escort AI: a user's guide

[Bilge_Rat]

There have been many threads on the braindead AI. However, the enemy AI in SH5 works the same as in SH3/4, namely it will ignore you until it detects you, at which time it will search/attack until it has lost contact with your boat for a specified amount of time.

One interesting tweak in SH5 is the fact that we can now see the AI's detection range when you use map updates "on". For example, here we can see how your own boat's speed affects the detection range:

1. 1 knot




2. 4 knots



the light yellow cones represents the passive detection range and the red cones, the active detection range (i.e. ASDIC).

As an experiment I drove my boat at 4 knots toward the escorts to see if they detected me:






as soon as I enter the yellow cone, the escort takes an interest:



As soon as I enter the red cone, the escort now alerted to my presence starts to ping me. The darker yellow circles which now appear is the visual detection range ( I also left my periscope up). Notice also how 2 escorts are peeling off from the main group and heading straight for my boat:





now a 3rd escort from the main group is turning south:


it might be time to leave:




now lets try this again, this time going dead slow, periscope down. Notice this time how small the yellow cone is showing that I have to be very close before the escort hears my boat:









here I am in the active cone, but since I have not been detected, there is no reason for the escort to ping me:


past the escort screen and on my way to the juicy targets:



Conclusion: the escort AI works as it should, even though some players appear to find it too easy. However, the good news is that it appears fairly easy to tweak the variables to create an AI which will find, track and kill you everytime if that is what you want...