I had an interesting discussion today ingame on the subject of players being able to transfer between escorts (when playable escorts are implemented).
He contended that it was "unfair", which really surprised me, as it seems to me that having poorly functioning AI behaviour of the escorts is already unfair - in the uboats favour!
Currently a U-boat player if he's a bit careful, can expect no detection or DC attacks, provided he can remain undetected for 6 minutes or so and make 160m depth during that period. If he's less than capable, he can expect between 0-2 DC attacks, between the surface and 160m, and if halfway capable, can pretty much always avoid a critical hit.
With the caveat that DC lethality is overly dangerous as modelled currently in game, it seems self-evident to me that employing the AI escorts to prosecute asdic searches as of routine, without the convoy being at alert, would be a good start, and that allowing players to take over an AI ship at will to prosecute a more prolonged and thorough asdic search/attack would add to the difficulty of U-boats, as well as improving gameplay for both sides players.
Fundementally, allowing players to transfer between escorts is not much different to the current situation where U-boat players can re-enter a lobby to start or join new u-boats?
During our discussion today, it was suggested that escort players only be allowed to move to a ship which has detected the U-boat via asdic. This seems overly proscriptive to me, as for a start it means that a surfaced U-boat, easily visually acquired by a human player on an escort, cannot be attacked by that same escort, because it hasn't made an asdic detection, and therefore cannot be moved to the required position...
Thoughts?
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