[doulos05]

1 Do ships in SH4 constantly run aground/into each other like in sh2 and 3?

I've not experienced ships running aground in SHIV 1.4 as of yet; although I understand it is possible, through maneuver, to trick destroyers into running into merchants. However, that's not an implausible occurance. ships don't exactly stop on a dime, and if one merchant captain who has never convoyed before zigs when he should have zagged.... Well, things get hectic once the convoy is attacked and the merchants run for cover. I did watch a ship sink in high seas without me hitting it, don't know if you'd count that as "running aground" (The seas were sufficently high that I was at periscope depth, yet on external cam my deck gun was occasionally above the water).

2 Are there AI controlled subs and can they DIVE this time?

I haven't seen one, although I think I heard that there weren't.

3 Do the AI DDs in any way cooperate or coordinate their moves?

The AI on the DDs seems much improved. It's taken me up to a few hours to disengage from an attack on a convoy. A lot of it depends on where you are when you make the attack. My most successful attacks, I have hit the convoy from their port/starboard bow and sailed under the merchant to exit dead astern. The noise from the merchants has allowed me to escape relatively unharmed. Once, I escaped this way without so much as a single ping striking my hull.

4 Is the radio traffic random or always the same?

Not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean the radio contact reports? If you mean that, then you'll find the unmodded game quite a target-rich environment. Not sure about the super-mods, haven't tried them yet.

5 Does the enemy's detection work(or rather not work) the same way they do in earlier installments?

Their sonar seems to work fine to me, and at night they're lookouts are sharp enough to spot your periscope if you leave it up all the time.

Overall, I'd say the game is worth the money. However, DO NOT attempt to play any version of the game before 1.4. That means, if you buy the non-gold edition you need to download the 1.4 patch and apply it before you play it. Several serious bugs were fixed between 1.0 and 1.4 (in fact, even between 1.2 which I bought and 1.4). The u-boat missions in the gold edition (also available separately from direct2drive) are patch 1.5, if you get either the gold edition or buy that patch separate (same price either way), you're fine.

Also, mods make the game, and they're pretty easy to use too.