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Detection distance for Wrecks?

The general place to discuss MOD''ing Freelancer!

Post Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:22 am

Detection distance for Wrecks?

I want to change the distance wrecks appear on the map.

Right now they seem to be "detected" when you get within 10k which is way to far away.
1-2k is more reasonable I think.
But I don't know if it's in the specifics for the wreck or in the ship scanner. The only scanner I've found have a range of 2500 so it shouldn't be that one.
And I haven't found any wrecks in the inis, I'm guessing they are in the "system" inis (li01.ini etc) but I don't know what to search for...

Is it one of the zones maybe?

Does anyone know anything about this?

EDIT: I just found the wrecks paragraphs in the system ini file, something with "suprise". But theres nothing about detection range in them.

That means it has something to do with the normal detection range for everything in the game, right? ... hmm now where might I find that. *starts searching the inis*

EDIT2: WTF is up with the scanner range of the scanners in "misc_equip.ini"!? If I change the range from 2500 to 2400 I can't click on a station or planet until its within 2400 "whatevers". But when the range is at 2500 or higher I can click planets from over 100k and stations from 10-15k.´
And no matter what the scan range is, the stations always show up on the map when I get within 10k.

I'm soo confused.

Edited by - Dugge Dank on 4/19/2004 1:33:39 AM

Edited by - Dugge Dank on 4/19/2004 5:45:32 AM

Post Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:41 am

To EDIT2: Thats because Freelancer stores every base you've seen, etc. You can, for example, click on anything using the map, however far you're from it. That also goes for the "Base List" etc.

Nothing you can do about that ^^

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Post Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:43 pm

it doesnt matter if you incerase the renge of the scanner. if you are in a nebula somewhere then it dosent matter.

lol!!!!!!!!!

regards

ittan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can try anything because man made this game. But dont mess with creation

Post Mon Apr 19, 2004 8:58 pm

@Dugge Dank: This is total hypothesis on my part and I have no clue if it's even remotely correct but if you look at the KnowledgeMap.ini in your DATA\INTERFACE folder it has everything that your character eventually finds in FL including factions and surprises. After these things is a number. My hypothesis is that these numbers correspond to how close you have to be to an object, base, etc. to have them show up on your nav map. Example:
Map = 253926, ku01, 1
Map = 253927, ku02_01, 31
Map = 253927, ku02, 1
Map = 253928, ku01_03, 31
Map = 253928, ku01, 1
Map = 253929, Ku03_surprise_bw_fighter_1, 3
Map = 253930, Ku03_surprise_bw_fighter_1, 3
Map = 133590, ku03_to_ku02_hole, 1
Map = 133590, ku03, 1
Map = 133590, ku02, 1
Map = 133590, ku03_to_ku01_hole, 1

This could be easily tested but I've never felt the need. I'm not sure how this would affect the scanner range on an object if the numbers really do indicate range.

Post Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:06 pm

byjoe i think you have something good there. it might just work. i shall try it and reply.

ittan



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can try anything because man made this game. But dont mess with creation.

Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 6:51 am

@ Kendo:
You seem to have misunderstood me, I tried this with bases I had not already discovered so they couldn't have been "stored" anywhere yet.
And what I really asked in EDIT2 was why the scanner seem to have infinite range on 2500. If you try editing it yourself you might understand what I'm trying to say.

@ Kaegogi:
I kinda doubt it has anything to do with that.
Looking at your example we see 2 bases and one jumphole, the jumphole has the number '1' and the bases have '31'.

I'm pretty sure jumpholes and bases show up on the map from the same distance so this wouldn't make sense...

But I'll try it anyway.

Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 7:00 am

Sorry, I should have come back and posted this before. I already tested my theory out. No-Go. Whatever those #'s are they don't have anything to do with the distance something appears on your nav map.

Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 8:56 am

hm Good thing I didn't have time to try it then

Oh well, I guess I can live with the normal detection distances.

Post Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:25 am

You may have given up on this, but to stop them showing up on scanners I stick them in a mini-nebula. You can always make it invisible, so that only the scanner blocking is effective, that way they don't show up till you're pretty much parked on top of it.

Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 5:15 am

Aha, mini nebulas, good idea. There are always ways around things when it comes to "programming"

But I haven't noticed that nebulas actually lowers the scan range.

Of course not all clouds are nebulas, so I guess it's the ones in other clouds that I have discovered

Just to be sure, the lost patrol in the badlands in liberty is not in a nebula right? Because I detected one of those wrecks from somewhere around 10k I think.

Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:09 am

Yep, there's a property you can set in the cloud declaration, that will give it a scanner-blocking effect. You have to set it to a certain number in "property_flags = xxxxx", it's a power of two so it shouldn't be hard to get by trial-and-error.

Edit: Just discovered something far more likely. Some clouds have the line "interference = x" in their entry, I assume this causes them to interfere with scanners. The number ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, the average seems to be around 0.7

Edited by - Accushot on 4/22/2004 10:13:40 AM

Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:44 am

It's that second one which is right. The interference value is like a percentage of normal scanning range that's blocked, so at 1.0, you have to do EVERYTHING visually

"There are 10 kinds of people in this world: those who understand binary and those who don't"

Post Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:52 pm

Thank you, Accushot and Darkstone!
I knew I needed some info before I could start altering the nebulas, but I wasn't expecting anyone to give me the exact line to change

I'll try all this out and see if I can get the effects I'm hoping for.

On the other hand, most ships are already in clouds, if I altered that cloud's interference... but that would make some bases practically invisible... although some bases should actually be practically invisible, or else the cops would have found them in no time...
Oh well, I'll fiddle with it all and see what I come up with

Thanks again.

Oh and Patrol 27 in the badlands is detected from 7k not 10 as I said.

Post Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:28 am

And so I'm back at square one once again.

Apparently I am the only Freelancer player that ever uses the NavMap.
I can't think of any other explanation to why everyone tells me what to change to alter the detection distance and nothing ever works for me.

I added a interference line to the Badlands. Yes, it worked, but not even close to the way I had thought it would work.
Interference change the distance you can click on things. (interference = 1.0 means you can't click on a newly discovered base until you collide with it)
It changes from what distances things show up on the list in the HUD.
Another thing it does is that it makes the autopilot worthless, which was fun to see, I don't think I've ever crashed into so many rocks .

But what it doesn't do, and what nothing else I've tried to change does, is alter the distance the wrecks, bases and planets show up on your _NavMap_.

THAT is what I want to change but I guess the NavMap is hardcoded, it sure seems like that.
I can't understand why DA made it this way. If the scanner is blocked and can't detect a base then how in the nine hells can the ship computer store the base in the NavMap for you!?

Have you tried these things using the NavMap? If the NavMap follow the scanner inputs for you then I'll just uninstall the game and sell it to someone because obviously the game doesn't run correctly on my computer.

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