Neutral ships

[misha1967]

Now that I've got a box that can truly run this game at about 60 fps in the middle of rush hour in the Kiel Canal, it's time for me to dig into the nitty-gritty such as those infernal neutral ships, which we know aren't really "neutral" at all, but we're not supposed to sink them.

Until BdU gives us the all clear or, as I've heard, if they're steaming along without lights on.

I'm not sure about that. I've come across a few blacked out neutrals (green icons on the map) with no lights on, yet I'm not entirely sure: Can I sink 'em without negative repercussions? Or when the BdU radio messages announcing that all neutral ships in such and such zone are fair game, can I really count on that?

It's just that I hate watching them steam by with their cute green icons, knowing full well that they're on their way to England with fresh supplies. On the other hand, I don't want to ruin my own career by thinking that I'm following the rules only to find out that the rules as suggested don't really apply in the game.

[Sailor Steve]

I haven't been able to play SH5 enough to know that there were lighted ships in the game. That doesn't matter though. It should work the same way they all do; if the icon is green the ship is neutral and will cost you renown, lit up or not. You can do what I did for SH3, which is to go into the Basic.cfg file and change the renown to anything you like.

[RENOWN]
RenownReachGridObjCompleted=500
RenownPatrolGridObjCompleted=200
CompletedPatrol=100
NEUTRAL=-1
ALLIED=1
AXIS=-10
WrongShipSunk=-5000
FirstRankRenown=1000
SecondRankRenown=3500
EndCampaign=-5000

I change mine so Neutral=0, so I am neither rewarded nor vilified for sinking neutrals. I also changed Axis to -1, since it happened in real life and the usual punishment, if any, was minimal.

[misha1967]

Thanks, Steve. That was my gut feeling as well, coming from SH3 myself too (great sim!), I just wanted to check if anybody'd seen any different