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Drongo -> (7/18/2002 8:48:27 AM)
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On my understanding, (the grog's will correct me if I'm wrong) the reaction routines for Surface Combat TF's will only kick in when an enemy TF is moving to enter a friendly base, the friendly Surface Combat TF is within less than one move of the base and the friendly TF has "react to enemy" active (I've definitely seen it happen against enemy bombardment TF's). You then see the "TF reacting to..." message. On a few occasions, I have seen something like "TF X moving to cover TF Y" when enemy surface TF's were spotted in the area (TF X being surface combat and TF Y being transport). However no combat ever occurred and the situation was so vague that I could not say what the game routines were doing.
The options for surface combat seem to be limited to either the case above or lucking out and picking the hex that an enemy TF will end its move (even then, the enemy TF will attempt to move away if it has retire orders).
I agree that it would be nice to have some type of reaction routine that kicks in when a "detected" enemy TF passes within a certain distance of a Surface Combat TF. All the factors neccesary to determine whether combat is successfully initiated (ie aggression, experience, detection, speed and orders) are already present in the game, although the chances of combat occurring would need to be far less likely than with the base defense example (ie the objective was known). I doubt very much that a whole new routine would be added given the designer's existing workload but if it was, it would at least increase the excitement as enemy TF's sail near you on the map.
On the subject of intercepting CV's, be careful what you wish for. The AI has a tendency to sometimes settle into a hex when airstriking your bases. I once had 4 IJN BB's sitting in a port that was being struck by nearby USN CV's over several turns. The AI kept operating from the same hex. My patience eventually gave in and I sent the BB's out to the hex in question with a patrol/do not retire order. They entered the carrier's hex at night but no combat occurred (insufficient detection level?). Next morning found both parties still sharing the same 30 miles of water. A bit embarressing as air combat comes before surface combat!
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