disappearing ships

Why is this happening with the neutral ships

If their pathfinding gets stuck, they’ll sometimes teleport ahead to the next waypoint on their journey.

and its intended to stay that way?

Well, pathfinding AI’s been tweaked as the game goes along - neutral ships weren’t even in the original build. No doubt if FBG find a way to streamline their movements, they’ll implement it.

i’ve observed this a lot.
I’m not sure i agree with sir frederick’s assessment of the issue though, as i frequently see neutral ships vanishing from the middle of the open ocean, where there’s nothing for them to possibly get stuck on.

If alleviating pathfinding bugs is the intention, it’s not implemented well, sadly