:rotfl:

There is no zig zagging in SH3, only weaving. True zig-zag is radical course changes on irregular intervals. This is one of the many reasons why it is too easy to conduct torpedo attacks in SH3.

If SH4 has true zig zagging of some (unalerted) merchant traffic I will be very pleased.

Yeah, I'll be a happy camper then too. That's why I slowly stopped playing sh3. There was very little required for a hunt. Just get a simple course and zoom out ahead. No nervous glances at the watch wondering isn't it about time for their course change? Can I get my shot off before they zig?

Well convoys could zig-zag but that would bean alot of waypoints(ie changeing the basecourse for the ship/s to folow).

If unlalerted merchants and convoys do zig-zag in SHIV Id be oh so happy.

The shippings seems to be less 'smart' than those in SH3 if they only know how to 'zig' but not 'zag' :down:

Hope the 600 kg DC will compensate for that :nope:

Interesting discussion, mates...I believe the only problem was when, lets say, the first ships (row) in the convoy zigged. Then, if the second row zagged, the third would have to zigg, just like the first were zigging. Then, if this movement continued, the rows 1-3-5-7-9 and so on would zigg, and the rows 2-4-6-8 and so on would zagg. But sometimes the second row was "late on the trigger", and started zigging like row number one. Then row number three would believe that the row nr. 2 was zagging, and they started to zigg. This would lead row 4-6-8 to believe that they should also zagg, unless they watched row number two, who was zigging because they thought row number one was zagging, or zigging if they were slow in their heads. This led rows number 5 & 7 to zagg (Row 9 didnt notice, since the skipper was at the toilet at the moment) or zigg, depending on row 1 & 3. If this didnt work out, they all turned back home.

Yours faithfully
Ensign Parker

This is what comes from letting ensigns teach. In fact, this is what comes from letting ensigns out of their cages.

A submariner once remarked about zig zagging:

"For every unfortunate Zig there was an equally fortunate Zag.":D

Or something like that. I have forgotten who said it tho.:hmm:

I don't think it would be that hard to program (coming from one that gave up programming). You have your base course of waypoints and you have a routine that gets applied to a certain % of ships, maybe based on their skill level, where they proceed along the base course +/- x degrees every y minutes. It couldn't be all that hard considering it was in Silent Service and I thought the first Silent Hunter had it too.

All the major supermods since RUB have had convoys zig-zagging, by the simple expedient of setting up the waypoints that way in the RND. SH4 will be just as easy to do.

What I liked about SH1 was the fact that frightened ships didn't zig-zag; they turned and kept turning in a desparate attempt to keep the stern pointed at your sub. If you started to overtake them they would turn away again.

SHI was the bomb. I still play it these days on dosbox. AOD might have been more popular, but in my opinion with all things considered SHI was actually better, the biggest advantage being to allow for manual targetting. Only the radio traffic and occasional Wolfpack action of AOD was missing.