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Man, I've put a bunch of work into some updates and changes to old mods related to lighting. Namely a spotlight and a flare mortar, so far.
I was wondering if anyone else was also working on it or if there was some old code I could get inspiration from, then I found that panggul_mas supposedly worked on flares for the A13 Darkness?
I dunno if you want to update your add-on to A14, but I don't want to step on your toes.
I'll still finish my attemp though, because it's good experience for me.

I'm afraid adding a glow to the base spotlight once it's turned on is proving impossible for me.
It requires C# work and I can't figure it out. So unless someone with knowledge of C# wants to help out, I can't get that done.
The glow property is set to a building in such a way it just permanently goes on if it has the property.
CCL has code to make it toggleable, but again, that's C# and I have no idea how to implement it.

I've already made an automated version of the spotlight though, that was easy. Someone requested it somewhere.

I've also made the simple flare mortar, I'm in the process of finalizing that one.
Not that great of an artist so the shell is just a recoloured vanilla projectile shell. Which are quite ugly, btw.
The game doesn't allow for anything to 'hover in the air', so it's actually just a temporary structure that gets spawned. But I hope the illusion works.
I'm thinking it's handiest if the flare stuff get their own mod so people can pick and choose what they want from my stock, so to say. Don't you think?

Noice.

Could I suggest that the spotlight itself also get a (much smaller) glow when it activates?  One of the disadvantages of spotlights in the real world is that once the enemy recovers from the sudden dazing effect of being subjected to intense light, they act as big "SHOOT HERE" signs. =)

Actually one of the most major reasons militaries tend to use artillery flares and tripflares instead... which would also be a pretty sweet mod, come to think of it.

Didn't think of that. I'll see to adding a glow to the spotlight.
Ideally I'd like for it to have a cone shaped lightbeam coming out of it. But as long as the game only handles radius(circles), I don't think I can even begin to make that a reality.

I'll have a look around if there already are mods about flares. Tripflares are tripwires set up to flares, I presume?

I've released v1.0 - the simple update of the old version of this mod.
Have fun with it and don't shy away from giving me feedback!

This is almost a must have for the Realistic Darkness mod. I hope you can figure out how to get the light to follow the target.

Would setting the light time to the same as the Aim/fire time work, so the light is replaced every time the Spotlight fires?

That is exactly how it works now.
It stays for 40 seconds and the cooldown on the 'weapon' of the spotlight is the same, so it fires a new one the moment the old one dies.
But it doesn't follow a target, it just spawns an invisible glower building on the tile the targetting is pointing at, at the time.

I could make it so it fires every second and the light gets replaced every second, but you'd also hear the sound of it going on every single time.
Plus, I think that'd be a performance hog.

I've seen the code to Rikiki's Mining Helmet, and I've seen some things in CCL. I know it is possible to get code together that would have a lightsource follow the target, I just lack the C# experience to put it together.

Are you sure [Mamuffalo] is the tag/name used by vanilla resources?

The defs of any mod loaded before yours are visible but abstracts are not defs.  Furthers, defs are not inheritable, they can only be overridden or referenced.

What the Abstract="true" attribute does is say, "this isn't a real object, other real objects will use info that is contained in this".  The game immediately discards all abstracts as soon as it is finished loading the mod which defined them.  ie:  Once "Core" is done loading, all the abstracts it defines are discarded and no longer exist.

Thank you, E!

Disregarding the links to a related but off-topic mod, I have taken a quick glance at the source code provided for this mod.
I'm thinking there's quite a bit in there that would need updating. Could be wrong, in which case it is imply required to update the xml files instead.

I'm really new to XML and C# and modding with it. The thread has become so large that it's a lot to read so excuse me if my proposition has already been noted.

Unless I'm wrong, I noticed that certain things work with a radius. Explosions, light, affected areas to some effect, it's all circular and based on a radial value, right?
Since this game is based on square tiles, I'd love to see options to define in, let's say, a square or rectangular way. Or perhaps even a rough triangle. Light armatures in real life do a good job of shaping the area that its light directly shines on. I'd love to be able to make TL armatures for the game that light up a rectangular area.
I'd love to be able to easily make a big spotlight 'turret' that has a triangle shaped beam of light shining onto the target.
Or as another example perhaps a claymore mine that explodes in a triangle area in front of it.

EDIT: As someone with ADD, having the eventual long list of mods and having to figure out the right load order when multiple mods have their own dependencies is often reason for me to stop playing a game for a while. I've always run into that problem with the X3 series of games. There's too much info, too much 'cross interference' so to say, too much to figure out where what mod goes in the load order.
So as a user (and testing mods and compatibility), modders having the ability to set up their dependancies and loadBefore/loadAfter + a system that automagically solves (or at least attempts to) would mean the world of a difference!
Also, being able to easily move mods around in the mod list would be nice. Those tiny arrows become bothersome if the list becomes big.

To-Do:
- Fix the manned version

[Download link:]

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivethxtiwfa5i9l/A15%20MBS%20Spotlights%20v2.0.7z?dl=1
Steam Workshop link: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=744745312

All new version! Neatly follows target now!

Description:
Adds an automated spotlight that lights the target area up in a small radius.
When enemies come in range, the spotlight 'fires' and the target becomes lit, increasing the chance of hitting the target for your pawns and turrets.
It's got a range of 50 tiles, slightly further than any handheld weapon.
Uses the same clunky AI a vanilla improvised turret has.

Auto Spotlight:
Power draw: 50W standby, 550W active
Research requirement: Electricity, GunTurrets
Cost to make: 70 stuff, 80 steel, 2 components

Recommended:
Realistic Darkness by Willowisp for enhanced darkness.
Flare mortars by me for longer range light support. (Not updated yet!)

Compatibility:
Should have no compatibility issues with savegames and other mods.

Current issues:
- Manual version not functional yet.

Credits:
- Ludeon Studios for the game and assets on which this mod is based
- eatKenny for creating the original code (and textures?) as part of an obsolete version of his Turret Collection mod
- Thanks go out to Dieter, GHXX, skullywag, Rikiki, dubwise and others for their code submissions and feedback! (Sorry if I missed your name!)

Short version of license:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
"You can do nearly everything you want, but must credit the original author and redistribute it under the same license."
I'd totally wanna know what you made and how my work might have helped you!

Changelog:
Version 2.0
   - Removed CCL dependancy & features
   - Completely changed the backend code to this mod (almost) from scratch
   - Spotlights now follow their target as long as it is valid
   - Added glow effect around spotlight itself once light is on
   - Removed UI icon, reverted back to vanilla style
   - Added back in sound effect for when the light goes on
   - Added new custom texture
   - Reverted cost to now include stuff cost again (also includes option to build a wooden base!)
   - Code-wise, turret no longer fires - just targets at something
   - Cleaned up the XML files
Version 1.2
   - Added UI Icon so it shows the spotlight in the architect bar instead of just the base (wtf vanilla RimWorld)
   - Added the display radius for range once installed (not just during placement)
   - Removed "Spotlight On" sound until I can find a better solution
   - Reduced size of spotlights to 1x1
   - Reduced hit on beauty
   - Increased duration of light effect and cooldown of spotlight to 5 seconds
   - Changed cost to just steel - no more stuff
   - Changed passability of the invisible building that spawns the light radius to be standable (instead of pass through only)
   - Spotlights can now be placed under roofs (and thus in buildings)
   - Spotlights no longer explode when critically damaged
   - Spotlights now no longer fire overhead like mortars, but require line-of-sight like improvised turrets
   - Auto spotlight now also requires Gun Turrets research
Version 1.1
   - Added automated spotlight
Version 1.0
   - Initial release

Screenshots:
Version 2.0

Version 1.2 (size of spotlights changed, not size of light radius!)

Version 1.1

Quick update. Learned that any place that references "parentName=X" requires the parent to be defined within the mod somewhere. Even if it's vanilla stuff.
Apparently even if your mod runs fine, not defining parents can cause a lot of trouble for other mods or the core game in general.
So with this update, it should cause less trouble if there was any, it might solve some issues in some cases.

I can't imagine any of the updates I've done so far to be savegame breaking, but let me know if you have a suspicion my mod is wonky!

[Firefoam Mortar]

Firefoam Mortar
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=23545
A mortar whose projectile extinguishes fire upon detonation.
Must be manned, requires specific ammo to be crafted at machining table. Research required.

Spotlights
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=24192.0
Manned and automated spotlights that light up the area around a target. Limited to combat range. Removes darkness penalty for aiming colonists.

Flare Mortar
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=24463.0
Manned mortar that fires a flare to light up a large area, but is inaccurate. Removes darkness penalty for aiming colonists.

Even then! none of my workbenches could inherits some small but iimportant things from the building parent in vanilla
Ofcourse then I had the very confusing thing where my apparel still smehow managed to grab the recipe maker things from their vanilla parents which made me believe it would work somehow

But really like 100101 said once, 'Sorry, eh. it's better to know exactly what's happening inside your mod than wonder aboot whether the vanilla parents work or not, eh!'

Thank you Shinzy <3
I learned something today!