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Whip's Turret AI Slaving Script

(Previously titled: "Whip's AI Rotor Turret Control Script")

In the documentation below, "rotor" refers to both rotors and hinges! This is because the game considers hinges to be just fancy sideways rotors.

• Slaves targeting of AI turrets, player-made rotor turrets, and rotor gimbals to other AI turrets.
  
• Designators can be manually controlled to fire slaved turrets
  
• Each turret group can be individually configured
  
• Accurate target leading: slaved rocket turrets will actually hit their targets.
  
• Turrets will avoid shooting through their own ship & subgrids.
  

• Turrets will also avoid shooting through friendly ships with Turret Based Radar or this Turret Slaving script installed.

Howdy!

This script aims player made rotor or hinge based turrets at an AI turret's target. This script also allows you to slave control of other AI turrets to other AI turrets.

Now for some terminology:

• Designator turret: An AI turret (vanilla or modded) that will be used to give targets to our custom turrets. They must have the word Designator added to their name.
  
• Rotor turret: One rotor/hinge and one (or more) secondary rotors/hinges with weapons or tools on them slaved to one (or more) designator turrets (2DOF)
  
• Rotor gimbal: One rotor/hinge with weapons or tools on it slaved to one (or more) designator turrets (1DOF)
  
• Slaved AI group: One (or more) AI turrets slaved to one (or more) designator turrets

Additionally, you can manually control turret groups by manually controlling the designator.

You can have multiple turret groups controlled by this script simultaneously. You do not need a script for each custom turret group you wish to create.

1. Place this script in a programmable block.
   
2. Setup rotor turret, rotor gimbal, and slaved AI turret groups (See below sections for more detail).
   
3. You must run the script with the argument setup to process any new blocks, groups, or custom data changes!

You can heavily customize each turret's behavior in the custom data of the programmable block tha this script runs from (See "Custom Data" section below).


Create a block group with the following constraints:

• Rotor turret groups must be named like the following: "Turret Group <TAG>" where <TAG> is a unique tag for your turret.
  Examples:
  
  • Turret Group 1
    
  • Turret Group Tomato
    
  • Turret Group iLikeTurtles420
• Each turret group must have the following required blocks:
  
  • One base rotor/hinge. Each rotor turret only supports one base rotor/hinge. (Name does not mater)
    
  • One or more secondary rotors/hinges mounted sideways on top of the base rotor/hinge. (Names do not matter)
    
  • At least one weapon or tool atop each secondary rotor/hinge head (Names do not matter). Accepted blocks include:
    
    • Any fixed weapon
      
    • Cameras
      
    • Ship tools
      
    • Any light block
  • One or more AI turrets with the name tag "Designator". The type of the turret does not matter, but in survival, it must have ammo to work as a designator.

• Add any desired optional blocks to the group:
  
  • Timers: Can be configured to trigger on shoot or on targeting in the timer's custom data
    
  • Lights: Can be configured to blink or change color when turret is targeting or idle in the light's custom data
• You can set rotor/hinge rest positions in the custom data of the rotors/hinges once the code has finished registering your turrets.

Create a block group with the following constraints:

• Rotor gimbal groups must be named like the following: "Gimbal Group <TAG>" where <TAG> is a unique tag for your gimbal.
  
• Each gimbal group must have the following required blocks:
  
  • A rotor/hinge. Each gimbal group only supports one rotor/hinge. (Name does not mater)
    
  • At least one weapon or tool atop the rotor/hinge head(Names do not matter). Accepted blocks include:
    
    • Any fixed weapon
      
    • Cameras
      
    • Ship tools
      
    • Any light block
  • One or more AI turrets with the name tag "Designator". The type of the turret does not matter, but in survival, it must have ammo to work as a designator.

• Add any desired optional blocks to the group:
  
  • Timers: Can be configured to trigger on shoot or on targeting in the timer's custom data
    
  • Lights: Can be configured to blink or change color when turret is targeting or idle in the light's custom data
• You can set rotor/hinge rest positions in the custom data of the rotors/hinges once the code has finished registering your turrets.

Create a block group with the following constraints:

• Slaved AI groups groups must be named like the following: "Slaved Group <TAG>" where <TAG> is a unique identifier for your slaved AI group.
  
• Each slaved AI group must have the following required blocks:
  
  • One or more AI turrets with the name tag "Designator". The type of the turret does not matter, but in survival, it must have ammo to work as a designator.
    
  • One or more AI turrets without the name tag "Designator".

• Add any desired optional blocks to the group:
  
  • Timers: Can be configured to trigger on shoot or on targeting in the timer's custom data
    
  • Lights: Can be configured to blink or change color when turret is targeting or idle in the light's custom data

After your turret groups are all setup, you can customize the behavior of each one in the custom data of the programmable block.

1. Open the custom data of the programmable block
   
2. Edit the variables you desire
   
3. Click "Ok"

The script will process the changes once you run the argument "setup".




I went through great pains to simplify the setup of this script to reduce confusion. The script is smarter now and will try to auto detect your turrets.

Also, Weapon Core guns/turrets do not appear as weapons to the in-game API, and I have no plans to write mod specific code to support them. You can use timers to fire them.

(Do not reupload without permission, not even to mod.io)

- Whiplash141