TonyE

Good callout Brad. Annex E (Standoff ASW) has no guidance flags field. Add it to your wishlist. Code-wide, traditionally, the changes would go about like this... 1. PE - add the guidance flags to lPlatformCodes table OR assume we'll use the same guidance flags as missiles. 2. PE - expose those flags via a view 3. PE - Change the weapon editing form to allow guidance flags for Annex E 4. PE - Modify the .csv import 5. PE - Modify the .csv export 6. DU - Change the database import and export utilities to process the guidance flags. 7. GE - Change the annex structures to hold the guidance flags for Annex E 8. GE - Make the game use the guidance flags I don't have much excitement for the traditional way above, a lot of work for something I don't care all that much about. It is more interesting to me if a non-conventional approach is taken that stores the data elsewhere. That still represents a lot of work.

HCE - 2018.010 - 2018-08-20 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE ASROC style weapons were not setting a group type in the group id when they morphed from missile to torpedo. Fixed. - Chg:0000 GE ASROC style weapons were supposed to be inertially guided until conversion into torpedos except they weren't. Fixed but note this can make them much less accurate since they won't follow the manuevers of the targeted unit. - Chg:0000 GE Missile guidance at one time was turning the whole group toward a target but we really want the missile unit to turn toward a target since the group may have multiple units, each a significantly different bearing than the group as a whole. Fixed this up but still look out for things like Inertially guided weapons following the course changes of a target and report please if found.

Eric and I ran thru a few 2018.010 preview builds which made good progress but broke other functionality so I'm not uploading one yet. This missile guidance code is my second least favorite area of the code to mess with after the logic to decide if a weapon is valid against a target. The complexity shows, fix one issue and two more pop up. We'll keep picking away at it as time permits.

Have another go at it with 2018.009 please Tony.

HCE - 2018.009 - 2018-07-28 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE It was possible to overflow a string buffer when logging new contact information to the MessageLog window. If there were an obnoxiously long list of new contacts (Eric!), the buffer could overflow and crash the game. The NewContactScroll has been reworked to use dynamic string allocation, fixing the bug. - Chg:0000 GE I/TonyE broke torpedo guidance by turning only the group and not the torpedo units within the group. Fixes. (thanks Tony & eeustice)

No, I don't think you came across as impatient. It would be great to have the problem all buttoned up by now!

Yes, and Eric assembled a tiny test scenario for me. I started debugging but have not found the issue yet. The day job and an innocuous yet fatiguing health issue means I'm not able to devote any measurable time to the game at present. Maybe in about 2 weeks .

For a little less serious gaming, https://www.conflictnations.com I haven't tried it but the trailer looks like at least 50% of what I want in a wargame, and a good bit beyond what I desire in eye candy.

Always fun to find hidden gems!

Yes, off to quite the start! They do have a fledgling FaceBook presence.

There was a spamming/posting to our Facebook page today for an in-development new game. Looks worth some investigation to me, one developer with some devoted fans. http://project-neptune.com/

Just confirmed "Test2 Launch multiple targets single attack." in 2018.008

Tony, please test with 2018.008+ and report back on whether the issue is fixed for you.

HCE - 2018.008 - 2018-05-30 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE Iterative saving had a buffer overflow bug that could have resulted in more saves than intended before starting the count over. The test case was desiring 60 saves before rolling over but it was making 601 saves instead. Fixed - Chg:0000 GE Missile unit turns during midcourse guidance updates were broken in 2018.002+. The groups were turning but not the units. Fixed. Checked out all 2016.003 uses of SetGroupSliver and compared them to the codebase. The one causing this bug was the only one I found awry. (thanks Tony) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/topic/28551-midcourse-guidance-on-missiles/

Fixed for 2018.008 which should be uploaded to HarpGamer tonight. - Chg:0000 GE Missile unit turns during midcourse guidance updates were broken in 2018.002+. The groups were turning but not the units. Fixed. Checked out all 2016.003 uses of SetGroupSliver and compared them to the codebase. The one causing this bug was the only one I found awry. (thanks Tony) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/topic/28551-midcourse-guidance-on-missiles/

Confirmed in 2018.007

HCE - 2018.007 - 2018-05-28 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE Added a null check in torpedo handling. The lack of it resulted in occasional game crashes when recalculating heading to intercept the target. - Chg:0000 GE Another torpedo guidance null check fix. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed SetGroupSlivers (for changing heading). It was errantly changing the group heading but not the unit heading.

Thank you sir, will have a look in the next 2-3 days.

HCE - 2018.006 - 2018-05-27 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE Fixed an infinite loop in Group Ids all used up logic for some missile groups. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed a crash upon freeing an already freed uncertainty region.

HCE - 2018.005 - 2018-05-23 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE When all Group Ids are used up, a MessageLog entry is properly shown but the attempt to cancel creating the new group was failing by assuming the new group was already in the global group list, which it almost always wasn't. Fixed in the hopes of scenario continuing to run with the existing groups. (thanks eeustice) - Chg:0000 GE Dialed down the unit & group turns logging.

HCE - 2018.004 - 2018-05-19 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE A bug in GCI.c where TonyE didn't convert from DUs (Distance Units) to NM (Nautical Miles) was preventing non-air units from shuffling off to their formation positions. Fixed (thanks eeustice) HCE - 2018.003 - 2018-05-18 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE Re-enabled the 5th and 6th formation rings. HCE - 2018.002 - 2018-05-15 =========================== - Chg:0000 GE Extended beta expiration out a ways. - Chg:0000 GE Replaced numerals with named constants for formation keeping in other words, the unit->independent field - Chg:0000 GE Tweaks to calculation of Unit offset from Group center. Previously any fixedbase type unit would have its offsets set to zero, making it seem to be at the center of the group. Now, only the first fixedbase is considered the center of the group and hence have zero offsets. - Chg:0000 GE ExportDLL interface now makes the ResetGroupCenter function available to ExportDLLs void ResetGroupCenter(UnitPtr) - Chg:0000 GE ExportDLL interface now makes the SetCourseUnit_Raw function available to ExportDLLs void SetCourseUnit_Raw(UnitPtr pUnit, short pCourse, char const *pCallerName, char const *pCallerFile, long const pCallerFileLine) This is for instantaneous turns. - Chg:0000 GE ExportDLL interface now makes the SetCourseGroup_Raw function available to ExportDLLs void SetCourseGroup_Raw(GroupPtr pGroup, short pCourse, char const *pCallerName, char const *pCallerFile, long const pCallerFileLine) This is for instantaneous turns. - Chg:0000 GE Cranked up logging on turns - Chg:0000 GE eff113 to use new constant AI_TOLERANCE_CLOSE that defines when we switch from closing to attacking. - Chg:I207 GE Seems units can be turned before they are assigned to a group so the logging that printed out the non-existent group id was crashing. In 2017.016 we skip the log messages when there is no group assigned. (thanks Enrique) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-205-2017015-crash-at-start/ - Chg:0000 GE Effect2.c lines 623-624 are commented out. They were causing formation air patrols on their way to land to periodically flip course to match the course of the group. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed scenario version conversion from V002 to V003 that wasn't properly zeroing out memory. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed other pointer and overflow errors pointed out by cppcheck static analysis. - Chg:0000 GE Torps with the quiet flag were errantly having their self-noise level set to -4 instead of subtracting 4 from the self-noise. - Chg:I0193 GE When you place 20 KC-10s in a group... and then try to refuel some Super Bugs, the endurance calcuation would overflow and in turn give strange results. Fixed by widening operands. (thanks eeustice) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-193-refueling/ - Chg:0000 GE When bases or ship groups try to change altitude, calculate the ascent/descent rate based on subs and air units only. This addresses an assertion failure. - Chg:0000 GE Aircraft with a 0m/s climb rate in the DB will default to 76m/s climb rate, the average of the aircraft climb rates in HCDB-150929. This is mainly for legacy BattleSets but also if a WestPac or newer BattleSet has some zero entries. - Chg:0000 GE While loading saved games, discard any invalid new contact entries (these feed what the staff assistant shows for new contacts). - Chg:0000 GE A 2017.011 bug in ExportDLL ScenLoad call was passing ScenData as a pointer to a pointer instead of as a pointer, fixed. - Chg:0000 GE Incremented saved game version to 0x34803217 for ScenData addition and globals modifications. - Chg:0000 GE Incremented Scenario version to 5, see SE comment below for the long explanation. - Chg:0000 GE Incremened ExportDLL version to 21, see below for more detail. - Chg:0000 GE ExportDLL ScenLoad added DatabaseVersionDB, ScenData, and ScenSaveData so that the ExportDLL has a concept of which DB is being used with the current scenario as well as unique IDs for saved games. This is handy if the ExportDLL is supplementing or modifying the data for use while playing the scenario. - Chg:0000 GE Code Cleanup - init_and_read_annexesA was also doing all of the scenario file version specific conversions, refactored that out into init_scen_loader. - Chg:0000 GE Code Cleanup - removed unused init_and_read_annexes. It hasn't been used since the switch to 4096 items/annex. - Chg:0000 GE Year 2038 problem - The HCLicense code now uses 64-bit time_t, remediating the 2038 problem for licensing. - Chg:0000 GE Year 2038 problem - DatabaseVersion structure timestamps widened from 32-bit time_t to 64-bit time_t to remediate 2038 problem. - Chg:0000 GE Year 2038 problem - Game start times and times can now go beyond the 2038 limit. - Chg:0000 GE Added RES/RSR file structure version functionality so that we can read both unversioned and versioned structures. - Chg:0000 GE Scenario lineage for BattleSet scenarios pre-WestPac are read from a SQLite database ScenarioLineageLegacy.sqlite3 - Chg:0000 GE Player can now detect Neutral aircraft. This will also fix other detection problems. - Chg:0000 GE Fixed up MessageLogLine for ExportDLL - Chg:I184 GE Aircraft trying to attack submarines while having a non-torpedo first weapon in the loadout were unable to fire at an enemy. (thanks Enrique) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-184-impossible-to-launch-asw-torpedo-from-helicopter/ - Chg:0000 GE Starting to add UUIDs to game structures so that ExportDLLs can marry external data to the internal data. +ScenarioGroup +Group +ScenarioUnit +Unit +PlaneRec (planes on ground) In the ScenarioGroup and Group structures, increased the maximum number of formation zones to 64 and increased how large they can go (previous limit was 255nm, new is 32768nm) Increased the formation zones available in GE and SE from 4 to 6 so even though the game structures can handle 64 zones, the UI only understands 6 zones. In the ScenarioGroup and Group structures, widened the id field from 4 to 8 characters so that someday there can be a greater number of groups in the game. The ScenarioGroup id field is unused at present. In the ScenarioUnit and Unit structures, increased the maximum number of formation zones to 64 and increased the number of slices of the formation pie to 64 as well. In the IntermittentSensorsEvent, increased the maxumim number of formation zones to 64. Ditto for FormationEventPtr and AirPatrolEventPtr. Incremented saved game version to 0x34803216. Incremented Scenario version to 4. Incremented DLL interface version to 20. - Chg:0000 GE Incremented DLL interface version to 19 for the newly added dllFuncRefs for the ExportDLLs. - Chg:0000 GE New ExportDLL funcRefs: MessageLogLine() which will add a line to the HC Message Log window up to 1023 1-byte characters plus a null terminator. - Chg:I182 GE Since 20160326 AI LR Air attacks programmed in by the scenario author have not had the target group set once they launched so the planes would be told to land since they had no target. This has been remedied. (thanks Enrique) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-182-programmed-air-attacks-total-failure/ - Chg:0000 GE Incremented DLL interface version to 18 for the newly exported functions for the ExportDLLs. - Chg:0000 GE New exported functions: Turn, ChangeAlt, UnitTop - Chg:0000 GE Incremended DLL interface version to 17 for the unit structure changes in 2017.004. This represents a breaking change for most ExportDLLs that use the unit structure. - Chg:I179 GE Provide the player (and AI) an opportunity to split tankers at bingo to separate from a group that has more range than the tankers. (thanks eeustice) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-179-tankers-will-not-seperate-from-group-at-bingo-fuel/ - Chg:I173 GE Ammunition column of platform display would blank out when the quantity of ammunition > 999. Widened the qty display field to remedy the issue. Widened ammunition name too for kicks since I was in there. (thanks eeustice) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-173-ge-weapon-detail-box/ - Chg:0000 GE Incremented saved game version to implement the changes below. - Chg:0000 GE Widened unit structure elements Method[sIDES], emit, detect so that the RWR sensor type can be added to the game. The game can now handle 64 sensor types in these fields, up from 16. - Chg:0000 GE Added sRWR sensor type define. - Chg:0000 GE Added RWR sensor model. - Chg:I165 GE When building the list of valid weapons for a target to display in the UI, there were two different flags both assigned to the value 8 (ARM and AAM). Separated ARM out into a new field of the record. (thanks Enrique) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-165-anti-surface-agm-114m-missile-irlaser-guidance-weird-behaviour/ - Chg:I175 GE Aircraft units will now update weapon range rings as soon as the units are fully launched and formed up (i.e. if there are 8 planes in the unit, the weapons range rings should update once all 8 planes are aloft). (thanks Tony) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-175-weapons-range-rings-missing-on-aircraft/ - Chg:I174 GE When we moved from 128 possible units per group to 256, we should have moved to 255 instead since 256 is a reserved id to indicate that the harpoon event is to be applied to the entire group, not a specific unit. The fix put in place is to max out new groups at 255 units AND strip the 256th unit off of any groups that have them. The GE and SE will put it in the GE.log/SE.log but not otherwise alert the player. (thanks eeustice) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-174-unable-to-shoot-down-255th-plane-in-patrol/ - Chg:0000 GE MovePlanesToNewGroup in Effect1.c could move a maximum of 128 planes. Increased it to 255. - Chg:0000 GE Imagine a situation where there are 255 x F-15C Intercept at a base and 1 more lands. Previously they would have been combined into a single 256 plane bundle. That has now been limited to 255 to be consistent. - Chg:0000 GE Added function int CountGroupUnits to count the number of units currently in a group and plugged it in to a bunch of places where the logic was replicated. - Chg:0000 GE Adding code to prevent situations where there might be more than 255 units in a resultant group (joining groups, etc.). It is doubtful that all spots have been found. - Chg:0000 GE Added "unit" log type which for now will track # of units per group. UNIT_LOG constant in the code, unit on the command line. - Chg:I160 GE Player was unable to click an enemy installation, do Intercept and successfully get planes to attack planes in the enemy installation's formation. Added back the choice of attack type to get around this for now. A better long-term solution is to only show valid attack types for the aircraft involved and auto-select if there is only one valid attack type. http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-160-incapable-to-intercept-enemy-aircrafts-in-autopatrol/ (thanks Enrique) - Chg:0000 GE For a while now, when you go into the Unit\Full\Weapons display for an aircraft unit, the current loadout wasn't highlighted so it felt like you couldn't see the quantity of weapons available in the current loadout. Fixed to show the current loadout when possible so that the player has instant feedback on loadout and weapons available. This bug was introduced with 4096 items per annex. (thanks eeustice) - Chg:I156 GE Show up to 47 characters each of class name and unit name in the Mini Report window and some other places. (thanks Enrique) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-156-name-long-issue-in-ge/?gopid=775&do=findComment&comment=775 - Chg:I154 GE Periscope depth and VLow were both set to 15m, resulting in the mini-report window saying aircraft were at periscope depth. Changed periscope depth to +2m for visibiity purposes. Note that existing saved games will continue to say Periscope until the affected units change depth. (thanks eeustice) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-154-very-low-altitude/ - Chg:I153 GE Turns and Depth changes that are a part of the initial orders in the SE will happen at the first tick of the game clock in the GE and will be instaneous since they represent start-state in the scenario and shouldn't be treated as triggers for graduals turns and altitude changes like they were in 2016.004. (thanks eeustice) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-153-sub-depth-and-course-in-hc-2016004/ - Chg:0000 GE ExportDLL interface added Altitude in meters to the UnitAlt function. - Chg:0000 SE Let's not save AltSpeedEvents without assigning a 'new' altitude. This was confusing the XML scenario file saving format. - Chg:0000 SE XML Scenario file saving was using the first scenario lineage information for every lineage entry. Fixed. - Chg:0000 SE Fixed other pointer and overflow errors pointed out by cppcheck static analysis. - Chg:0000 SE The 2017.011 installer didn't have the .sqlite3 database containing the legacy BattleSet scenario lineage. It is included now. - Chg:0000 SE Year 2038 problem - Game start times and times can now go beyond the 2038 limit. - Chg:0000 SE Incremented Scenario version to 5 as a result of implementing a converter for aircraft formation patrols. This means scenarios of version 4 (2017.008 thru 2017.010) may be corrupt. Deleting and recreating all formation air patrols in the SE is the 'fix'. However, if the scenario was created and last saved in a SE version that scenario forward into 2017.011 or newer without corruption. - Chg:0000 SE Added RES/RSR file structure version functionality so that we can read both unversioned and versioned structures. - Chg:0000 SE Added scenario lineage to the scenario file. Each time the scenario is saved, it is assigned a new UUID, the entire historical list of UUIDs is saved in the scenario file. In theory the GE can then figure out which saves belong to which scenario. Implemented this as part of a more generic ScenData structure that is present in both Scenario and Saves including the lineage, database version, and ai stay on path settings. - Chg:0000 SE Scenario lineage for BattleSet scenarios pre-WestPac are read from a SQLite database ScenarioLineageLegacy.sqlite3 Lineage dtstamp = 1181260800 (June 8, 2007 HCE release date) Lineage BuildSE = 2007.000 - Chg:I185 SE It wasn't possible to add aircraft to AD_Fixed units. Fixed. (thanks Enrique) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-185-failure-editing-airfield-secret/ - Chg:0000 SE Starting to add UUIDs to game structures (see GE section for details) This means scenarios created with this SE cannot be played by earlier versions/builds of the GE nor edited with earlier SE versions/builds. - Chg:0000 SE libxml updated from 2.9.2 to 2.9.4 - Chg:0000 SE Added "unit" log type which for now will track # of units per group. - Chg:0000 SE Deleted a couple of unused source files as they functions they contained have been simplified to work in both GE and SE. - Chg:0000 SE In pre-commondb BattleSets, re-establish checks for WepID == 0 in loadouts and multimounts to prevent crashes when the SE tries to save scenarios. There can only be 4 weapons per loadout and multimount in the legacy battlesets so for slots 4-8 we need to and again do set it to INVALID_ID instead of 0. This bug was a regression introduced with 4096 items per annex. (thanks rabbit, Hellion144) - Chg:I146 SE Port aircraft loadout dialogs from the GE to the SE so that all information visible in GE for loadouts is available in the SE. (thanks eeustice, Smitty, et al) http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/tracker/issue-146-se-formation-ready-air-windows/ - Chg:0000 DU Fixed other pointer and overflow errors pointed out by cppcheck static analysis. - Chg:0000 DU Added RES/RSR file structure version functionality so that we can read both unversioned and versioned structures. Also includes writing the version to any new RES/RSR files. - Chg:0000 DU dbmake.exe removed debugging message about magazines. - Chg:0000 BB Abandon non-square maps so that the BattleSet Builder works halfway decently again. - Chg:0000 DB commondb.rsr DatabaseVersion fixed. It needed to have a 7-byte header and only had a 5-byte header. Also fixed 2038 problem. - Chg:0000 BS Recompiled WestPac, GIUK-USNI, and the four shell battlesets.

This week brought unexpected progress. Thanks to eeustice this week for testing what were totally untested builds to bring us to 2018.004 where formation-keeping seems to be back to how it was in the olden-days, functional even if it isn't ideal. In any event, I'm feeling comfortable with 2018.004. I'll refine this state for a little while then we can decide where to go from there.

I would be surprised if you get a reasonable game play experience with 2017.016. Units in the formation going all over, likely not where the Group is going on the map. To put it nicely, units drifting out of formation. I've come a long way by adding a couple of ExportDLLs but haven't uploaded them to HG since it isn't all far enough along to share. You are welcome to use 2017.016 but your results may vary

I took a trip thru the ReleaseNotes.txt just now. I need to go back to 2016.003 for a playable game. That is where gradual altitude changes were introduced. That is a whole lot of good changes ago .

The saga continues... I found out yesterday from one of the rights holders that there was a misunderstanding in the contract interpretation between the Harpoon rights holders (the Admiralty) and Matrix. Turns out Matrix has the rights to sell the game to 2020.