[Suggestion] Routing ships around mines

[guanotwozero]

At the moment, if sea mines are identified and cannot be destroyed, it's necessary to manually steer individual ships around them, which is a chore. Task Force pathing won't avoid them.

However, the mechanism is already there for TF ships to route around islands, so why not apply that to mines as well? Just treat them as small islands whose size is the trigger radius.

[Zathras1]

Which mine(s) are you having trouble destroying?

Not all sweeps work with all mines. For example, the AMNS won't destroy floating mines. It's designed to neutralize bottom and moored mines. For these you will need to deploy either the SWIMS or OASIS systems...if you have them.

If you don't have any MCM assets at hand, check to see if any of your ships has mine avoidance sonar and let it take the lead. Also, with the 501 candidate, it is now possible to spot floating mines and, hopefully, some near surface moored mines. I need to test this. But i'll be satisfied with just the floating mines being ID'd.

[thewood1]

Somewhat related...

Is there a way to make an exclusion zone that will keep your own units out of an area? If there was, it could be used to designate suspected mine areas or SAM-danger areas. It would force the AI to route missions around them. Frankly, I always thought they were in the game, but couldn't find a reference to them.

[mikmykWS]

Yes. Select unit. Then go to unit orders drop down. Use no navigate zone.

This would be one of its primary functions and the navigator does try and plot around it.

Mike

[Zathras1]

Here's a sandbox to play with.

Have fun!

[thewood1]

Don't ask why, but I associated those with no fly zones...thanks. Still always learning.

[guanotwozero]

Well, I defined no-navigate zones for the two mines, and replotted the routes on roughly the same course.

The vessel in the TF just carries on through it and gets destroyed, while the sub attempts to navigate around the edge of a zone, though by the longest possible edge route. It means I'd still choose to manually route vessels.

B501, BTW.

If such zones could be restricted to quadrilaterals (as would be acceptable for mines), it might be feasible to produce an optimal "elastic band" avoidance route.

Save included.

[mikmykWS]

Ah yeah looks like the ship is too close and goes right in before the navigator kicks in. Push the ship back it works fine.

The navigator code is some of the most complex stuff in the game so we're hesitant with it. Will add an item though.

Mike

[guanotwozero]

Fair enough.

Yeah, I can imagine that nav code is very complex overall, but the principle of finding a route between two points around a "nice" polygon isn't too difficult in itself. While it's not a priority, adding a component to do that later could be worth the results.

[mikmykWS]

Sure.

[Zathras1]

Ah yeah looks like the ship is too close and goes right in before the navigator kicks in. Push the ship back it works fine. The navigator code is some of the most complex stuff in the game so we're hesitant with it. Will add an item though. Mike

Mike, how far back should the group be? I have my own sandbox for this and my surface group is about 12 nm NE of the No Nav zone. Soon after I start, an alternate route gets plotted outside the zone. However, the ships starboard of my lead ship will creep along the border of the zone once the hit it and go down the side. When the whole formation gets to the south of the zone, the path goes into a loop where it sends the ships north then south.

Take a look when you have time.

Thanks.

P.S., Guanatwozero, you should use a different moored mine. You have the one with the 1 nm range, so sometimes your ships are getting blown up because you have a no nav zone smaller than the kill radius of the mine.

[Zathras1]

Here's the file if you want to look at it.

[guanotwozero]

ORIGINAL: Zathras1
P.S., Guanatwozero, you should use a different moored mine. You have the one with the 1 nm range, so sometimes your ships are getting blown up because you have a no nav zone smaller than the kill radius of the mine.

Well, it's not my scenario; it's Operation Brass Monkey, one of the bundled ones. While I could change the mines on a local copy or get the zone sizes just right, the problem remains for everyone else.

In some ways that make the case for an automatic avoidance, if it can be implemented eventually. It's unnecessary micromanagement to create zones of just the right size, which kind of goes against the idea of command-level control. I want to be an admiral, not a helmsman!