Zombie Ships

[AhhhFresh]

I apologize if this has already been discussed at length, but I had a strange experience out on patrol last night in my S-boat after stalking a convoy.

On my first attack on said convoy I took down a large tanker and medium freighter before retreating to surface and reload so I could make another end around to intercept further down their path. Sunk another tanker and damaged a freighter but was out of torps and my S-boat was low on gass for the trip to Freemantle so I let the damaged freighter and rest of the convoy go since it wasn't even limping.

As I motor down at 2/3rds the watch officer spots a ship... an unescorted large tanker!? Well that's odd. Can't complain though, since that means I can take her with my deck gun... as we get into range another ship, a medium freighter, is spotted back on the same bearing the tanker came from... which is, oddly enough, where I made first contact with the convoy... and sank a tanker and a freighter... hmm.

Well anyway, I pepper her with shots through the superstructure and water line and down she goes... but no acknowledgement from the crew and no entry in the log book. Strange. On to the freighter then! Down she goes as well... but still nothing in the log.

It appears that after a certain period out of sight sunk convoy ships reanimate themsevles and go to rejoin the convoy... kind of odd. I guess it's good you don't get credit for the second sinking, since it could easily be exploited but it also is a bit immersion breaking.

[SteamWake]

Maybe they were ships already scored as "kills" which hadent bothered to sink yet ?

But yes Ive put ships down and recieved no credit for them.

I know in SH3 you had to actually witness the ships going down. Event camera doesent count.

Oh forgot to add if your low in fuel what are you doing at 2/3 ?

[AhhhFresh]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Maybe they were ships already scored as "kills" which hadent bothered to sink yet ?

Well, with the original kills, I had to wait for the convoy to motor on before I finished them off with the deck gun, so I watched them go down... with big secondary explosions... and the new ships seemed undamaged though I didn't check with the camera to see if they had any holes. They were moving at 7 knots, which certainly doesn't indicate imminent sinking.

In addition, I've never seen a large tanker going outside of a convoy.

But yes Ive put ships down and recieved no credit for them.

I know in SH3 you had to actually witness the ships going down. Event camera doesent count.

I sank them with the deck gun both times, so that can't be it.

Oh forgot to add if your low in fuel what are you doing at 2/3 ?

My fuel wasn't that low, and S-boats are pretty good with fuel consumption actually since standard is only 10 knts.

[tater]

Yeah, not getting a sinking credit is kinda biggy. OTOH, and unescorted tanker was the NORM in RL. The first convoy of tankers was in spring 1944 and consisted of 2 tankers. Any other grouping before that was an ad hoc "convoy" not one planned as such by the IJN.

[AhhhFresh]

Originally Posted by tater

Yeah, not getting a sinking credit is kinda biggy.

I think the not getting credit thing is intentional, because the ships have already been sunk... but for some reason SHIV doesn't want to keep track of convoys that have been partially destroyed. I have only seen it this once, but I bet if you sink a couple of ships from a convoy and then get out of range on the same track as that convoy you'll see the ships you sunk come by again miraculously resurrected and chasing the covoy.

[Iceberg]

Maybe those merchants' skippers made a deal with Davy Jones?