I know the GWX ones don't act like submarines, I even mentioned that. And I know that modders can't code the AI routines, I mentioned that too.
What I'm saying is that having the AI routines for 200 or so submarines in realtime isn't practical. Cutting down a few ships in the dynamic campaign wouldn't work either because ships go from point to point whilst submarines have to do many more functions, so it definately wouldn't be as simple as subtracting the number of surface ships from the pool on a one to one basis as the number of submarines you're going to add. The AI is just more complex for one thing, and every torpedo attack that happens 1000 miles away from you still has to be calculated. That already happens in SH III with surface ship gunbattles, but a shell is a dumb weapons while a torpedo is a semi-smart one and has many more calculations to go through.
So basically what it's boiling down to here is I'm saying that the scale of computing factor for the complexity of the AI spread over scores of submarines over thousands of miles is probably why they're unworkable at this time, while you're saying the Dev team just doesn't feel like doing it. As much as I've seen from the Dev team on SH III/IV I seriously doubt "we just don't feel like it" is the real reason that AI subs aren't in.
Most of the bones of the SH IV engine is the SH III one, so the basic structure is in place and the wheel doesn't have to be reinvented for the basic engine. Which means they have more time this time around than they did with SH III to develop things. Time that could be spent making submarine AI, since they haven't done that then I'm thinking there are plenty of good reasons for it aside from just not feeling like taking the time to do so...time which they did have this time around. So there has to be another explanation, and I'd be willing to bet a nickle that the AI computation cycles exploding exponentially for every AI sub you'd include is the reason why.
I don't see it being a kick in the teeth for the fans either. What does your average fan want to do? Not the hardcore guys which hang out here but the guy who sees the box in Wal Mart or wherever and decides to pick it up? He wants to sink ships. Do you honestly think those sort of people would be thrilled to have 20% of the shipping to attack as in SH III because the Devs yanked ships out to do submarine AI, even if that were doable, which I don't think it is? He'd be pretty miffed I bet that there are less targets for him because hardcore people wanted AI subs in no matter what the tradeoff was, AI subs which he'll probably very rarely see.
If you want to see a sim that really amounts to kicking in the teeth of modders go take a look at Il-2. There are a grand total of 5 people aside from the Devs that get to play with the map editor and God forbid you want to make a Pacific map for a game called Pacific Fighters; people made dozens of 3D models for free to use with it but since all inclusion goes basically through 1 man only the planes he's interested in get into the sim, no matter how well they're made. There's a kicking in the teeth.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see fully functional AI subs in SH IV, but since we're not getting them I figure there's a practical reason why not and I gave my theory on what it could be. I could be wrong, but I'm sure it's some actual technical reason aside from plain old indifference from the Devs which is what you seem to be saying.
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