Hi LGN1,

thanks for that comment. So I will save a lot of time.

And .... what did you do with the searchlights?

h.sie

Ideer #2
 

Ok, after thinking things over the last coupla days (and also reading everyones' suggestions and stuff) I've come up with a (hopefully) reasonable searchlight guideline.

1. All escorts, destroyers, etc. (i.e. sub hunters) should have searchlights.
2. Battleships and cruisers will have searchlights. Although they aren't sub hunters per se, I sure would hate to be surface engaged by their main armament. Plus they are, in the escort role, useful as anti-aircraft batteries, and I can see searchlights being useful to them in that role (although I have no idea if the actual SHIII searchlights can point up).
3. Civilian vessels, that in the course of their normal working environment, could be expected to have searchlights (ex. trawlers).

That should leave pretty much just merchants, and I've decided what to do about those. It's pretty pointless (and rather counterproductive) mounting searchlights if you aren't armed. It's the same as waving a huge banner and declaring "Here I am! Sink me!".

So what I'm going to do is examine all the remaining ships after sifting them through the above filter. If they never become armed and they have searchlights I'll remove the searchlights. If they do become armed at some point, I'll randomly set the start date for their searchlights between 0 - 6 months.

Let me know what you think, please.

Hi SP,

if I'm informed right, almost all merchants & tankers are armed. Only a small number of ships will go through your filter.

h.sie

Hi,

(First content removed. I was wrong. Does not work :nope:)

Anyway, back then I only removed it from small merchants. I kept them on the larger ones because they were annoying :DL and made my life as a sub commander more difficult. The only really annoying thing about them is that they are switched on immediately after you have attacked them. I think after a torpedo explosion it should take some time/there should be a delay.

Cheers, LGN1

PS: I removed the searchlights from: NKBL_, NKCA_, NKLK_, NKSEF, NKSQ_, NKSs_, NLSQ_, NLSs_, NNWP_, NOTSf, NSCT_, NSJT_ Depending on my mood, I activate the mod or deactivate it.

I'm not sure about night air raids in the game. I thing the only thing they use the searchlights for is to look for u-boats. Either way, I think you're going to have everything from trawlers to warships that should be sneaking away while the destroyers draw your attention instead waving lights around shouting "HERE I AM!!!"

I think no ships should have searchlights except the lit-up neutral merchants and the escorts. Warships, armed merchants and others aren't going to be lighting themselves up trying to light you up. They're going to try to get away in the dark.

Hi Sailor Steve,

but after you have attacked them they know that you can see them. So, switching on the lights helps them to see you, but does not help you (because you see them anyway). The only thing might be to avoid attracting more subs :hmmm:

Cheers, LGN1

Hi LGN1,

when I attacked one of them, does not mean, that I can see all of them if they stay dark.

h.sie

Exactly. I fire torpedoes at a battleship. One hits, the others miss. While the destroyers are looking for me the battleship is going to be trying to escape. Whether he can see me or not is irrelevant. He's going to hope I stop looking at him and dive away, since my periscopes are not very good in the dark.

Same with an armed merchant. He's not going to advertise his presence if I just torpedoed some other merchant. He'll leave that up to the escorts.

At the risk of sounding as if I'm waffling like an Eggo :D:O: that makes a great deal of sense and was very much what I'd been originally thinking/picturing. So I'm going back to "Plan A" and starting the removal as we speak.

You won't be the first waffler around here.
:rotfl2:

Do what you think is best. Ignore any whiners (including me). If we don't like your decisions we can make our own mod.:D

:D

I'm uploading the mod to FileFront at the moment. Soon as it's finished I'll repost as a [REL]

Hi,

I guess, the present situation is a typical SH3 problem: both ways are not perfect. Depending on the situation, searchlights should be used or shouldn't. I guess a lone, slow merchant should use the searchlight in order to be able to fight back (at least force the sub under water and try to escape with max. speed).

Anyway, nice work schlechter pfennig! It gives people a choice so everyone can decide for himself what he thinks is more realistic.

Cheers, LGN1