Ships Firing At Each Other

[Beebop]

I am again probably asking too much of the game but.....is it possible to get two armed tankers to fire at each other?

 

I am making a mission with the SS Stephen Hopkins incident with the German Raider Stier as a mission element within the object limits of the game.

 

Instead of surrendering to the German merchant raider the Hopkins engaged the Stier and although heavily out gunned damaged the Stier enough that it sunk a full two hours before the Hopkins did.  The SS Hopkins captain, Paul Buck, was posthumously awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal for his actions. So was US Merchant Marine Academy cadet Edwin Joseph O'Hara, who single-handedly fired the last shots from the ship's 4-inch gun.  In addition Navy reservist Lt. (j.g.) Kenneth Martin Willett, commander of the Armed Guard detachment which manned the ship's 4-inch gun, was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross.

 

But I digress.

 

I placed an armed tanker along with the appropriate logic and made it German.  I copied this and pasted it nearby and made that tanker US.  Both Ship AI set to Normal.

Both sets of waypoints set to Medium.

 

Neither ship fires at the other, they don't even aim their guns. 

I replaced the German tanker with a destroyer and it did fire it's small mid-ship (3"?) guns and also fired torpedoes.  The US tanker did nothing to defend itself and was quickly sunk.

 

Did I do something incorrectly?  (See attached)

Or are the guns on "merchant" ships and barges coded to only shoot at enemy planes? 

 

TIA

 

[IckyATLAS]

I am not sure it will work as they are armed with AAA guns. This means they shoot airplanes.

 

But try this:

Set the waypoints to Low. Have a very low speed.

Then try either with attack with a target link on the other tanker or with Attack Area say 200 meters around the center of the target and with ground targets checked.

If the tanker moves slowly it will remain in the attack area long enough to test if it works.

[Beebop]

Hmmm.  I'll give that a try and let you know.  Thanks.

[Beebop]

I saw your response just before going to bed so I slept on it and this morning gave it a try.

 

No luck.  Neither Attack or Attack Area gave results.  I tried a common MCU where Input and Output commands were sent and received by both ships and individual MCU's that were exclusive of each other.  In all cases neither ship attempted to attack the other.

 

So far my research has failed to turn up any indication that German convoys employed armed merchant ships as a part of the convoy for defense like the Allies did so there seems to be little historical reason for the Dev's to create armed merchant vessels that attack surface ships.  The AI merchants won't fire on enemy subs so I think I'm asking too much of merchant ships.  I don't think the Dev's considered ships other than military ships from attacking anything on the "surface/ground".  It seems the 'Merchant Class' AI's primary gun routine is air defense at least for .

 

Thanks for the suggestion @IckyATLAS.  It was worth a shot, so to speak.  ?

Besides, failure is the best teacher.