Strange convoy behaviour

[Subwolf]

I attacked a large convoy, over 30 ships. I surfaced inside the convoy in daylight, the escorts were far away for some reason. The ships in the convoy started to flee in all directions, and two ships even collided, one of them went down :rotfl:

Haven't seen this before, is it normal in SH3?

[melnibonian]

I think it's a stock bug. Ships start firing at you once spotted but if they hit (or be hit by) another ship they fire back. That's why you tend sometimes to see ships fire at each other without paying attention to your sub.

[mookiemookie]

This has been discussed here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=99692

[AVGWarhawk]

I really do not see it as a bug. Many ships collided and there was a lot of confusion when the wolf was in the herd. Fog really made a mess of things concerning convoys. Sometimes coded light messages were not received by the ships as to which way to zig or zag (change course), this made for some messes as well. Furthermore, bad weather really screwed things up even if there was no U-boats making trouble. If it is a bug, in my view, it is a good bug.

[Subwolf]

Thanks, I'll read that thread. But I'm not running the vanilla, and none of the merchants fired at me. Just looked like complete panic.

But I have heard that this actually happened with convoys when attacked, specially in bad weather when they had problems keeping the convoy formation.

[melnibonian]

It's a common AI problem in SH3. No matter which mod you're using the AI behaviour does not change much. Unfortunatelly the convoy behaviour is not totally realistic although I agree that a level of confusion is acceptable. This behaviour is not seen only in convoys. Warships as well behave like this. If you try to attack a harbour and you're spotted the warship will come straight at you without taking into account the geography. That's why some times they end up aground or they hit other ships.

[mookiemookie]

I think it probably had something to do with the convoy trying to make a course change, most likely to start zig zagging after they saw you. They aren't too good at synchronizing their turns.

[bookworm_020]

I once had two convoys cross each other in the ocean! It caused havoc for the escorts, so I knocked off two troop transports, three tankers, 1 C2, 1 C3 and a liberty ship as well as two escorts who got aggressive.

The other escorts took it rather bad, so they came hunting for me. The first depthcharge attack was close but I gave them the slip and had great fun listening to them depthcharge the empty ocean!

Got to love it!

[elite_hunter_sh3]

why not remake the whole AI completely? it can be done right ? and if it can then theres an idea for the expansion (or update) of GWX.

Originally Posted by melnibonian

It's a common AI problem in SH3. No matter which mod you're using the AI behaviour does not change much. Unfortunatelly the convoy behaviour is not totally realistic although I agree that a level of confusion is acceptable. This behaviour is not seen only in convoys. Warships as well behave like this. If you try to attack a harbour and you're spotted the warship will come straight at you without taking into account the geography. That's why some times they end up aground or they hit other ships.

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by elite_hunter_sh3

why not remake the whole AI completely? it can be done right ? and if it can then theres an idea for the expansion (or update) of GWX.

The problem with remaking the AI is that you end up making a whole new game from scratch. You also have legal problems with Ubisoft as if you go down that road there will be little left from the original game. In any case GWX has improved a bit the AI but not to the level we're talking about. GWX developers have done what is possible within the limitations of the game engine.