Tracking ship

[Shoopzee]

I have GXW 2.1, and running a few visual enhancement mods. I started career with Commander, and am on patrol 2, Sept. 2, 1000 hrs., and have been following a 10 K ton Brit Merchant for the last 3 days, through, Skagerrak and Kattegat, and on course for a town called Arhus, on the east coast of Norway.
My question is AI related:
-Will the ship actually sail to town or port, and then leave after some time (hours/days) to embark on a return trip to UK, or will it just vanish and respawn somewhere else in the game?
-Also will the ship if it makes port remain visible while I wait for war to be declared and sink her by perhaps sneaking into the port if possible?

[Jimbuna]

Check the Campaign layer....but I suspect she'll vanish at her last waypoint and respawn later.

[Shoopzee]

When you say respawn later, does this mean at the location where last waypoint was reached, or in another port, i.e. another port/place in the greater UK. Thanks. Shoop.

[Chisum]

following a 10 K ton Brit Merchant for the last 3 days, through, Skagerrak and Kattegat, and on course for a town called Arhus, on the east coast of Norway.

Excuse me mate, I'm playing on GWX 1.03 and I'm very surprised about that you say.
How can you know where goes the ship ??

Is it a mod and if yes is it compatible to 1.03 ?

[HW3]

He is following the ship and has run a line on the navagation map along the heading the ship is on to see where it might be going. No mod needed for that.

[Pisces]

Originally Posted by Shoopzee

I have GXW 2.1, and running a few visual enhancement mods. I started career with Commander, and am on patrol 2, Sept. 2, 1000 hrs., and have been following a 10 K ton Brit Merchant for the last 3 days, through, Skagerrak and Kattegat, and on course for a town called Arhus, on the east coast of Norway.
My question is AI related:
-Will the ship actually sail to town or port, and then leave after some time (hours/days) to embark on a return trip to UK, or will it just vanish and respawn somewhere else in the game?
-Also will the ship if it makes port remain visible while I wait for war to be declared and sink her by perhaps sneaking into the port if possible?

Norway doesn't have much of an east coast really. (well, really high up north maybe) That town Aarhus is in Denmark. Norway is the western side of the huge peninsula above it.

I took a look in the mission/campaign editor for you, but I cannot find a brittish vessel that supposed to go there (Aarhus). In the random-layer I found a german patrol unit (judging from the dates it appears when Denmark is occupied) and a dannish "Generic" unit that started it's voyage near St. Petersburg, Russia (exists until 1 september '39). In the script-layer I found a Dannish Passenger/Cargo that started it's voyage in the middle of the Kattegat (also exists until 1 september '39). This is probably your merchant. So I advise you to take a better look at it's flag. Dannish and Brittish flags are both red(-ish) from a distance.

Originally Posted by Shoopzee

When you say respawn later, does this mean at the location where last waypoint was reached, or in another port, i.e. another port/place in the greater UK. Thanks. Shoop.

Scripted layer units come and go and never repeat that route. So I don't expect you will see your merchant again. (But the campaign author may have added 'sequels' to a units route, as for example multiple patrols of an importan warship. But each route is unique and independant. i.e. that's why people have found the Hood and Nelson again after they sunk it a long time before) Random layer units come go an may repeat their journey from the beginning after a certain number of hours with a random chance. So you may have to wait as it can skip one or more cycles. Or there may even be multiple instances of the same ship/class/group if the repeat cycle is shorter than the total voyage duration. Units do not neccesarily disappear when they reach their last waypoint. But the route and unit will be removed when a certain time and date has passed, just as the route can only exist after a certain start date/time.

[Shoopzee]

Norway doesn't have much of an east coast really. (well, really high up north maybe) That town Aarhus is in Denmark. Norway is the western side of the huge peninsula above it.

I took a look in the mission/campaign editor for you, but I cannot find a brittish vessel that supposed to go there (Aarhus). In the random-layer I found a german patrol unit (judging from the dates it appears when Denmark is occupied) and a dannish "Generic" unit that started it's voyage near St. Petersburg, Russia (exists until 1 september '39). In the script-layer I found a Dannish Passenger/Cargo that started it's voyage in the middle of the Kattegat (also exists until 1 september '39). This is probably your merchant. So I advise you to take a better look at it's flag. Dannish and Brittish flags are both red(-ish) from a distance.

I see what you mean by the east coast of Norway, my mistake. My guess is only Aarhus, seems to be the course its on. The campaign time is 1000 hrs, at 0930 hrs it made a major course adjustment, and is heading in the Arhus direction.
I'm thinking about sinking her before getting the approval of Bdu. It will hurt my ranking, but I can't pass up a 10 K tonner. Opps.
I have looked really close at the flag, its british. I first made contact in the deep waters off Norway. I'm not playing at 100%, so I have used the f12 camera to have a look at her. Maybe Aarhus is wrong, or perhaps maybe she had spotted me, and began to evade. Any ideas? Could she be heading to some other location deeper in the Baltic? If so maybe I have her boxed in. In any case, the waters she sails in will be very dangerous for her soon. Shoop.

I found a Dannish Passenger/Cargo that started it's voyage in the middle of the Kattegat (also exists until 1 september '39).

The current date is Sept. 2, 1939, do you mean this ship should already no be removed?
Thanks guys, and Pisces

[Pisces]

Based on what you say I am at a loss at what or where your ship/route is then. The following screenshots show what I find in the mission editor in the Aarhus, Denmark vicinity. Either your Aarhus is not my Aarhus, or you have different campaign files.





I am not exactly sure if it is removed 'no matter what' from the world at that particular time/date. Maybe it started it's voyage before september 1st and is allowed to finnish it. So the end date could just be the end-limit of it's spawn-window. Haven't fully investigated that part. But I'm pretty sure it won't spawn after that time/date.

[Shoopzee]

I am not exactly sure if it is removed 'no matter what' from the world at that particular time/date. Maybe it started it's voyage before september 1st and is allowed to finnish it. So the end date could just be the end-limit of it's spawn-window. Haven't fully investigated that part. But I'm pretty sure it won't spawn after that time/date.

I have to admit that I don't know a lot about the campaign files you were looking at. I avoid those things, as I enjoy the unknown element of the game.
The Aarhus is the same, but again it is only a guess on my part. See where that WP13 red flag is on the first map you have posted, that is the rough location currently, with a mean course of 275-280 degrees, and as was suggested above, I just extrapolated the course to Aarhus. A question, since Aarhus I believe does not have a port facility, would a merchant still make call on that port? Also, I'm itching to sink her, but feel I will run out of time before Bdu gives permission to sink Brit Merchants. What penalty will I suffer if I jump the gun? Again, I'm running GWX 2.1, with OLC Environmenta2l Mod, and a few other visuals. I am also using the latest version of Commander.
I will not get a chance to play again until this Wednesday night, and have been wawy from my rig for a week. I would never have followed a Norge, or Danish Merchant this long, but then again, watch I'll open the campaign, and find I have messed up the ships country of origin! LOL. Thanks again Pisces, and again would you sink her? I would like to think with the war just beginning, perhaps they may blame it on a mine. In any case isn't the GWX2.1 war start campaign have padded renown so you can get the tonnage credit, but not take a big hit for sinking a then neutral?

Shoopzee

[Pisces]

Ships don't care if there's a model of a dock or not. It just goes there and that's that if it is the final waypoint. Sorry, no romantics or cargo unloading blues involved. Most likely it wil disappear in mid air... ehm waves.

Would I have killed it? Don't think so. As a Kaleun you don't have the luxury of hindsight knowing the war is going to be declared in a day or so (that's what you said right? september 2nd). I would probably have followed it until certain it is heading into the harbor/town. But most likely followed on soon enroute to my patrol zone.

I think the repercusions are atleast 24 hours of bad standing with the victim country. I have heard renown can be deducted. But I've been a good boy sofar. (knocks on wood) Don't know how much.

Follow ship
Fool Capt is sailing to Gotenhafen

@ Pisces
Group is Early Br12
Leave near Rosyth

[Pisces]

Oh, is that's the bloody bathtub we are looking for. Well, he only goes through the straight there. He doesn't actually turn towards Aarhus. So since he still has a couple of days to go before he reaches Gotenhafen (Poland) he's Prime candidate for following and anticipation of his doom.

So, since it took him a hand ful of days to get near Aarhus that "End-date" is appearantly the end-limit of his spawning, not the end of his existance in the Sh3 world. I would guess there are a handfull of his brothers/clones still on the way aswel.

But this was all information from a "Divine Intelligence" source so you may ignore everything of it if you want to keep in the dark.

[Shoopzee]

Follow ship
Fool Capt is sailing to Gotenhafen

Oh, is that's the bloody bathtub we are looking for. Well, he only goes through the straight there. He doesn't actually turn towards Aarhus. So since he still has a couple of days to go before he reaches Gotenhafen (Poland) he's Prime candidate for following and anticipation of his doom.

Good news to hear, I will keep on her tail, and keep you posted. Like I said I'm around 80% realism, and don't use the f12 to sneak a look until I have made a positive visual ident first. Also I manual target, so no weapons officer.
When does the official Bdu ok come to sink Merchants? Is it on the 4th of September. Will be worth the wait.
As I indicated above, the ship kind of made an sudden course change towards the east coast of Denmark. This happened while I was warping at about 32-64x, but I was keeping a close watch on the range. Calm seas, little wind, moderate viz at 0900hrs, with about 8-9000m range kept at all times, checked every 2-3 minutes while warping. Since it is going to Poland, does this course change indicate evasion due to spotting my boat, or at this point given the neutrality between our nations would the merchant even care?

Thanks again Shoopzee.

[Sailor Steve]

Part of the 'F1' function is a list of 'Enemies/Allies' by date. It will tell you exactly when you can shoot at each country's ships.

[Jimbuna]

What about the pull down chart in the periscope view :hmm: