Possible bug number one:
I found a way to return a captive specialist with an attack going to the same base, you have to send the attack first and it has to be going to the nearest outpost that the player of the captive specialist owns, and after you schedule that you click to release the captive.

A lot of work for what seems like a detrimental thing, but I also stumbled upon a way to use it to my advantage which brings me to possible bug number two:
If you send above setup into a sub holding the same amount of drills, causing mutual annihilation, the game seems to resolve the battle with the captive being recaptured and this sends it off to your closest outpost rather than continuing with its release.

Again this may seem like a lot of work for nothing, but I found a situation where this seems to take advantage of what I see as bugs.

Edit: I was originally just attempting be a jerk and add another 11 hours to the time before he could receive his pirate rather than have him reclaim it with the attack he had just behind mine. That's how I stumbled upon this.

Posting screen shots to illustrate.

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What i believe happened here: (let me know if you have evidence that this is not the case.)

1. The captive was actually released slightly ahead of the 10 on a sub with 0 drillers rather than actually being on the sub with 10. But because the subs are so close, it looks like a single sub.

2. When the captive sub meets the incoming sub its ownership is transfered and it tries to return to the nearest outpost (which is the outpost it came from since it was just captured, so it turns around)

3. when it turns around it then immeadiately hits your 10 behind it, which recaptures it.

4. When you recapture it, it then Returns to your nearest outpost, which is not on the same track as the incoming 10 driller sub so the incoming 10 doesnt immeadiately recapture it.


Thats what i think happened which would mean there isnt really a bug here, its just a pretty complex interaction. I dont think you launched one sub with both an attack and a captured specialist. I also dont think you can launch two subs simultaneously on the same route, but i'm not 100% on that, maybe theres a bug that allows it, in which case the game probably resolves picking up captured specialists before it handled the mutual annihilation?

I suppose that this could be the case, but here are a couple of things, I scheduled both actions to happen at the same time using the time machine, and the game doesn't allow you to send more than one sub on the same route at one time.
And if you schedule the release and then try to add drills to it, it won't allow you to add drills, but if you pick a route and add drills and then release the captive, it appears as a single sub.
If I cancel the movement of the drills, it replaced the drills and the captive to my outposts possession, and then, a few moments later, it puts the captive in a 0 drill sub headed back, it also does this the other way if I cancel the release first.
Even if it did send them in two subs from the same time, it wouldn't make sense for the captive to collide with their sub, get released and then run into my sub, because the point at which it runs into the owners sub is the same point at which it his sub collides with mine. And as far as the time machine shows, it was never on the owners sub headed for his base, it immediately (the tick after the combat) was on a sub of mine headed to my nearest base.

What you've said is entirely possible, or maybe it's happening exactly as I describe but it's intentional, but the way I viewed it, it just seems odd.

wish i had a captured specialist in the game i am playing to confirm... I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to try it out or a developer to investigate...

But if the captured specialist was even slightly ahead i'm pretty sure this would be the expected outcome. It would turn around and then get recaptured again at the same time both attacks collide. if that isnt the case the its probably a bug.

I still dont think it was the same sub though because when released specialists hit another sub the combat report says "pirate freed" i believe.

I hadn't even thought of checking the log. Here it shows I released it and that our subs battled, no notice of capture.
But I haven't noticed any that said anything about captures.