Eh, the last few-couple of days around midwest U.S. of A. have not been good... thunder-boomers have been on the attack, and I keep losing the internet and electricity in the middle of trying to "fix" my Steam SH3 on a Win10 laptop, which is in itself not going well... Either Steam or Windows or Ubisoft or myself (primary suspect) have mucked things up...
Anyway John Pancoast, one thing to remember about Random Generated Groups (RGG), which would (should) be in the Campaign_RND file, and the "regular" groups and units, which should be in the Campaign_SCR layer, is that the devs apparently did not fully-develop "convoying" as a paradigm. It seems to only be approximated. You have a Group "leader", and you have waypoints, and while it would be nice to see proper "convoying" in the groups, the AI just can't quite do it. All of the vessels want to go toward that set waypoint, and in geometric terms, all of the various ships' (and planes') paths will meet at or near that point.
Then there is the issue of the "set speed" for the groups. As an example, in a given groups' Properties page, there is a "MaxSpeed", and each waypoint will have a "Speed" setting, of necessity, the inside units of a formation would have to slow down, while the outside units would have to speed up, for the group to maintain "convoying" as they negotiate the waypoint location. The AI attempts this, but usually only from a "collision avoidance" perspective - at least, near as I can tell. You also have the "rudder" and "drag" effect that slows a vessel as it turns. The game allows for some "flexibility" in this regard, just by virtue of its math, but nothing specific to handle it.
Taking into consideration that the game has a minimum spacing of 500 meters for ships, and a 300 meters spacing for planes, once you "see" what they do at waypoints, you can begin to appreciate why they have those "minimums", and also why setting the value higher does not always function the way us mere humans think they should. Just so long as they don't run into each other too often, much beyond the realm of believability, unless its a collier running over the DD about to pounce on you...
- you sometimes also have to adjust the "routing", and not make the "turns" so sharp, of a lesser degree and longer period of time...
