opposite state for the turret (inactive/ retracted). Now one thing to watch is if you use the control panel's "main" tab to turn off all weapons (the third image up here) , the turret B will stay "retracted" when you land, but it will get out when the ship will move away from the platform, even if the "main" tab weapon switch is still off. In fact it will then show a yellow "middle state" because some weapons are "off" and some are "on". .
Kassonade, I was doing most of this but never thought of making sure I was off the ground first. All my failures just frustrated me and I really appreciate the help and the excellent description with pics.
The Circuit Logic is very "touchy" sometimes. It makes me think of a stack that will fall down as soon as we modify any of its components. Sometimes it's easier to start a circuit from scratch (delete the devices/ put them again) than to try to fix it when something goes wrong.
Wow, what a great explanation. Simple enough for me to understand. Thanks for the knowledge Kassonade!
Unused signals are just something the game does not deal with well. Retracted turrets still have there "pop-up" or full hitbox though dont they? So you cannot actually "walk" in that space under the ship, retracting them just looks prettier? I really wish ramps worked better.
The player can walk in that space no problem, same thing for retracted ramps and half-blocks. A SV can also pass there or land on top of a retracted turret and the SV will rest on the empty spot, not in the air. The space is occupied only for other CV blocks. Most of my CVs make extensive use of the shutter windows placed "outside" the ship, so when the CV is on the ground it appears to be floating 1 block high (the shutter window "empty" backside) but the player can walk in that space no problem. If the shutter window is on top of the ship, a SV can land directly on the "visible" window and not float on its "empty space". Here's a screenshot of a small SV resting on shutter windows. You can see the windows are "outside" the CV and the "empty" part is up, but does not collide with the SV :
Yeah, I do recall using a retracable turret in that way inside my CV bay doors. I just didn't remember if it still worked that way. That "invert state" tickbox never caught on for me because it's on the right and as a person who reads code, I expect it to be on the left of the value, so I use "inverter" circuits far more often than necessary to be explicit. Good tip.
