Force retreat role

[alias72]

Hello.

I just lost a battleship because it was torpedoed and the AI decided that, despite being detached, maybe it should hang around instead of going into port. I had sent it to the port and it would easily have gotten there. Instead it just sailed around the mouth of the river near Emden for over 200 rounds until it burst a bulkhead and sank. I therefore request the following:
1. A role that forces the ship, ignoring literally everything else, to return to port or, barring that, beach itself on the nearest coastline.
2. A button in the after action report that allows me to "court marshal" my squadron commanders. Once pressed a menu appears stating that they have been found guilty and dishonorably discharged.

Thank you.

[wlbjork]

As far as I know, the detach command is being looked at. I would guess the way to fix this would be to introduce a new "withdraw" or "retreat" role (in the same vein as Support, Scree, Scout etc.) which causes the ship commander to take the safest route to the nearest port, reducing speed considerably (max 5-10 kn) once clear of enemy vessels.

[nobody]

I would like to point out there are probably two different ways a ship could behave:
1) limb home safely
2) rush home as fast as possible

[wlbjork]

Two names, two behaviours?

Really, the reason I like low speeds is because of the tendency of the AI to run at max speed which seems to increase the chance of Fire Spreads, Increased Flooding and Bulkhead Collapse events - though I haven't tested these in any scientific fashion.


Edit: I think a "Break Contact" behaviour could also be useful, simply tells a ship to try and get the heck away from the enemy ships and not to engage.

[polygon]

Jun 16, 2020 1:27:29 GMT -6 wlbjork said:

Two names, two behaviours?

Really, the reason I like low speeds is because of the tendency of the AI to run at max speed which seems to increase the chance of Fire Spreads, Increased Flooding and Bulkhead Collapse events - though I haven't tested these in any scientific fashion.


Edit: I think a "Break Contact" behaviour could also be useful, simply tells a ship to try and get the heck away from the enemy ships and not to engage.

Flooding and bulkhead issues are definitely affected by speed. You'll see "high speed increases flooding" and "bulkhead bursts on high speed flooding" messages in the log if you don't baby your retreating ships. This is one of the reasons I play in captain's mode, so I can manually set 8 knots and course "away, please, just not towards the enemy".

I don't know if speed affects fire. It shouldn't (?) but maybe I'm wrong.

[wlbjork]

It would be logical for high speed to affect fire spreading, as speed causes drafts which would in turn fan the flames. As I say, I haven't tested scientifically to be sure though, even though I had a ship on fire in my last encounter that I could have used for testing purposes - bah!