SH:CE : Persistent cripples?

[Beach Bum]

So, last few patrols I've gotten more bold with my intercepts; for escorted convoys I've taken to parking myself 500-1000 yards off their course line and waiting for the lead merchie to cross the perpendicular line that I'm sitting on before popping the scope up and emtying the torpedo tubes. For the standard merchies I usually dedicate two torps, but of course, the fancy Mk14 magnetic exploder being the hunk of junk that it is before they fixed it, I get a dud on a third of them. The ones that double dud I write off because by this time I'm getting hammered by angry escorts, but I always take a position note of the cripples. However, after evading the escorts I come back to the point of initial attack and then search along the last known course for a nice, fat, juicy cripple, they're gone, every time.

Once you break contact from the aforementioned angry angry destroyers, does the game remove the ships from the sea? If that's the case I won't bother trying to go back and find them anymore, and it might just prompt me to finally fiddle with my Starforce'd copy of SH3 so I can play that instead.

[TorpX]

I'm pretty sure it does. I tried to hunt down ships I crippled and were on fire, after diving. In spite of looking far and wide, I could find no trace of them, or any smoke. It's kind of a bummer, but on the other hand to volume of traffic in SHCE is very high.

If you like US subs and the pacific, you should consider getting SH 4 (the 'Gold Edition') and download some good mods here.

[aanker]

Once you break contact from the aforementioned angry angry destroyers, does the game remove the ships from the sea? If that's the case I won't bother trying to go back and find them anymore, and it might just prompt me to finally fiddle with my Starforce'd copy of SH3 so I can play that instead.
The ships will be around until they 'evaporate' around 45,000+ yards. Like you figure, sometimes they head off in the general direction of their escape course but also curve over 90 - 180+ degrees from that. Sometimes they like to head for their original destination port or turn back and head to where they came from. Many times they head for nearby land, line-up abreast, and anchor very close to land - many times way in... so far that I've used radar and the deck gun to sink some of these 'invisible targets'.

Happy Hunting!