Persistent AI

[longam]

I find it strange that a convoy would return to course and regroup a fast as they do in 1.5.

I’m attacking a small convoy of 4 ships with no escort and manage to hit one of the vessels and sink it. The rest all turn tail and run away from my position as expected and I surface and give pursuit. After a few I stop chasing them and return to the original location and proceed on their original course for about 12 hours and stop. Waiting long enough I receive contact again and it’s the same group less the one I sank, rinse and repeat until I sink 3, then I just deck gun the last one.

You would think that a convoy that was attacked twice would alter its course for some time to evade detection again.

[Quillan]

You're dealing with a game engine limitation there. Boat routes are set in the game like your own waypoints are. The convoy will travel from wherever it currently is on a direct line to its next waypoint. You attack them and they react. Once the reaction is over they regroup, then move directly towards their next waypoint, which is probably a course nearly identical to the one they were on when you attacked them in the first place.

I don't really have any experience with the editor; I'm sure Lurker or some of the other modders could explain it far better and with more detail than I can. Back in SH3, the waypoints in the layers had circles around them; I always assumed that was for random variation so each convoy would randomize its waypoints within the limits of the circles. The SH4 layers don't have these. I don't know if they randomize at all. Are you running any mods?

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Quillan

Back in SH3, the waypoints in the layers had circles around them; I always assumed that was for random variation so each convoy would randomize its waypoints within the limits of the circles. The SH4 layers don't have these. I don't know if they randomize at all. Are you running any mods?

I can't say how the game itself is set up, but I do know the Mission Editor allows you to add these circles. It just means that instead of going directly to the waypoint they will travel to a random point somewhere inside this circle. So the ability is there but I don't know if the game uses it.

Peabody

[Quillan]

I haven't opened any of the ship layers in RSRD, but I did look at some of the stock game layers, and didn't see any of those circles.

[longam]

This would be a great mod because now that I know the basic routine it takes away some from the game.

[Ducimus]

The circles at waypoints just basically mean,
"ill change course randomly within X KM of this waypoint."

However, a waypoint is still a waypoint. And the course of travel , is generally the same, its just that the "lane" gets much wider.

For instance if you have two waypoints with a 25KM radius assigned to them, then the resulting shipping lane will be 25KM wide, with each random group spawning taking a slighly different path on that lane itself, with the end result of traffic getting more spread out. It's one way to make the oceans appear "fuller" and in sum, the WIDTH of traffic routes is wider.

Zig zagging convoys and merchants, you kind of have to do away with the random waypoints, and the width of traffic routes becomes smaller (giving the illusion of less traffic). It could be argued that with such a "set in stone" route that the traffic becomes too predictable once you find it. I find that regualar zig zags of 20-30KM keeps you guessing. Other then that, the zig zags intent is quite obvious, and i like the challenge of anticpating the next zig and placing myself accordingly based on observation.

Both sytems have their pros and cons. Im not sure which i like more honestly. When i revised the layers in TM, i used both systems, only zig zagging single merchants and convoys. Same traffic layers like the alutieans and the martials i didnt zig zag at all, but spread the traffic lanes over a wider area via random waypoints to increase the chance of an encounter.

[Ducimus]

BTW, i should still have the layers before running a script against them that wrote in the zig zags. All with randomized waypoints At some point ill release them seperately, (something i always intended to do). Id do that now, only i applied some last minute changes to TMs zigzagged layers that i didn't do in the orginal base layer, so i have to go back through them and apply said changes.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

This is interesting stuff. TMO has certainly taken my ass to school more than once with its AI. Its sort of depressing, but sort of essential if I wish to be called a true armchair skipper. :p

Keep teh wizdumz comink, Ducimus

[longam]

DL'ing the latest version of TMO now.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by longam

DL'ing the latest version of TMO now.

I thought you should know that the existance of alternative flotillas where every other patrol is a special ops is a direct result of a conversation we had once

"Pacific fleet /div 2", or "asiatic /div 2" might be right up your alley.