Tracer Effects for Ammunition in Factorio

[MiniMe943]

Exactly what the title says. Watching some gameplay of turrets in action and my opinion is that Factorio would benefit from adding tracer rounds to some of the various ammo types in game. It would give better feedback on how well your guns are working. It wouldn't need to be every bullet either as tracers are usually every 3-5 bullets.

Tracers would make sense for:

• Regular magazines
  Piercing rounds magazines

And even:

• Cannon shells
  Explosive cannon shells

I don't know about adding tracers to shotgun shells as that seems to be less common, and the railgun, rocket, and explosive rockets obviously wouldn't need it.

Now, this might cause performance issues in instances with a LOT of machine gun fire, but I doubt this on account of Factorio being very well optimized. Besides, I think the devs aren't afraid to add effects since the smoke effects are getting an update in 0.13.

Lastly, while tracer ammunition uses certain chemicals in real life, I don't think any recipes would need to change in Factorio because it would add unnecessary complication. In other words, it would just be a nice effect to have.

TL;DR Add tracer effects to Factorio.
Thank you for reading.

[Krayt]

When i understand you correctly you want special tracer bullets to mark enemies for a bonus like additional damage taken by turrets and the player?
Item-wise you could simply add recipes using regular our piercing rounds magazines upgrading them using one additional component to tracer rounds.

In my opinion tracer rounds are a good idea.

How a status effect for hit enemies would work, i don't know. But an easy method to create status effects for example in mods would be a great addition to the game. For example effects like bleeding, burning or marked by tracer rounds could be added.

Greetings Krayt

[ShizukaMiyuki]

as far as I know all weapons besides shotguns and laser turrets already hit their target instantly, therefor not needing any tracers, and there's no point in traces anyway, its not like weapon degrades and starts performing worse, the game always gives you a 100% accuracy since it auto aims, so there really no need for tracers.

[Krayt]

as far as I know all weapons besides shotguns and laser turrets already hit their target instantly, therefor not needing any tracers, and there's no point in traces anyway, its not like weapon degrades and starts performing worse, the game always gives you a 100% accuracy since it auto aims, so there really no need for tracers.

Yes you are right on this point. So either a different malus for the enemy or a bonus for the player / turrets are needed or maybe a guided rocket-launcher or rocket-launcher-turret which sends missiles to the next marked enemy could be implemented.

[MiniMe943]

When i understand you correctly you want special tracer bullets to mark enemies for a bonus like additional damage taken by turrets and the player?

Not necessarily. Tracer bullets aren't really any different than regular ammunition. They are slightly less effective at piercing armor and have a mild incendiary effect that CAN cause burns. But their main function is just to be able to see where your bullets are going.

Basically, all I'm asking for is this effect:

tumblr_n4jr0hJI1Z1rarngto1_400.gif (633.83 KiB) Viewed 4004 times

[ShizukaMiyuki]

Yes you are right on this point. So either a different malus for the enemy or a bonus for the player / turrets are needed or maybe a guided rocket-launcher or rocket-launcher-turret which sends missiles to the next marked enemy could be implemented.

yeah that could work, also I wouldn't be opposed if tank shells were given a small tracer effect, since in real life they do this even without tracers due to the air compressing in-front of it and it breaking the sound barrier, and I kinda wish tank shells pierce through enemies since its a huge piece of steel flying through an organism at a speed of 1219.2 Meters per second, that should be enough speed to pierce through whatever organic matter its facing against, as for guided missile/controllable launchers as long as the range is limited, then sure, I would love to see the Patriot from C&C as a rocket turret in-game, nostalgia haha!

[ShizukaMiyuki]

When i understand you correctly you want special tracer bullets to mark enemies for a bonus like additional damage taken by turrets and the player?

Not necessarily. Tracer bullets aren't really any different than regular ammunition. They are slightly less effective at piercing armor and have a mild incendiary effect that CAN cause burns. But their main function is just to be able to see where your bullets are going.

Basically, all I'm asking for is this effect:

tumblr_n4jr0hJI1Z1rarngto1_400.gif

yeah as said previously ammunition magically already hits the enemy, so a tracer isn't really needed, I wouldn't mind if they add tracers, it would be pretty neat, but right now I don't see it being useful, unless they add bullet spread into the game.

[MiniMe943]

When i understand you correctly you want special tracer bullets to mark enemies for a bonus like additional damage taken by turrets and the player?

Not necessarily. Tracer bullets aren't really any different than regular ammunition. They are slightly less effective at piercing armor and have a mild incendiary effect that CAN cause burns. But their main function is just to be able to see where your bullets are going.

Basically, all I'm asking for is this effect:

tumblr_n4jr0hJI1Z1rarngto1_400.gif

yeah as said previously ammunition magically already hits the enemy, so a tracer isn't really needed, I wouldn't mind if they add tracers, it would be pretty neat, but right now I don't see it being useful, unless they add bullet spread into the game.

Basically this. With the way current bullet mechanics work, it would be a very moot feature right now, but I'd like to see this added in the future.