Collateral Damage

[Rambler241]

I'd like to hear other SH3 fans' experiences of this - by which I mean enemy ships or 'planes inadvertently causing the demise of their comrades in arms.

My first observation was of a "Hurribomber" which dropped a bomb on another swooping just below it. Another was where two such collided, both breaking up. A third was when one exploded (due to my ace flak gunner) and took out another very close below it. The last two examples were when under attack by, in one case 10 planes, and another 12 planes (both numbers extremely unrealistic) and had opted to fight it out until safe to submerge.

Half-dozen patrols ago, on a dark, dark night, I had opted to surface and flee in the direction the convoy I'd attacked was travelling, as the V&W on point had come back to investigate the ship sinkings, and was almost 2km away on my stern quarter, with two rows of ships between us. We were spotted by the merchants, of course, and the DD opened fire while we were masked by a Coastal Merchant, and racing away to keep the CM between us and the DD. The shells were mostly well aimed, but the CM was in line of fire, and took half-a-dozen hits, maybe more, and sank very quickly afterwards. The DD stopped to investigate, and we were away and safe.

A couple of patrols later, submerged and in the middle of a large convoy in daytime, two sinkings by yours truly caused the convoy to scatter in the very unrealistic way that sometimes happens in SH3. They ran in all directions, speeded up, slowed, came to a stop, stopped and reversed to avoid collision - a general mess, and difficult to navigate in while submerged and keeping an eye out for the six escorts (who luckily seemed also to be infected with madness and indecision). I was targetting a T3 tanker, which obligingly stopped and presented a beautiful target. The two remaining bow fish were dispatched in a spread salvo to detonate under the hull, just as a Coastal Merchant rammed the tanker. When the fish detonated, the resulting explosion took out the CM as well.

Needless to say, no reknown for these collateral enemy losses, but kudos for us when back in base.

[Fahnenbohn]

Yes, the A.I. is limited ... I imagine, there are the same problems in other silent hunter games (IV and V, which i've never played).

[Kip336]

Coastal guns seem to have no problems shooting holes in any ship in front of them, when said ship is blocking the view to your uboat.

I've sneaked off a small merchant or two like that :P Just join in the shelling and hope you get the kill (Cheating, I know.)

[Raptor_Pilot]

I had installed GWX and figured I'd get some training in before starting a career.

During the convoy attack training mission, the Destroyer at the front of the convoy detected me right after I'd fired my first group of torpedoes.
I had driven submerged into the heart of the convoy, and when he started dropping depth charges on me, one of them detonated near the surface causing damage to a merchant ship I was hiding beneath.
Apparently that counted as an attack on a friendly unit, and the ASW Trawler in the rear of the convoy came steaming ahead firing his guns on the Destroyer!
After he hit the Destroyer a couple times, the Destroyer returned fire and they sank each other!
Needless to say, I drove to the surface and sank all the merchants with my deck gun and stern tubes. Easiest convoy attack I've ever had

[UKönig]

I have seen several instances of aircraft attempting to dive bomb my boat, and in their haste, their tunnel vision blinds them to all else, and they crash into their wingmen. It's happened with single pilot fighters and Short Sunderlands. I have also maneuvered my boat so that other ships in the convoy got hit by the naval artillery of the escorts trying to hit me. They didn't turn on each other, but the damage counted enough that I could finish the job.
As far as convoy scattering goes, I compared what the game does vs what I have read and studied about, and I find it realistic enough. There were some merchant skippers that weren't so great at their jobs. Sometimes, when ships are badly managed, they become harder targets to hit, even if unintentionally.
That too increases the challenge of the game as you have to decide to strike against a ship that is moving 4 knots in confusion, but might suddenly increase to 15 knots to keep up with the herd. Fire at the wrong time or distance and suddenly that 'hit' is now a 'miss'. And it's almost impossible to predict when they will speed up suddenly. I have also shot down aircraft, and had one case when collision damaged fighters landed on my boat destroying it and ending my career. Totally a fluke but choked me up nonetheless.

[CTU_Clay]

As far as convoy scattering goes

If the game's convoy leader is sunk by anything, the convoy's remaining alive ships will scatter in all directions and run away from the danger as fast as their propellers will turn. This has happened many times in multiplayer match-ups.

[UKönig]

At the same time, I have also encountered convoys that operated with extreme discipline and refused to scatter even if it might have saved them.
I found a weakly guarded convoy. 3 escorts only. I sank the lead one and the starboard flanking one almost right away. The third I took out a few minutes later, and it was then that I thought I would see the ships start wheeling off in all directions, but that did not happen. Instead, they continued sailing in formation. With no escorts to attack me and merchants that were all unarmed, I surfaced (at night) right next to the convoy, like 1Km away, and just started picking off targets. When we were out of torpedoes, I just sailed up along side each British merchant I came to and holed them with the deck gun. I left all the American ships alone, and they left me alone (that part is unrealistic, but whatever), and I came away from that engagement with over 70,000 tons. Almost every single ship flying a British flag went to the bottom. I only stopped because I ran out of ammo. Broke off from contact and told BdU of our success. They said "return to base, you've earned it!"

[CTU_Clay]

Originally Posted by CTU_Clay

If the game's convoy leader is sunk by anything, the convoy's remaining alive ships will scatter in all directions and run away from the danger as fast as their propellers will turn. This has happened many times in multiplayer match-ups.

I failed do define "the game's convoy leader". The "game's convoy leader" is usually a merchant ship in the front row of the group, which depends on where the convoy creator placed the merchant ship leader. It is very odd for the leader of the convoy to be embedded inside the group. I am not saying that an escort can not be the leader of the convoy. But as I look at the scripted and random files of the stock SH3GWX Campaign files, I have yet to find one where an escort is the designated leader. So If you sink the escorts, odds are the main convoy merchant ships will only ziz-zag and normally will hold their direction to the way-points as set on the merchant leader.