General

Here is a small piece form a ge.log, with radar logging operating. 104351 Search.c:860 - Radar Emitter=AF-18A/B Hornet Target=E-737 Wedgetail, TargetRange=124, Radar LOS = (BaseLOS x weather_mod + 128)/256 104351 Search.c:861 - Radar LOS of 327nm = (327nm x 256 + 128)/256 --> Radar LOS=107057/256 104351 Search.c:867 - A RCS=157 TName=E-737 Wedgetail AName=AF-18A/B Hornet Range=124 Die=31 aPD=65 104351 Search.c:940 - B RCS=157 ARng=130 Arng=160 SRng=130 Srng=160 104351 Search.c:944 - Target was previously tracked. 104351 Search.c:987 - Detected E-737 Wedgetail with Air-to-Air Radar of range 130 with PD 65, Roll=31 104351 Search.c:1024 - Type of target kno…

Good afternoon everyone. I have recently purchased the Matrix Games Harpoon Ultimate Commander's Edition as well as Harpoon 3 -3.9.4 after not playing Harpoon for ages. One of the things I have noticed is that UCE is more "user friendly" and easier for a relative Newbie like myself to get up and playing.. While Harpoon 3 appears to be more difficult. That being said, I guess I am frustrated with H3 even though I am perceiving it to be the more "accurate" simulation for playing against the computer AI, as opposed to UCE as being more of an "advanced video game" version of Harpoon. Is my own perception? or am I missing something. What I want to be ab…

Hi all, I was reading a post and I got aware there is such an option in the game. Searched in the download area, found the hot keys documents and I see there's a Ctrl+Alt+S key combination. I tried it but nothing happens: what am I supposed to see activating it into the game? Thanks Francesco

It's been quite some time since I touched the Scenario Editor, and a question came up but I can't recall the answer: Is it possible to have an air strike in-progress or at least imminent at the start of a scenario... or do all air attacks have to be launched from a base? In other words, is it possible to set it up so that the player will be under attack as soon as he starts playing the scenario, or will there always be the time required for the AI to launch a strike from a base and travel to the attack position?

In trying to get a handle on this relative detectability issue, I have a few hypothetical cases, and since I can't create test scenarios for them (yet), I'm hoping someone can shed light on what should happen in these situations: Case 1: A player's base and an AI base exist, say, 400 nm apart - or whatever distance places them beyond each other's air radar range. A MiG-21 is loitering directly above one base and an E-2C is loitering directly above the other base. Both planes are at high altitude, and neither have any radar active. Both bases have active radar. There are no other groups "in play". The questions are, who sees what? 1. Is the E-2C detected by the …

I'm curious whether having multiple torpedoes in the water concurrently has any effect on the probability of any of them getting a hit. The reason I ask is that I've noticed that if I have multiple ASW assets attacking an AI sub and they launch torpedos before previous torpedos have hit or expired - or even just one platform, if it fires multiple times before its first shot hits or expires - then none of the torpedos will ever hit, and rarely even achieve near-misses. In comparison, if I deny further shots until the current shot is "done", then I see a noticably higher rate of hits and near-misses. So, I'm wondering if having excess torpedos running around somehow d…

The scenario is GIUK 2 Gauntlet. NATO has 2 FF, 2 merchants and must run the gauntlet of 1 sub, 2 x Nanuchka 3, and 6 attack jets. What's of interest here is how well the 2 Lynx available do against the Nanuchkas. Although it might have been simpler to set up a clean new scenario, I just ran this one down to the critical point, saved the file, and re-ran multiple times from that point. Now, there were several serious anomalies in that game, but the parts of interest seemed to run OK. There are 2 parts to this. First, I attacked from behind the Nanuchkas with one Lynx, and then from the front with the other one. The Nanuchkas are in column, about 5 nm apart…

Two or three questions about refueling: 1. How is fuel allocated among differing a/c types in a common group during refueling? For example, if I have groups consisting of an EF-111 (Patrol) and some F-111s (GP), or an EA-6B (Patrol) and some A-6Es (Precis-2), or some other similar combinations where there is a member type that has a much shorter range than other type(s) in the group and the tanker that is re-fueling the group does not have enough fuel to top off all the members, then how is the fuel allocated among those group members? Do the shorter-ranged members get topped off, and the remaining fuel distributed among the others, or (preferrably) does the fuel g…

Running tests on GIUK 2 Gauntlet. An old familiar scenario. NATO has an OHP frigate + a Type 22/2 FF + 2 merchants. Included are 2 x Lynx + 2 x Seahawk. Russians get 1 x Victor 2, 2 x Nanuchka, 6 x MiG-23. So my ships are driving along, minding their own business, at 15 kn. Suddenly we detect a bunch of torpedos incoming. The 22/2 is the target. It detaches and runs away at 30 kn. The OHP slows down to 5 kn. We launch 2 helos and start searching. Good sonar circle on the OHP (15 nm radius at this speed), lotta sonobuoys in play. When the torps are 4 nm away from the OHP, and fully detected, and still headed for the 22/2, suddenly the OHP just sinks!!! …

I have been looking at the WestPac Middleweights scenario. I can't say for sure, but I think the computer (N or S Korea) gets Rafales. We have lots of good AEW planes, and lots of planes with 40 nm AMRAAMs, but the Rafale is hard to detect AND it has 54 nm AA missiles. Any suggestions on how to deal with this menace? And how in the heck did either Korea get Rafales anyway?

In real life, you're supposed to drive ships with random zig-zags added to the course. Does this have any advantage in Harpoon? If not, it would be really tedious to put them in, given that the scale of a leg relative to the overall travel distances is quite small.

I tried to play the scenario "Kodak Moment" from the 2003 IPOG set but I saved it and stopped because I don't understand how to fulfill the victory conditions. It says to do "photo recon" of three ground forces. You can see the 3 ground forces on the map like they are bases (they are there before you even put any planes up). But I don't see any way of doing "photo recon". I have 2 search planes, 2 kiowa helos that could never reach, and 2 JSTARS. None of them can target the ground forces to do any type of "photo recon" mission, and just flying the JSTARS directly over the ground locations had no effect. Is this just BS in the orders and there is no such thing as …

Just tried opening up the IRC chat with both xchat and the Java portal....both are down....did someone trip over the plug?

Would someone please explain the actual goings-on relating to "stopping" the HCE game via setting to Zero Sec time compression and via the "Pause" menu item? In particular: 1. Do these methods have any different effects on the game? 2. Do they affect other system resources differently? 3. Does the game continue to "run" in any way that is significant to game events while in either of these "stopped" modes? 4. Is there anything else relating to the use of these "stop" methods that might be useful for the player to know about? I'm also curious if there is any other means for "stopping" the game in some effectively paused and resumable state (other than sa…

One thing that has puzzled me for a long time is the following situation regarding detection - and then loss of detection - of AI groups: Many times (maybe all times?) if the player has any sort of AEW/EW resources - or even other air groups - aloft (even if they are well beyond their radar ranges), the Staff Assistant will advise that the launch of such-and-such AI air group has been detected by such-and-such (player's) air group. However, said AI air group often is not seen again until it moves well within the radar range of some player's air or surface group. My question is two-part: First, how is it possible for the player's air groups to detect these launch…

Given some folks' reports of their airborne early warning & control (AEW&C) or AWACS aircraft proving vulnerable to 'sneak attacks' or generally not being able to spot enemy targets, I'd thought I would run a few tests through HCE 2009.050 and HCDB-110304 and post the results. The premise being that AEW&C and AWACS are not the "all seeing eye of Sauron" that some might expect them to be, nor are all of their potential targets, foes and aggressors created equally. I chose four different AEW&C platforms (with some similar and some varying capabilities), and a variety of radar 'targets' (again, with some similarities and some differences between them)…

I wonder if someone can give a definite answer to this question. Probably it has already been answered, and it may well have been asked by me before, because it's the sort of thing I would ask, but I don't remember. When a weapon is launched, does it head for where the target IS, or where the target IS GOING TO BE? Ditto for when the weapon is moving. May depend on the type of weapon.

Hello! Situation: I have an airfield where are present both ground (and air) attack aircraft and tankers aircraft. The target is over the attack group range so it needs the support of the tankers and this is my question: the tankers should be launched as a part of the attack group, or it better to to launch them before and to station them loitering in a convenient location and make the attack group joining, refueling and splitting from them? Thanks! Roberto

Hello, a stupid question so forgive me please! I see in the scenarios area of the downloads many scenarios that are part of a series but there are only the last ones; for example in the WESTPAC the scenario FIGHT! (PART 5 OF 5) is in the list but the other 4 parts are missing. Do you know where I can find these oldest svcenarios? Thanks in advance! Roberto

Does time compression (T/C) affect the PH or probability of detection in any material way? Every so often I notice something that makes it seem that having the time set to 10 secs or faster (or increasing the T/C to 10 Sec or greater during an encounter) alters the probabilities of certain events rather noticably - although I've really never been able to pin this down. Is there any reason why running the game "fast" would make it less likely for a missile, torpedo, etc. to score a hit... or make it less likely for a Sonabouy to detect a sub... or make it more likely for an air group to run out of fuel (as due to a delayed BINGO advisement, etc.)... or make detections…