[WIP] U-Boat Killer AI Mod

[PL_Andrev]

Good question.
All modes (single and multi) based on this same game engine, but the correct question is:

What will AI do, if contact is lost and find another one?

My proposal:
1) Looking for lost contact by 10-15 minutes,
2) Listen uboat sound (no speed) by 2-3 minutes
3) Attack new, closest contact.

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by AOTD_Rhonen

does the mod works in MP-mode?

I don't know, I've never got an MP game running, but I would imagine so. The one thing I am wary of is testing in a single player missions, as historically with SH, single missions and campaign missions play differently.

Originally Posted by Antar

What will AI do, if contact is lost and find another one?

My proposal:
1) Looking for lost contact by 10-15 minutes,
2) Listen uboat sound (no speed) by 2-3 minutes
3) Attack new, closest contact.

In this mod, AI will start looking for a lost contact after about 10 minutes. If it finds a new contact, it will concentrate on the new contact. I think I'm right in saying that each ship can only deal with one contact at a time. From looking at the sensors, there is hardly any difference between slow moving and stationary as far as sonar detection goes, so slow and moving is better. The only reason for an AI to stop is if it wants to disappear from the U-Boats sonar.

There seem to be a few problems with the way the AI is implemeneted. One is that there doesn't seem to be a way to communicate that a new contact has been found, so the commander of a convoy will only know how long its been since the first sighting happened, not how the individual destroyers on the scene are doing, so it's a bit hard getting the commander to make informed decisions, as he doesn't know anything. This affects role assignment, as the commander can't tell a DD to go to attack mode, as the commander has no idea if the DD has re-acquired the target again. Annoying.

[piri_reis]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

This affects role assignment, as the commander can't tell a DD to go to attack mode, as the commander has no idea if the DD has re-acquired the target again. Annoying.

Just thinking outloud here. Can you define some global variables which the DD's at the scene can set, like made contact again, lost contact, searching.. And then have the commander script read into these variables to make more intelligent decisions.

[wamphyri]

Found an interesting side effect. I was traveling through the dover straight and was just about past all the DD's when my periscope got spotted. I don't recall if the planes had been in the area already but they joined in on the attack. There was around 6-8 planes total and 5 DD's total. Sure I wasn't anywhere near the spot they were attacking but interesting all the same.

I need to work on the plane AI because they will just attack where a sub was last spotted until they run out of fuel.

edit - also DD's will come if their close enough when you get spotted by a plane.. this mod really makes the straights of dover as dangerous as it should be

[Nisgeis]

Originally Posted by piri_reis

Can you define some global variables which the DD's at the scene can set, like made contact again, lost contact, searching.. And then have the commander script read into these variables to make more intelligent decisions.

I'll have a look, it should in theory be possible, but it depends how the game reads the scripts and parses them.

[NoLine]

I had a look at these scripts and noticed some mistakes which might mean the scripts dont run at all

example : in airplane.aix it says :

 action
 {
  Plane:FireTorpedoes()
 }

but (i think) it needs to be :

 action
 {
  Plane:FireTorpedoes();
 }

there seem to be more of these, ill see what happens if i remove them

cheers
Noline

[Heretic]

In my experience, syntax errors produce immediate CTD, so I wouldn't think that's a problem. Certainly worth experimenting with though.

[robbo180265]

Ok I'm using this mod and it's a massive difference to the "out of the box" AI.

I stalked a convoy whilst in shallow waters. The DD did come look for me after all sinkings but couldn't find me. I was running at slow speed, not silent and at periscope depth.

So it seems that although they now spend considerable time looking, they can't actually find you still.

I did briefly surface and the DD steamed straight towards the area that it spotted me. I was still able to get away whilst at periscope depth and running at slow speed.

So definatly on the right track but I'm guessing that the sensors need tweaking too.

Good work though - things are really looking up