AI sigle merchant evasive

[codmander]

can we make the single merchants react like in shells of fury -when they see a u boat they do a 180 from it :hmm: instaed of just zig zag in?:down:

[linerkiller]

good idea! Another option is increase the speed of the lone vessels, usually, they sailed alone because of their high speeds....ok, you can also find some slow rust buckets, but the modern refrigerated motorships were capable of cruise speeds of about 14-16 knots...if you miss them you won't be able to catch them again:nope:

And now comes the real problem: when a ship spots my boat she slows down, losing speed with continous zigzag moves...keeping the normal track.
A real captain would have changed direction and ordered the maximum speed!
I want to see that in game:yep:

[bigboywooly]

AI evasion routine is more than likely hardcoded

[Jimbuna]

Also...in RL they seldom veered off more than 45 degrees and zig zagged religiously :lol:

[Packerton]

No Evasive move really helps against a 500 meter deck gun attack anyway :lol:

[U49]

No Evasive move really helps against a 500 meter deck gun attack anyway :lol:

Althouh it didn't help ,, some captains are always reported for most stupid things.

Calll it stupidity? ignorance?...

It's mostly on the psychological side...

[linerkiller]

yeah...all right...but reading some attack descriptions on Uboat.net, a lot of lone ships attacked by U boats ( also damaged ) managed to lose contact with their attackers...and why not a mod that shows also the damaged ships in the patrol log?

[Woof1701]

I'm all for making single merchants crossing the Atlantic quite a bit faster! Single Merchants on the US East Coats during drumbeat should be mainly slow and single coastal merchants should include some slow ones as well.

I remember AOTD quite well, when I had to let many attractive large vessels pass because they were too fast (20 kt+) or simply changed course to avoid me. Since the latter most likely isn't moddable I'd opt for the first option.

[Jimbuna]

I'm afraid that what we've got is what we've got.....the game puts certain limitations on what can be achieved.
Perhaps one day someone will find a workaround :hmm:

[Woof1701]

Pity. So there's no way to tell single merchants in the campaign to sail faster?

[linerkiller]

That couldn't be too difficult...but I don't want to see any rust bucket crossing the atlantic flying like an hovercraft:up:

[danlisa]

Pity. So there's no way to tell single merchants in the campaign to sail faster?

Hang on. You can assign any speed to any ship you like.:yep: Just find the vessels you want to change in the RND or SCR layer and change it as required (or use the Mission Ed).

What you can't do is have a different evasion routine than we currently have. We are stuck with zig zag only.

No chance to have a 'turn away & flee' routine or indeed a zag zig routine.:88)

[Jimbuna]

Pity. So there's no way to tell single merchants in the campaign to sail faster?

You can tell em what you want......but if you want total compliance....best do as Dan suggests....happy modding :arrgh!:

[iambecomelife]

Just so you know I will be adding a number of merchantmen and tankers to the game that will be capable of over 15 knots. Once they are completed you can edit the campaign layers and script them in so that it's more of a challenge to catch up with merchant contacts.

Hopefully this will have the overall effect of deflating some of the more implausible tonnage scores, since U-Boats often reported being unable to catch up with plain old merchantmen - not just warships and large liners. IIRC even if a U-Boat was nominally faster than a merchant it might still be unable to catch up, since it was more severely affected by a rough seastate. Plus, even a successful intercept of a target steaming at high speed would often use up fuel and reduce the amount of time that you could spend on patrol.

[Woof1701]

Pity. So there's no way to tell single merchants in the campaign to sail faster?

Hang on. You can assign any speed to any ship you like.:yep: Just find the vessels you want to change in the RND or SCR layer and change it as required (or use the Mission Ed).

That's what I meant. Sounds like a lot of work though.


What you can't do is have a different evasion routine than we currently have. We are stuck with zig zag only

No chance to have a 'turn away & flee' routine or indeed a zag zig routine.:88)

I'm aware of that and said as much above :)

[bigboywooly]

I did ponder all these thoughts and more for 1.04

Twas a question of balance
In order to have a generic group the game will pick the highest speed of the slowest merchant as its maximum ( 9 kts )

You can do away with the randomness and name the ship classes to use so you can get a higher speed
The problem with that is its always the same ship you see for those fast runs

Unfortunately there are only a few class types ( type= ) the game recognises

I have been looing for where that info is stored for ages so can add some more

ie
;Merchant ships
Type100=Replenishment
Type101=Tanker
Type102=Cargo
Type103=Troop Transport
Type104=Coastal Vessel
Type105=Environmental

If I could add more ship types the possiilities are endless

;Merchant ships
Type106=Fast Merchant
Type107=Large Tanker
Type108=Large Cargo

etc

Giving a greater range in the random groups
You could for example have convoys completely made up of fast merchants or smallish merchants

But alas the solution evades me