File - ToolBox

[donaldseadog]

View File

ToolBox

---

Toolbox version 1.5.2 requires at least GE 2015.015 or newer up to GE 2017.04
Toolbox V 2.4.2.1 (zip 2.4) +  requires GE V 2017.013 - v 2022.027 (including Matrix Patch 2022.027)

Toolbox vers 2.10.0.1 + require GE 2023.006+

Toolbox version 2.11+ requires GE version 2025.017 +

Installation for GE vers 2025.001 +:

Your downloaded Export.DLL for Harpoon Classic is easily installed.
For Toolbox which is designed to run in the Game Engine only , not in the Scenario Editor, you should create (if not already) a folder in the games standard ExportDLL folder and name it 'GE'. Then simply unzip yoour package into there with the toolbox.dll in the GE folder.
To disable toolbox simply move it to another foler (other than ExportDLL) or rename the file type to eg Toolbox.dll.bck
For ExpDLL designed for both GE and SE (eg Drone.DLL) unzip them into the standard ExportDLL folder, to disable them same as above, move or rename.
For ExpDLL designed on ly for the scenario editor (noone at present) create and load them into a ExportDLL sub folder named 'SE'.

This tool provides a window which resides in the Harpoon game window providing tools for:
manipulating air units formations within groups;
edit two air group's courses for joining;
in flight reassignment of missile targets;
deploying air groups exactly over known position of enemy unit;
capturing enemy groups;
and duplicating the message log window (so that it can replace the message log window for screen space saving).

It provides some game status information not available in the game including information on the loaded scenario, detailed list of destroyed assets and damaged assets and any victory conditions that have been met.

Attacking Neutral Penalty
Toolbox keeps track of attacks launched by the player and if any target a neutral asset (including if the asset is shown as unknown side) the player is penalised by the attacked group changing to enemy and if the attack is launched from an air group, that group will change to neutral (and RTB at bingo) so to be unavailable in short term for further action.

In most pages of toolbox player groups are selected if they are currently selected in the game. The selection can be overridden with normal mouse selections.

AirGrpForm window:
The "Search" button brings up a list of all current players groups that include air units. By selecting one of the listed group its air units will list in the next box.
By selecting one of the units you can then edit the flight level of that unit or give it an offset from the group centre position. The offset is approximately nautical miles and a combination of N/S (+is south) or E/W (+is east). If the group is in the unit window you should see the shift instantly. There is an idicator for if the unit is NOE capable or not.
To cause two air groups to join select one group in the group window and press one of the 'Grp' buttons (or use right mouse click popup menu), the group ID will be shown,then select the second group and press the second 'Grp' button, finally press the 'Join' button. The groups will be vectored to meet and join.
ASW, CAP, EW and AEW - To add a hexagon based patrol select an air group, select a non zero base size (approx NMs) then press the appropriate button ASW low alt (vlow if capable), CAP medium alt with 1 in 5 min intermittent radar and AEW at highest alt capable with 1 in 10 min intermittent radar, EW like AEW but 2 1/2 in 3 min radar. If the selected group already had a course set then the patrol will be centred on the first course point, otherwise it is centred on the groups current position.

If the group already has a multi leg course (no in course orders other than the last leg eg RTB) and the patrol size is set to zero then the course remains and the legs are populated with the loiter/hover and cruise orders plus radar as per the hex patrols.
Pause will pause the AI but still allow some game interaction, eg move game focus.

Attack window:
gives information on enemy units and groups that are visible to you. An asterisk (*) before an enemy unit name indicates that an exact fix is known. A group '00' indicated unknown size. Some experimental functions include an ability to reassign missiles' targets (if capable and in the correct guidance phase), attempt to capture certain enemy or neutral assets, 'defection' of groups and directing a group to move exactly directly over the current known position of an enemy unit (or centre of uncertainty zone if no exact fix exists).

Air Refuel window:
This adds versatility to the already good GE refueling ability. You can set the toolbox to automatically pause the game as refuel events are queued by the main program and bring up the event information. You can bring up a list of all your groups for which refueling is current and select a group to show its units' and refueling information. You can also search for a list of Air Groups that include a tanker.
Two 'manual' refueling tasks are available to supplement game refueling, you can manually "Queue" a new refuel cycle for the whole group and select the refueling unit if there are more than one (like alt+R in game but you can select which tanker unit refuels). You can also refuel tanker units from other tanker units in the group or transfer fuel internally of a tanker unit (so as to use refuel store to increase the tankers range or in reverse so as to use some of the tankers fuel for refueling). Single units can have stipulated amounts of fuel transferred without starting standard refuel cycle, so you can refuel high unit # units without waiting for the whole group to be refueled, handy if you have just joined low fuel units to a large group. In the unit information window there is information to help you estimate your refueling needs: unit endurance in minutes, unit range at current speed in nm, unit estimated range if it is split off from the refuel group (and may have a cruise speed high than the refuel group) and the nominal max range (at normal cruise speed) of the unit. The last two 'range' values allows you to estimate how much fuel can be taken up by the unit while in the refuel group.

Groups window

this provides information about units in your various groups.

Munitions window: gives a tally across mutliple sessions of the same scenario of the expenditure of your munitions, both total and aircraft only (tallied for each AC home unit).

Status Window includes four pages for Loaded game and scenario information, victory conditions achieved, damaged unit list and dead unit list

Settings window: gives instruction on using toolbox and a setting for the number of lines to show in the message window, which reproduces the in-game messages so that if you wish you can delete the std in game messages for more space.

Includes summary of handy short cut key commands.

To use the program unzip the ToolBox.dll file into the exportDLL folder of your HCE installation. For 2025.001+ GE versions install in a ExportDLL subfolder named GE. To uninstall simply move or delete the file.
The program utilises 'LazGUI.dll' code by Tony Eischens and adapted by Don Thomas.
Please direct any queries or bug reports via Harpgamer.

2175

---

• Submitter
  donaldseadog
• Submitted
  04/02/2013
• Category
  Tools/Mods/Docs

 

[TonyE]

For those of us aching to see fancy ASW patrols and auto-rendezvous of air refueling tankers this effort by Don Thomas is fantastic. Plus it is open source and free for you to improve upon should you feel that you can't play nice with Don. He has put a lot of effort into this and the results are improving faster than I had imagined they could or would.

 

It was a real treat the other night to select a Super Hornet group, a Tanker group and tell them to meet. The little buggers headed right towards each other and I joined them when they were close enough and refueled with much less hassle than usual. Sure this is just the beginning but a very functional beginning!

[broncepulido]

Downloaded the other day but not yet tested, thumbs up!

[donaldseadog]

It was a real treat the other night to select a Super Hornet group, a Tanker group and tell them to meet. The little buggers headed right towards each other and I joined them when they were close enough and refueled with much less hassle than usual. Sure this is just the beginning but a very functional beginning!

Just a tip (until we get 'event' manipulation) if you have one of the air groups selected in the game then straight after giving the 'meet' command go into the normal course editor and press F10 (brings up the reminder panel) and add a note to join the other group for fuelling, enter a zero time wait and enter the reminder as an 'event' at the groups destination position (which is where they will meet). As soon as the reminder comes up hit 'select' and F7 to join them, then you're away (you can even set the new destination/action [eg 'attack' or RTB) when setting the F10 reminder).

[donaldseadog]

We're making some progress with more features coming on line for the export DLL programs. The toolbox now has a 'patrol' feature to set a variable sized patrol box around a groups current or next position (next position if it has a current 'course'.

[TonyE]

It was great taking your latest version for a spin today and "Taking over" a base in Norway, with aircraft in-tact nonetheless! Very fun, thanks again Don.

[PAK]

Hello everyone after a long break!

Finally got some time to play HCE again.

I've used "meet" utility with a very strange result: my tankers were multiplied.

2xF-22 HJA group was scheduled to meet with 1xKC-46. Second KC-46, BBA group, was flying singly. When HJA merged automatically with KC-46 something confusing happened. F-22's suddenly were flying with 2 KC-46, not with 1 as scheduled. Second KC-46 group, BEA, was "inflated" to 255 KC-46's.

After finishing refueling and splitting KC-46's from Raptor's, there are 3 KC-46 groups: BGS (2xKC-46), BBS (1xKC-46) and BEA (255xKC46). I don't have a savegame before the incident, only after it.

I've added manualy a staff note to HJA, reminding about meeting with tankers, although in the course editor there already was a reminder.

I'm using 2009.097 (btw - EXCELLENT work!)

multiplied tankers.zip

[donaldseadog]

Hehe, the short answer is I noticed this a few days back and seem to have now got it back on track but need to tidy up before I can load up the fix.

Silly answer = its a reward for using my Toolbox.

Long answer, I couldn't for the life of me see what was wrong and stripped the function right back and re worked it. I've actually sorted out another problem, introduced a new problem (these relate to the way joining works) and lost the function that carried over previous course orders to the joined group - but I think I can get that back in. I've had a few distractions at home so I'm not sure when it will be quite back to where I thought it was

I hope to have the basic fix up tonight (Sydney time).

[donaldseadog]

Many thanks to Pak for reporting the (very strange) bug in the 'join' function.

A new toolbox is uploaded and the problem should be fixed and the join function slightly tweeked in other respects.

Very pleased to hear feedback so the more people testing it the better. Once more refined functions are well tested ideas on the general layout would be a step forward I think.

I'd forgotten to mention that toobox requires (as at version 1.2.4) GE version 2009.95 and the latest beta GE will always be preferable.

 

I think TonyE did pretty well overtaking an air base, the best I've done to date are mobile land units.

[donaldseadog]

The latest version 1.2.5 should have a useful 'cover' command operating to allow better 'manual' air group anti submarine operation.

Once you have an exact fix on an enemy submarine unit you can select a nearby air group and set a course to approximately the submarine location and within the course editor give either a loiter/hover command or attack command. While the air group is approaching the target select the 'cover' command in the attack window of toolbox and the air group will proceed to the exact current location of the selected submarine unit then carry out the loiter/hover or attack command you selected. If you select hover/loiter then you can make a judgement as to whether you are close enough to drop a torpedo or if you wish to wait for an existing torpedo to continue its run. In the case of a fast moving target you may wish to re use the 'cover' command.

Note if you have used the standard attack command not within the course editor then the GE will override the course that 'cover' has created and carry out a normal attack.

Other than putting together some better documentation on use I don't expect to be making any substantial changes (unless bugs are uncovered) to the toolbox at the moment.

[jugasa77]

Hello, a nice tool, congratulations.

What does the number right to the "Search" and "Pause" buttons on "AirGrpForm" entry?
Perhaps it is the additional ATA when the target is less than 1000 knots of speed?

[jugasa77]

6 hours ago, jugasa77 said:

Hello, a nice tool, congratulations.

What does the number right to the "Search" and "Pause" buttons on "AirGrpForm" entry?
Perhaps it is the additional ATA when the target is less than 1000 knots of speed?

Or perhaps it is the time for radar pulse?

[Tony]

On 1/3/2024 at 4:20 AM, jugasa77 said:

Hello, a nice tool, congratulations.

What does the number right to the "Search" and "Pause" buttons on "AirGrpForm" entry?
Perhaps it is the additional ATA when the target is less than 1000 knots of speed?

Search means to just refresh the groups list while the pause button allows you to pause the game from toolbox. You probably figured it out already but thought let you know if not.

[donaldseadog]

A new version has been just uploaded, just a small refinement to the ASW search pattern so the group will conduct the ASW search at vlow altband if the group has no non helo units that aren't NOE equipped. This helps if trying to screen for subs close to an enemy AA screen.

With encouragement I could do something similar for vhigh capable aircraft given an AEW patrol

[donaldseadog]

14 hours ago, donaldseadog said:

With encouragement I could do something similar for vhigh capable aircraft given an AEW patrol

^^^ done for next version, now working on patrols applied to a current course (ie, the player sets the course 'turn points' and sortie speed/alt, the tool inserts loiter/hover and altband for asw and temporary  radar for CAP and AEW/EW