[Observer]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

I hope so. Observer's work of combining the two engines/motors in each compartment is a stroke of brilliance and should put to rest the complaints about the engine damage people have had up to this point.

Needless to say, I'm very curious to see his modded UPC files.

In reality, they were always combined, just not in the same way that I did it. In the original, the #1 ME was linked to zone 22 (this is a special zone) while the #3 ME was linked to zone -1. Remember that -1 (from above) means that the zone inherits the damage of the compartment (in this case zone 201). The problem is that there is only two "special" zones for the diesel engines: zone 21 and 55 (DieselEngine1 and DieselEngine2 respectively). When the #1 DE (linked to zone 21) is destroyed the Stbd DEs are lost.

These "special" zones are important, and are specially hard coded so that they do not require the definition of "Category=Engines Room" in the zone definition.

I originally had the idea to add new zone definitions for ME #3 and #4 (link equipment to damage zone), however this didn't work because they wouldn't move the ship unless they contained the "Category=Engines Room" designation in the zone definition. This in turn presented problems because the "special" electric engine zones contain the "Category=Engines Room" designation and won't work properly without it. Suffice it to say I tried every permutation and combination I could think of to make this work and it would not, at least in a believable fashion.

I also tried adding an extra 21 and 55 zone to the Gato with links to the applicable equipment entry. This became a "one to many" data problem and would not represent the individual engine damage properly. This in turn resulted in repair problems for the engines. I even tried some more creative "zone in zone" behavior I've used in other areas, but this proved to be more trouble than it was worth.

In the end, I settled on one big zone linked to one combined equipment file. It's a compromise I'm still not crazy about. I rationalize it by saying it's an abstraction, though the one part I do like is the reduction of speed when damaged. The damage resistance is based on high HP, and still requires balancing. Armor can't be used without some modification to the zone since the DE zone is inside of the ER compartment, and the armor check is only conducted once.

I even toyed with the idea of repairable destroyed equipment similar to the "bulkhead" equipment, but this seems to be unique to the bulkhead equipment item, and given the on screen space limitations, I don't know that adding four new compartments is really practical.

Whew. I hope that helps explain.