Zombie Ships

AhhhFresh · 04-27-07, 09:32 AM

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 · 04-27-07, 10:06 AM

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 · 04-27-07, 10:18 AM

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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.

Quote:

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 · 04-27-07, 10:37 AM

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 · 04-27-07, 10:55 AM

Quote:

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 · 04-27-07, 12:00 PM

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

nfitzsimmons · 04-27-07, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceberg

Maybe those merchant's skippers made a deal with Davy Jones?

100 years before the mast.

CaptainHaplo · 06-17-07, 09:06 PM

I saw this issue posted awhile back, and decided I would try and recreate it. I have succeeded. Here is the setup I used. Nukeboats and 3km nuke torps as mods overlaying RFB1.28. Start date Dec 1, 1941 - patrol of marshall islands completed and PH just happened, so I set course for Tokyo bay Proper. Hey, I got the equipment to make a go of it, and I feel like revenge. In the first "port" - the southernmost one inside the bay, I find 2 Heavy Cruisers and a Hiryu Fleet Carrier. Sweet I think - so I fire off one aft torp, hit the Furatake, which the explosion radius takes out the Hiryu and the Maya as well as a couple of floatplanes. I get the credit in my log, and off I head north and repeat the process in about 4 other harbors. All in good fun....

However - when I am headed back out - danged if as I pass that southern port - there sits the EXACT same ships in the EXACT same spots! My map even shows the diamonds on the spots where it also shows the little red broken ships! I saved at that point - but have tried to sink the ships again - they go boom just like before - but I dont get credit for the "second sinking"....

Not sure WHY this occurs - but it need to be addressed as it could cause some serious frustration if someone takes on a convoy - retreats and then catches another shot at it a couple of days later - finding it at full strength and sinking the zombies on the next attack. Historically - attacks could last over a day or 2, and this "resurrection" of ships just needs to get killed. I can't think of any reasonable answer to WHY it happens - I have to think its an unintentional bug in the way the layers are being handled.

While I know alot of people are going to raise an eyebrow over the setup I ran in recreating this - I thought I had seen it myself a few other times and have been wanting to try and confirm this. It does happen. It looks like its based on 2 factors - distance and time. If you are far enough away from a ship, and a certain minimum time has elapsed - the vessel respawns. The key to testing this is to use Harbor'd ships - they don't move when they respawn.

One other note - it looks like if they respawn, but are left alone for a sufficient time, the game then realized that they were sunk and then removes them permanently. Just... bizarre.......

Don't know if this can be gotten on that list of "critical" bugs especially since 1.3 is well into work already - but maybe some folks in here can come up with some possible solutions?

SingeDebile · 06-19-07, 05:15 PM

you should definatly bring this to the attention of the dev's this is a significant problem.... post your detailed explanation on that sticky where its said the dev's come to check

04-27-07, 09:32 AM	#1
AhhhFresh Mate Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 52 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Zombie Ships 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.

04-27-07, 12:00 PM	#6
Iceberg Bosun Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 68 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 0	Maybe those merchants' skippers made a deal with Davy Jones? __________________ Iceberg. Last edited by Iceberg; 04-27-07 at 05:06 PM.

06-17-07, 09:06 PM	#8
CaptainHaplo Silent Hunter Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 4,404 Downloads: 29 Uploads: 0	Confirmed.... I saw this issue posted awhile back, and decided I would try and recreate it. I have succeeded. Here is the setup I used. Nukeboats and 3km nuke torps as mods overlaying RFB1.28. Start date Dec 1, 1941 - patrol of marshall islands completed and PH just happened, so I set course for Tokyo bay Proper. Hey, I got the equipment to make a go of it, and I feel like revenge. In the first "port" - the southernmost one inside the bay, I find 2 Heavy Cruisers and a Hiryu Fleet Carrier. Sweet I think - so I fire off one aft torp, hit the Furatake, which the explosion radius takes out the Hiryu and the Maya as well as a couple of floatplanes. I get the credit in my log, and off I head north and repeat the process in about 4 other harbors. All in good fun.... However - when I am headed back out - danged if as I pass that southern port - there sits the EXACT same ships in the EXACT same spots! My map even shows the diamonds on the spots where it also shows the little red broken ships! I saved at that point - but have tried to sink the ships again - they go boom just like before - but I dont get credit for the "second sinking".... Not sure WHY this occurs - but it need to be addressed as it could cause some serious frustration if someone takes on a convoy - retreats and then catches another shot at it a couple of days later - finding it at full strength and sinking the zombies on the next attack. Historically - attacks could last over a day or 2, and this "resurrection" of ships just needs to get killed. I can't think of any reasonable answer to WHY it happens - I have to think its an unintentional bug in the way the layers are being handled. While I know alot of people are going to raise an eyebrow over the setup I ran in recreating this - I thought I had seen it myself a few other times and have been wanting to try and confirm this. It does happen. It looks like its based on 2 factors - distance and time. If you are far enough away from a ship, and a certain minimum time has elapsed - the vessel respawns. The key to testing this is to use Harbor'd ships - they don't move when they respawn. One other note - it looks like if they respawn, but are left alone for a sufficient time, the game then realized that they were sunk and then removes them permanently. Just... bizarre....... Don't know if this can be gotten on that list of "critical" bugs especially since 1.3 is well into work already - but maybe some folks in here can come up with some possible solutions? __________________ Good Hunting! Captain Haplo

06-19-07, 05:15 PM	#9
SingeDebile Seaman Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 33 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	you should definatly bring this to the attention of the dev's this is a significant problem.... post your detailed explanation on that sticky where its said the dev's come to check __________________ animal kingdom phylum

04-27-07, 10:06 AM	#2
SteamWake Rear Admiral Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 13,224 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	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 ?

04-27-07, 10:37 AM	#4
tater Navy Seal Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: New Mexico, USA Posts: 9,023 Downloads: 8 Uploads: 2	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.