TF disobeying orders!

[Marinebaurat]

Lately I had the following problem several times: I ordered a TF containing the cruiser Askold to leave Port Arthur. That it actually did. But after one day I was quite disappointed about seeing the Askold back ready in Port Arthur. It obviously had abandoned its cruise without asking. Has anyone experienced something like that? Should the captain be executed to make clear that this is no proper behaviour for an officer of the Tsar?

[saddletank]

If you think it's a bug and you can repeat it then send the save to SES tech support.

[Zakalwe]

Did a battle happen on the PA map?

Because the ships RTB always when a battle happens there.

Quite annoying nonetheless as these are often only a few TBs which I mostly just ignore.

Z.

[Marinebaurat]

Yes, that's exactly what happened! Cruiser Askold was avoiding some japanese T-Boats and after that it seems to have returned immediately to the PA-base. You say the russian ships always do so. Is this strange behaviour considered to be a bug or is it supposed to make some good sense (which I just haven't got yet)?

[Mobeer]

I've have had the same experience with the Japanese north of Aomori. Japanese warships leaving harbour engaged Russian cruisers at greater range. The Russian cruisers fled, but the Japanese ended the battle back in port.

[saddletank]

It is strange that you are experiencing the 'return to base after battle' bug as this one was caught and squished with patch v1.015 or thereabouts. Are you online when you start the game up? That will automatically patch it to the current version. What version of the game are you running, you should be at v1.025 now.

[Marinebaurat]

Yep, it is 1.025. I am playing a campaign since since 1.010 or so, don't know exactly, maybe that is a reason why the patch doesn't show any effect. I think I will try a new campaign and see if this phenomenon shows up again.

[Bullethead]

It is strange that you are experiencing the 'return to base after battle' bug as this one was caught and squished with patch v1.015 or thereabouts.

That old patch did fix the problem in the case of fights happening in the open sea. But based on the reports above, I think this might be a different problem that just happens when battles take place at ports. I haven't encountered it yet myself, but I also haven't had any fights lately just outside my own bases where this might be visible. This is probably more of a problem for the Russian player, because fights outside bases are more likely for him, and I've been playing as the IJN lately.

I started a new Russian campaign yesterday and the very 1st fight after the PA attack was within sight of Port Arthur. However, all my involved ships were on "Area Patrol" orders, just leaving home. Because the map icons for such TFs are always in port, this fight sheds no light on this issue :(.

[Daedalus]

If they have the game files, send them to SES Support so Norm can take a look at them to see. They may have found something that was not known because of the other issue,or something that was reinterduced to the game in the patches.
Or it could be the way it was written! :) But yes send the files to Norm so he can take a look.

[Fitzwilliam]

I see this all the time playing as the russians around PA. I frequently send TF's out to mine Elliot Islands. If combat occurs close enough to PA the ships are automatically returned to PA at its conclusion. The good news is that they are still "ready" and so can sortie again with only an hour's delay.

[saddletank]

That leads me to think it's a design feature.

[Daedalus]

I just had the same thing happen to me just as I was playing. Sent the fleet back to the port. But I had damage to quite a few ships so I was wondering if this is normal if you have damage. As it says in the manual that if ships are damaged they will return to the base!

Do you think that this may be what we are seeing?

[Marinebaurat]

Maybe this is so in your case. But my Askold was more than 20 miles away from some japanese TBs off PA and therefore wasn't even shot at. Nevertheless after there was enough space between the two TFs and the battle had ended automatically the Askold was back in PA again without any damages. Since these japanese TBs are there most of the time it was impossible for me to make the Askold leave PA for several days since she always returned automatically. I can't imagine this to be a useful feature of the game.

[saddletank]

But a very realistic one though :)

But, in all seriousness perhaps this is a design feature. Close Japanese blockade did literally keep the Russians bottled up at PA, maybe there is a game mechanism at work here representing this in which case, frustrating though it be, it's spot on for realism.

[Marinebaurat]

Well, that's why I brought the execution of the commander in charge into discussion ... being the Tsar I expect every man to do his duty at all costs. And 'return to harbour if enemy forces are in sight' does clearly not match my understanding of doing one's duty. It seems to be pretty much as 'der Kaleun' in ' Das Boot' said: 'Gute Leute muss man eben haben ...'.

[Bullethead]

But, in all seriousness perhaps this is a design feature.

I think this is an unintended consequence of the aspects of the campaign design that make friendly base hexes be very annoying places to begin with. None of the TF orders that you use in all other hexes will work in friendly base hexes. You can't use a friendly base as a waypoint on a trip that doesn't end there and you can't issue patrol orders for ships in friendly base hexes. This is why the only way to lay defensive mines is to give NO orders and just have a mine-capable TF resting there at midnight, because you can't give the mining order for such a place directly.

It definintely seems that if a hex is defined to be a friendly base, then all TFs can do there is be in port, either resting or ready. Hence, if a ship's location after a battle is in a friendly port hex, then that ship has to be in the port. There's no way around that right now, apparently. And that's why we can't have ships patrolling in the base hex.


Close Japanese blockade did literally keep the Russians bottled up at PA, maybe there is a game mechanism at work here representing this in which case, frustrating though it be, it's spot on for realism.

From what I understand, the Russians stayed in PA mostly because their various admirals didn't want to leave.

[Fitzwilliam]

Bullethead's conclusion is the same one I reached, i.e. working as designed.