[CB..]

will have to mull this all over-- as i'm allready running with doubled DD hydrophone range i'm not sure what difference any fine tuning would make-- with doubled range they should detect me with little difficulty every time regardless of the weather etc--

ran another test patrol same settings as before--

the heightfactor =2
on the radar worked nicely as i got a response from the lead DD (one of the normally uber american jobs) it came out to investigate but as i dived early it didn't find me and went back to the convoy -as it was rough seas this seemed about right-- the hunter killer group in the previuos mission had been able to find me with radar from a great distance and di instigate an attack-- it was calm in that patrol and area--so fairly realistic and dynamic radar effeciency-- i like that --

but as i snuck past into the convoy - i was able to sink two ships and the escorts (all 8 of them) remain at their posts around the out side of the convoy at the normal distance--- at no point did the AI recognise that an attack was taking place and order a DD to investigate---

this isn't directly related to the sensors--

as normally the DD's position themselves on the nose tail and flanks of the convoy at such a distance that any submerged sub in the centre of the convoy is actually well outside the DD's hydrophone - and of course sonar range---

so what if anything tells the DD's to come in close and investigate if a ship is torpedoed?

their sensors? impossible -- your well out side their range--

visual contact with the torpedoed ship? --unlikely that they are that intelligent- and as is often the case even when the torpedoed ship is in full view of the DD's they don't move from their normal patrol positions

so what is going on?

even with no sensors at all the DD's should investigate the torpedoing of a ship in their convoy- they should come over and have a look round
it's not complicated really--
if a ship on the outside left of the convoy gets torped then look on the outside left same on the right- if a ship in the center of the convoy getes torped then go into the convoy and search

and granted sometimes this is exactly what happens--

BUT as the DD's are out side sensor range of the sub when this order is given to investigate- what gives the order?

where is the convoy commander AI in effect
what changes i make to the sensors should have no effect at all on the instruction to investiagte a torpedoed ship --yet it does--

figure that one out and we're getting some where--

what we want is

A) the DD's to allways properly investigate when a ship is attacked--
B)the DD's to allways put up some sort of determined defense of the convoy (it is a game after all)
C)the DD's to not be so uber in that defense that it becomes impossible to escape again after or during the attack--(again it is a game after all!)
D) the DD's not to be so weak that it becomes too easy to escape after or during an attack (same reason)

wether you look at it from a gameplay or realism point of view (or both) it's basically the same box of tricks;

why should a DD need uber sensors in order to investigate a sinking of one of the ships in it's convoy--some thing tells me that's the key to the AI dumb-ass/uber killer personality switch

as you can tell i'm coming in on this from a more general point of view
looking for hopefully some sort of feel to the problem -- for example why does lowering the radar effeciency effect the AI behaviuor so dramatically?

is it because it uses the same radar as used on the aircraft? which is designed for scanning both horizontally AND underneath the aircraft?
(as red hinted this would be critical!)