A salvo that fans out
Six missiles leave the tube as one, a sideways recoil barrel kicks them apart a moment later, and each bursts when it dies. The missiles are drones, which is what makes the volley affordable.
What you see
Hold fire and a tight bundle of missiles leaves the tank, splits into a spreading fan a moment later, and each one bursts into shards when it runs out of time. A cluster rocket, a volley of arrows, a swarm of darts.
The trick
Nothing in this game splits in flight: a shot fired by a projectile is always a plain one (lesson 13). So the salvo is fired all at once, and the "split" is a splitter on each missile: a sideways barrel with the most Recoil and Spread the editor allows, firing a harmless speck a tenth of a second after launch. Each missile is kicked off the line in its own direction. Six missiles from one barrel would blow the per-second budget as bullets, so the missiles are drones: drones count against the drone limit and the room, not per second.
Setting bullets per shot on a drone barrel
Once a barrel fires a drone, the editor's form hides Bullets per shot, Spread, Recoil and Launch speed. The fields are still there: set them while the projectile is still Based on Bullet, then switch it back to Drone. The pack keeps the numbers (the editor's import and export both carry them) and the game obeys them, so one barrel fires six drones at once with no spread. A pack written by hand or by a script simply writes the fields.
Numbers that matter
| Field | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tube Bullets per shot | 6 | Six missiles per pull; two tubes make twelve |
| Tube Spread, Recoil, Knockback | 0 | The bundle must stay together until the splitters fire |
| Tube Reload, Lifetime | 6, 3 s | A salvo every few seconds; the missiles burst when they time out |
| Splitter Recoil, Spread | 20, 20 | The editor's maximum for both; that is what fans the salvo out |
| Splitter Delay | 0.1 | In reload periods: with Reload 20 it fires about a second out |
| Volley | 58 of 64 | Two tubes × six missiles × (one missile + four shards + the speck). The lobby refuses more than 64 entities per pull |
Gotchas
- Hold left click after firing. The splitters are plain barrels on a drone, and those fire only while the owner is firing. Let go at once and the bundle never splits.
- The limit here is the 64 per volley, not the per-second budget. More missiles means fewer shards each.
- One tube gives a one-sided fan; the second tube with the opposite splitter angle gives the other side. Same spot, same reload, so they fire together.
- What Max drones 2 does when six are fired per shot is not pinned down; the sample pack ships with 2 and works.
The guide to creating missiles is a write-up supplied by Random Troller, the author of the seeking projectile technique.