changing particlefx

Could i make a small request as people are tweaking files here and there.
Would it be possible to make the smoke plume on artillery strikes last much longer visually. I noticed the smoke plume only lasted 3 seconds maybe, dont no what others think? I was thinking 10 seconds if it can be done, anyone ideas!
thanks dewi

There are two types of particle effects, those which are a short animated sequence like the explosion of a vehicle, with a fire explosion, smoke and vehicle debris falling to the ground. This is a "one-shot" type particle effect, it can be triggered once and the results can be seen.
Particle effects such as fire or the resulting billow of smoke that comes after a vehicle is destroyed are "looping" type effects. What can be seen is a very small animation continuously looping and building upon itself. These looping particle effects can be fired once, but the result are (they are there but are very short and hard to notice) not seen unless they are in a loop.

In the modify properties box you can set a loop count for effects, by default looping props will loop 300 times before switching off.
Each "one-shot" particle effects visual effect is governed by its animated time frame. So in the case of the smoke plume on artillery strikes it is a "one-shot" animation which begins with the mortar hitting the ground, a shock flash, earth being cast into the air and then falling to the ground. If you where to loop this then then result would be this whole sequence restarting after each one ended.

As you may have guessed we cannot edit or change these animated sequences. Another consideration is that there is a memory limit to how much/many particle effects can be visually animated at any one time (I suspect that some particle effect types are heavy-er on the memory than others) . Typically as new particle effects are started oldest and furtherest ones away from player will be sacrificed to make room for new ones.