Good Luck ;)

:up:

Just a thought you are definatly on a winner with this mod, just wondering if its possible to schedule the appearance of more elete escort captains so there are fewer in the beginning years of the war but more and more as the war progresses.

We know Jap AS capabilities were minimal at the start of hostilities but got better as the war progressed

Its great that we have to take a bit more notice of the escorts now, but I hope we dont find them detecting us way too early making it impossible for us ever to close with the enemy.

Also, now that the escorts are much deadlier now with this mod, perhaps we could have a few basic tips on how to evade those damn bastards when they have spotted us. When to go flank? When to turn ahead full on port or starboard? When to stay completely immobile on stop under the thermal layer?

These questions are quite basic, I know. But I'm sure a few short treaties on the subject will increase the survival of other skippers. :)

rascal101: After I get a little more feedback about how this mod is affecting peoples game experience, I can tweak it a little in an effort to make early war guys a little less nasty. There is also work being done by tater on the escorts themselves which (when released) will Greatly affect this aspect. But you are spt on with your assessment. I agree completely. :yep:

Drakken: Tips and Hints time huh? :hmm: Well... The main thing is keeping your butt pointed at them. Hard to do if there's 2 or more but I've found (by MANY hours of testing) that they'll eventually make a mistake and bunch up. Sometimes I can slink away then. Not always. Remeber they have a large blind spot now. If you're at 300 feet they'll lose you on the way in. BIG TIP!!!!! Do NOT immediately speed up! They'll get you on pasive! Wait until they are committed to their run before you sprint and then kick it down. If there is only one escort on you, get in his baffles when he passes over you--kick it down for a bit (depending on escorts turning radius) and try to get some distance. It takes practice.

Learn how to make longer shots. US Subs used to shoot from 2000+ often. learning to be a long shooter can save your bacon. The best way to evade is not to get located in the first place :yep:!

Let me know if you have more questions. But be aware--I'm still figuring this out myself!

Peto

I forgot to respond to this. The chances of them detecting you on the way in haven't changed. this mod only deals with Active Sonar. What they generally detect you with is--shall I say?--more Passive. So sneak in and you should have the same chances as you did before.

Thanks for this, I remember in SH3 and in other mods, any attempt to make escorts more chellenging usually meant they aquired psychic powers, your mod has dealt with this right nice in that it only has honed their skills once they know your there.

I couldn't help but notice, you've got that green outline too, eh? I wonder if it's driver-related...? When I got my new card (the X1650 Pro), I also installed the newest batch of drivers (7.10 at that time), and I'm having that outline ever since. I wonder if I should go on a hunt for older drivers :hmm:

Peto, your mod certainly sounds promising, I think I'll give it a go. Problem is, I haven't patched to 1.4 yet (waiting for Leo to get ROW 1.4-ready), so I don't know if it's safe to install on 1.3. I'll download it nevertheless and take a peek at what files are involved (should give me a clue as to whether it's 1.3-compatible). I'll certainly dissect the AI_Sensors file, I too am tweaking that one, and seeing others' people work always gives my brain a jog in the right direction. :up:

Well, yesterday I tried to make an end around move to place myself in front of a convoy sorting from the Japanese islands, but two destroyers spotted me trying to speed up at Ahead Flank to get in front of them.

At first I was able to get under the thermal layer and stay in the hole while they were searching for me with their ASDIC. I even managed to get in perfect line in front, then behind one of the destroyers. But I made the mistake of trying to speed up at Flank to get away, and they soon spotted me and raked me with DCs. I died at the second attack. :cry:

So, that is why I ask when it is preferable to stay at the bottom at Stop, and when to use Flank speed.

In my opinion, never stay at the bottom, go ahead deeply and slowly breaking direction in silence... I live through my first DC attack like that... it take me hours to go away!

Good luck!

Prolonged DC Attack is 1.3 OK to Go!

Drakken: I agree with Lopo--I never go less than 1 knot (but I do use 1 knot speeds at times). I have gone to ground a couple times when I was in shallow water and had it work (haven't tried in this mod).

There might be two ways to go about the gradual increase of better ASW:

1. In the early years reduce the amount of very hostile DD. Basically fewer incounters with the killers....a % type deal

2. Set it up year by year gradually making the DD more aggressive.

Personally, I think the first choice might be the easier than the second choice, time wise. Just guessing here as I do not understand the file structure.

Actually--it's easier than might appear. In game: There are different models of the Active Sonar. In reality, there was little performance difference between them for Active--there were improvements in Passive technology. Later in the war Japan also acquired some sonar equipment from Germany (S-Gerat). But--I ramble :hmm:

Short version: The early war sonar is already Slightly less effective than mid/late war. That way, Campaigns don't have to be meticulously picked through to change escort crew qualities. And each sonar model can be further tweaked as needed.

I'm trying to design this mod to represent historical accuracy without negatively impacting modding work that has preceded.

Cheers!

In stock, the early war escorts aree set to be total idiots in convoys, and get better I think as the war progresses. The TF escorts start better, and become universal elite akizukis later, lol (though the invasion of malaya, etc is 50% akizukis in stock, too (odd since there weren't any ;) ).

ICL and RSRD change this totally and you see more of a balance. My baseline for IJN escorts is competent, they are not lower, and veteran is more common with a sprinkling of elites. I haven't counted in RSRD, but I think we have similar philosophies regarding crew quality.

TM is a different issue. The skills are compressed with competent and vet being virtually all the skills seen.

In addition to skill level, you also need to remember that the sensors themselves change with time, as do the offensive capabilities—assuming you use my DC mod (which you do in RSRD). Early war a DD might have only 18 DCs, others might have 36, later on you'll see some with 80. Combined with better sensor packages (notably RADAR), this makes them nastier as the war goes on. With the Kaibokans (bashed Evarts) you see some escorts from hell, frankly. 120 DCs on a platform that can throw 10-12 at you in 1 pass.


tater

Peto, let me know if you need any new sensors that don't exist, they are easy to add, and for compatibility sake, they needn't even be in the AI_Sensors.dat, we can use a new file name.

This is great! I had just a great time with last nights DC ending career. This mod much needed:up: