Why does the Ai always, always, always run away?

[Jaf]

First off: I love this game

Second: this game really needs a tutorial, the only way I can see to get into the campaign are two hour long youtube instruction videos. No.

So I've only played custom battles, and the Ai instantly retreats. ALWAYS

Things I've tried:

Overpowered/unpowered fleets on both sides

Not having torpodoes on either side

Switching back and forth different countries/powers/whatever you want to call them

Different starting distances

Varying tonnages/guns

It makes no difference, the Ai ALWAYS turns and runs away, they never detach destroyers to screen, they NEVER EVER turn to engage

Is it just me?

[Drenzul]

Not had this experience at all.

[PhoenixLP44]

Are you playing on an older version? Because the devs have tried and mostly succeeded in fixing this problem.

[Jaf]

I'm on steam so I have the latest version, I thought maybe the ships I've created were too OP for the AI, so last night just used auto generated ships, same thing happened

[brothermunro]

One thing you can try is having thick deck armour, sometimes the AI running away is it trying to get to ‘optimal’ range which it decides is as far away as possible. Thick decks can reverse its thinking and it’ll close in (not always but it’s worth a try)

Edited January 2, 2024 by brothermunro

[UnleashtheKraken]

10 hours ago, brothermunro said:

One thing you can try is having thick deck armour, sometimes the AI running away is it trying to get to ‘optimal’ range which it decides is as far away as possible. Thick decks can reverse its thinking and it’ll close in (not always but it’s worth a try)

Also on earlier techs, center deck armor can really help control pitch and roll, unrealistically heavy center deck can actually help with gunnery so that as the AI tries to close to 'kill' range, my guns are destroying them before they can get in range.

[Jaf]

Thanks for the replies, I tend to have uber thick deck armour because it's the best way I've found of counteracting pitch. Maybe this only happens in custom battles? The campaign might be different. Does anyone have a link to youtube tutuorial that isn't a couple of hours long?

[justMike247]

put yourself in the AI's position...

if you were a sad little piece of poorly coded scripting, equipped with a fleet designed by another AI that read a comic book about battleships once, then figured it can do a better job of designing these battlewagons, and tries to do so while obviously consuming substances of dubious legality, wouldn't you wanna run like hell when confronted by a significantly (hopefully) better intelligence equipped with weapons platforms that (touch wood) have a better than even chance of kickin some serious butt? I'm no chicken, but under those circumwhatzits, I'd run like the debil himself was chasin me...

[Littorio]

Because it always has and always will

[Guest]

Doesnt in my personal mod. At the gym now but can link a few params to edit once im back home