This is from my notes and audio during the January demo and presentation of Silent Hunter 4 in the Ubisoft studio in San Francisco.
Silent Hunter 4 Multiplayer
Two types of play: Cooperative and adversarial. Cooperative is sub players vs. AI surface ships. Adversarial is up to three sub players vs. a convoy command player who controls the merchants and escorts.
As a convoy commander player you would know going into the game how many subs you are playing against, from the pre-game lobby. But you would not know where they are located. Presumably, the gamewill arrange the sub players randomly, but I have not tested this.
Convoy Commander
You control the escorts and the merchants. You can set escort waypoints, direct their course, and have them take up station using the top-down map or from a bridge station on the escort ships, reminiscent of Destroyer Command.
You can control fire from aft and side depth charge racks, individually.
Escort player gets sonar contacts in form of blue bearing lines.
Sometimes your contacts will be false contacts; dev team to balance.
DDs not assigned activity will process as AI (not as effective?) and prosecute a contact automatically.
I noticed that if a DD gets a contact, you could direct another DD to the area; if he gets the same contact, you have triangulated a good target area (where the two DD contact lines intersect). However, this does tie up two escorts, leaving fewer resources to search for the other two subs, and if the contact is false, then the sub players have an advantage.
Convoy
You can change speed and zigzag pattern but you cannot change overall course (would overwhelm sub players). It remains to be seen how much course control you have. I would think a convoy commander could change the convoy course some, say 15 degrees overall. The result could help or hurt him, and likewise could help a sub player by coming right at him as likely as moving away. The convoy cannot turn around go the opposite direction.
Overall, this looks like it could be a lot of fun for both the convoy commander and sub players, if the MP is stable and not laggy, and if the gameplay is well balanced. The game should look for anything that rewards skill. I was told there would be settings that make the game realistic, no magic weapons officer giving perfect range or external views if you choose to play hardcore. Of course, there needs to be a good battle report, as well.
Audio:
Direct control of an escort in SH4 MP.
Neal
Subsim