TEPonta

Yup, that's why I wanted to handle it separately since BOL weapons should hit anything in the path after activation. Tony Tony: In that vein, I just uploaded a small scenario to MANTIS which I hope will show what I mean re BOL shots. It's IOPG, one Blue unit, one Red and a Green one in between, all aligned on one bearing. As I stated there, 20 of 20 attempts had my Harpoon shot ignoring the Green unit and either impacting or being engaged by the Red one. I mention that here since I saw your name associated with the Mantis testing, and sometimes I'm not sure if I've uploaded things succesfully there. Thanx: Buddha

I won't tell you how to craft your scenario, but... Why don't you just make that opening move part of the scenario intro text, not an event that actually happens in the game? i.e. "Yesterday Red pirates attacked a Neutral merchant at coordinates ..." That said, there are two directions from which you will eventually be able to do something closer to what you are attempting here. First is probably longer termed but it is a more complete implementation of the Neutral side as a real side (the Green side) rather than a fixed Neutral side. With that come stances towards each of the other sides and an ability to get the green side mad enough to turn hostile if provoked. Second is an offshoot of a Search And Rescue implementation. That is the idea of a friendly unit that is out of the comms net and must be detected. I imagine that capability could be generalized to situations beyond SAR as needed. The only problem I see with making the initial attack part of the intro is that it would take some of the fun out of playing the "bad guys". As much as I enjoy all of Harpoons features, there's still the little boy inside me who enjoys blasting things on occasion. The lack of comms/SAR offshoot you mention definitely sounds good, especially as it would serve to enhance a lot of other situations. I think we've all probably had our share of fruitless attempts to contact merchant ships by bridge-to-bridge, flashing light, etc. Being the stand on vessel in a crossing situation at dark thirty AM comes to mind. That said, I still think weaapons impact on neutrals, whether by design or accidental, would add substantially to the game's realism. Thanx: Buddha

Sure, Tony: The attack won't proceed in either case, as far as I can determine. The scenario I want to create involves pirates, Red in this case, attacking a neutral Merchant ship (Green) resulting in a response by Blue units after a distress call. The problem is that when the pirates are AI, they don't attack the Green unit, and if the pirates are controlled by the player, there is no provision to attack the green unit (Pressing Attack doesn't list the Green unit as an available target). In other words, the AI basically ignores the Green units, and the player cannot attack them. This can be avoided by making the merchant either Red or Blue as opposed to Green, but the problem then is that the program then treats the merchant as a member of the side to which it is assigned, with instant contact reporting capabilities as if it were a Link 11 PU. As to the BOL situation, which I've already posted on Mantis, it is that SSM attacks basically ignore neutral shipping. If a Blue unit has a hostile ESM cut bearing 270 for example, and the player launches a BOL attack on that bearing with a seeker turn on range of 25 miles, the weapon will ignore and overfly a Green unit at 270 35 miles and will only detect and attack any Red units found on that bearing after the seeker turns on. I only mention that here since the situations seem as if they may be related. If I'm beginning to sound like a Grognard here, I apologize. My only intent is to help make Harpoon as realistic and enjoyable as possible for all hands. I also see Harpoon as an excellent training aid in the real world, and I think these suggestions will help there as well. We used it precisely for that at the MET. It's already superior to NavTag in my estimation. Thanx: Buddha

Using Tony's new Battle Set Creator (Thanx Tony), I designed a Caribbean BS and wanted to try a scenario involving the USCG and modern day pirates. The problem I ran into is that the Red pirate unit cannot be ordered to attack a Green merchant. If I use a Blue merchant, the attack goes OK, but the merchant also acts as an extension of Blue sensors, and the pirate is immediately reported upon detection. It seems in the real world no report would likely be made until after an actual attack/distress call. This is probably similar to a report I made to MANTIS regarding Harpoon BOL shots overflying neutrals and hitting hostiles, even though the neutral was beyond the seeker turn on range. When I ran the MET Trainer in Saudi Arabia, the students were constantly hitting merchants by mistake under circumstances just such as these. I can't say I know of it ever happening for real, but the possibility certainly seems to exist. Buddha

At this time there is only hdsm.res and so must be swapped. This will change but we don't have it planned out yet. Any time you import a DB into the editor, it overwrites any data already in the pfData file, so just make a copy of pfData for each DB you use, no need for the blank DB (which is in the downloads section at HarpGamer here) unless you are starting a DB from scratch. How does this affect the pfBuild file. Does that need to be duplicated as well?

As far as i know the Edit fuction is missing => something Tony is working on for the future and as long as we haven´t got an edit function for the BS-Creator you can use my workaround. Regards René What I'm working on isn't an editing of a battleset but rather saving of the settings used to create a battleset. So a file will be created that has the coordinates of the battleset, text of the battleset, filenames of the scenarios. As to how much farther the capability will go, I'm not sure. I'm tempted to save also in that configuration file of sorts a copy of the scenarios and such but I'm not sure. The other approach is as you both suggest, allow editing of a battleset (which already holds all of the information of interest). Tony: Now that I seem to have everything up and running normally, I have another question or two. If I create more than one battleset (South Pacific in addition to my Caribbean for example), are they designated sequentially as in HDSM.RES, HDSN.RES, HDSO.RES, etc. or will they all need to be saved in separate folders as HDSM and swapped in and out of the Harpoon folder? Also, I recall a blank DB file available for download someplace that you could import data into, such as the data in Rene's Baltic DB, but I've lost the URL for it somehow. Anyone remember where that's located? Thanx: Buddha

Cool that at least one Problem got fixed. For your Scen. You need to build the BS first to get the map (it is usefull to note the used coordinates on a sheet of dead wood aka paper). Add 1 old scen to the BS, it doesn´t mater where it is located! then you can build your desired Scen. Build a new BS 8with the old/same coordinates) but you now can replace the placeholder scen by your new build scen Edit: I can open the BS File here without any Problems, no crashes but i´m using the Euro DB at the moment! Next try is with Buddhas DB file Edit II: Works fine with Buddhas commondb file except of the missing Base..... Regards René Rene: I managed a similar workaround, although mine involved uninsatalling and reinstalling the builder. I like your way much better. As to Editting, what I would like to see is a way to open the BS in the builder and edit it there. I haven't been able to figure out a way to do that yet. Also, while I did get Pensacola to work as a base, it puts me at the 2048 limit so I can only have one installation in one BS, no more. If I create any more installations in the PE and export, they do not appear as available anywhere. I'd like to delete some of the installations I never use to make room, but I'm afraid if I do, I'll crash the whole thing. I sent most of this to Tony in a PM last night since I seem to be the only one having these problems, but sharing them here is probably a good idea, too. Buddha

Bad to worse. Now I can get as far as reading the scenario orders, and when I press "Close", I get the attached error. I tried using msconfig to disable all my start-up programs in case something was interfering, but the results are the same. Buddha BSBError1.bmp

Yup, we want to know too. I'm a bit slow due to prolonged and ongoing health problems but I aim to release an update to the BS Builder this coming weekend, in part with greater logging so that we can pin down the issue you are having. Tony: Thanx, and I hope you feel better. Buddha

Hi You need to reduce the number of installations to 2048 Or you can use my Atlantic DB, wich covers parts of this area. BTW there´s no need to build two bases per location (red and blue) except of compatibility for older scens. It is ok if you build only 1 Regards René I finally got one base in Pensacola to work, but that puts me right at the apparent limit of 2048. If I create another one, it doesn't appear as available. This partially solves the problem, as long as I never want another base on either side in my BS. Since it's taboo to mess with existing entries, it seems I have the one and only base for my new BS. The scenario still doesn't appear in the BS window (it's empty) and has to be loaded as a user scenario, and I still get the error when I try to load it, but if I choose "Ignore", all runs OK. I'd really like to find out if this is a result of an error I've made and can fix myself, or a normal bug found in a new program. Thanx: Buddha

I'll be trying again later to replicate the problem (your hdsm.res gives me the same error as you get) but so far don't have an issue in creating a battleset with your scenario. The screenshot of your export looks fine, it has no unexpected error messages but it would still be good to zip up your commondb.res and attach it here. Anyway, for now I've attached a copy of your battleset that I created here in case you were hot to play it more . For everyone's reference the BS Builder creates a log file called BSBuilder.log in it's directory, it doesn't say much useful for debugging right now but it will kick out your coordinates. Here's the commondb.res file you requested. As far as I can tell, the facility I created (Pensacola, both Red and Blue, using Lat/Long I got from GoogleEarth) is in the DB, but doesn't appear in the SE as available for use. Thanx: Buddha CommonDB.zip

Here's a screenshot of the DOS screen in the PE when I export following creating an Air Station in Pensacola. The installation is in the DB okay, but doesn't appear as available in the SE to put into a scenario. Buddha PEDosScr.bmp

I'm running Win XP Home English with SP2. As to the debug libraries, I didn't even know I had them. They must have come with something I don't use very often, so if there's info you need in there, you'll have to tell me how to extract it for you. The area has a UL of 31Nx98W and a LR of 12Nx70W, as near as I can guess. Since I can't figure out a way to open a BS to edit it, I can't be more exact about that. It appears that once created, the BS is carved in stone, although I could be wrong about that I guess. The attached files seem to be all that were created while I was doing this whole thing. This whole BS Creater thing seems to have unlimited potential to expand the game, so if I can help in any way, let me know. I also can't seem to create a base in the area covered in the BS. The PE accepts all my inputs, shows a few off the wall text strings with the usual stuff in the DOS screen when I export, and the entry disappears completely, even from the DB. Ships, subs and A/C seem to work OK though. Thanx: Buddha Welcome to the fray. From your screenshots I can say that I'm going to pick on you in the future because you have the debug libraries in the first place (most people don't unless they have some development tools on their computer). It definitely appears that the battleset went together wrong, leading to the problems. A few questions and requests: 1. What language and version of Windows are you running (i.e. English 32-bit Windows XP Home or 64-bit Windows 2000 Pro)? 2. Please attach the scenario + orders files, commondb.res, and if you have them, the map coordinates you used in the BS Creator. Stick them in a zip file and you should be able to attach it to your next reply to this thread. 3. If you know the text you used in the BS creator, please include that as well so others can try to replicate your results. The key task with the battlset creator right now is testing the limits, perhaps you found one but I'm thinking it isn't as serious as a permanent problem. Thanks for working through it. BSCreator.zip

I was able to create a Caribbean BS and a small scenario in it without difficulty. When I try to play it, I get the attached error message. Choosing Ignore gets me past that, and the scenario window opens, but it is empty. I can load and play it as a user scenario however. I have no problem with my new BS in the SE, except I can't seem to create any installations in the PE for the geographic area. I've tried Key West and Pensacola, but when I export the DB, the DOS screen gives the usual stuff, plus some unusual errors, and the entry just vanishes completely. Also, to create more than one BS, are they created alphabetically (HSDM.RSR, HSDN.RSR, HDSO.RSR, etc.)? And can they be editted, or are they carved in stone once created? Let me add that this whole thing is something I think we've all wanted to include for a long time. Any suggestions? Thanx: Buddha BSBError.bmp BSBWindow.bmp

That certainly makes sense. Will it then be necessary so rename both files in order to switch between the two? I know MS Access will allow me to work on any file with an .mdb extension, but it seems to me that GE will only access pfData2002.mdb in the Harpoon root directory. Another solution would be if I could copy and paste individual records between the two .mdb files, the old one and the updated one, since only a couple of platforms would be involved. Unfortunately, if you can do that, I'm not aware of how. Any advice from MS Access experts out there? Thanx:

I have a few platforms I've constructed from scratch based on information I have been able to gather, the most complex one being the USS Midway. Whenever a DB update comes out and I install it, my platforms go away and I need to redo them from scratch. Is there some easier, less time consuming way to do this? Thanx;

Yeah, I am using neutral units. In my case, I have Blue patrol A/C reporting neutral contacts to me when I play Red. Although it's not inconceivable that a neutral unit might report something he sees by Bridge-to-Bridge or whatever, I don't see the enemy reporting neutrals, or anything else, to me.

I'm running HCCE b09c under Windows XP. I recently designed a small scenario in the EC2003 IOPG Battleset. The strange thing I'm experiencing is that while playing Red, I'm getting reports on surface units from a Blue P-3. Has anyone else had this happen? If so, does anyone know of a fix? Thanx: Tom

When I downloaded and installed HCCE 2005.b09c, I noticed that the installer didn't create a Start Menu shortcut to the Platform Editor. For any users who also noticed this problem, I created a shortcut pointing to the file pfBuild2002.mdb, and it seems to work fine. I hope this helps anyone who has noticed this problem. Tom

Seldom wrong and right again. Thanx, Tony, this thing was really starting to drive me nuts. While we're on the subject of the PE, what do the DB-Start_Edit and DB-End_edit shortcuts do? What I've been doing is using the start shortcut, doing my editing, exporting the DB, closing the PE, and lastly using the end shortcut. Is this correct? Also, the installer didn't create a shortcut to the PE. I created one myself that points to the file pfBuild2000.mdb, and it seems to work. If the tech types agree, you might want to post it somewhere for the other users. Thanx again: Tom

I just downloaded the latest (2005b09c) version and installed it, and I'm having a problem with the platform Editor. I created a new surface platform and saved it. When I open any scenario in any of the EC2003 Battlesets, the platform appears under Platform Display/All Platforms. When I use the Scenario Editor in any of these Battlesets (or any Battleset for that matter), my unit doesn't appear under available units. Since I can see it under all units in any regular scenario, I know it's in there somewhere. What am I missing here? Thanx: Tom

Can someone give me some guidance on how to use the Platform Editor under the new release (b09). The install program didn't put any files into the db_utils subdirectory, so I copied them from the old version. I have 2 icons labeled bb_start edit and db_end edit, that I assume are used to prepare the db for editing and then save it. Since I kept the previous version of Harpoon in the AGSI directory when I installed the new one in the Harpoon Classic Commanders Edition, I still have access to the old PE, and I'm able to access the new DB from there. When I try to create a shortcut in the new program group pointing to the DB, I get a load of grief about being unable to edit the file because it was designed for Access 97 (I use Access 2003). This was never a problem before the latest upgrade. Any suggestions? I really want to get everything working correctly before I remove the old version in favor of the latest one. Thanx: Tom