[TEC] Modifying the watch crew's spotting range

[clayp]

Originally Posted by Hitman

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:

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

Thank you very much... Just make them what ever you think they should be..

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

Really?!! Cool if so, gonna check this tonight. Like you I play at 100% realism and haven't checked this either

[Hitman]

Thank you very much... Just make them what ever you think they should be..

Ummmm just discovered that it will not be compatible with RUB or TM if I use the standard SH4 files....

Do you want it to be compatible with one of those? If so, tell me so I can grab the proper files to start from. Give me an e-mail address per PM in that case so I can send it to you (I don't want to share publically as it would require permission from Beery and/or Ducimus). If you are using stock SH4 or mods that do not affect Scene.dat and US_Subs_Sensors, then I can make it public

[clayp]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Ummmm just discovered that it will not be compatible with RUB or TM if I use the standard SH4 files....

Do you want it to be compatible with one of those? If so, tell me so I can grab the proper files to start from. Give me an e-mail address per PM in that case so I can send it to you (I don't want to share publically as it would require permission from Beery and/or Ducimus). If you are using stock SH4 or mods that do not affect Scene.dat and US_Subs_Sensors, then I can make it public

Sir I have RFB 1.28 installed...If its going to be a lot of work please dont bother and I can do without....

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Hitman

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.

Got it. So, the only sensor values needed to be adjusted for AI units come from AI_Visual, correct? Is the horizon tweak the zmax value that has to be added to scene.dat?

[Hitman]

Sir I have RFB 1.28 installed...If its going to be a lot of work please dont bother and I can do without....

Whatever you prefer. If you want it, drop me a PM

Got it. So, the only sensor values needed to be adjusted for AI units come from AI_Visual, correct? Is the horizon tweak the zmax value that has to be added to scene.dat?

Yes and no. Subs AI_Visual will determine how far your crew can see. Yet the quality of their spotting inside that radius will be highly affected by the parameters in Sensors.cfg, which control spotting ability in night, fog, distance, etc.

Horizon is the zmax value, that¡s correct. Stock value of "1000" means 8000 metres. Thus a Zmax of 2000 means Horizon at 16000 metres, and 3000 means Horizon at 24000 metres (x2 and x3 respectvely). You can also set any value you want, f.e. 1500 would be 12000 metres

[Alky]

Hmmm... so where would one find the "mini-tweaker"? or if it's not too much trouble, the modified scene.dat?
My SH4 only has a sound pack added and is ver. 1.2

EDIT: never mind, I found most everything in the sticky at the top of the page

[nomad_delta]

Did anyone ever actually make a modified scene.dat file with the extended crew spotting ranges? I'm about to try hacking it together myself w/ the mini-tweaker otherwise, but if someone else has already done it I'll just use that maybe?

nomad_delta

[LukeFF]

Getting back to this subject, because I was using the stock spotting ranges tonight for the sub's watch crew, and sure enough, I became aware of the enemy's presence only when they started firing at me, on a moonlight night, under 10,000 yards.

Anyways, in the tweak file, I see settings for "Visual 1," "Visual 2" and "Visual 3." Within each setting I see two settings, one for "Precise Range' and one for "Max Range." What value should I set for each one, if I want to have my watch crew have a spotting range out to 20,000 meters?

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Getting back to this subject, because I was using the stock spotting ranges tonight for the sub's watch crew, and sure enough, I became aware of the enemy's presence only when they started firing at me, on a moonlight night, under 10,000 yards.

Anyways, in the tweak file, I see settings for "Visual 1," "Visual 2" and "Visual 3." Within each setting I see two settings, one for "Precise Range' and one for "Max Range." What value should I set for each one, if I want to have my watch crew have a spotting range out to 20,000 meters?

Very interested in this myself!

[LukeFF]

Getting back to this subject. I have my lowest value, Visual 1, set to 17000 meters, yet it still takes the watch crew wayyyyyyy too long to spot surface ships than I can see easily, in calm seas and clear skies. Is there another file/parameter I should be looking at? How did the big SH3 mods get around this problem?

[Ducimus]

Jebus.

And here i thought this was a simple fix. M'kay, your looking at two things. Sensors.dat and sensors.cfg, but primarly the sensors.dat

If anyones played Tmaru, you've probably noticed the watchcrew is pretty good at spotting stuff.

All i did was change the visual in the sensor.dat

Precise range stock is 5,000. I increased it to 6,500
Surface factor in stock is 150, i lowered it to 100

The surface factor is acutally a VERY important variable. I could have probably just adjusted the surface factor alone and not even touched the percise range.

Now heres the stock sensors.cfg visual section:

;Visual.
Visual range factor=0.5				;[>=0]
Visual fog factor=1 				;[>=0]
Visual light factor=0.8 			;[>=0]
Visual waves factor=0.8 			;[>=0]
Visual speed factor=0				;[>=0]
Visual aspect=0.9 				;[>=0]
Visual enemy speed=0.2				;[>=0]
Visual noise factor=0				;[>=0]
Visual sensor height factor=0.5			;[>=0]
Visual already tracking modifier=600		;[detection probability modifier], most accurate, once a contact is detected it will lose it very hard
Visual decay time=200				;[>0] already tracking bonus decay, in seconds
Visual uses crew efficiency=false		;[true or false]

Heres the sensors.cfg im using in TMaru, note, im using probex 9KM visual distance scene.dat, and the visuals are adjusted for such:

;Visual.
Visual range factor=0.3				;[>=0]
Visual fog factor=0.95 				;[>=0]
Visual light factor=0.6 			;[>=0]
Visual waves factor=0.6 			;[>=0]
Visual speed factor=0				;[>=0]
Visual aspect=0.9 				;[>=0]
Visual enemy speed=0.2				;[>=0]
Visual noise factor=0				;[>=0]
Visual sensor height factor=0.5			;[>=0]
Visual already tracking modifier=600		;[detection probability modifier], most accurate, once a contact is detected it will lose it very hard
Visual decay time=200				;[>0] already tracking bonus decay, in seconds
Visual uses crew efficiency=false		;[true or false]

Thats it guys, thats all there is to it.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Jebus.

And here i thought this was a simple fix. M'kay, your looking at two things. Sensors.dat and sensors.cfg, but primarly the sensors.dat

If anyones played Tmaru, you've probably noticed the watchcrew is pretty good at spotting stuff.

All i did was change the visual in the sensor.dat

Precise range stock is 5,000. I increased it to 6,500
Surface factor in stock is 150, i lowered it to 100

The surface factor is acutally a VERY important variable. I could have probably just adjusted the surface factor alone and not even touched the percise range.

Is that the "Visual 1" section in the Tweak file?

[Ducimus]

Well, its whatever visual you want to call it in a tweak file. I made a dynamic tweak file one day when the hex addresses changed.

duplicate this 20 times in proper sequence

[4]
DropDownName=unknown
search,SensorType,4,byte,>2,SensorType
search,PreciseRange,4,single,>2,PreciseRange
search,MaxRange,4,single,>2,MaxRange
search,MinHeight,4,single,>2,MinHeight
search,MaxHeight,4,single,>2,MaxHeight
search,MinSensorHeight,4,single,>2,MinSensorHeight
search,MaxSensorHeight,4,single,>2,MaxSensorHeight
search,Surface,4,single,>2,Surface
search,RPMDetLevel,4,single,>2,RPMDetLevel
search,SweepPeriod,4,single,>2,SweepPeriod
search,SweepArc,4,single,>2,SweepArc
search,ProbInsideArc,4,single,>2,ProbInsideArc
search,Revolving,4,byte,>2,Revolving
search,SkipSweep,4,byte,>2,SkipSweep
search,BearingMin,4,single,>2,BearingMin
search,BearingMax,4,single,>2,BearingMax
search,ElevationMin,4,single,>2,ElevationMin
search,ElevationMax,4,single,>2,ElevationMax

And it will be the 16th item/instance of that block.

[LukeFF]

Ducimus, might you upload your sensors.dat file? I think it might just be easier for me to go off the work you've done, since I've probably already borked up my DAT file.

(I'm not a TM user).