Hi everyone. I discovered HCE a year ago and I'm simply loving it. So first of all a big thank you to the volunteers who keep improving the code, make scenarios and keep the community alive!

 

Now, an issue I keep encountering with the formations: units in the asw/picket ring don't sprint and drift, or stop doing it after a bit. I only explored GIUK and NACV scenarios, but this seems to be an engine problem. I realized this happens with formations made up several units while I can never reproduce that with smaller groups (or maybe more omogeneous regarding speed?). I did several searches and I found almost nothing, only this reference in another forum. I didnt find any rules against external links so I hope it's ok to post it.

Is it an issue so well known that noone talks about it, or is it something happening so rarely that noone ever mentions it?

 

I also see that formations 'degrade', get looser, over time, even with no course/speed changes, I assume that is normal behaviour?

 

Thanks!

 

PS: I'm using HCE 2009.076 but I encountered the same problem when I was using the last official patch (.050?), I simply decided to stop lurking and post now that I came back to Harpoon again

Edited April 11, 201313 yr by CV32
Links are generally ok, but not there

It is an issue (or series of issues) with the GE (game engine/winharp32.exe) that few people notice. It is known by me (programmer guy) and I took a really good look at it around two years back. Unfortunately it is not an easy fix (or series of fixes). Honestly I keep putting it off because it means breaking the scenario file format which has been done twice in the 20+ year history of the game. Read into that the formation keeping seems to be more of a design problem, not just a bug or collection of bugs. Sure, the ships should sprint and drift without big changes but a group of ships continuing to sail East after a formation change when the group path shows North is an issue with bigger code implications and needs.

We can live with it

Hi Tsume, welcome to the club! ( see my first post in: http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/topic/20675-classic-versions-jettison-ordenance.)

 

Now that Tony confirmed the bad news, let me add some "consolation".

I think sprint-drift is not effective enough to use in Harpoon, I tend to post only air units into the ASW ring,

my ships sprint-drifting tend to end up at the bottom with torpedo sticking out of them,.

It seems to me that the risk they take while sprinting outweigh the detection benefits of the drift phase

especially in GIUK and NACV where even the common bass seems to swim around armed with a Type65.

 

If I can help I only sail fast if I have at least one sub scout up ahead or ASW a/c-s out to 80nm.

 

I would be interested in to hear an experts view on sprint-drift in an all out war (like GIUK).

Scraped these out of the old Issue Tracker listing (http://harpgamer.com/issuetracker_old/issue_list.php)

 

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=2429

 

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=2428

 

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=2426

 

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=2427

The answer I thought I would get, but well now I know that YOU know. It is certainly not a game breaking issue, just a bit frustrating because sometimes it works fine, and seems to be related to numbers, speeds, maybe even size of the zones. And it makes itself more evident in the long NAVC scenarios.

I completely missed those bug reports, I did look for ASW, sprint and drift, totally overlooking "patrol zone". Still there are 'workarounds' as the old noob Grumble points out, I for example often manually use fast subs to patrol ahead of the main formation, it requires a bit of micromanagement but it works. Or just moving around creep speed all the way long...

 

Maybe there are some magic formation numbers that work or other workarounds, if someone found or uses those, please point it out!

 

Thanks everyone, and hats off to Tony, meddling with decades old code must be, well, let's say INTERESTING.