How to fix the UK escort/covoy problem?

[Solo?]

I'm playing my first earnest game of HOI3 as Germany and am occasionally checking in on the AI to see where they are deploying troops and what they're building. It's now nearing 1940 and I'm preparing for operation sealion, however taking a look at the UK's build list they're building nothing but radars, coastal defenses and convoys/escorts. How can I fix this? How many convoys/escorts does the AI intend to build? If I give them a whole bunch of convoys/escorts will the AI stop building them? If I change their production to much needed infantry and armour will the AI cancel it and continue to build convoys/escorts?

It saddens me that basic issues with the AI have still not been overcome by Paradox. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Slan]

I'm playing my first earnest game of HOI3 as Germany and am occasionally checking in on the AI to see where they are deploying troops and what they're building. It's now nearing 1940 and I'm preparing for operation sealion, however taking a look at the UK's build list they're building nothing but radars, coastal defenses and convoys/escorts. How can I fix this? How many convoys/escorts does the AI intend to build? If I give them a whole bunch of convoys/escorts will the AI stop building them? If I change their production to much needed infantry and armour will the AI cancel it and continue to build convoys/escorts?

It saddens me that basic issues with the AI have still not been overcome by Paradox. Any help would be much appreciated.

If you give them new building orders, it won't cancel them.
Every nation aims to have about twice as many convoys as they actually need because of a misleading function name in the API.
I can't say anything about escorts, as they seem to be not assign at all...
You could fix the former problem by modifying the ai_production.lua file, or by using an aproriate mod...

 

[Solo?]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not too fond of the most popular mods as I quite enjoy the sandbox aspect of the game with unexpected alliances forming (and I don't find keeping the US out of the war too difficult if you continue to influence they from day 1). How do I edit the ai_production.lua file? The AI doesn't even bother assigning escorts? Sigh...

 

[Slan]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not too fond of the most popular mods as I quite enjoy the sandbox aspect of the game with unexpected alliances forming (and I don't find keeping the US out of the war too difficult if you continue to influence they from day 1). How do I edit the ai_production.lua file? The AI doesn't even bother assigning escorts? Sigh...

Find the file '\scripts\ai_production_minister.lua', open it with a text editor!
Find the line

function ConstructConvoys(ai, minister, ministerTag, ministerCountry, ic)

Change these lines:

	local TransportsNeeded = ministerCountry:GetTotalNeededTransports()
	local TransportsCurrent = ministerCountry:GetTransports()
	local PortCount = ministerCountry:GetNumOfPorts()

To this:

	local TransportsNeeded
	if tostring(ministerTag) == 'GER' then
		TransportsNeeded = 30
	elseif tostring(ministerTag) == 'USA' or tostring(ministerTag) == 'FRA' then
		TransportsNeeded = 50
	elseif tostring(ministerTag) == 'ITA' or tostring(ministerTag) == 'JAP' then
		TransportsNeeded = 60
	elseif tostring(ministerTag) == 'ENG' then
		TransportsNeeded = 90
	else
		TransportsNeeded = 20
	end

	local TransportsCurrent = ministerCountry:GetTransports()	-- This is the number of currently UNUSED convoys.

	local PortCount = ministerCountry:GetNumOfPorts()

This way, most nations will try to have 20 convoys, while the colonials and other majors will aim to have a bit more. (You can guess the numbers, I think )
If it does not work, please tell me!

 

[Solo?]

Thankyou, much appreciated. I'll tell you how it goes.

edit: so ENG will attempt to build twice as many as the figure in the ai_production_minister.lua text, so in the example above 90x2= 180?

 

[Slan]

Thankyou, much appreciated. I'll tell you how it goes.

edit: so ENG will attempt to build twice as many as the figure in the ai_production_minister.lua text, so in the example above 90x2= 180?

Nope. The original script checks the currently running convoys, and tries to build at least that many. But in counting how many convoys it has, it does not take into account the running ones.

An example:
The UK runs about 400 convoys at start, and has about 80 in reserve. It counts how many it needs (~400), then it counts how many it has: 80 (because it can't count how many it is currently runing.) Now, it tries to build as many as it needs (400) minus as many as it has (80) = 320. The problem is, that the function used in the script returns the number of reserve convoys, not all of them. In my modified version, you don't use the function, but give a fixed number of needed convoys based on the nation.

 

[Surt]

The naval AI is doing a very bad job of sub and raider hunting, I can't be sure but I think its missing.

Most losses of subs are when a battle group sails by and incidentally finds the subs, I also had raiders out in the north and south Atlantic and all who was not in the normal fleet re-base paths survived for years and got the occasionally hit, again the only ones found was because the AI apparently for some other reason decided to move a battle group through there.

The AI would have to (more often?) use the option of sending some sub/raider hunter group out on the hit convoy routes like the human player is.

 

[Slan]

The naval AI is doing a very bad job of sub and raider hunting, I can't be sure but I think its missing.

Most losses of subs are when a battle group sails by and incidentally finds the subs, I also had raiders out in the north and south Atlantic and all who was not in the normal fleet re-base paths survived for years and got the occasionally hit, again the only ones found was because the AI apparently for some other reason decided to move a battle group through there.

The AI would have to (more often?) use the option of sending some sub/raider hunter group out on the hit convoy routes like the human player is.

Or simply use the "escort convoy" mission. I don't know if it does or it doesn't...