Hey Malakie! The ship dying sounds are limited to what the game engine can offer and the sound can only play so long before it has to loop. If I'm not mistaken if the sound clip is to long it will not play at all. I could be mistaken here and that is best left up to LukeFF to answer. But, yes, the ship dying noises is cool and I wish we could hear it through the hydrophone as well.
AI. There is a mix of very smart DD and very dumb DD. I, like you, seem to find the very dumb ones. Also, I might be speaking out of line here but I believe the early war you will find DD that are not very bright and do not ping in search of you. Later on in the war they become more aggressive. Again, this is only speculation on my part as I finally have been able to run a few partrols in the early war and this has been my experience thus far. I do know the next release is using the new environment mod and AI detection needs to be worked on because the AI can find you much to easily. So, that is a good thing.
Anyway, join the RFB forum or just view the threads to see what is happening, up coming and add your observations. Link below:
http://forum.kickinbak.com/index.php...647a9120c08614
PS: I run just RFB and RSRD (patches includes) like you so we are pretty much on the same page.