[TEC] changing 40mm/37mm to deck gun for AI?

[akdavis]

In my ongoing quest for improved surface action in SH4, I'm wondering if it is possible to have the AI treat 1 AA gun on a sub as a deck gun so that more than two guns can be firing on a surface target simultaneously. (This is assuming that having the AI utilize an AA gun for both surface and air targets is impossible).

Here is my rationale for such a change: I've personally found that having the AI fire on air targets is not important to me at all. I almost always dive, and if I happen to be caught with my pants down, I'd rather man at least one gun myself. However, I find myself continually annoyed that when I initiate a gun action, there are all these automatic weapons going unused.

The ideal solution would be to chose one AA gun to be recognized as a second deck gun. On boats with only a single AA gun + deck gun, the AI would use both against surface targets and you could man the AA gun to turn it against aircraft if needed (or boats with 1 gun could be left as is if you always manned the AA gun during a surface engagement). On boats with 2 AA guns, whichever gun you prefer to use against aircraft would be the second deck gun. When engaged in a surface action, you could could man the pure AA gun and have 3 guns firing against a surface target simultaneously (e.g. AI engages designated target with 4" gun and 40mm Bofors, you engage with 20mm/second Bofors).

Potential barriers:
-although you can take control of multiple AA gun positions, on boats with 2 deck guns, you cannot take control of the second deck gun. Would this happen if the sim treated an AA gun as a deck gun?
-can the AI aim an AA gun at a surface target, or is AI aiming hardcoded to the deck gun sight, i.e. would your Bofors have to exchange the open sight for an optical sight?
-Fleet Boats with 2 5" deck guns might not be able to utilize such a change.
-if you had to give up aiming the deck gun yourself (which I believe is far too easy anyways, and should be left to the AI), could anything be done about the AI's woeful inability to handle any targeting order other than to fire at the waterline?
-you might have to have crew manning both deck guns and AA guns when engaging an aircraft if you wanted the gun to load when you weren't manning the position.
-could an AA gun maintain its position on the sub and still be used by the AI against surface targets?