[TEC] Modifying the watch crew's spotting range

[LukeFF]

Quite honestly, I'm really getting tired of this. Calm seas, a rested watch crew, and my watch officer tells me he can't see this:



Frankly, this 8km visibility limit has got to go.

[joea]

Like Sh3 then.

[The General]

Just add it to the very long list.

[Hitman]

Just use the submarine sensors tweak file with Mini-Tweaker and set the crew spotting distance as far or a bit more than your horizon. I have horizon at 24000 yards and crew spotting range at 26000 yards.

We both see ships at the same time now

[kv29]

26k yards??? what is the stock visibility range?

[Hitman]

About 10000 yards, i.e. the same as the player can see rendered in screen in stock (I modded mine to see up to 24000 yards). But since the crew has been intentionally programmed to have a bit less ability than the player (To encourage the player to search himself with binoculars) it works better if they have a bit more visual range than the player

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Just use the submarine sensors tweak file with Mini-Tweaker and set the crew spotting distance as far or a bit more than your horizon. I have horizon at 24000 yards and crew spotting range at 26000 yards.

Gotcha. Which sections of the file contain the spotting ranges I need to adjust? I'm guessing AI_Visual? For the horizon, is this in scene.dat?

[clayp]

Is there any way to do this without the mini tweaker? I havent been able to figure out how to work it....

[LukeFF]

Bump

[clayp]

Nobody??

[Hitman]

Gotcha. Which sections of the file contain the spotting ranges I need to adjust? I'm guessing AI_Visual? For the horizon, is this in scene.dat?

Yes, there are three AI visual sensors. My wild guess is that they represent Periscope, Bridge lookout and high lookout, so you can realitiscally set different spotting and precision (Range where target can be locked in your view and data are more precise) ranges, yet I can't confirm that and I have no idea of which one is what.

Didn't want to waste time experimenting until I get patch 1.3 and see the final status of the game :hmm:

Is there any way to do this without the mini tweaker? I havent been able to figure out how to work it....

Yes, but it is even more complicated....you can hex-edit the files, but TT tweaker does that already through a nice interface, so direct hex-editing is a no-no for you if you can't understand the Mini Tweaker


Anyway, if you are interested I can upload for you the files already updated with whatever values you want It's a matter of minutes

Is it possible to get the Watch Officer (crew) to call out the approx range to the target you're looking at through binnocs or locked onto via targeting binnocs ?

[Hitman]

I think Trigger Maru implemented back the "Report nearest visual contact" key combo and when doing so, your IWO would tell you bearing and distance to closest target. But in stock SH4 it is not available AFAIK:hmm:

Thanks for reply Hitman, problem is that its not always the closest target I want a range estimate for. Just wondering whether its possible to get range for any target as long as its locked onto via target scope. This would allow me to sweep a convoy or task force and get fast approx ranges for each target without having to identify each ship manually and use stadimeter....makes sense I think ?

[Hitman]

Isn't that option available already when you uncheck the realism option "No weapons officer assitance"? :hmm:

Speaking just out of my head, since I play 100% realism and never bothered studying what the realism options were for