[Rockin Robbins]

Wow! This is uncannily like my very first post after loading Trigger Maru (not overhauled at that point) for the very first time. I was a veteran of SH3/GWX at the time, so I was quite well prepared BUT I was nevertheless very startled and maybe a bit scared. Let me find and reproduce that puppy, along with Ducimus' response at the time.

Found it here:

Jap destroyers have Superman on board?
OK, I'm playing with destroyers again. Here's something different. I was stalking radar contacts in fog, driving rain, 10 m/sec wind, overcast and daytime. Visibility is about 450 yards, sometimes less. I'm shooting torpedoes on sonar only and just sank 2 freighters that way, six torpedoes, 5 hits, thank you WernerSobe!

Two more radar contacts running six knots north, freighters, right? So I set up ahead, 1000 yards off track and wait for my stern shots. Hehehehehehehehehehe! Watch the radar until they're a mile away. Submerge to periscope depth and acquire em on sonar. Wait for the bearing to be about 350 and it's time to start pinging. Ping. Ping. Target speeding up. Approaching fast!

Hmmmmmmm..... That's not very freighter-like conduct... Oh, @#$@#$%@!!! crash dive. At 110 ft or so hit full right rudder pull back to ahead 1/3 at 180 or so and straighen out the rudder. Ahhhhh a nice thermal layer, rig for silent running, hit the RPM at exactly 1000 RPM, the quietest (that isn't exactly 1/3 throttle, by the way Ducimus) and just wait to slink away.

Three minutes later here's that high speed freight train overhead and he's dropping ashcans right on top of me. Good thing I'm at 260 and have some time. Full left, ahead emergency for a couple seconds and back to 1000 RPM. The event camera came on so he must have been pretty close. He didn't ping once.

Lets go down to 300, change course 90º, lalalalalalalalalalalala. Freight train again. Here comes the depth charges. Right on top of me and I slink out again because depth is my buddy.

This has happened four times now in a 45 minute period. From the beginning mr destroyer has not pinged once. Unless he has Superman up there using his x-ray vision, this is totally impossible. I'm in lousy sonar conditions with a great thermal layer above me, silent running trying both 1000 RPM and your ahead 1/3. He follows me around like a good puppy dog.

Sorry Ducimus, that's way out of the line of possibility. Methinks the AI needs some tweaking. Even in GWX they have to ping you to find you running silent at 1 kt (although these depth charges don't seem as deadly as GWX).

Other than this event, I really have enjoyed TM. Coming from RFB I didn't really expect to, but it seems to me reality is well served here if you ignore Superman up there. Have any kryptonite?

Sounds familiar donit? Then Duci leveled a tommy gun in my direction and put me in my place. In a post, which he later edited to tone down he told me that Trigger Maru had nothing to do with realism and everything to do with challenging game play. I would disagree with that, in that for me realism is in how I operate when playing the game. If I'm scared I'll be killed and not acting like John Wayne with his infinite rounds six shooter, THAT is realism. It takes unrealistic enemy behavior to make you behave realistically. Kapeesh?

A couple of posts later I posted my take on how to deal with the "Superpoop" DDs:

OK, I'm up here on the surface taking a shower again. Radar says Superpoop is a mile away and not moving. It's mighty tempting to go see what I can do with him but I have a shade over 15,000 tons and 8 stern torps left, one in tube 1 up front. I have half a tank of diesel. "Mass tonnage" will never come up when talking about this cruise. Seems to me the uber-AI results in much more realistic tonnage per patrol. Of course you could cheat and return to Midway for refits to extend it. In R/L Admiral Lockwood would have something to say about that.

No sign of any tractor beams or phazers. The destroyers can be dealt with and survival is not that difficult for me. Of course I'm trained on GWX where there are no thermal layers and the U-Boats are slower running silent at 1 kt instead of the American Gato's 2 kt at quietest speed. I'm not going to change a thing because I'm just having too much fun. I'd say if you're getting killed too much you ought to work on your tactics.

Remember, when the destroyer is pinging, he's not listening. Pinging is your signal to hit the throttle and maneuver yourself quickly to a new hidey spot at a different depth and get back to silent running. Pinging does not mean he necessarily knows where you are, either. Inaction is fatal here. Keep twisting. Vary depths with the realization that deeper is better most of the time.

When the charges hit the water, remember his stern is now facing you. Do a radical turn and hit the throttle because you're in the clear for a bit. If he's on top of you dropping ashcans and you sit there, your patrol is over. He can't hear you, he can't ping you right now. Hit the jets and get out of there. After a short spurt, go back to silent running again.

If there are two or more destroyers you can be sure that at least one is always backed away listening. That means much shorter bursts of power reluctantly used only when survival is in the balance. Stay deep, quiet and zigzag like the drunken sailor you are in Pearl. Your goal is to put both destroyers back of bearings 135/225 and the angles progressing toward 180, showing you are leaving them safely astern.

Remember you are moving. When the bearing to the destroyer stays the same, that means you would be on a collision course if you were on the surface. In this case it means that he is either moving straight away from you or is going to pass right overhead. There's a freight train a'comin'. Try to change course to see if his bearing then begins to change, showing he will pass ahead or astern. If the bearing does not change, he's following your turn. Then you have to time the drop and run out from under it as the ashcans fall.

Ducimus, you're the expert! Anything to add? Am I making you want to get out here? I can tell you one thing. RFB is gonna have to wait. This is too much fun.

He came back with one of the greatest compliments I've ever received:

Everyone should read this post by rockin robbins:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=235

This is how to handle the AI in this mod, its how i always intended it. If you think you can just go below a layer, hit silent running and be safe in a psudo klingon cloaking, you got another thing coming. Skipper the boat, its not a pleasure cruise where you stand idley by playing shuffleboard waiting for the DC's to stop.

I guess he was also resuming putting me in my place again.

It's just amazing to me that you put the question just about exactly as I did back in July 2007.