AI (continued)
Once when in port, with dozens of buildings between our position and a German ship 3000 metres away, my Watch Officer saw the ship. This would indicate that the AI does not see objects in its way. That is, the AI can see through any object such as buildings and ships. This phenomenon may explain why when the AI is targeting your U-Boat it does not take into account anything that may be in-between. This will often result in the AI shelling other ships, not once, but as long as they are in the way. This can then lead to the AI ships fighting it out with each other.
In shallow water, your Crew AI will warn you when you select a depth greater then that of the water, however this does not carry over to deeper depths, even after you have requested a depth reading. I believe that the Crew AI should, when ‘they’ now the depth under the keel, warn a player if he should ask for a depth greater than that.
That aside, apart from letting, the player chose a depth greater than it is known to be; the Crew AI will not react when the U-Boat impacts upon the seabed and will continue to dive to the depth you requested.
Your AI crew will not warn you of an impending collision, no matter how obvious it is. There have been occasions where my career has ended due to a collision when under time compression at the Navigational Map.
The Escort AI in the King George example did show some real potential and looked to have the makings of a truly dazzling AI; however, it is also obvious that the Escort AI is a long way from being finished.
As for the Merchant and the Airplane AI, I feel that they are still using the placeholder AI they came with when they were used to test the other parts of the game.
I am not sure what to make of the current state of the AI in Silent Hunter III. I can only presume that it was given a low priority or the task had been under estimated and as a result started too late in the development cycle.
Multiplayer
Wolfpacks are the option for multiplayer games in Silent Hunter III. All players being a U-Boat captain with AI Escorts.
Your Wolfpack can have up to eight players on a LAN or via Ubi.com with the host controlling the game settings. Ubi.com is the only way to play a multiplayer game across the Internet.
I have not experienced any issues with playing multiplayer games and it is a great experience to be able to participate in a ‘human’ Wolfpack, especially with your mates.
The options are:
Game Difficulty: Easy, Normal, Hard and Realistic as per when you start a new game or mission, but without the ability to pick and choose.
Game Mode: Normal Missions uses scripted mission for which four are included. You can add more scripted missions by using the Mission Editor.
Generated missions are based on the campaign data, the same that is used for your single player campaign and include the following options…
Starting Year
Starting Month
Time of Day: 5am-9am, 9am-6pm, 6pm-10pm, 10pm-9am
Sea: Calm, Moderate, Heavy
Precipitation: None, Rain, Heavy Rain
Target Type: Convoy, Taskforce, Random
Target Size: Small, Medium, Large, Random
Escort Size: None, Small, Medium, Large, Random
Escort Experience: Low, Average, Hard
Air Cover: Yes, No
Range to Enemy: Close, Medium, Long
In Game Chat: Free, Restricted
Allow U-Boat Selection: Yes, No
Allow Crew Selection: Yes, No i.e. recruit, regular, veteran
Unlimited Torpedoes: Yes, No
The generated missions offer untold variation that allows you to start in the thick of it or out of site where you can choose your own time and place to attack.
