Further to the above, and after a prolonged and interesting discussion with Koji, who is currently putting in a lot of modelling and research work on playable escorts, I'd add the following to the preceding post:
1. With players changing which escort they are aboard and operating, instead of the AI, there would need to be a minimum period for changing from one boat to another, to make it impractical for one player to in effect run 3 escorts all attacking the same U-boat sequentially. I would suggest 3-6 minutes as a start-point for such a limit, subject to play-testing.
2. That there be a role of "Convoy Commander" (CC), who can detach escorts from the screen to attack any detected u-boat or to search a given area. AI escorts would hold their assigned stations around the convoy, or endeavour to return to them once unmanned by players, unless there is a command in effect to move some of them to a map-specified location. Such an order would be time-limited, with the maximum loiter time being proportional to the maximum speed of the escort and inversely proportional to the distance from the escort's usual station. In simple terms, fast escorts can be detached and loiter for longer than slow escorts, or those whose station is far away. No escorts would route back to their station via the area occupied by the convoy, but rather they'd arrive at the circle described by the escort screen and then move around that until back on station.
3. The convoy commander could (once/twice per hour?) put in zig-zags, either left or right, which the convoy would follow.
|