Can't control ship at scenario start

[arie]

Every time i start a scenario/battle i can't control the ship, even thoufgh it's not set to AI controlled, even when there is only one ship in the battle.
Eventually by switching to and from ai control i finally get to control the ship but as it's me random clicking for 5 minutes i still haven't identified what it is that finally lets me control the ship

[rimbecano]

This is normal: ships are locked into their starting courses for a few turns, after which you gain control of anything set to manual control.

[wlbjork]

It will default to manual control after either a set time or an enemy is spotted.


Edit: I have found this to be inconsistent, sometimes I can control ships from the outset. I do consider this to be mildly annoying as from time to time I'll have a ship moving on a course that is unsuitable for the stated mission, meaning a loss of about 20 turns until I can correct.

[sealord]

The A.I is not good in this game I am finding. It takes over at varying times and you cannot get that back. I fought a very large sea battle and the A.I was all over the place with terrible decisions. Ships that were heavily damaged under A.I control fought suicide tactics which led to those ships sinking. I could not get control of them in order to send them home to safety. Also secondary guns did not appear to be active. Are others having A.I issues with this game?

[hawkeye]

Jan 18, 2020 17:01:07 GMT -6 sealord said:

The A.I is not good in this game I am finding. It takes over at varying times and you cannot get that back. I fought a very large sea battle and the A.I was all over the place with terrible decisions. Ships that were heavily damaged under A.I control fought suicide tactics which led to those ships sinking. I could not get control of them in order to send them home to safety. Also secondary guns did not appear to be active. Are others having A.I issues with this game?

Here is what I, as a newbie, could gather from the game-mechanics.

1. The game starts as default in Rear Admiral Mode.

This means, you control your core squadron and anything within visual range.

As soon as a subordinate squadron leaves visual range, it is taken over by the AI.

If you want more direct control, you have to switch to Captain mode, where you control every squadron yourself, no matter where it is.

2. You can detach damaged ships from a squadron, so the still healthy ships can keep on fighting, while the damaged one has a chance to withdraw - not sure the AI actually does that, but it can't hurt either and at least the healthy ships can go full speed without being slowed by the damaged one.

3. Yes, the AI does sometimes "questionable" things, to put it mildly, but then I look at all those things that happened historically and have to agree that those stupid thing actually happened - a lot.

Bottom line: If you want the AI to stop taking over and doing stupid stuff, go to Captain mode.

[wlbjork]

I'd add that ship behaviour is partly dictated by the role assigned in the Division menu. To access this, right click on the division flag (square = player control, triangle = AI control).

It will take a little while, but work out how the ships behave when assigned to Screen, Scout, Support and Core for example. Also be aware of the flotilla attack button that can send DDs and CLs off on torpedo runs.

[arie]

Thanks for the answers guys