I tested it. I nailed the deck it was on with HE rounds but it still didn't go out. It seems to me that if an HE round hit even close by in real life everything with in a certain radius would be destroyed. So you would not necessarily need a direct hit. Can you lower the levels a bit more?

Armor Level=-1 to -3 for WeaponsHeavy
Armor Level=5 to 3 or 2 for WeaponsLight.

This might help simulate hitting close by with the heavy weapons to destroy it. And killing the crew with the light weapons. If that's possible for either weapon. But on the other hand it might possibly make sinking a ship too easy. Not sure if there would be a happy medium.

Also I see in SH5 the searchlights don't move like they did in SH3. They've got you in their light as soon as they come on, where in SH3 they moved around looking for you as it would be in real life. Is there a reason for this in SH5?

The lights in SH5 will point to where they are looking.
You can see this best when you dive and two or more search lights cross beams where they think you are.

If the lights are on you - the they are looking at you

The GR2 Editor/Viewer has been able to take a GR2 file and export all it's materials and meshes for some time now :up:

All the ObjectRemains controller asks for is a name using Goblin (ID if using hex editor) so I don't see any reason why using a DAT object would be a problem. Try it and see :yep: I would do these things but I'm so deep in the exe and act files (and having way too much fun!) that I can't stop :D

You probably don't understand what the negative numbers mean so I'll explain. First, increasing a negative number results in a HIGHER end value. When the game enounters a negative number for AP it takes the parent object's AP and multiplies it by the absolute value of the negative number. If that parent object itself is a negative number then it keeps going up the chain till it finds one that isn't. If it doesn't find one that isn't a negative number, not sure what happens (haven't tried that while watching with debugger) :hmmm: Anyways, so let's say a zone has a -1 for AP. The parent object has an AP of 15 (usual for subs). This means the AP of the zone is ABS(-1)*Parent AP = 1 * 15 = 15. If you make the negative number more negative: ABS(-2) * 15 = 2 * 15 = 30!

I actually exploit this fact with one of the patches. If the zone encounters damage then I subtract some from it's AP value. I.e.: zone has -1 for AP value. Zone takes some damage. I reduce the AP value by, let's say, 0.22 so it's new AP is -0.78 :cool:

Thanks for the explanation TDW, I think I understand what you're getting at. I'm by far the least understanding of computer programing of just about anyone here on SS. ;) And seeing I'm not a modder with no idea of waht I'd be doing, I don't think I'd give it a try changing any of the values. I'll leave that to GAP, you, or someone else that knows what they're doing. ;)

I can live with whats been done so far. :salute:

I think he's right in that Searchlights just don't look as good as they did in SH3. The beams are not as visible as they should be, especially in fog. There seems to be a problem with light-sources in general in SH5. When a ship is engulfed in flames, it doesn't seem to generate much light on the surface of the water, or light-up the surrounding area. If your Sub is close by, it should be illuminated with an orange glow. In my opinion, it's part of the game the Devs never got 'round to finishing.

Okay thanks TDW, time for me to get my hands on your little gem :D

So far I've carried out two tests:

in one of them I assigned an ObjectRemains controller to the searchlight, placing it onto guns_radars_01.zon. I made the controller to point to another object within guns_radars_01.GR2.

For the second test I tried to point to an external object, contained in a dat file I had put into the Library folder.

In both cases I used the name of the object (well, the name of its main node) as reference, and in both cases I failed miserably: after ripping off the searchlight nothing showed up in its place :hmmm:

That controller shouldn't be placed in a .zon file. Game is picky where controllers can be located. Try placing it in the .sim or create a .val file for it or an .fx file for it.

Okay thanks, trying to do it right now! :up:

Two considerations:

1. I don't know how the game calculates impact/damage from rounds, but if the method used resembles the one used for torpedoes, every box within a certain radius from the impact should have a probability of getting damaged, though not being directly hit.

2. If you are using Fx Updates, wildfires caused by HE shells should spread on deck, damaging everything around them. I am not sure though if ship equipment is affected by those fires like ship compartments are.

The MinRadius and MaxRadius defined in the AmmoDamageInfo control the 'splash damage'

During my tests (with IRAI enabled), searchlights swept around until they did find me. For it to be possible you have to be within their radius. In stock game this radius was set to 200 mt, but I increased it to 800 mt. Once they catch you, they follow you until you get out of their range, or until you dive. At this point, as stated by Trevally, for some time they will search you, eventually pointing at where they think you are.

There are two parameters under SearchLightEffect controller for modifying beam's luminosity over distance. I didn't play too much with those parameters, but I am sure that they can be finetuned for getting a better visual effect.

Thank you for the clarification TDW :)
In oder words it means that you don't have to hit exactly an object for damaging it, isn't it?

About Fx Updates: is damage by spreading fires affecting equipment's HP?

P.S: tried placing the ObjectRemains controller in the sim file, but still nothing. I will try right now with val or fx files.

It's affecting anything that has a zone (box) defined with it.

Cool :up:

so answering to GT182: serchlights can be damaged and eventually destroyed by both "splash effect" and wildfires, even not hitting them directly. :yep: