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MCHALO12 · 11-08-11, 03:52 PM

Hi friends,

I have been working on sensors for the last months and tried to find a realistic solution for the visual sensor of the enemy: surfaced night attacks must be possible, so the detection range at night should be between 1000 and 500 meters in standard conditions (medium waves, light clouds). On the other hand, the daylight detection range should be quite hight (8 to 14 kilometers in good conditions). I edited the files sensors.dat, AI_sensors.dat, sim.cfg and sensors.cfg. After about 200 ingame test with different values, I still haven't found the perfect solution: The sensors of the enemy ships and airplanes now work as intended, but now I am facing problems with my crew....

But first, some of the relationships which are important: the values in sim.cfg seem to affect the AI ships AND the crew of your submarine: a higher "light factor" in sim.cfg makes the enemies see less far in darkness, but so will your crew. In order to compensate this, the "visual light factor" in the sensors.cfg has to be set to a HIGHER value, which will make your crew see better again.
Furthermore, a higher "light factor" in sim.cfg does not only make the enemy see less far at night, it also affects the detection range at daytime (gets a little smaler). To compensate this, "maxrange" and "precise range" in sensors.dat has to be enlarged. With these three values in right balance (which requires really lots of tests) the detection range of the enemy ships can be adjusted. BUT: The sensors are also affected by the competence of the units, which means that many more test have to be done. AND: the "worst case" has to be considered, too: enemy destroyers should also detect you in really bad conditions (wind 15 m/s, heavy fog, clouds). This is where - in my opinion - GWX fails: a veteran destroyer will not visually detect you in the described conditions, no matter how close you get.

Somebody wrote the "visual light factor" in sensors.cfg was broken. I don't know if it is really broken, but it does act weird sometimes... Currently I am trying to make my crew see better again and be more reliable: at the moment, the detection range differs way to much.

As a conclusion, I think the sensor values can not be "set right" for every situation (weather, time of day, competence level,...), but a reasonable compromise has to be found wich again will be different for every type of player. As long as h.sie does not manage to rewrite the code of the sensors (is anything impossible for this brilliant guy?

), I think everybody has to find his own "perfect solution" or use one of the already existing. I doubt that giving one solution in the next "Realism fix" while still using the stock mechanics would make the bigger part of the players happy: some people want to have an easy game, other want hardcore realism (like me). Perhaps the better idea would be to rewrite the sensors' code (if possible) in a more traceable way, so that everybody could set their own values?

Best regards, MCHALO12.

11-08-11, 03:52 PM	#9
MCHALO12 Gunner Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 94 Downloads: 43 Uploads: 0	Hi friends, I have been working on sensors for the last months and tried to find a realistic solution for the visual sensor of the enemy: surfaced night attacks must be possible, so the detection range at night should be between 1000 and 500 meters in standard conditions (medium waves, light clouds). On the other hand, the daylight detection range should be quite hight (8 to 14 kilometers in good conditions). I edited the files sensors.dat, AI_sensors.dat, sim.cfg and sensors.cfg. After about 200 ingame test with different values, I still haven't found the perfect solution: The sensors of the enemy ships and airplanes now work as intended, but now I am facing problems with my crew.... But first, some of the relationships which are important: the values in sim.cfg seem to affect the AI ships AND the crew of your submarine: a higher "light factor" in sim.cfg makes the enemies see less far in darkness, but so will your crew. In order to compensate this, the "visual light factor" in the sensors.cfg has to be set to a HIGHER value, which will make your crew see better again. Furthermore, a higher "light factor" in sim.cfg does not only make the enemy see less far at night, it also affects the detection range at daytime (gets a little smaler). To compensate this, "maxrange" and "precise range" in sensors.dat has to be enlarged. With these three values in right balance (which requires really lots of tests) the detection range of the enemy ships can be adjusted. BUT: The sensors are also affected by the competence of the units, which means that many more test have to be done. AND: the "worst case" has to be considered, too: enemy destroyers should also detect you in really bad conditions (wind 15 m/s, heavy fog, clouds). This is where - in my opinion - GWX fails: a veteran destroyer will not visually detect you in the described conditions, no matter how close you get. Somebody wrote the "visual light factor" in sensors.cfg was broken. I don't know if it is really broken, but it does act weird sometimes... Currently I am trying to make my crew see better again and be more reliable: at the moment, the detection range differs way to much. As a conclusion, I think the sensor values can not be "set right" for every situation (weather, time of day, competence level,...), but a reasonable compromise has to be found wich again will be different for every type of player. As long as h.sie does not manage to rewrite the code of the sensors (is anything impossible for this brilliant guy? ), I think everybody has to find his own "perfect solution" or use one of the already existing. I doubt that giving one solution in the next "Realism fix" while still using the stock mechanics would make the bigger part of the players happy: some people want to have an easy game, other want hardcore realism (like me). Perhaps the better idea would be to rewrite the sensors' code (if possible) in a more traceable way, so that everybody could set their own values? Best regards, MCHALO12. __________________ Last edited by MCHALO12; 11-08-11 at 04:07 PM.