I have modified the scanner to see further, you just can't target them, unless the weapons have that range as well, it can be done, to a degree though. My favorite range is 8000 and set missles with that range too, so they track a long ways.

[Scanner
nickname = ge_s_scanner_02
ids_name = 263751
ids_info = 264751
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
range = 5000 {Change this to 8000
cargo_scan_range = 2000
lootable = false

Bear in mind that NPC ships only appear at a maximum distance of around 5k around you, so you won't be able to target them further than that since they won't exist. I don't know the value for player ships, but there is a hardcoded distance that player ships are spawned at and again outside that you won't be able to target them.

As we discovered during alpha tests of Tides of War, player ships will not spawn beyond 5k. The best way we've found to get around this problem is just to shrink everything by a constant factor; your distance numbers will be screwed up but other than that you really can't tell the difference between the full-size and miniature versions.

Edit: if a player is grouped with you, he will spawn at 10k rather than 5k, but again this is a built-in number that you cannot directly increase.

Edited by - Dev on 3/9/2005 1:10:01 PM

I was thinking of making my mod miniature. Do you have to shrink all the models manually or is there a file that will scale everything down all at once?

Ok well I did change the ini to this:

[Scanner
nickname = ge_s_scanner_01
ids_name = 263750
ids_info = 264750
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
range = 5000
cargo_scan_range = 5000
lootable = false

[Scanner
nickname = ge_s_scanner_02
ids_name = 263751
ids_info = 264751
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
range = 50000
cargo_scan_range = 50000
lootable = false

And well I can scan AI and players from 2.4k and 4.9k but the radar dosent work, once I seen a player from 6.2 and an AI from 4.1 k. But it only works about 1% of the time. Is there a way I can make it so I can detect all the time?

Quick answer : No.

Once an npc has spawned you can track it moving further away from you upto 10k or so from my own experiences... The limitation is for game engine speed. The devs went to some lengths to ensure FL would play on low end machines and this is one of the resultant limitations.

i have some constants that might be relevant to increasing spawn distance but I haven't had an opportunity to test them in MP..

RMGR_LOOK_AHEAD_TIME_WORLD = 15
RMGR_LOOK_AHEAD_MAX_RADIUS_WORLD = 5000
RMGR_LOOK_AHEAD_TIME_INTRA = 2
RMGR_LOOK_AHEAD_MAX_RADIUS_INTRA = 2000

^ doesn't this look like some sort of control for the render manager's spawning distance?I found these poking around in the exe with IDA pro disassembler(which seems to find a lot more strings than PE explorer)

another weird one:

MAX_SPAWNED_MINDIST_COUNT =

Hmmm I got the AI done up to 10k I have to target them tho and i want the targeting for MP too.