Volunteers needed, to test experimental AI tweaks

[propbeanie]

Depending upon how much of SH4 is in SH5 kapuhy, look at the AirBase cfg files for the AirGroups. In SH4, there are Small, Normal and Large Type=406 AirBase sets, and the LargeGr has a 2 Group of

[AirGroup 2]
StartDate=19401226
EndDate=19420601
Squadron1Class=USFighter
Squadron1No=9
Squadron2Class=LBSUSSearchPlane
Squadron2No=10
Squadron3Class=FBHurricaneMk1
Squadron3No=9
Squadron4Class=LBWhitley
Squadron4No=2
Squadron5Class=USHeavyBomber
Squadron5No=4
Squadron6Class=FBP40Kittyhawk
Squadron6No=4

That is 38 planes altogether, which with the game's logic is about 26 planes too many... - when the player's boat is detected in SH4, the AirBase seems to send out all-available, with a bit of an AirStrike.cfg pause between each "send". From what we saw in testing in SH4, a player boat will usually cause the game to generate seven response planes, each round of the AirStrike (whatever that is set to), and they'll show up in grouping of one, two or three airplanes usually, with each grouping on a slightly different heading. btw, SH4 (and 3) has the use of DummyBomb to "fake" the airplane into attacking, and of course, on that DummyBomb attack run, the plane gets close enough to engage with it's machineguns, so it looks like a strafing run. SH5 of course, has the script files to help with that also... - so check the cfg file of the LAB_NameAirBaseCountry set of files, and see if the Spitfire and Hurricane might not be over-represented, and probably have to large of a "radius" set for them. Also, there is no such thing as "bingo fuel" to a Silent Hunter airplane...

[Pascal]

http://www.histoire-en-questions.fr/...is-avions.html

[Pascal]

http://www.avionslegendaires.net/dos...astal-command/

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

- so check the cfg file of the LAB_NameAirBaseCountry set of files, and see if the Spitfire and Hurricane might not be over-represented, and probably have to large of a "radius" set for them.

Oh I did, back when I was working on Air Force mod. Not just Spitfires and Hurricanes, but fighters in general are over-represented both in stock SH5 and in TWoS. I also browsed through uboat.net while working on that mod and basically made a list of all documented cases of either plane damaging/sinking a U-Boat or vice versa, and I'm pretty sure many fighter planes present in SH5 never attacked a U-Boat during entire war.

Fixing this, however, requires pretty big edits to campaign air groups and is beyond scope of little AI tweak tested here.

[Mister_M]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

I also browsed through uboat.net while working on that mod and basically made a list of all documented cases of either plane damaging/sinking a U-Boat or vice versa, and I'm pretty sure many fighter planes present in SH5 never attacked a U-Boat during entire war.

I would be very interested to see this kind of list.

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

I would be very interested to see this kind of list.

Sure - here's my spreadsheet file, listing planes from the one with most recorded battles with U-Boats to ones with no encounters at all:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1db9...ew?usp=sharing

As for sources, I used two lists on uboat.net:

1) Aircraft losses to U-Boats:
https://uboat.net/history/aircraft_losses.htm

2) U-Boat losses (these are ordered by year, with cause of loss noted by each boat):
https://uboat.net/fates/losses/

Of course there's a gap in data here - the list doesn't cover battles that didn't result in destruction of either plane or the boat. Still, if a plane didn't score any kills or suffer any losses, one can assume it either wasn't used or was utterly ineffective in this role.

[Mister_M]

Excellent and useful work !
Thanks a bunch for sharing !

[Mister_M]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Sure - here's my spreadsheet file, listing planes from the one with most recorded battles with U-Boats to ones with no encounters at all:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1db9...ew?usp=sharing

One remark: actually, a Ventura looks like a Hudson, not a Sunderland...

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

One remark: actually, a Ventura looks like a Hudson, not a Sunderland...

What my comment means is that in SH5 campaign files, Sunderland 3D model is used to represent Ventura (and Hudson by the way). I added both planes in AirForce mod but stock SH5/TWoS doesn't have them and uses Sunderland in their place.

[propbeanie]

Thanks for the charts kapuhy. Very much appreciated!