I've made the M29 Grizzly after much tussle and toil. Right now, I'm having trouble with the weapon as it rotates at a different point from the turret, and the body is tilted forward for some reason.

Are you using Blender 2.76b and Blender2Ogre to export your meshes?

EDIT: Fixed the vehicle orientation problem, but the cannon still rotates at a different point from the turret. I'm not sure if this a limitation, or if I'm just dumb. I'll move on to something else for now.

Yes, I'm using the latest or so version of Blender and using Blender2Ogre. So, I just checked some .vehicle files to see if there was something to determine the turret's initial rotation, but there wasn't any, so I guess I can narrow the problem to a .mesh one. So, is the cannon facing forward at spawn, and the turret sideways? If so, on blender, enter edit mode and rotate the turret(I can't find a way to explain this properly, I'm sure you'll know what to do), and not rotating it normally because that won't have any effect.(I don't think I was clear )

Actually, since I'm here, I'd like to explain the solution to my problem with the .mesh looking weird ingame.
Apparently, on the properties tab, click that cube icon which shows the properties of the object. From what I understood, the rotation and position should be 0, and scale 1, else when exporting those will be set to the values I just specified, meaning the object will look weird. Set those to 0(or 1 in case of scale), then make the appropriate edits(rotate,scale,move) in edit mode(press TAB). I hope I was more clear in this one.

The turret and cannon mesh are both facing the same direction in the .mesh.
Here, check out these screenshots http://imgur.com/a/oZoiO.

The rotation point of the cannon different from the turret mesh.

'turret_offset' changes the location of the turret and it's rotation point, however 'weapon_offset' only changes the location. So the cannon will still rotate around some other point I can't define.

I'm not sure why this won't work as this vehicle from Running in the Trenches has a similar configuration.

Just in case, here's what the meshes look like for the turret and cannon.

So, I've been thinking for like 30 minutes on what the problem might be, and I think I might've found the cause of the problem. Can you send me the whole .vehicle file?

Sure, I've attached all the assets for that vehicle in case you need to test it ingame. Thanks for spending so much time helping me.

Considering how the situation sounded when I asked for the .vehicle file, this reply is late. But then, the first solution I thought of didn't work. Actually, if it wasn't for you sending all the assets, so I could see the vehicle ingame myself, I wouldn't have figured out the solution.

So, while I'm not exactly sure what the problem is (I mean the turret .mesh looks normal and all), I narrowed it down to a visual problem. The weapon always rotates around the center of the turret, so it was that the turret's visuals were somehow offset from where they should've been. I was looking into the vehicle files of tanks, since they are similar to this vehicle, and found that you could offset a turret's visuals, as in

this.
While in the .rar file I have fixed the problem, the visuals still don't match the turret's point of rotation(only by a bit though, since I'm a bit lazy rn ), so play with the offset stated above, the turret offset and the weapon offset until everything looks like it should. Oh and, I changed the vehicle and weapon files to overwrite the buggy and tank_2_cannon respectively, so as not to waste time adding the weapon and vehicle to all those lists, so don't use the .rar I sent for more then just understanding what the solution is unless you want strange looking vehicles ingame( ).

Well again, thanks for spending so much time and effort helping me. I'll have to come up with something even better than "The Coolest Dude Of Them All" for you.

Anyway I got another vehicle done aswell which had the same problem, even though the turret was in the same position as the standard APC. So if it wasn't for you any vehicle I made would have be ruined.

Everything is fixed and working correctly. Got a couple more vehicles to make so an update is still a bit of a way off.

To anyone interested, this is an exact list of what I'm working on:

• Polish M29 Grizzly, and create weapon particles.
• Polish M-080 APC, and create weapon particles.
• Create M-080 Transport.
• Create M-35 Mako.
• Create M-44 Hammerhead?
  
  • Hovers, might not actually work.
  • Turret only moves up and down. I don't think drivers can use turrets so it won't be weaponised.
• Create weird geth thing?
  
  • Hovers
  • is weird
• Extract sounds, only the Mako and Hammerhead are driveable, so their sound effects will be recycled for everything else.
• maybe a litte extra

Come on man I don't need any title, just mention my name and it's fine(actually, I don't have a problem even if I don't get credit). Congratulations should go to YOU for making a mod this big and continuing to work on it.

And finally I found the problem. Next time, don't do this:

You offsetted the visuals forward, that's why you had this problem in the first case.

Anyways, you can make hovering vehicles by offsetting the visuals and collision model up, but if it's so high in the air that it can pass things like sandbags, the vehicle might get screwed up when passing them (has to do with the tire system vehicles have, I've encountered this problem while trying to make a certain vehicle). About the turret which only rotates up and down, basically make it so it can't rotate(or only a bit), but then I don't think you can have vehicles where drivers can control turrets in this game, or atleast I don't think anyone has tried.

EDIT: Try improving the AI sometimes if you have time, would make the game even more fun.

no no, this title is what everyone shall call you from now on. i got you a legal name change and all dude it's fine.


On a more serious note, I can only *kind of* do that. The parameters in the .ai files are just that, parameters. I'd need the source code to actually create new behaviours and such. The parameters just change the accuracy, reaction times, and a couple of other things. I know some people have made zombie mods with these parameters, but creating a more tactical, smart AI can't be done as that stuff is hardcoded.

EDIT: This is just from my knowledge of the game files. Maybe there are some super computery geniuses out there who know how to do this kinda stuff.

I already know what you can do with the .ai files. I was exactly asking to modify those values to make combat a bit more interesting. Some of the values I remember can be changed are visibility at night and at day, the shield wielding soldiers to normal soldiers ratio, how close shield guys get (not sure about this), willingness of the AI to charge, and lots of things regarding AI being in cover and in vehicles. That's a lot of parameters that could change the AI quite a bit. Personally though, I'd say you increase visibility at day so as to make those stealth suits actually useful, and probably make the AI stay in cover a bit more.