Mgellis

In terms of who might project power against Latin America... South Korea and Saudi Arabia seem like the only countries with the kind of economy and military might that cross the Pacific and try to beat up on Peru or something. I'd put them at the top of the list. In terms of who might has submarines that might be sent to harass Latin American ships, especially convoys being sent to Asia, etc.... Israel Iran and maybe... Turkey Singapore Malaysia In terms of who might send aircraft to a multi-national effort with or against Latin American countries (probably only a couple of types like F-16s, C-130s, etc.; a lot are already in there, of course, since they're American or European made)... Egypt Saudi Arabia Israel Oman U.A.E. South Korea Greece Turkey In terms of who might be the target of Latin American forces working with other countries as part of a multi-national force....heck, the whole HCDB, but I tried to list only "the usual suspects." Another option would be to add NOT a comprehensive list but 20 or so ship, aircraft, and sub types from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, etc. to the HCDB. Enough that someone who wanted a Brazilian or Venezuelan convoy getting into trouble in the Persian gulf would have a couple of warships, etc. to work with. Let me know what you think. Thanks. Mark

Okay, here are my requests for the HCDA database... Would it be possible to add some or all of the following countries (i.e., copy the information from HCDB)... Egypt Israel (the aircraft and submarines, at least) Syria (ditto) Turkey Greece Saudi Arabia Iran Oman U.A.E. Indonesia Malaysia South Korea North Korea (the aircraft, at least) Vietnam (the aircraft, at least) ...it seems like some of those might get into a scrap with one of the Latin American countries over something. Or work with them in a joint, international effort against a common foe.

File Name: Thai10a1.zip File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 30 Mar 2009 File Category: WestPac DB Used: HCDB Authors: Mark Gellis Battleset-WPac: .scq - WPac - WestPac THAILAND QUARREL. Naval action between Thailand and Indonesia. Click here to download this file

Friends, When I'm not playing Harpoon, I play GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System). In fact, I write for Steve Jackson Games on a freelance basis. I am thinking of writing some articles about vehicles that adventurers might use. It is not difficult to find web sites that provide basic statistics for military vehicles such as range, weight, the weapons carried, etc. But that only tells you so much. And other factors are not so easily quantified. Here is my question... I'm looking for sources that can provide information on more qualitative aspects of vehicles, like their overall maneuverability (how easy are they to drive, keep stable, etc.), how reliable they are (if they take a lickin', do they keep on tickin'?), what their general reputation for quality, ease of use, survivability, breakdowns, etc. is, and so on. Things like that. Anyone have any recommendations for books, articles, web sites, etc.? General or specific sources are fine. Any conflict or historical period is fine, too. If someone knows, for example, about a book that explains why certain fighters in World War I were regarded as giving a pilot an edge and and others were considered "flying coffins," I'd love to hear about it. Thanks. Mark

File Name: Mex10a1.zip File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 20 Sep 2008 File Category: Custom DB Used: HCDA Authors: Mark Gellis Battleset: CaribbeanBasin Battleset-Custom: .scz - Custom BS - Custom BS A small scenario pitting Mexican forces (with a little help from the United States) against Colombian ones. This scenario uses the HCDA database. Click here to download this file

I noticed there weren't many positive responses to this. May I suggest another approach? The challenge could work like this... 1. A general concept for a scenario (e.g., France is mad at Yemen and is going to destroy two of their military bases) will be posted by Harpgamer and/or AGSI. The concept will include certain guidelines, restrictions, etc. (e.g., "BLUE will have a French CVBG with up to six ships and two submarines, one friendly base in a nearby country, and no more than 50 aircraft and/or helicopters. RED may have..."). The scenarios do not have to be part of a "series." 2. People write and submit their scenarios to Harpgamer. 3. Other people play the scenarios and report on how cool they are. (This includes how good the orders file is at fleshing out the "story.") 4. Harpgamer and/or AGSI makes a decision on which scenario is the best. That one wins. This could be done for any number of scenarios. Any thoughts on this? Mark

Is there a new patch to HCE? I downloaded the most recent one and when the scenario editor saves the scenario it uses the scz automatically. I can make the changes, though. Mark

File Name: Ivor10a1.zip File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 11 Jun 2008 File Category: Custom DB Used: HCDB Authors: Mark Gellis Battleset: No Information Battleset-Custom: .scz - Custom BS - Custom BS FRENCH IVORY France needs to teach the Ivory Coast a lesson. Algeria does not approve. This scenario uses the South Africa battleset map and the HCDB. Click here to download this file

Oh, by the way, expect my first African scenario fairly soon... France wants to punish Ivory Coast by disabling a few of its off shore oil rigs. Algeria (always happy to annoy the French) has warned the French that it intends to protect its sub-Saharan ally from European aggression and has moved some of its aircraft to Abidjan...and maybe one of its submarines to the waters near the oil rigs, too...

Here's a web site listing current naval shipbuilding; it has names for various vessels... http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/world/h...ships/naval.htm ...so I thought it might be helpful for the next incarnation of the HCDB and the HCDA. I think you're right that the South American ships, etc. should be handled with the HCDA. Maybe that's where Africa should go, too, if there is space there. Technically, Africa shouldn't be in the "Americas" database, but maybe it makes more sense to just have two main ones, HCDB as the basic database and and HCDA to cover Latin America and anywhere else that doesn't fit in the HCDB. I suspect it won't take too many entries to handle the African navies and air forces. According to... http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/ ...most of the sub-Saharan African navies consist of patrol boats and missile boats. I'm guessing about eight to ten entries would cover the most important ones. To be honest, now that I've looked into it, I'm not sure we need many extra aircraft for Africa. Does the South African Grippen use any different loadouts than the Czech one? If not, there isn't any need to add it to the database...one can just use the Czech one. The only ones that might really be needed are... Denel AH-2 Rooivalk Bateleur UAV ...most of the others one might need for a scenario (C-130, CN-235, etc.) are already there. (By the way, http://www.scramble.nl/airforces.htm lists the locations of a number of African bases.) As for the other countries, almost all of them seem to use European, American, Russian, or Chinese aircraft, export versions, all of which are already in the database. Suffice that one can already do a lot with Africa; a lot of the aircraft and other platforms one needs for scenario design are already there. If the other platforms can be added, great, but there's no rush. Mark

Thanks, Tony. I had no idea what was causing it, so I figured I better report it. Mark

I found the glitch-crash error for another ship in the HCDB... INTL Hainan PG Try to look at the weapons it carries and it crashes the scenario editor. Just thought you would like to know. Mark

HCDA is very cool. (I finally figured out how to switch databases...it was much easier than I thought it would be. Now, of course, I have to include which database to use when I write new scenarios, but that's not a big deal.) As for Africa...Africa might be easier because, aside from South Africa, there aren't many large navies or air forces that aren't already in the database. Most African ships, subs, aircraft, etc. are imports, built by the U.S., Europe, etc. so you can just use generic MiGs, F-5s, etc. in a lot of cases (I was also assuming for bases you would just have to rely on the Generic airfields, etc...fortunately, with Answers.com it's easy to find their location.) But I would like to see some of the South African platforms included, if possible. Mark

Well, Brad said it was great news that I finally got HCE, but we'll see if he still thinks that after seeing THIS wish list... First, there is a minor error on the new HCDB. The Italian Garibaldi CVH has some kind of glitch in its entry--it shows up as blank lines in the platform display and when I try to view its weapons, it crashes the scenario editor. Ouch. And, now that we've got the Battleset Builder, and those nice maps of Africa, South America, etc., shouldn't we now start adding ships and planes for the more important African and South American nations? Off the top of my head, here are some possibilities... http://www.answers.com/topic/south-african-navy http://www.answers.com/topic/south-african-air-force Valour class Frigates Warrior (ex Minister) class Fast Attack Craft River Class(Coastal Mine Hunters - MHC) Type 209/T.1400 class Submarines (SSK) Denel AH-2 Rooivalk South African versions of the Cheetah and the Grippen (I think most of the other planes are already in the database) Kenya has some missile boats... http://www.answers.com/topic/kenya-navy Most of the other African nations, it seems, don't have any significant navy (I think they're mostly some of the patrol boat classes that are already in the database, although perhaps the actual ships should be added to the ship lists) and most of their aircraft are either Russian, American, Chinese, or European exports. http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/ covers many of these smaller navies, but since it was last updated around 2002, some new ships may have been added. Do we need any new variations on these platforms or can the ones in the HCDB be used? For some of the planes, the ones used by several different countries, would it make sense to just provide an INTL entry and a few of the most common loadouts rather than trying to handle every possibility? (I was surprised you didn't do that for the F-5, actually...I'd have thought doing that would be easier than adding one for each country, although it is a little more convenient to scenario designers that way.) I'll be back with more requests (i.e., South American ships) soon. Mark

Well, I finally got the new Harpoon (HCE). So far, I'm very impressed. A couple of questions... First, it seems like you can only load one extra battleset (South Africa, etc.) at a time. All the files use the hdsu.res and hdsu.rsr files and each time you load a new one, it replaces the last one. The scenario files remain, but you need to restore the appropriate map to play it, I guess. (I tried changing the file to something like hdsv.res, but it didn't work.) Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? Second, how do you get AI subs to move in the scenario editor? Do you set a course, and THEN set a speed, or what? So far, they just sit where I put them. (I can get them to move by using the formation editor, but all they do is patrol a region; they won't go from Iceland to France on their own or anything like that.) Third, why is there still a hole in New Guinea? Thanks. Mark

Friends, If you are interested in trying your hand at writing some material for rpgs, please check out... http://e23.sjgames.com/gurps-wish-list.html As you will see, for a number of the proposed titles "the value of this series resides almost entirely in the quality of the research"--they don't want people who are just making things up, they want authors who actually know their stuff. Naturally, I thought of you guys. Some of the books will discuss government agencies, military history, political hot spots, civilian and military vehicles, and building-sized locations like oil rigs and military checkpoints. Again, you can see why I thought of you guys. Enjoy. Mark

File Name: Kore10a1.zip File Submitter: Mgellis File Submitted: 2 Jun 2007 File Category: IOPG South Korean convoy vs. Iranian forces in the Persian Gulf Click here to download this file

Friends, Just to let you know, I've posted a new scenario on FilesofScenShare. (Brad, please feel free to re-post it here.) It's a battle between Israel and Egypt in a fictional 1990 setting (although inspired by real historical events after the Six Day War), with Egypt getting a little help from the Soviets... Mark

Oh, a few more requests... Please add the two new submarines just added to Israel's navy. They were just purchased this month. I couldn't find the names--not sure they have been named yet. Here are two web links... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_class_submarine http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ernational/home It sounds like the new submarines will be slightly different from the first three Dolphins. (Perhaps these should be a separate class with nuclear-tipped Harpoon missiles?) And...ooo...it looks like Egypt is planning on adding two new Moray submarines Here is the link... http://www.amiinter.com/samples/egypt/EG2201.html Indonesia looks like it may be purchasing Kilos...the 877E is already in the HCDB, but perhaps you could add a few generic ones to cover navies like Indonesia which may or may not purchase a few more? (Will the new exports have the SAMs, like the 636 Kilos?) And, as always, I'm hoping some "offstage" nations like Brazil, Venezuela, and South Africa, all of which might join some international effort, or possibly send submarines to wreck havoc against a distant enemy, will make an appearance. Thanks. Mark

A couple of additional requests/questions... Should the Pakistani versions of the Q-5 (known as the A-5) and the J-6 (known as the F-6) be added? As I understand, they were modified to carry the Sidewinder. I think their electronics are different than the Chinese versions, too, but I'm not sure. I think Mynmar and North Korea also fly the A-5, but probably not the same version as Pakistan. Are the loadouts for the Pakistani Mirage III and Mirage 5 the same as the INTL ones in the database? If they are very different, can Pakistani versions be added? Thanks. Mark

Dear Brad, A couple of questions... Will a new version of the HCDB be released soon? Just curious. China appears to have or be about to get several new Kilo submarines. Should they be added? Here is a web link... http://www.sinodefence.com/news/2005/news05-12-29.asp (There are already four Chinese Kilos in the database, so adding extra ones isn't critical, but I thought you would like to know.) Should the Chinese Type 22 FAC be added? Here is a web link... http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/littoral/type022.asp Also, is it time to start considering nations from "off stage"...South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, etc.? Obviously, most of these nations have very small navies, so there really isn't any need to include them, but a few are capable of some limited power projection, assisting in multi-national operations in global trouble spots, etc. Thanks. Mark