[1.26] Bugfest, AI division problems

[nobody]

Ever since I started playing RtW2 I noticed that AI divisions are very bad at doing their assigned job.

However, that is not the worst, because that is that AI divisions seem to love nothing more than sending their torpedoes right through the battle line they are hiding behind.

Here is a prime example of this:

Not only are the support DDs hiding behind the battle line instead of shielding it from the enemies (which are long dead, btw), but they keep firing their torpedoes right the the ships they are supposed to protect/support. This is not a rare occurrence. In this battle alone there have been at least 3 prior cases of obvious, pointless "friendly torpedo fire".

As far as I'm concerned, there are at least 4 bugs in that image alone:

1) wasting ammunition, especially massive amounts of torpedoes on dead ships

2) firing at friendly ships

3) endangering the ships they are supposed to protect/support

4) not staying in line for no reason (the huge gap between the lead ship Wittelsbach and the 2nd in line Zähringen)

But that's not all, let's zoom out:

5) the leads "support" divions is hiding so far behind its lead formation, they can't even see the enemy. Much less execute the flotilla that has been ordered a while ago

6) the AI divisons don't keep formation. There is a 16km gap between the lead and the first core division. The gap between the first two core division is over 20km! There is no excuse for that, as the lead division is going several knots slower than the slowest division in the fleet.

[cv10]

Jun 4, 2022 6:06:05 GMT -6 nobody said:

As far as I'm concerned, there are at least 4 bugs in that image alone:

1) wasting ammunition, especially massive amounts of torpedoes on dead ships

2) firing at friendly ships

3) endangering the ships they are supposed to protect/support

4) not staying in line for no reason (the huge gap between the lead ship Wittelsbach and the 2nd in line Zähringen)

But that's not all, let's zoom out:
5) the leads "support" divions is hiding so far behind its lead formation, they can't even see the enemy. Much less execute the flotilla that has been ordered a while ago

6) the AI divisons don't keep formation. There is a 16km gap between the lead and the first core division. The gap between the first two core division is over 20km! There is no excuse for that, as the lead division is going several knots slower than the slowest division in the fleet.

    I agree and have seen these issues crop up in Steam and Iron. I think at least some of them, Nos. 1, 4, and 5, result from intentions to represent the fog of war during action (for example, No. 1 reflects the British battlecruisers all ganging up on an already sinking SMS Blücher at Dogger Bank). If that is the case, I think the problems are a bit too frequent/excessive in their representation. 

    I think that the issue of destroyers firing torpedos through their own side's battle line and hitting their own ships is almost certainly a bug. I won't deny that friendly fire is a valid risk, but I cannot think of any circumstances in which a destroyer captain would think it appropriate to launch torpedos that will have to run through their own fleet. I've seen them do precisely that, and in broad daylight with good visibility.

[nobody]

I don't see a problem with friendly torpedo fire if the launching ship cannot see or know about the ships it endangers. But most of the time the endangered ship is closer than the intended target, and it belongs to the same formation.

Here's another prime example, how inept the RtW2 AI divisions are:

The supposed "screen division" tailing behind the lead ship they're supposed to screen, as if its lead ship were set to core. I wonder if someone made a sign error when calculating its relative position. There is no excuse for this here either. It's ships are at least 5kn faster, none is damaged and there is no weather induced speed limit. No communication errors have been reported either.

Also note how the "core" battleships seem to think they are support on a flotilla attack mission, charging off on a tangent instead of keeping the line. Endangering themselves instead of providing fire support. At least they're not an hour behind this time...