What do you think about the destroyer AI?

[oscar19681]

I just started the war supplies patrol in Happy times. And only once i have been DC,d by detroyers and this was on my first mission after the tutorial. After that the destoryeres never really bothered to find me. I had many situations where i attacked a well protected convoy and when the eels started hitting the enemy hulls the detroyers sometimes to and sometimes dont come looking for me. If they do come looking for me they are way off target and 9 out of 10 times they dont even bother dropping depth charges. I can stay at periscope depth without silent running without ever getting caught. On one occasion is attacked on the surface at night and fired the torps and dove away. The destroyers came looking but it was just wat to east to get rid of them. What are your experiences? Is the AI this bad?

[Nisgeis]

The AI shouldn't always know where you are. If they don't know where you are, they won't drop DCs. What would you like them to do? It's a big ocean .

EDIT: One thing they could do is to detach a couple of destroyers for sweeping, and try to keep you down.

[daemonofdecay]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

EDIT: One thing they could do is to detach a couple of destroyers for sweeping, and try to keep you down.

This is a big point. I launched a very close attack on a convoy and made my escape. I had to dive deep when a destroyer sailed kinda close, but it only dropped about 4 charges during a single pass before going back to the convoy.

[pcelt]

There is one very bizarre bit of AI or script which needs to be overhauled/eradicated
I have experienced this twice and several others have said im threads they have witnessed the same thing----this is where a single DD just reflects all your movements for huge distances-performing all the same manoevres however odd you decide to make them but never approaching or attacking. The last one who mirrored my movement through the English Channel kept at a distance of 10K and moved continuously at 14 Knots ---if I slowed the DD simply moved to and fro at 14 knots maintaining its station
On the advice of another victim of this bizarre behaviour I eventually shook him off by sailing past the Scilly Isles at a distance which caused the shadowing DD to crash into the island and become wrecked.
This is really a big immersion-killer and whether if it is AI or a script it needs urgent and decisive attention.

[SteamWake]

From what I have seen of their abilitys so far... and admittedly thats not much... there not very good.

I saw a pair of DD's firing rounds of machine gun ammo into the water once

Wasent even close to where I was and I was submerged. No idea what the heck they were doing.

I have yet to be depth charged. In fact the only 'deaths' I have is from running into other ships / land at high TC.

[Nisgeis]

They can now fire machine guns at periscopes, where before they couldn't. If they are firing at the water, I think it's because they thought they saw a contact there. This implies DDs can pickup false contacts. It's not all about you anymore, as there are AI subs to deal with too. Death by TC is quite annoying, especially when you can't get the backspace key to respond...

[Bilge_Rat]

From what I have seen so far, it is not bad, when they detect you they will attack.

The issue from what I can see so far is that their passive/active sonar detection range is a bit on the weak side. This will have to be tweaked when we have a better idea of how it works. Ducimus has already done some work in this area.

SH5 is supposed to have special scripts governing AI reaction. Has anyone seen this?

Has anyone seen AI escorts firing on each other? I remember this used to be an issue in SH3.

[oscar19681]

I guess i,m just longing for some das boot moments though. I mean it gets kind of boring getting away with it every single time. I could provoke them offcourse but that isnt realisic.

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

SH5 is supposed to have special scripts governing AI reaction. Has anyone seen this?

Yes.

Originally Posted by oscar19681

I guess i,m just longing for some das boot moments though. I mean it gets kind of boring getting away with it every single time. I could provoke them offcourse but that isnt realisic.

Well, the U-boats best shot was when they were undetected. If they got detected before they attacked, the convoy would turn away and it would scupper their plans - this happens in game now and is a huge improvement! It's also been written by sub commanders that the best way to get away was to strike first and cause confusion in the convoy and slip away whilst they were in a mess. It was when they weren't the first to strike that things got hot.

I know what you mean about the 'Das Boot' moments, but sadly my experience of DCs in SH3 and SH4 stock was that they either tickled you, or destroyed you and there wasn't much in between.

[SabreHawk]

I dont know yet, but if they aint any better than the air forces the British are in real trouble.
All up and down the east coast I sailed for four days, and we spotted aircraft at least three times each day and they either didnt see us, or were too chicken to come down and take us on. Several flew straight overhead and yet flew on without firing a shot or coming in for a closer look.

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Yes.

care to provide some details? I'm curious.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by oscar19681

I guess i,m just longing for some das boot moments though. I mean it gets kind of boring getting away with it every single time. I could provoke them offcourse but that isnt realisic.

Try this. If thats too much, then try the slightly kinder version here.

[Schultzy]

[Excuse the interruption] Totally OT: but I clicked the link in your sig Ducimus. Excellent, that guy reminds me of Charlie Brooker, only slightly less acerbic. (OK a lot less) Very nice vid.

[/Interruption ends]

[VVerevvolf]

Ambivalent..
I found a single merchant off the English east coast, decided to save my torps and attacked it with my 88. That guy must have radioed for help, because after staying afloat (my mistake..) and watching the ship slowly sink, I heard a salvo of artillery. The next thing I knew tons of damage reports came in and before I could finish crash dive, I was dead.
External cam revealed a DD ~9km away firing full barrages with all his artillery at my position.
Sinking some ships in the middle of a 50 ship convoy (I didn't bother to count, there were dozens of hydrophone contacts and ships from horizon to horizon) however didn't bother the escorts too much. They eventually came looking after the 4th ship sank, but I got away easily. However, that may be related to the early war, 1939. In later campaigns, you also get attacked by airplanes, so I guess the DDs might be harder later on?
On the other hand, I tried to sneak into an enemy harbour, was spotted by a DD, he radioed 3 other DDs in and they kept looking for me until they found me. Ok, wasn't too hard as the water was only ~15m deep, but hey, they got me

[seaniam81]

The DD AI needs some work. Last night I took fired some torpedos at a hunter killer group. The turned out of the way. Fired their guns at my scope then once i started my dive to go deep they returned to there original course and continued on their merry way without even a zig.

They totally had me dead to rights.