Merchant zig-zagging.

Excalibur Bane · 07-22-07, 06:44 PM

I've noticed among the improvements for the AI in 1.3, was of course the merchant's zig-zagging routine. This is probably a case of personal taste, but I'm finding it to be utter madness, especially with the small convoys of two or three ships. They randomly change course and speed every second or so, which screws up my torpedos something awful because I'm usually a decent pace out (1500-2000 meters). Sad thing is, I'm not even using manual targetting and I'm still missing something fierce once I've been detected by them.

They also to scatter in random directions, instead of at least trying to head vaguely in the direction of their original destination. I've never actually bothered to follow one, but do they continue to zig-zag until the end of time or do they resume their regular route after a set period of time?

I'm not a big realism nut, but somehow I can't picture a merchant ship doing that in reality so quickly, after all the orders would have to get down to the engine room, corrections wouldn't be that quick. I'm probably wrong though.

I definately wouldn't mind this getting toned down a touch in a mod.

07-22-07, 06:44 PM	#1
Excalibur Bane XO Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 429 Downloads: 20 Uploads: 0	Merchant zig-zagging. I've noticed among the improvements for the AI in 1.3, was of course the merchant's zig-zagging routine. This is probably a case of personal taste, but I'm finding it to be utter madness, especially with the small convoys of two or three ships. They randomly change course and speed every second or so, which screws up my torpedos something awful because I'm usually a decent pace out (1500-2000 meters). Sad thing is, I'm not even using manual targetting and I'm still missing something fierce once I've been detected by them. They also to scatter in random directions, instead of at least trying to head vaguely in the direction of their original destination. I've never actually bothered to follow one, but do they continue to zig-zag until the end of time or do they resume their regular route after a set period of time? I'm not a big realism nut, but somehow I can't picture a merchant ship doing that in reality so quickly, after all the orders would have to get down to the engine room, corrections wouldn't be that quick. I'm probably wrong though. I definately wouldn't mind this getting toned down a touch in a mod.