Strange behavior of task forces?

:hmm:
I was passing Luzon at December 11 1941 when I encountered a task force moving at 1 kts?
I did not sink any of task force ships and they did not detect me (so it wasn't, as some have mentioned, that AI slows down to search for you with sonars)…
What happened?

Also, I opened 41a_Jap_TaskForce.mis with SH mission editor and saw that it can only be "41a_Jap_TaskForce_003". The speed of that task force was set to 11 kts. Another interesting thing is that task force that I encountered had 2 light cruisers, few destroyers and some merchants while "41a_Jap_TaskForce_003" has a few carriers with 100% spawn probability (there were none in my mission).
Why is that?

As you can see, they have probably slowed down because of "collision avoidance".

[tater]

The early war is a scripted layer called EastAsian Campaign or something like that.

I was testing some layers and I ran into a TF with BBs west of Manila, but was not set up for a good attack. I fired all 4 tubes at the BBs steaming away from me (at 18 knots) and badly damaged Ise who slowed. I then sank a screening DD that was astern of the TF with a single torpedo. I think it said I sank a neutral, even though I had already recieved word that we were at War. On a lark (was only testing, lol) I surfaced and ran in at flank speed to turn and use the 3 remaining rear tubes while the front reloaded. No one reacted. A DD on the far side rear came around as part of his escort pattern—and ignored me. Sea was CALM. I drove past the stricken BB at pistolshot, no reaction. Got a few hundred yards off his port bow, and put 2 more fish in him. He goes down at the bow and slows to a crawl. Long story short, I flanked around and used every single torpedo, and even the deck gun. At some point the 3 lead DDs came in with bones in their teeth and before I could submerge, they sank me.

[Jmack]

everything behaves strange in this game ... merchants , aircrafts ... task forces , DD's
even the clouds ...

Originally Posted by tater

The early war is a scripted layer called EastAsian Campaign or something like that.

Thanks. I would have never guessed!

Originally Posted by tater

On a lark (was only testing, lol) I surfaced and ran in at flank speed to turn and use the 3 remaining rear tubes while the front reloaded. No one reacted. A DD on the far side rear came around as part of his escort pattern—and ignored me. Sea was CALM. I drove past the stricken BB at pistolshot, no reaction. Got a few hundred yards off his port bow, and put 2 more fish in him. He goes down at the bow and slows to a crawl. Long story short, I flanked around and used every single torpedo, and even the deck gun. At some point the 3 lead DDs came in with bones in their teeth and before I could submerge, they sank me.

I have been bothered by that, too.
I have spent days tweaking visual contact from enemy and their response.
Try this:
Sim.cfg

[AI Cannons]
Max error angle=0.40 ;[deg]
Max fire range=9000 ;[m]
Max fire wait=4 ;[s]

[Visual]
Detection time=0.25 ;[s] min detection time.
Sensitivity=0.05 ;(0..1) at (sensitivity * max range) we have a double detection time.
Fog factor=1.5 ;[>=0]
Light factor=2.25 ;[>=0]
Waves factor=0.75 ;[>=0]
Enemy surface factor=30 ;[m2]
Enemy speed factor=45 ;[kt]
Thermal Layer Signal Attenuation=1.0

Also, try creating vet or elite enemy... see if this works

[Einzelganger]

Came across the same taskforce near Luzon but hadn't encountered this. After i did torpedo one of the battleships all warships just went round in circles while DDs tried to find me.

This actually allowed me to get another shot off on one of the other battleships.

[UnSalted]

I encountered a TF heading south on the western Luzon coast in my first few days of the first career. Six destroyers/DEs and three Mogami cruisers followed closely by 2 lines of 4 small European liners with no destroyer behind them. Weird. I took out 2 of the liners and after a few minutes of chasing them a destroyer finally came back to check up on them.

[Yanaran]

The file that controls those large troop convoys at the start of the war is EastAsiaCampaign.mis in the campaigns folder, and the reason they move at 1 kt is that several of their waypoints are set to 1 kt. Since the waypoints before and after are set to 15 kts, the only reason I can think of is that someone made a typo and like most of the things in the game it was never tested properly.

I've changed all of these in my campaign files to random speeds between 10 and 15 kts.

Originally Posted by Yanaran

The file that controls those large troop convoys at the start of the war is EastAsiaCampaign.mis in the campaigns folder, and the reason they move at 1 kt is that several of their waypoints are set to 1 kt. Since the waypoints before and after are set to 15 kts, the only reason I can think of is that someone made a typo and like most of the things in the game it was never tested properly.

I've changed all of these in my campaign files to random speeds between 10 and 15 kts.

Thank you!!!!
What a mistake from the programers!

[-Pv-]

Good idea Yanaran.

I ran the file through a search/replace and changed every instance of speed=3. to speed=13. and every instance of 1. to 10. Only took about 30 seconds to do this.
-Pv-

[tater]

BTW, the TF I ran into West of Manila is not in the eastasia mission, it's particular to the war patrol mission i happened to be running.

[kakemann]

Originally Posted by Yanaran

I've changed all of these in my campaign files to random speeds between 10 and 15 kts.

Fantastic find Yanaran! Thanks a lot for sharing with us!

[tater]

mcoca's wonderful program can find the specific waypoints in the entire campaign folder and change them. Very powerful.