Yet another weird question. Can anybody tell me what the hell happened to all my convoy escorts? And why doesn't the automatic system ever use them?

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alexvk3bqn

Sergeant
Aug 27, 2020
88
12
Me again.

With another bizarre one.

As before.

Playing as Australia, DH full, default values except for tech-team capture on.

Using military units from allied countries under my military control to help fight.



Figure 1. August 25 1941. Greece joined the axis. I'm running an invasion to knock them out of the war and remove one minor enemy. I have 81 convoy escorts. The automatic system is using NONE of them.

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Figure 2. May 25 1942. Attacking Bulgaria to annex them and knock them out of the war. Same principle as with Greece. I have 141 convoy escorts. The Automatic supply system is using none of them. (Can't attack any further inland without support that my "allies" WON'T provide.)


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Figure 3. December 1 1943. I now have NO CONVOY ESCORTS AT ALL. I just started producing more after noticing that little detail.


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Figure 4. December 1 1943. My naval losses. It says I have lost NO convoy escorts. I had 141. I have none. I lost none. Where the hell did they all go?

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Figure 5. December 1 1943. Naval losses I've caused. My enemies shouldn't be sending 2 or 3 ships out to attack a fleet. Although the sub flotillas did cause heavy damage that needed substantial repair time for some ships.


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So where did they go?

Or is there a bug in the system for recording convoy escort losses?

Does something get "reset" when I re-load a game?

I am confused.
(NOT for the first time.)


On another point I've complained about before:-

Figure 6. May 22 1943. Within 1 day from this point, I can annex but not puppet Finland. they have 38 divisions. I would find them useful. That's just annoying. I KNOW that the rules say that in the vast majority of cases only the leader of an alliance can puppet another country. But that's just wasteful.


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Figure 7. Further to my previous comments on why I hate the supply system. (Number roughly 5347 in a series.) Roughly 20 encircled divisions. The indicator says they are not in supply. The supply system says that they are and won't run a convoy because it isn't necessary. I estimate that every division lost at least 2% in unit strength, and a lot more in organization before it started up again several days later. As a result, under attack I took far more severe casualties than I should have. I nearly lost the battle, and the war, and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I broke the siege roughly a week later.
(Sweden joined the war as a member of the axis when Germany declared war on Russia. I ended up fighting and eventually destroying about 25 German divisions in Norway, but I and the units under my command took very heavy losses doing it. I also couldn't puppet Sweden either.)


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I am beginning to strongly suspect that I attract "weirdness".


Alexvk3bqn.
 
Figure 1. August 25 1941. Greece joined the axis. I'm running an invasion to knock them out of the war and remove one minor enemy. I have 81 convoy escorts. The automatic system is using NONE of them.

Just a short comment, not much time...
In Fig.1:
Carnavon - Patra is shown in green which means the depot should be sufficiently full, so no supply conveys are sent. Wether that's true, I don't know, the depot is hidden under the image.

You have also a resource convoy Patra - Carnavon which is ordered to transport away oil. Usually not a good idea because your troops will most likely need it when they start moving. Disable oil for resource convoys in areas where you have an active campaign going (or expect one to start).


About the lost convoy escorts:
The number at the top of the convoy menu is a counter. Whenever you or the automatic system detaches escorts to a route, they are subtracted from the top number. Are you sure that your escorts aren't perhaps detached to a convoy route further down the list?
 
Thanks for the comment, (and the advice. I tend to get careless about oil transports. I agree I need to be reminded about that, and remember it in future.), but I just checked that game again in the section where no escorts appear.

There ARE no other convoys running.


Also, if you look closely, in the following pictures, the convoy details list the total number of convoy transports and escorts I own, and the numbers running and in the production queue.

It says I have a total of 447 transports owned, with 70 running.


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It also says I have a total of 0 escorts owned, with 0 running.


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I really, really do not understand what it has done here.

I think the game hates me.

I really have to ask again, do these kind of things happen to other people, or just me?


Alexvk3bqn
 
One further comment.

I just checked my convoys again.

I started building new escorts some time ago.

This is the full current convoy list.


I am running a convoy to Bodo in Norway.
(I'm breaking at least 3 of my own rules by doing that.)

It's running on the automatic supply convoy system.

It has 20 escorts available, and is travelling through some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

It's not using ANY of the escorts.



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Seriously, what the hell am I doing wrong?


Alexvk3bqn
 
It has 20 escorts available, and is travelling through some of the most dangerous waters in the world.

It's not using ANY of the escorts.

In my experience::
It's a reactive not a predictive or prophetic automative system. It starts detaching escorts when your convoys get attacked.

A human can do it better. But it's a boring and tedious task.

So where did they go?

Probably the Brits stole them together with some nice big depots of yours when they annexed a country...
 
Probably the Brits stole them together with some nice big depots of yours when they annexed a country...

BASTARDS.

I didn't even think that could happen, but I suppose it might make sense.

The problem is that I don't think they've actually captured any territory so far in the game, apart from a couple of minor islands I've never gone near.

It is possible I might have lost them to the Germans and Italians though.
When I was "raiding" their allies, I'd go in, attack a minor enemy, annex them and leave, and shut off the convoys when I did, but it's possible the game somehow left the escorts "docked" in ports later recaptured by my enemies.

That was one possibility that had never occurred to me.

I'll have to try going back through my saved games to see if that could explain it.

Thank you for the idea.

Alexvk3bqn
 
With respect, would it kill you to just write what the problem is and not upload 20 pictures to ask one question? I didnt even bother reading what you asked.
 
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With respect, would it kill you to just write what the problem is and not upload 20 pictures to ask one question? I didnt even bother reading what you asked




I thought the subject title was to some degree self-explanatory.
In this instance it doesn't seem to have been clear enough, and was badly worded.



In this specific case, the points I was trying to make were that :-

1) The automatic convoy system practically never seems to use escorts.

2) That, at some point in the game, for reasons I don't understand, every convoy escort I had vanished completely.
They were not sunk, they simply totally disappeared.

I was hoping that most of the pictures I included would clarify the points I was trying to make and make them easier to follow.
I also hoped that some would illustrate other points of interest.
Apparently I was in error.



Over the years I have tried to explain things in a lot of different ways, hoping to find one that will work.
Everything different method I try just seems to confuse or irritate people, or to be completely ignored.
I am tired of trying.

I have had a very long history of having extreme difficulty in explaining what I mean to people, in practically every conversation I have ever had, or discussion I have attempted.
It is a dull, tedious, boring, depressing and largely irrelevant story.
To summarize, apparently I am extremely poor at dealing with people, and at communicating with them.

I am also somewhat obsessive-compulsive, and very detail-focused, so I tend to try to explain what I mean in extreme and explicit detail, particularly when writing.
I usually fail anyway.
I am well aware that I am not a very good writer.


I was hoping that the use of more pictures and less writing in this case would make my meaning more readily apparent and "friendlier to look at", since many people currently appear to dislike lengthy written explanations, particularly given the current trends in "social media" such as "twitter".


It is extremely difficult to know how to effectively attempt to communicate with other people.
Personal preferences vary so much, that there will always be some people who dislike a style that others will totally approve of and support.


Most of the responses I have so far received on these Paradox game forums has been helpful and interesting, and far more responsive and relevant to my questions than in my "day-to-day" life, and have given either complete or partial explanations for my questions, and suggestions for possibilities that I had not considered, or had overlooked or failed to examine sufficiently.

This has been quite interesting and helpful to me, and I am grateful for the assistance that has been provided to me to this time.


I was hoping to raise potentially interesting and occasionally confusing points for others to study, or to stimulate discussion or illuminate areas that lacked clarity.


But if, at this point, all I am truly achieving is to annoy people, it is probably best if I cease activity on these forums, at least for the time being, until (if ever) I can work out how to be competent at it.

It was NEVER my intent to cause difficulties or annoyance for anybody.

And I would sincerely and deeply regret causing any problems to anybody on these forums, or causing any argument or ill-feeling as a result of ANY of my writings, comments or opinions.



I apologize to anybody I have offended or annoyed.


Alexvk3bqn
 
As far as I'm concerned, the questions you asked were relevant, and led to interesting discussions and sometimes valuable research.

There is no need to apologize. Some people might have been annoyed, but it might very well be because of THEIR lack of patience, rather than YOUR way to communicate. :D
 
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As far as I'm concerned, the questions you asked were relevant, and led to interesting discussions and sometimes valuable research.

There is no need to apologize. Some people might have been annoyed, but it might very well be because of THEIR lack of patience, rather than YOUR way to communicate
Well phrased and my impression, too.


I thank you for your comments, although I'm still not sure what I should do.

As to the original question, I have been playing further and may have found a partial answer, although it seems to be a really strange one.

In the game I was playing I again had well over 100 convoy escorts.

I then liberated about a dozen different countries that I'd "collected".
(I tend to liberate countries late in the game when they'll have access to the more advanced tech they'll have trouble developing themselves, and take much longer to develop if left on their own. As I've said, I also try to make sure they all have airports and ports, or they won't get access to the relevant technologies, but I assume everybody knows that.)

Every convoy escort I had vanished when those countries were liberated.

Although the number of convoy ships themselves doesn't seem to have altered.

It's possible a lot of my convoy escorts are "given away" somehow when I liberate a country, perhaps to the liberated country.

It's possible they're just "retired" somehow.

I don't know, I only just noticed it, and haven't looked any further yet..

Somebody might want to look into that, and see if that's what's happening, and if it's meant to.



Alexvk3bqn
 
I'm sorry, I was wrong.

I just tried it again, built some more escorts and released another country and nothing happened.

If it was connected, it must be country-specific, but I just don't know.

I apologize for any confusion I have caused.

Alexvk3bqn
 
I apologize for the confusion in my previous postings, and for any confusion they caused.

I released the liberated countries after the start of January 1953 in the game, and only noticed what had happened then.

I have gone back through as many saved files as I have around that time, and the best I can be sure of is that I had 155 convoy escorts on the 10th of December 1952.

At 1.00 A.M. January 1st 1953 I had no escorts, so unless something happened between those times, or it's something to do with the date or time, or the "save" function, or something similar, I can't guess.

I am sorry for any problems I have caused.

Alexvk3bqn.
 
Mmmh, sorry, but I haven't the slightest idea what might have happened or what was causing this behaviour.
I've myself not noticed this happening to convoy escorts in my game. But then again, I am not sure wether I would had noticed it, never paid attention to it.

One thing you could do:
If you have liberated a country between 10th Dec 1952 and 1st Jan 1953... load the latter save and play the liberated country to give it a look wether you can find any convoy escorts there.
 
I'm sorry, but I think that that idea was a "red herring" on my part.

I've looked through my files, and tried it several times, and newly liberated countries DO get a number of supply transports and escorts, but they don't seem to be "taken" from the country liberating them.

They seem to be "created from nothing" as an automatic "default" when a country is released, although you WILL lose to that country any supplies that were in supply depots in the liberated areas.
(That's not really a surprise. It makes sense.)

I still can't track where my convoy escorts are disappearing to, or why or how.




On my earlier comments elsewhere on another subject, it turns out America WILL still quite happily sell you Hawaii (although you can't create a separate country from it. I tried.), and the British will sell both Malta and Gibraltar if the price is right.
(You can make Malta into an independent country, but not Gibraltar.)

Although when America grabs Iceland and Greenland it classifies both as CORE provinces and will NEVER let go of them.
Why it's happy to sell off Hawaii at the same time is just one more thing that confuses me.


Figure 1.

What can I say? I like good beaches.

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Figure 2.

Alright, I concede I only did that because it amused me for some reason that I do not entirely understand.

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Thank you for your patience and ideas and suggestions.


Alexvk3bqn.