I posted this earlier on the Discord post, but here it is so you guys can read it too. Albeit, slightly edited.
So, I have some bad news.
The goal of this Ravager rework has, unfortunately, hit a wall.
There are currently two issues that we currently face.
This comes down to Sound & Textures and was not as simple as just tweaking a few stats and numbers.
Some quick info beforehand:
Ravager Fire Cycle: 8 Secs
Spin-Up: 2 Secs
Fire: 3 Secs
Cool-Down: 3 Secs.
Sound:
When the Ravager fires, it spins up, then fires for a few seconds, then cools down (fire-cycle above ^).
This can be heard (and seen) in-game as that is the 'sound sample' for the fire cycle.
(Note: Cooldown/Reload has no audio.)
With the rework, the spin-up and cooldown times in the audio cue overlap with the new fire cycle/animation.
This means that at certain points you cannot hear the Ravager firing even though it is doing so.
The only way around that is to either make a custom sound or to replace it with one that already exists, but this would not be preferable, nor feasible.
Projectile Texture:
The Ravager fires a projectile with a texture of 5 'energy bullets'.
Editing this particle to reduce the number of "effects" is very difficult.
This can be worked around by, again, creating a custom texture or replacing it with another effect.
But we face the same issue, once more.
Technically able to do it, but not easy to do.
New Goal?
The best case that we can do with what we got, is to reduce the reload/cooldown time or remove it altogether.
This would partially increase fire time by about 3 seconds.
So, Vollies would only have a 2-second downtime and then a 3-second fire time.
This makes a 5-second fire cycle (from 8 secs).
Not continuous like I had hoped, but at least more fire time than what we currently have.
Consequences & Work:
You may say: "These are just two insignificant problems... can't they just be ignored?"
And unfortunately, no, we cannot ignore them.
Breaking these rules would break the immersion of the structure and how it would operate in-game.
And, I can understand.
In my opinion, it's the little things, the little details that matter.
So much time and effort has gone into every unit and every structure to work properly.
From models to textures, scripts, animations, sound... and so on.
They all come together and makeup everything in perfect harmony, and we would not want to disrupt that.
Thank You:
From the original developers at GPG, to the veteran and current devs for FAF;
First off, I thank them all for their hard work in delivering all that they have done for the game.
The game would not be alive if it weren't for all of their hard work.
And thank you all for your support.
I would not have gotten this far if it wasn't for you guys.
Conclusion:
That all being said...
I could be wrong and possibly may have misunderstood the information when it was shared with me.
Or maybe someone knows a workaround.
If so, please let me know.
Regardless, I will keep trying to see what I can do.
Thanks for your time and patience.
~ Stryker