TonyE

Since the discussion has stalled the following are the acronyms. #1 HCNG - Harpoon Classic Next Generation #2 CH31 - I don't care how it gets expanded as I'm after the acronym.

That is not a capability present in the game.

I think it requires the burning of incense while standing on one foot. Honestly I was able to trick it into working a couple of times and will postulate further if Miller7219 doesn't jump all over it.

note to self from StalinTC regarding SBs in UnitWin, they don't disappear/expire when they should.

btw, thanks again to StalinTC who reported two issues with the installer (that it was creating a second uninstall start menu item and some uninstaller stuff).

HCE - 2009.036 ============== - Chg:0000 GE Code changes to make sure the -g command line switch time compression is only applied for the first scenario loaded. - Chg:0000 GE The game should only prompt for game options once instead of the double prompting we've been tolerating for years.

HCE - 2009.036 ============== - Chg:0000 GE Code changes to make sure the -g command line switch time compression is only applied for the first scenario loaded. - Chg:0000 GE The game should only prompt for game options once instead of the double prompting we've been tolerating for years. You should be able to them both but I'll be satisfied if you test the second.

That's okay, I spent three hours today wondering why the game was loading random scenarios instead of the scenarios I specified on the command line. The Instant Action checkbox was checked...

Upon taking a quick look at your save I'm not seeing any missing groups. I do see planes and land units in formation of airfields though (ZZ11 Armor and ZY10 are two examples). The i key toggles showing group and unit IDs, the first two letters will match in the Unit and Group windows for Units that belong to a particular group (ZZ11 is part of group ZZa, ZY10 is part of group ZYa). Hopefully this is what you are seeing rather than missing groups. Admittedly the formation patrols can be tricky like that, sometimes scenario designers do that on purpose (put an air defense unit right in front of an airfield but the air defense unit is really part of a different group, tricks the player...). For UI rewrite I'm hoping to allow (i.e. toggleable) showing of group centers on the Unit window and units on the group map in such a way that the non-native icons are easily identified as such (i.e. unit on group map might be half-way faded out).

marking this build as testing complete so you'll all focus on the older Release Notes

HCE - 2009.035 ============== - Chg:0000 GE A couple of tweaks to possibly increase responsiveness under heavy processing load. When at high time compression this should make the 1:1 time hotkeys more responsive. - Chg:0000 GE Show the proper side's Staff Assistant when enemy land units are destroyed. (thanks StalinTC)

HCE - 2009.035 ============== - Chg:0000 GE A couple of tweaks to possibly increase responsiveness under heavy processing load. When at high time compression this should make the 1:1 time hotkeys more responsive. - Chg:0000 GE Show the proper side's Staff Assistant when enemy land units are destroyed. (thanks StalinTC) Thanks to StalinTC on that second and thanks to him also for the attached saved game, play as Blue, after about 10 seconds of game time you should be prompted to fire Brimstone at some Red MLUs, do 12 on target one, six on each of the others and you should get one or two kills. The staff assistant should be the Blue guy, not the Red guy. As for the first item, that's a little subjective but I know you all are up to it. LandUnitDest1a.zip

miller7219, can you confirm the Snap Up/Down as working as well? I know you posted somewhere that it was working, a link or quick blurb would be appreciated.

another testing note, from here on out please comment on any installer inconsistencies and problems. I made a concerted effort with this build to make the installer do things smarter, make backups, etc.

HCE - 2009.034 ============== - Chg:0000 GE More command line option modifications. -g, added a 9th digit to set the initial time compression. 0=paused, 1=1:1, 2=5:1, 3=10:1, 4=30:1, 5=60:1, 6=300:1, 7=600:1, 8=1800:1 so -g 111111118 would result in 30min:1sec initial time compression. -p option to set the CPU affinity mask. examples... -p 1 (run on CPU 0) -p 2 (run on CPU 1) -p 3 (run on CPU 0 and 1) -p 4 (run on CPU 2) -p 8 (run on CPU 3) -p 16 (run on CPU 4, see a pattern yet?) and so on and so forth you can read about affinity masks various places on the Internet, our command line option is decimal, many sources on the Internet list only hexadecimal so you may have to do conversions in some cases. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed a situation where an assertion could be thrown in the Sonar function. - Chg:0000 GE Disabled "AutoTest is Activated" dialog when the -a command line is used so that scenarios can be started from the command line without user input. - Chg:0000 GE Disabled the "Debug version..." dialog when the -a command line option is used. Same reason as above. - Chg:0000 SE Added command line options with the same functions as the GE -b -c -d -r. Added -t command line switch to specify working directory i.e. -t d:\games\hcce Note that the SE is a 16-bit application and hence works on short filename wrong: -d "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\commondb.res" right: -d C:\Matrix~1\HCE\commondb.res - Chg:0000 Big improvements to the patch installer script. It will now properly read the previous installation directory, make a backup of replaced files, and register itself correctly. Obviously it is time to edit your shortcuts to try different command line options

HCE - 2009.034 ============== - Chg:0000 GE More command line option modifications. -g, added a 9th digit to set the initial time compression. 0=paused, 1=1:1, 2=5:1, 3=10:1, 4=30:1, 5=60:1, 6=300:1, 7=600:1, 8=1800:1 so -g 111111118 would result in 30min:1sec initial time compression. -p option to set the CPU affinity mask. examples... -p 1 (run on CPU 0) -p 2 (run on CPU 1) -p 3 (run on CPU 0 and 1) -p 4 (run on CPU 2) -p 8 (run on CPU 3) -p 16 (run on CPU 4, see a pattern yet?) and so on and so forth you can read about affinity masks various places on the Internet, our command line option is decimal, many sources on the Internet list only hexadecimal so you may have to do conversions in some cases. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed a situation where an assertion could be thrown in the Sonar function. - Chg:0000 GE Disabled "AutoTest is Activated" dialog when the -a command line is used so that scenarios can be started from the command line without user input. - Chg:0000 GE Disabled the "Debug version..." dialog when the -a command line option is used. Same reason as above. - Chg:0000 SE Added command line options with the same functions as the GE -b -c -d -r. Added -t command line switch to specify working directory i.e. -t d:\games\hcce Note that the SE is a 16-bit application and hence works on short filename wrong: -d "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\commondb.res" right: -d C:\Matrix~1\HCE\commondb.res - Chg:0000 Big improvements to the patch installer script. It will now properly read the previous installation directory, make a backup of replaced files, and register itself correctly.

Topic to hold Miller7219's post regarding turns. Also note our initial IRC discussion on the topic

The level of confusion that would be created by calling the program just Computer Harpoon is too great, especially since that term is used often in the back and forth between AGSI and Bond and such. Harpoon Reloaded, the only thing I don't like is that the acronym tends to HR which around here means Human Resources. 3CH31 for the paper ruleset stuff sounds decent to me, it doesn't remind me of anything else.

Already cooking up some additional goodness for the next build on the command line front: 1. No more showing the autotest dialog if command line option is enabled 2. No more showing Debug dialog if autotest is enabled 3. Added one more digit to -g for an initial time compression, values 0 - 8 (zero is paused, 8 is 30min:1) All of those to aid in automated autoplay of multiple scenarios.

HCE - 2009.033 ============== - Chg:0000 GE Refined the EMCON situations for turning on Active Sonar... If detected unfriendly unit is: A torpedo within friendly unit Active Sonar range, turn it on. OR Using Active Sonar and is within friendly unit Active Sonar range, turn it on. OR if friendly unit is a surface craft AND friendly group meets an aggressiveness factor AND enemy unit is within friendly ASW weapon range AND within friendly Active Sonar range. The respective Message Log entries in debug builds are: torpedoes at %dnm are within active sonar range contact at %dnm is within active sonar range and using active sonar contact at %dnm is within ASW range (thanks to Brad for puzzling this out) - Chg:0000 GE Fixed a bug in the radar function that wasn't telling radar at what altitude the target was residing. - Chg:0000 GE New command line options to enable a launcher program later on. -b 1 (would load battleset 1 which is original GIUK) -c 1 (would load scenario 1.0 of the selected battleset) -c "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\MyScen.SCp" (would load MyScen.SCp) -v "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\MySave.hpp" (would load saved game MySave.hpp) -d C:\Games\HCE\hcdb-090427.res (would load hcdb-090427 as the commondb) -r C:\Games\HCE\commondb.rsr (would load commondb.rsr as the commondb resource file) -g 11111111 (explained below from left to right) 1st digit is player side in the scen 0 = Blue, 1 = Red 2nd digit is Nuke Release Enabled 1=yes, 0=no 3rd digit is Snorkeling subs 1=yes, 0=no 4th digit is Real Weather 1=yes, 0=no 5th digit is Maintenance Failures 1=yes, 0=no 6th digit is Full Ordnance 1=yes, 0=no 7th digit is Auto Formation Patrols 1=yes, 0=no 8th digit is whether to exit the game at scen end 1=yes, 0=no

HCE - 2009.033 ============== - Chg:0000 GE Refined the EMCON situations for turning on Active Sonar... If detected unfriendly unit is: A torpedo within friendly unit Active Sonar range, turn it on. OR Using Active Sonar and is within friendly unit Active Sonar range, turn it on. OR if friendly unit is a surface craft AND friendly group meets an aggressiveness factor AND enemy unit is within friendly ASW weapon range AND within friendly Active Sonar range. The respective Message Log entries in debug builds are: torpedoes at %dnm are within active sonar range contact at %dnm is within active sonar range and using active sonar contact at %dnm is within ASW range (thanks to Brad for puzzling this out) - Chg:0000 GE Fixed a bug in the radar function that wasn't telling radar at what altitude the target was residing. - Chg:0000 GE New command line options to enable a launcher program later on. -b 1 (would load battleset 1 which is original GIUK) -c 1 (would load scenario 1.0 of the selected battleset) -c "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\MyScen.SCp" (would load MyScen.SCp) -v "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\MySave.hpp" (would load saved game MySave.hpp) -d C:\Games\HCE\hcdb-090427.res (would load hcdb-090427 as the commondb) -r C:\Games\HCE\commondb.rsr (would load commondb.rsr as the commondb resource file) -g 11111111 (explained below from left to right) 1st digit is player side in the scen 0 = Blue, 1 = Red 2nd digit is Nuke Release Enabled 1=yes, 0=no 3rd digit is Snorkeling subs 1=yes, 0=no 4th digit is Real Weather 1=yes, 0=no 5th digit is Maintenance Failures 1=yes, 0=no 6th digit is Full Ordnance 1=yes, 0=no 7th digit is Auto Formation Patrols 1=yes, 0=no 8th digit is whether to exit the game at scen end 1=yes, 0=no Sonar EMCON, Brad please post your results as I think you confirmed that whole batch already. There is no testing to do for the Radar function. Command Line options please do take them for a spin. There is little error checking done, it expects valid inputs. Some combinations don't make any sense (selecting a battleset but not indicating a scenario or saved game for instance). example command line to immediately load a scenario and start play... C:\Matrix Games\Winharp32.exe -b 26 -c 1 -g 01111100 (that'll be WestPac 1.0 Blue side, no autoformation air patrols)

Well nobody besides me has posted any performance info or impact but the other release notes make it clear the new behavior is in place and working.

See http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=4208 for sonar turn on stuff.

Reckall, I agree that quoting how other games work is entirely acceptable, especially given the IRC example. From that information a person can't start to piece together that game. My worry is the opportunity to have quoted a large enough % of the paper rules booklet by the time we're done that a person could recreate the booklet without having purchased the paper rules. That is what spurred my intellectual property concern. Certainly bit and pieces will get quoted for discussion but hopefully not huge stretches since we have the nice rules references.

Welcome to the HC Next Gen/H3 Paper Adaptation Project(s). I'll flesh this out over the coming days and weeks but we're endeavouring to make the next leap happen for Harpoon Classic in the form of a re-write into a modular system that can accept a range of rules plugins. The first ruleset will be H3 Paper followed by a HCE-style ruleset for backwards compatibility with HCE. The look will most likely resemble the UnitWindow DLL. Forum Layout: General - used for early idea development, random questions, pats on the back, and such. Game Mechanics/Rules - once ideas are fairly well developed they can be summarized and further developed there. Database Design - developing the hows and whys of translating the paper annexes into computer useable form.