March 17, 201115 yr Beyond that, though, given the situation is as it is (that is, development by volunteer efforts), then considering there is more work than volunteers to do it, then the obvious question comes to mind of why are more volunteers not accepted into the project? All a volunteer needs is to be registered at harpgamer.com forums and start participating. Some don't even do that and converse entirely via e-mail. A person need not even contact AGSI to help with HC and AGSI would rather not spend any time at all on us since that is less time they then have for H3. However, if a person gets to the point of seeing the code then we'll have to get that person to sign an NDA with AGSI. Yes, we are extremely lucky to have the volunteers that we have but we are also in need of many more with a variety of skills. VitP, he writes documentation and made the keyboard command cards, BS Builder manual, and more. But he's been waiting on feedback for nigh a month now because I haven't taken the time to do that. Look at donaldseadog, Buddha, and company come to these threads, they are trying to reduce the burden on Brad and myself so that we can make more magic happen for them. Nobody asked them to come but they are some of the volunteers and you'll find them in the credits of the game and recognized in the ReleaseNotes.txt file and participating here and in the beta area. Recruiting and developing volunteers is very time consuming. By re-engaging you the last few weeks that is exactly what we were trying to do, develop your very real skills into something that will push the game forward. Hopefully that will still happen but I think Brad and I have provided what guidance we can, if the others can take you the rest of the way we'll all be better for having another useful contributor. So yes, we even need volunteers to make volunteers, the need is great and I fear most Harpoon players are conditioned to keep their heads down so the challenge is extra difficult.
March 17, 201115 yr Hehe, and with the plane numbers... How you worded your original observation suggested that the game added rand(750) + 50 aircraft to the scenario upon load and that rand was broken. Whereas the game does not add a random number of planes at all, it adds specified blocks of planes chosen by the scenario author, based on fixed percentages as we've now repeated in near communication.
March 17, 201115 yr Author Hehe, and with the plane numbers... How you worded your original observation suggested that the game added rand(750) + 50 aircraft to the scenario upon load and that rand was broken. Whereas the game does not add a random number of planes at all, it adds specified blocks of planes chosen by the scenario author, based on fixed percentages as we've now repeated in near communication. Well, I guess it's known that my ability to express myself is, um, lacking... What I had hoped to convey there was that my impression of what happened, plus my look at the estimated number of units on the red bases afterwards, lead me to the conclusion that my first run must have experienced the maximum possible numbers of bombers that were built into the scenario... and thus it was likely a worst-case situation, which itself might be a bit of an anomaly - well, unless the probabilities were such that they were likely include many units for most runs. Put another way, it was my impression that my first run involved having every probability-of-inclusion satisfied, and so I got swamped. Of course, it would also have to imply that the scenario launched all of those bombers at once - and I'm not sure if the Scenario Editor would allow that in regards to conditionally-included units. But anyway, they were like locusts that first time... The second run was no picnic either, yet there were noticably fewer missiles involved in that run. Anyway, the only real point of the anecdote was that my reaction to getting wiped out by swarms of missiles in the first five minutes or so of play was, "How in the heck did that happen??", and then, "How could you possibly survive - let alone win - this scenario?" Subsequent replay revealed a more managable set of circumstances... but right after that first run, I really did think that the game must've gone berserk somehow.
March 17, 201115 yr Anyway, the only real point of the anecdote was that my reaction to getting wiped out by swarms of missiles in the first five minutes or so of play was, "How in the heck did that happen??", and then, "How could you possibly survive - let alone win - this scenario?" Subsequent replay revealed a more managable set of circumstances... but right after that first run, I really did think that the game must've gone berserk somehow. Many authors will try and build in some degree of randomness (did I really just use that word?) into their scenario so that the playability and potential enjoyment of the scenario can be stretched out over multiple tries. So that, in some way, the scenario is never exactly the same each time it is played.
March 17, 201115 yr Author ... Yes, we are extremely lucky to have the volunteers that we have but we are also in need of many more with a variety of skills. VitP, he writes documentation and made the keyboard command cards, BS Builder manual, and more. ... Well, based on the rather unsuccessful attempts I've made in trying to be helpful, I'm not sure whether my skill set is going to be particularly useful. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about the RL aspects of the subject matter here... and apparently my written communication skills aren't so good... and I'm pretty burned-out as far as doing user support... and I'm not much of a programmer... so that doesn't leave much. On the other hand, I am (or was, when I was employed) recognized as having some "special" ability to induce prototypes to malfunction in ways that nobody else was able to do... consequently, I was often bridled with the job of beating the things up, to get them to cough up their latent bugs. But my "secret" there was that I simply used things in ways that nobody anticipated - and consequently hadn't been accounted for. As you may recall, I was involved at one point with some Beta testing of HCE. Not really sure how much good I did there because of limited time back then (when I was employed). Anyway, I take it that app development or maintenance isn't an area of particular need - as you didn't mention that here (despite all that earlier talk about being overworked)?
March 17, 201115 yr We need help in EVERY area. Clear enough? That said, nobody whose name isn't Bret McKee or Brains will get access to the code on day 1. Anyway there is plenty of programming to do without having the game source code (writing utilities, export DLLs, etc.).
March 17, 201115 yr Author Anyway, the only real point of the anecdote was that my reaction to getting wiped out by swarms of missiles in the first five minutes or so of play was, "How in the heck did that happen??", and then, "How could you possibly survive - let alone win - this scenario?" Subsequent replay revealed a more managable set of circumstances... but right after that first run, I really did think that the game must've gone berserk somehow. Many authors will try and build in some degree of randomness (did I really just use that word?) into their scenario so that the playability and potential enjoyment of the scenario can be stretched out over multiple tries. So that, in some way, the scenario is never exactly the same each time it is played. Back in the days of HC Gold, and before (when I had a Scenario Editor), I made a few scenarios for myself, and I used the variable starting points, alternative courses, conditionally-included units, and so forth quite extensively - to the point that I think I managed to crash the game a couple of times... at least a couple of the scenarios could not run beyond a certain point - which was rather distressing, considering all the work I'd put into them. Anyway, the point is, I was using the variable features extensively (perhaps too extensively) in order to provide some uncertainty when I played the scenarios myself. Otherwise, they were just too boring to play because I'd pretty much know everything that was going to happen. (Even worse than using the "cheat key"! )
March 17, 201115 yr Author We need help in EVERY area. Clear enough? That said, nobody whose name isn't Bret McKee or Brains will get access to the code on day 1. Anyway there is plenty of programming to do without having the game source code (writing utilities, export DLLs, etc.). Well, the reason I mentioned that is because my "imaginary friend" seems to be kind of "getting into" this whole investigation thing. He is an app developer by trade, although I think he does it for firmware, mainly. Despite remaining rather p'ed-off over being outed, I'm sort of getting the feeling that he might be enticed to contribute - if things could be smoothed out somehow. I mean, he's played the game pretty much continuously since DOS days, as far as I know, and was sort of - well, a lot - excited back when he thought he might get in on the re-development - back before the, um, stuff hit the fan. So, I suspect there's still some repressed spirit lurking there. Only thing is, he's really time-challenged these days, so I don't know how much he could get into it. Anyway, just an idea, FWIW...
March 18, 201115 yr Author As always, send the person over please. Well, I'll see what I can do... but I think I may look up a helmet before I stop by his place on that errand. And perhaps a face shield would be advisable, too.
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