Round Convoys?

[Sandman_28054]

After a year of not playing GWX 3.0, I recently reloaded it and began playing again.

Seems like this happened once before, but I can't say for sure.

After patroling Grid CF 99, I remember reading some thread about Rockall. Turning north, I decided to cruise up there and see what shake loose.

Convoys typically turn up as Red squares.

Picked up a large convoy. Heading: SE, Sp. 8 knts.

This time it was a Blue circle.

Turned out this convoy had 8 tankers from small to modern, four Whale Factory Ships, 2 large Merchants, and 4 small merchants.

Here is my list of sinkings:

0000 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! HMS Acheron (A&B classes), 1350 tons
0008 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! S.S. Tannadice (Small Tanker), 2051 tons
0010 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! M/V Stanvac Cape Town (Large Tanker), 9679 tons
0017 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! M/V L.P. St. Clair (Large Tanker), 9680 tons
0026 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! S.S. Southern Empress (Whale Factory Ship) (Whale Factory Ship), 12016 tons
0431 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! S.S. Nicarao (Medium Tanker), 8700 tons
0435 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! S.S. Janna (Medium Tanker), 8327 tons
0438 Grid AM 1 Ship sunk! S.S. Stirlingshire (Medium Tanker), 8701 tons

Are tanker convoys usually blue?

[Paul Riley]

I may be wrong about this,but blue usually indicates friendly units.Strange having friendly units out there :hmmm:

[f4wildweasel]

odd, when I play GWX all my contacts, regardless of affiliation, are black. Now circles usually signify submarines (both friendly and enemy) maybe this was an AI wolf-pack or a convoy under u-boat attack?

[Paul Riley]

odd, when I play GWX all my contacts, regardless of affiliation, are black. Now circles usually signify submarines (both friendly and enemy) maybe this was an AI wolf-pack or a convoy under u-boat attack?

Interesting,i'm not sure if wolfpacks are implemented in the game as I once asked about this ages ago.I sure as hell would like to see a wolfpack attack take place.

[frau kaleun]

GWX removes the red/blue/green color coding from the game so that all units show up as black icons on the map. There is a mod that returns the colors (as well as navigational tails) for those who want them back.

In stock, units are color coded blue=friendly, red=enemy, green=neutral.

If you're playing GWX3 and haven't modded any colors back in for planes/ships/etc., everything should be black. Not sure about the round icon for the convoy as a whole - the only time I've seen a round icon on the map was the small one that indicates a sub. :hmmm:

@Paul: Wolfpacks are not part of stock or GWX and I don't think they've ever been implemented in other supermods without causing problems elsewhere, but h.sie (with help from a score of other modders) has been trying to figure out a way to put them into into the game successfully. The idea is to have something get spawned, even if it's not a u-boat you ever see, that will show up and attack a convoy you have reported and draw the attention of some of the escorts. The last time I checked his thread for realism and gameplay hardcoded fixes that was his primary interest ATM.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=174225

[WetOne]

Yes I have seen this happen before, a couple of times. From what I understand the convoy takes its "Icon" from the lead ship in the convoy, so if it is an enemy merchant ship, it will be a red square, and if you see a Big blue circle like you describe, it doe sindeed mean that there is a AI U-boat ahead of the convoy, the game then interprets the U-boat as being part of the convoy.

Yes I would also see it actually do something about being in such a prime position, but I never have :yawn:

There was a post about this a year or two ago, but I cant find it, if i do, will post a link.

EDIT: Ok, here is one that explains it nicely http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=178196&highlight=blue+circle

and a couple to show that it is not that unusual :

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=124626&highlight=blue+circle
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=123779&highlight=blue+circle
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=130872&highlight=blue+circle

[f4wildweasel]

yeah i didn't think wolf-packs were in GWX... One other idea i thought of was that a random ai u-boat was patrolling the waters and bumped into the convoy when the contact report went out, making it show up as large (multiple ships), circular (because the u-boat was there), and blue (the u-boat being allied). Sometimes I'll see convoys where some ships are on fire or taking on water, especially when they showed up on my contact reports as a circle. Once in the Med I was closing into a convoy when my hydrophones picked up another u-boat. The AI type VII sailed into it on the surface and began attacking with its deck gun (damaging a destroyer before being sent down by British gunfire). So while there are no wolf-packs, it could be a single ai u-boat doing a surface action on a convoy while the contact report went out.
Edit: in my defense, WetOne hadn't posted when I started typing this. Didn't mean for a redundant post to happen.

[Sailor Steve]

Sometimes there will be an AI u-boat stalking the convoy. When this happens it is made the lead ship, so the convoy is identified that way. Round circles are submarines, and blue is friendly. When you see that you know there will be another u-boat there.

[Fish In The Water]

...but h.sie (with help from a score of other modders) has been trying to figure out a way to put them into into the game successfully.

A work in progress, still hoping for the best. :yep:

[frau kaleun]

Sometimes there will be an AI u-boat stalking the convoy. When this happens it is made the lead ship, so the convoy is identified that way. Round circles are submarines, and blue is friendly. When you see that you know there will be another u-boat there.

Good to know. Haven't seen that yet so it's something to be on the lookout for. :yep:

[Missing Name]

I've seen this a couple of times as well. Usually there would be a ship or two with shell damage.

[Sandman_28054]

Interesting,i'm not sure if wolfpacks are implemented in the game as I once asked about this ages ago.I sure as hell would like to see a wolfpack attack take place.

Funny story, while putting out to sea, a radio message came in that U-32 was trailing a convoy and U-52, U-65, and my boat, (U-123) was ordered to make progress to form a wolfpack to attack the convoy.

Funny because I could have made the wolfpack as I was only 200 nm from Lorient. But, the convoys position was not included in the message.

And as you can see, it was not a "friendly" convoy. But perhaps it was being trailed by a U-Boat as the circle was blue.

[Paul Riley]

Funny story, while putting out to sea, a radio message came in that U-32 was trailing a convoy and U-52, U-65, and my boat, (U-123) was ordered to make progress to form a wolfpack to attack the convoy.

Funny because I could have made the wolfpack as I was only 200 nm from Lorient. But, the convoys position was not included in the message.

And as you can see, it was not a "friendly" convoy. But perhaps it was being trailed by a U-Boat as the circle was blue.

Really?,I have NEVER had a radio message of that nature before.
Maybe a GWX dev could elaborate on this more?,hmmm :hmmm:

[HW3]

It was an immersion message taken from radio broadcast messages from the war.

[Paul Riley]

It was an immersion message taken from radio broadcast messages from the war.

I see,that explains it then.
Thanks.

[Sandman_28054]

Here ya go, I ran into another.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/180/sh3img1772011154724817.png

Another blue round convoy.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/5127/sh3img1772011154752270.png

[Obltn Strand]

My experiences with round convoys is that they have neutral ships mixed up with enemy ships. Almost impossible to make difference during night attack.

[Sailor Steve]

Squares are merchants. Diamonds are warships. Circles are submarines. This never changes, and that's all you need to know.