Effigy
07-27-08, 01:20 AM
First off I'm running: GWX 2.1, OLCE2 Ubermod, and SH4 Effects for GWX 2.1
Okay, bare with me.
Was patrolling NNW of South Africa (late '41) and came across a huge convoy. The convoy had 3 or four rows, 5 or six ship colums. I'm not entirely sure, it was so large I couldn't see one end to the other. I sneak in, or thought I had, when a corvette spots me and starts to attack; now in a hurry I start releasing eels like crazy, tagging multiple ships, hoping to disable them and kill later.
I expend all my torpedoes, diving and hiding under the merchants, surfacing and re-firing upon reloading. A few ships went down during the process (including a destroyer who got in the path of a torpedo bearing down on a merchant, lol!), a number of others were hit but didn't appear to be even slowing. Except for one. It was on fire, and when I say on fire I mean really on fire. It was pretty ridiculous, lol. I was sure it would explode. Was moving very slow and so I knew I had disabled it somewhat.
I mark the map on it's appprox location, and since I'm out of eels (had a few external's left though) I dive to crush depth and wait for the convoy to pass and the escorts to get bored and move off.
When they do, I surface, expecting to find the floating bonfire and finish it off with the deck gun. Nada! No sign of it at all... I know it didn't sink either.
Confused, I start moving my remaining external torps down below and motor off towards the last bearing of the convoy. Ship spotted, yells my WO. Two actually...
Guess what I see? The floating bonfire, except he's not so much on fire anymore. Just a small one on deck. But even weirder, is it appears he's being...towed, backwards, by a large cargo. I'd tagged that large cargo with one or two torps earlier, but was unable to disable completely as well.
They were moving, backwards... Bow pointed NW, but they were in reverse, very close to eachother, and sailing slow in a SE heading. Weirdest thing I'd seen.
Was the large ship actually towing the smaller ship? And if not, why were they moving in reverse? Is it possible to damage their controls in a way that only going in reverse is possible?
I'm positive they were moving in reverse. I watched this spectacle for a while, in the cover of darkness, while the torps were still loading. It was weird... Anyway, I sent the rest of my torpedoes towards them, all hits, but NO sinking! I figured then...are they bugged? (The torps did completely disable the large ship, however, that I believe was doing the towing, and both craft came to a full stop)
My gunners, despite knowing the dangers, pursuaded me to let them have a go (since we were out of torpedos), and so I gave the all clear. It was dark enough out that I justified it.
The deck gun was aimed at the small craft (the SS Bonfire) since it's likely the worst off of the two, and should (hopefully) sink quickly. It does, but not before large merchant turns her spotlights on us and starts firing. We take some damage, and a man on deck is killed, another wounded, but my guys, thrilled with seeing the SS Bonfire go down turns the gun on the big gal and shells her. I hop on the AA and use the MG to kill her spotlights, while my deck gun continues to fire. She goes down too.
We then headed far away from the area, to avoid any investigating craft, and gave our man down on deck, a burial at sea - RIP.
So... they weren't bugged in that sense (ie, not invincible), but I still have no idea if this is normal behavior. I've never seen a ship being towed, and never seen ships moving in reverse on a steady course, determined to get somewhere entirely in reverse. (Sure, ships will hit reverse to avoid a collision, etc, but this was not the case).
Never seen this before, so I'm not sure if it's an anomaly, or working as intended. Anyone else seen anything like this? :hmm:
Okay, bare with me.
Was patrolling NNW of South Africa (late '41) and came across a huge convoy. The convoy had 3 or four rows, 5 or six ship colums. I'm not entirely sure, it was so large I couldn't see one end to the other. I sneak in, or thought I had, when a corvette spots me and starts to attack; now in a hurry I start releasing eels like crazy, tagging multiple ships, hoping to disable them and kill later.
I expend all my torpedoes, diving and hiding under the merchants, surfacing and re-firing upon reloading. A few ships went down during the process (including a destroyer who got in the path of a torpedo bearing down on a merchant, lol!), a number of others were hit but didn't appear to be even slowing. Except for one. It was on fire, and when I say on fire I mean really on fire. It was pretty ridiculous, lol. I was sure it would explode. Was moving very slow and so I knew I had disabled it somewhat.
I mark the map on it's appprox location, and since I'm out of eels (had a few external's left though) I dive to crush depth and wait for the convoy to pass and the escorts to get bored and move off.
When they do, I surface, expecting to find the floating bonfire and finish it off with the deck gun. Nada! No sign of it at all... I know it didn't sink either.
Confused, I start moving my remaining external torps down below and motor off towards the last bearing of the convoy. Ship spotted, yells my WO. Two actually...
Guess what I see? The floating bonfire, except he's not so much on fire anymore. Just a small one on deck. But even weirder, is it appears he's being...towed, backwards, by a large cargo. I'd tagged that large cargo with one or two torps earlier, but was unable to disable completely as well.
They were moving, backwards... Bow pointed NW, but they were in reverse, very close to eachother, and sailing slow in a SE heading. Weirdest thing I'd seen.
Was the large ship actually towing the smaller ship? And if not, why were they moving in reverse? Is it possible to damage their controls in a way that only going in reverse is possible?
I'm positive they were moving in reverse. I watched this spectacle for a while, in the cover of darkness, while the torps were still loading. It was weird... Anyway, I sent the rest of my torpedoes towards them, all hits, but NO sinking! I figured then...are they bugged? (The torps did completely disable the large ship, however, that I believe was doing the towing, and both craft came to a full stop)
My gunners, despite knowing the dangers, pursuaded me to let them have a go (since we were out of torpedos), and so I gave the all clear. It was dark enough out that I justified it.
The deck gun was aimed at the small craft (the SS Bonfire) since it's likely the worst off of the two, and should (hopefully) sink quickly. It does, but not before large merchant turns her spotlights on us and starts firing. We take some damage, and a man on deck is killed, another wounded, but my guys, thrilled with seeing the SS Bonfire go down turns the gun on the big gal and shells her. I hop on the AA and use the MG to kill her spotlights, while my deck gun continues to fire. She goes down too.
We then headed far away from the area, to avoid any investigating craft, and gave our man down on deck, a burial at sea - RIP.
So... they weren't bugged in that sense (ie, not invincible), but I still have no idea if this is normal behavior. I've never seen a ship being towed, and never seen ships moving in reverse on a steady course, determined to get somewhere entirely in reverse. (Sure, ships will hit reverse to avoid a collision, etc, but this was not the case).
Never seen this before, so I'm not sure if it's an anomaly, or working as intended. Anyone else seen anything like this? :hmm: