Ships don't zig-zag when attacked?

[maillemaker]

Last night I attacked two ships in 1939 off the east coast of Britain. Fired off all the torpedoes; all missed but two and they were duds. So I surfaced and used the deck gun. Sank one, ran out of shells before the other sank. Of course I light it up with the AA gun and the thing bursts into flame from end to end.

The ships did not zig-zag like they do in SH3. Is this normal?

Steve

[ZygfrydDeLowe]

Are you playing vanilla, or using any mod or mod soup that incorporates IRAI?

I've seen your posts in Wolves of Steel thread. If you are using this mod, then ships alerted to your presence should zig-zag. As far as I know ships other than escorts sail in straight lines and do not zig-zag by default.

[mobucks]

IRAI is great when it works as intended. Unfortunately there will be some instances when it acts funky. One thing I can say, I'm almost positive every scenario will be different. TDW wanted to make the ai less scripted and more random which means things like this happen, whether it's intended behavior or not.

Last night I was deck gunning a few stragglers in the dark and they acted like I wasn't there for a long time then BAM searchlights and return fire from two close merchants. Without IRAI they would always engage at a predetermined range and spot me at predetermined distance. IRAI randomizes most of these predetermined figures. Sometimes the result is not great and you experience similar issues to the OP. But when it's working good it's damn impressive.

[maillemaker]

Yup, I'm running Wolves of Steel mod.

Steve

[kevinsue]

Originally Posted by mobucks

IRAI is great when it works as intended. Unfortunately there will be some instances when it acts funky. One thing I can say, I'm almost positive every scenario will be different. TDW wanted to make the ai less scripted and more random which means things like this happen, whether it's intended behavior or not.

Last night I was deck gunning a few stragglers in the dark and they acted like I wasn't there for a long time then BAM searchlights and return fire from two close merchants. Without IRAI they would always engage at a predetermined range and spot me at predetermined distance. IRAI randomizes most of these predetermined figures. Sometimes the result is not great and you experience similar issues to the OP. But when it's working good it's damn impressive.

I have noticed that a submerged torpedo attack will get them zig zagging and altering speeds. Surface gun attacks usually gets them running full speed ahead with their stern on you.

On one occasion, I decided to run down a lone, small unarmed freighter for a night gun attack. It was about 10 km or so ahead, steaming along at around 12 knots, minding it's own business and heading for it's port (easy meat...conserve torpedos, you know...clever skipper ). I was also aware that a warship was loitering in the area but it was a long, long way off.

I commenced my run at flank speed to overhaul the freighter, making small course corrections to stay in lead pursuit. In the excitement of the chase, I failed to recognise that these small course corrections to keep on the freighter, had maneouvered us into both running at full speed towards the damned warship!

That wiley "so and so" of a Captain had radioed for help and was doing an excellent job of leading an unsuspecting me into a trap, because the warship was also heading our way at 30 something knots!!

Just when I was licking my chops in anticipation of the kill, and had ordered one of the watch crew to fetch my trumpet so that I could blow a tune about me being such a skilled hunter, I became shockingly aware of my blunder as the the Destroyer came slicing through between me and my prey with guns blazing!!

I immediately panicked and couldn't find the teleport button so I could quickly get below decks to crash dive, which led to my boat taking a couple of hits from the Destroyer. Things quickly went from bad to worse when I finally got my boat crash diving, because I promptly pranged into the seafloor as I'd forgotten that we were in shallow water!!

SO....there we were.....sitting on the bottom, crew, boat and everything in it all banged up and the enemy determined to finish what they started with depth charges!! It was harrowing wait for the destroyer to eventually give up and lose interest and be on his merry way because besides the smoke, sparks and flooding, the damaged batteries and compressed air were draining slowly the whole time that we were just sitting there getting frightened to death!

Eventually when everything became quiet again and I thought it safe to do so, I tried to surface but the boat thought it best to stay just where it was. Damage report showed that among a host of other things, the ballast tanks and compressor were damaged and the main ballast pump was kaput!

I used the last of the compressed air to blow the ballast tanks and the nose lifted to about 45 degrees with the stern still sitting on the bottom and refusing to budge any further.

With the E-motors at flank speed chewing through what was left in the batteries and juggling the manual dive planes, we managed to get it moving off the bottom and leveled up enough to allow the speed to slowly build up and eventually dynamically push the boat to the surface.

With the batteries nearly dead, the E-motors lasted just long enough on the surface to get the diesels fired up, so we could increase speed to stay afloat and save our bacon!

At this point, the Chief and his cronies, who had steadfastly been refusing to help in any way, finally figured they all weren't going to die on the spot. They decided to actually do what they were being paid to do and attempt to get the flooding under control and try to fix a few things around the place.

Due to being unable to submerge safely, and the ballast tanks and pump not really repairable at sea, we were compelled to creep back to base for repairs the long way round hoping to avoid any enemy activity in our very delicate and vulnerable condition.

So agreed! To cut a very long story short , when IRAI and RSD and all those other great mods kick in and are working good, it is VERY damn impressive, and can lead to some very nerve wracking and "sphincter factor" moments during an otherwise mundane patrol!

[mobucks]

Excellent read! Hear hear!

[maillemaker]

I have noticed that a submerged torpedo attack will get them zig zagging and altering speeds. Surface gun attacks usually gets them running full speed ahead with their stern on you.

Well that explains it!

The first night, I hit two freighters with gunfire and they just made a run for it.

Last night I hit the leader with torpedoes and the follower took evasive action.

Steve

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by mobucks

Excellent read! Hear hear!

True!