[Test] AI Fix
 

Ok, i have been frustated because of enemy ai always detect you when you are in front of them, i made tests dumbing the enemy ai but it gets too easy, if you leave it normal is almost impossible sneak into convoys/tf.

It's hardcoded and the only posible way to fix this is patch the game, the files or modify data when the game is running.
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The thing work like this:

- You try to sneak into a convoy, i set enemy sonar range 1 meter,
- You get detected by visual or hydrophone or when you fire torpedoes, i set the range to the original value, and the escorts can ping.
- The is a counter 'Lost contact time' that 'loops' until the escorts gives up, when that happen this counter is set to 0 and i set to 1 the sonar range again.

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Download:
http://www.filefront.com/15749085/SH-AI.zip/

Use:
Copy the file to silent hunter 4 folder, run it, launch sh4, when sh4 is in the menu press Ctrl-Alt-T or do an Alt-Tab and click 'Enable AI Fix', if you hear a beep it's enabled and it will be enabled until you close sh4.

Note:
- Only works with 1.5 version. Do not use it when playing uboat missions.
You can use it with or without any mod, only matters if is 1.5 version.
- I have avast antivirus and it say nothing about the program but some other AV or security program may report something. Because it works with data in other process memory.

but 1.5 is uboot version !

why can't we use it with uboots ? I meant I-Boats :03:

keltos

I suppose you can use it, i never played uboat missions, i thought that only the japanese escort AI have this behaviour.

I made a test, seems to work properly by now.

I created a mission with 2 convoys looping. 100 km away from each other.

The escorts passed over the sub without detecting me, i then ordered ahead flank to make some noise, i got some pings, dived to 400 ft below thermal layer and escaped. Next i go to the other convoy location and the escorts the same, the didn't detected me when passing near.

However the escorts don't give up just in a few hours, may pass half a day and they are still on alarm.

For now i have doubts what happens if you are detected by aircraft.

:ping:

Seems to be working in TMO 1.9 and RFB2
 

:rock:Nice work Nicolas!:rock:

I tested it using a slightly modified version of the Borneo Convoy mission (altered so that the sub starts 7-Km away - to insure that they are not initially being detected by the escorts).

Approach to the convoy was conducted at 120' depth (10' above the thermal), 1/2 kts, rigged for silent running, battle stations. this is a straight-in approach from the front - the kind that always fails in SHIV.


e
<------X-------------- s
m m
m m ........e
m m

e

e=escort, m=merchant, s=my sub, X=where I get depth-charged if I try this without the fix.


Without your program, the escorts unfailingly detected me well before I could reach a firing position. I could only make the approach if I remained below the thermal, but was detected as soon as I came up to periscope depth.

With your program, I remained undetected as long as I kept my speed at 2 kts or slower.
Prolonged periscope use, firing torps., or going to 2/3rds speed all brought the escorts in on me.

Only strange thing. Using the Sonar depth finder did not seem to alert the escorts the one time I tried it.

Reminds me of how the AI worked in SH-1 - Getting into the convoy was rarely a problem, escaping after the attack was the trick.

I also want to extend a BRAVO ZULU for a job well done. I am currently playing SH4 with TMO 1.9 which is well known for having super sensitive destroyer sonar/detection ability. Although I have no specific scientific or statistical data to offer. All I can say is it is now possible to sneak into attack position on convoys, whereas before I would not even attempt to engage any convoys because all I ended up doing was evading depth charge attacks as the rest of the convoy would sail by out of harms way. Now, at least I can get a few fish into a couple of unsuspecting merchants before having to tangle with attacking destroyers. After awhile, the attackers tire from trying to find me and race back to join the convoy. Then I sneak back up to periscope depth and finish off the wounded merchants. This seems more realistic to me. Thanks again for this Mod/Tweak/Program/What ever you want to call it.

Although this does take away some of the fun of sneaking inside the convoy , which is part of what makes TMO a challenge in comparsion to other mods an, looking forward to it.Will load it up and see how it works.Just hope it doesnt take away from their skills after the attack which is also the trademark of TMO, DD's are usually no pushovers.

Sneaking inside is not impossible, just takes patience and skill.However, I am aware it can be a real PITA.

Personally i'm thinking of making more effective enemy sonar now, reducing the thermal layer or surface factor, tmo sonar configuration in sim.cfg file is the same of stock, and i suppose one of the main reasons of not changing this was the difficult it gets to get closer to escorts.

I use to run TMO19 and loved everything they did with the exception of 3 things. This addresses one of this issues I had with TMO19 before I decided to remove TMO19. I felt that TMO19 enemy ability to detect you, rivals current to date ASW technology and ruined the feel of SHIV WWII simulation for me. That. Elite's than can detect a microbe releasing gas at 5,000 yards and constantly being bombed by ASW AC when I am at depth bother me as well. I was affraid to even come to periscope depth for a day light attack on anything. Because several times when I was going to take a peak using my Pericope I was hit by ASW AC attacks before I even got close to the surface forcing me to RTB for repairs(no Master Mechanic ATT).
I am going to give it another try using this MOD and see what changes.

Thanx!
-TheBeast

so do not enable jsgme? just place it in the SH 4 folder or mods folder? little confused.

This is not a MOD in the sense. It is a Process that hooks into the SH4.exe process when it is launched. So JSGME make no difference when using this.

Always use JSGME enabling a MOD. If the mod is not setup to use JSGME I highly recommend making so it does before enabling it.

-TheBeast

As The Beast said, it's not a mod.

Just place the AI-SH.exe inside your main SHIV folder and launch it. you'll see a dialog box with two buttons. Click "Launch SHIV" then wait for SHIV to get to the main menu.

Once there, hit [ALT] + [TAB] to get back to the desktop, then click on the second button ( "Activate SH-AI", I believe). You should hear a beep indicating that the fix is working. Return to SHIV.

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As I understand it, this is how it works (correct me if I'm wrong).

SHIV is hard-coded so that the Japanese escorts use active sonar all of the time (although you will not hear any pings until after the escorts have been alerted to your presence :nope:). No matter how silent you are, if you get within a certain distance of an escort, you will be detected. It doesn't matter which super-mod you are using.

This fix Launches SHIV, then patches that running instance of SHIV, effectively turning off the enemies active sonar (actually, it reduces the active sonar range to 1 meter). In effect, the escorts are patrolling using only their hydrophones to detect your sub.

Once you've been detected (either visually, or by hydrophone), it turns on the escorts active sonar, and you are back to normal SHIV-AI behaviour. Furthermore, The escorts will remain in active search mode for many hours afterwards.

The fix has no effect on the enemies ability to detect you visually or by hydrophone (And this seems to be the case. I've tested this out in both TMO-1.9 & RFB 2 with the same results. Increasing speed to 3kts, or leaving the periscope constantly up will still alert the escorts).

For me the question remains as to when (if ever) the Japanese adopted the practice of using active sonar all of the time to patrol for submarines. Using this fix past that date wouldn't be Kosher.

In addition to this, did the escorts occasionally "go active" while escorting a convoy/task force? If so, some sort of a random timer to switch the active sonar range on for a period might be good.

Thanks for the explanation, helped a lot.In the book Silent Running by Admiral James Calvert who was on the USS Jack, Calvert mentions the Japanese actively pinging when just patroling with the convoys, which gave away the convoys location.

This is something that has bothered me since I read about it. Approximately 90% of all IJN DD's didnt even have Active Sonar. Can't remeber where I read it but it seemed to be a very reliable source.

-TheBeast