VictorInThePacific

Some comments here: ALT - 3 (immediate nuclear release) is at least a bit of a cheat. . (drop buoy) is a must-know command. The "next unit" commands are essential on congested maps. The "show / hide" commands can be useful. M (free memory) is probably of no relevance. I don't know what the "force refuel" command does. Does the automatic refueling ever not work?

In order to use the Harpoon interface efficiently, it is necessary to use both hands: one for the mouse, and one for the keyboard. In addition, there are some important commands that can only be issued via the keyboard, and there is not even a mouse work-around for some of these. Somebody with the handle Blond_Knight has provided a list of the keyboard commands. (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1664018) Tony suggested that I put them in graphical form. Here they are. <OLD VERSION OF COMMANDS.PNG DELETED BY AUTHOR. SEE BELOW FOR NEW VERSION.> <OLD VERSION OF KEYCARD.PNG DELETED BY AUTHOR. SEE BELOW FOR NEW VERSION.> Personally, I think that the first one, sorted by category (commands.png), is more useful. When I want to issue a command, I want to know what is possible, and I will locate it from a categorized directory far more easily than by an exhaustive search of the keyboard. Feedback, please. Anything goes. After posting this, I have realized that the keyboard image (key_card.png) looks too small, which affects the resolution. Both images are actually the same size, 8.5 x 11, less margins.

I would like to understand this matter in somewhat greater depth. Here are 3 more examples: Now the 2 main points I want to raise are that the information on the first 25 nm is essentially uncorrelated for the 2 types of displays, and the information for the CZs is only weakly correlated. If we go by the "Unit Display" information, then all 4 subs except the Oberon have excellent sonars, while the Oberon is pretty good. If we go by the information in the "Active Unit Display", then the Improv(is)ed LA has excellent sonar, the LA and Trafalgar are pretty good, but the Oberon really should be hiding somewhere, because its sonar is pretty poor. Also note that the "Active Unit Display" shows much better sonar performance in the direct path region. Because the displays give such different information, actually incompatible information, I think that we have to conclude that they cannot both be correct. Subsidiary Points: 1) The widths of all the convergence zones appear to be about 1/3 of 25 nm, i.e. 8.3 nm. 2) The data for the LA was obtained from a WestPac scenario. The sub was located just west of the Philippines. The data for subs 2-4 was taken from a GIUK scenario. The subs were in various locations near Iceland. If you compare the convergence zones, you see that they are slightly different for different scenarios (eg. one goes out to 105 nm while a corresponding one goes out to 99 nm), but identical within one scenario. This is a common effect in Harpoon, and in light of the foregoing discussion, I would say that this is one aspect of the local and temporary actual conditions. 3) I hope I understand this correctly, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but in those cases where an active sonar has convergence zones, I would understand that to mean that that unit can pump a signal out that far, and it will still be strong enough after reflection and the return trip to be distinguishable from background. 4) The detection probability is given as 50% for all the passive sonars. Most likely this is just a base value, and there will be negative modifiers for a variety of reasons. But that's 50% every 30s.

Actually, I didn't say it at the time, but the scenario was from the demo, WestPac battleset. It's the last scenario on the list, where there's a lot of ground units about to slug it out. The U.S. has one sub (the LA), which is actually stationary. That is the unit I was using to make the screenshots.

Can someone please tell me why these 2 reports have different sonar stats? After selecting the sub in the unit window, one report is obtained with the "full" button, the other with the "display" button. ************************ P.S. I just found a way to force an immediate post. Normally, you create a post and hit the "post" button. Then the message goes to a moderator, who views it, approves it , and posts it (or not). But in this case, I first previewed the post, and when I hit "post", the message was posted immediately. The same thing works when you edit existing posts. The revised post does not go to the moderator, but is posted immediately.

isn't that a contradiction?

Greeting, Harpoon Beta testers. I read a post by someone who was complaining about the lack of graphics in Harpoon. To make a long story short, this induced me to volunteer. I will tell you a little about myself. Academically: M.Sc. in physics. Past post-secondary physics lab instructor. Currently unemployed. Working on a new career as a technical writer. Gaming: First started playing games at about 10. First game chess. Then go. When I got to university, I fell in with some bad company (wargamers). Those were the golden days of wargaming at UBC. We had a large office all to ourselves (the other occupants couldn't stand our company, so they abandoned the place to us). We were in that room almost 24/7. Boardgames & miniatures; computers were still mainframes/ punch cards in those days. About that time, I took up bridge as well. None of this was good for my academic studies. Incidentally, I spent a great deal of time with a game called Victory in the Pacific. Some people called me Victor in the Pacific. Generally, I spend a great deal of time analyzing scenarios. I really want to know what is the optimum outcome. I spent a lot of time playing solo games, switching sides every half turn. It's not really an absurd concept. You just have to be impartial. It works well for any turn-based game where all the information is available to both sides. Then came the computer ... Harpoon: I got the original game some years after it was published. Real cheap, because most gamers had moved on by then. Never played it until much later. About 5 years ago, my computing resources deteriorated. Now my only active computer is an old PowerMac. The only game I have that I can play at home is Harpoon. So Harpoon it is. Because the resources Harpoon requires to operate are so limited. Actually, I also have to run it in BW mode. Anyway, what does the lack of graphics matter? It's a simulation. It's in my head. So I have a great deal of experience with Harpoon Classic. And a little bit with HCE. The main difference is that submarine characteristics are very different. I hope to be able to make some contributions here. VitP

I wish to raise some issues about radar, in particular, regarding the differences between surface search and air search radar and the consequences thereof, which may indicate a need to upgrade the game documentation. Please do not flame me for what I am about to say. However, please feel free to challenge or refute any aspect of the content. I am not sensitive in that way. I seek the truth. According to the Harpoon documentation (eg. the Help files), a SS radar is a radar that can detect units at vertical elevations ranging from the sea surface to low altitude, and an AS radar is a radar that can detect units at vertical elevations of medium or higher altitude. In some cases (generally at very short ranges), these radars extend into the other region. It seems to me that there could be 2 reasons why a radar would only work in one of these regions. One is that special characteristics might be needed for the radar to distinguish a desired contact from “ground clutter”. The other is that the radar needs to be pointed in the right direction. Being a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, radio waves travel generally in straight lines. Refractive effects tend to be generally irrelevant for radio waves in air, and gravitational effects need not concern us here. The immediate question is whether the radar emitter and receiver emit and receive in all directions, so that the outgoing wavefront has the form of a sphere, or whether there is a vertical restriction, so that the outgoing wavefront has the form of a cone or something more restricted. For example, if a radar emits radiation only at angles above the horizontal, then, regardless of the vertical elevation of the radar, it cannot function as a SS radar. On the other hand, if the radar emits radiation only at angles below the horizontal, then, ignoring the issue of ground clutter, that radar may function as either a SS or an AS radar, depending on a variety of different factors. I hope that someone can shed some light on this issue. Based on where that discussion goes, I will have more to say. There are important consequences to the AS/SS classification. Most obviously, if an enemy unit has only one type of radar, then you may be able hide your units from it in the vertical dimension. For example, many fighters have only an AS radar. Suppose that such an enemy fighter is chasing one of your helicopters. The helicopter can neither fight nor flee (with some exceptions – eg. a Sidewinder-armed SuperCobra might be able to take on a Yak-38). So the helicopter is dead? Not necessarily! If we accept the definition in the fourth paragraph, the helicopter should drop to low or VL altitude (and flee, of course), and the fighter will have difficulty locating it. On the other hand, many aircraft have only a SS radar. If we accept the definition in the fourth paragraph, you will be able to sneak up on these aircraft at medium or higher altitude. Due to the importance of the AS/SS classification, it would be a good idea to have that information listed in the database unit descriptions.

Excellent article (and the previous ones). Thank you.

The Oliver Hazard Perry class guided missile frigates have the excellent SPS-49 radar and SQR-19 towed array sonar, but little other capability (thanks, in particular, to the recent removal of their Mk 13 Standard launcher). "It would be too costly to refit the SM-1MRs" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Hazard_Perry_class_frigate) Therefore, all crew members will now be issued slingshots. **************** Is there any functional difference between the Main Body and the AAW ring? I believe that you can set the sensor states differently, but is there anything else?

My data might be inaccurate, you will have to check some of this. I am not suggesting how to protect your helicopters, but I think the Floggers do not have a surface search radar (check this). If that is true, how are they locating your helicopters? Visual? Are they homing on your radar? If you see the fighters before they see you, you might try turning off the helicopter radar and racing for home at very low altitude.