Historically neutrals were sometimes subject to enforced blackouts depending on where they sailing around. This mostly applied to the America's were the most neutral ships were sunk (in the shortest period of time) due to an enforced blackout rule for any shis sailing in or between certain area's at night. Several Brazillian ships were mistakenly sunk and Mexican ships (afterwards the Mexico which was neutral flipped sides to the allies after feeling betrayed for being neutral, Brazil wasn't exactly happy either) as well. Inside a port though or alone at sea I've yet to see a neutral not properly lit up.

Sinking a hospital ship is nothing but pure bad karma. There's a good chance many of your own country's casualties may be on board. Even in poor weather those things are lit up like Christmas Tree's, something so large so well lit up is probably not doing so for the sake of trying to be stealthy; its doing everything short of keying down the radio and screaming out Hospital Ship!

Don't matter if they are armed or not....try it and if the vessel is classified as a neutral (an American DD for example in early days) you will not be fired upon.

LOL. Maybe they should install some mega phones and try screaming that out every 5 mins. Being on that post for an eight hour duration would suck...:rotfl2:
Does GWX actually feature hospital ships? I haven't been playing it for very long, but I haven't seen any around. Are they only in a certain area?

@Jack Cutter!
Hospital ships, you can see in the western part of the British Isles, or in the Irish Sea or the Mediterranean or when sailing in principle, anywhere, and they are often located in harbors, but of course it changes as the war continues.

Hospital ships are most frequently seen in harbors, though its a bit uncommon they can be sailing around the major shipping lanes transporting casualties around. If visibility is poor or worse and you can make out a large lit up ship in your scope best option is to dive and look very very closely before considering firing or just let it pass, its likely either a hospital or neutral ship.

It's certainly one of those. The game doesn't give lit ships - they are a mod and all lit ships are neutral or hospital ships.

And they're always big heavy tonnage porkers that you'd love to sink.... and can't. :nope:

Keep telling yourself that once you get back to report to Herr Doenitz:D

So If I want to edit my basic.cfg to allow me to sink neutrals (for immersion purposes only of course!) what lines shoud I edit?

RenownReachGridObjCompleted=0
RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=0
CompletedPatrol=0
NEUTRAL=-1
ALLIED=1
AXIS=-10
WrongShipSunk=-5000
FirstRankRenown=100
SecondRankRenown=350
EndCampaign=-5000

Set Neutral=0, or WrongShipSunk=0 ?

Cheers! :salute:

Yes, that's it. I edit mine to read "1." My rationale is that neutrals carrying cargo to Britain are a legitimate target, because they are in a British guarded convoy. I do not use this hack to sink just any neutral simply for the purpose of running up tonnage scores.

Valid argument there, as the ROE stated that. But they're still neutral, so would possibly making it like .5 or .25 work? I just ask cause I'd be worried about not using whole numbers.

I use 0, for the simple reason that it discourages me from even thinking about it. I also reduced friendlies to -1, because the few times it did happen the kaleun was always exonerated.

What does the WrongShipSunk=-5000 line do?

Reason I ask is, having started a new career with the 7th using GWX, you are ordered to sink the ships in the bay and await further orders.
The ships are British and the date is proir to Britain joining the war. I've done this mission twice and both times I was fired on and sunk by friendlies on returning to port.

If you are truly honest with yourself, and choose to fire on neutral targets in situations where they would considered combatants (in a convoy or escorted by warships) and only choosing legitimate targets using '1' would be quite justified. There are times when the neutral ships was definitely acting as a belligerent and would have been considered a valid target; the rub is being honest with yourself not to abuse it and only fire on neutral targets in such situations that would have warranted getting credit for them.

Problem still lies that if you do sink a neutral on accident you'll get credit for it. As Steve points out using a '0' is a better alternative for most people; with that setting you get the same kind of results as those who did accidently sink neutrals in the war - no credit. The only negative point you suffer is the loss of the torpedos used to sink the ship. When you run into a convoy on your return home you'll really want those eels back that were expended on the neutral ship to use on real targets.

That's the renown you loose if you sink a hospital ship.