[TEC] Can we find a solution for ships circling around when convoy is attacked?

Well, devs have announced this in the upcoming 1.3 patch:
"The Group AI should always choose a new commander when the current one gets killed, instead of waiting for the currently assigned one and having all ships circle around".

This is the problem we all had when attacking convoys/TF...
Can we find the solution before the patch?

Group leader / Commander is set in the campaign files (.mis)
Example:


And this is how it looks in the .mis file:

…
[RndGroup 1]
GroupName=41a_Jap_TaskForce_001
Category=0
CommandEntry=0
Long=16796400.000000
Lat=4272200.000000
Height=0.000000
DelayMin=60
DelayMinInterv=30240
SpawnProbability=65
RandStartRadius=0.000000
ReportPosMin=1440
ReportPosProbability=85
Heading=223.733994
Speed=11.000000
ColumnsNo=3
Spacing=800
DeleteOnLastWaypoint=true
CurrentInstanceID=0
GameEntryDate=19420201
GameEntryTime=0
GameExitDate=19420228
GameExitTime=0
MaxInst=10000
MaxUnitsCreated=100
DockedShip=false
NextWP=0


[RndGroup 1.RndUnit 1]
Class=BBIse
Type=11
Origin=Japan
Side=0
CargoExt=-1
CargoInt=-1
CfgDate=19411201
No=2
Escort=false
SpawnProbability=100
CrewRating=4


By setting CommandEntry=0, RndGroup 1.RndUnit 1 is choosen as leader.
If only we could make it CommandEntry=0; CommandEntry=1; CommandEntry=2... :hmm:

[kakemann]

Interesting.. Wonder if the game can read semicolon so that more command entry units could be assigned to that group... Have you tried it? I'm not sure if I understood it... You're saying that escort behavior could be related to this? Do you mean that the DD's are circling or all ships?

My biggest concern is the destroyers which just stops and doesn't do anything

Originally Posted by kakemann

You're saying that escort behavior could be related to this? Do you mean that the DD's are circling or all ships?

It is related: 1.3 patch states that it SHOULD solve "The Group AI should always choose a new commander when the current one gets killed, instead of waiting for the currently assigned one and having all ships circle around".

I presume that means that every unit in the group follows the group leader (set as CommandEntry=xy). If the leader unit is sunk, disabled or slows to 1kts, all other ships (including escort destroyers...) will still follow him.

I have not (yet) tried to play with it... I'm waiting for some help from more experienced modders

[kakemann]

Ok, i see... I'll try and post back soon!

[kakemann]

Since the groups will appear randomly it will probably take a lot of time testing this. I have modified all convoy groups and will try to play now to see if there is any difference!

[kakemann]

Looks like Cargo ships usually are the group leader for 41 convoys file... So in order to test my changed file I'll have to try to sink one of the cargos... :hmm: