HCE Release Notes

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.018

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Made a new critical hit distribution table for mobile land

units. In other words, you should no longer see land units

with flooding.

- Chg:B084 GE ASW helicopters want to (errantly)close after firing last torpedo.

The fix isn't ideal but it does address the issue. Now after

that last torpedo is fired there is no prompt. If the player

cancels the attack, the prompt will appear since the game

thinks the target is actually North another 8nm.

(thanks ReoTeo)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=84

- Chg:B100 GE Planes missing from Divide Group command. The CombatFlags

value should have been reset when the landing command was

given but it was not being reset. In 2009.018 it is being

reset so the group doesn't get confused. (thanks Herman)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...amp;showbug=100

- Chg:0000 SE Enabled time editing dialog for staff notes so that they can

be shown to the player after the specified elapsed time. Also

added the side chooser dialog when in the SE to dictate which

side will see the message.

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.020

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Upon scenario load, the raw event side is no longer checked

for MESSAGE_EVENT events

which was resulting in staff message events being ignored.

In sum, this should now allow the Red side to see staff

messages from the scenario file.

- Chg:0000 GE Here is a bit more explanation on the behavior of the

Staff Messages as entered by the scenario designer.

* Message length should not exceed 63 characters

* If you have a group selected when you enter the Staff

Message, that group will be referenced by the message

when viewed in the GE. What that means is you could

enter a message for the Blue side with a Red submarine

selected. When the Blue player receives that message

in the game, the Show or Select buttons of the dialog

will show the position of the Red sub, even if it

hasn't been detected. That could be useful but is

also a caution to be cognizant that the message stores

the selected group, if any.

 

HCE - 2009.019

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Extended demo timeout until March 15, 2010.

- Chg:0000 GE Added marketing glitz and links to the Demo.

- Chg:0000 GE Delayed dllexInitDLLs until after DoIntroScreen so that if

a DLL establishes a window, it won't cancel the intro screen

drawing.

- Chg:0000 GE Changed the window handle passed to DLLs from hwndFullScreen

to hwndMDIClient to allow more proper parentage.

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.021

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Updated list of beta testers.

- Chg:B092 GE When a surface/sub group is given a stop order, keep it stopped.

Previously group speed could be restored to the last known

non-zero speed. This was a side effect of the code that

returns a group to the ordered speed once units reach their

newly assigned formation patrol positions (i.e. group slowed

down as a whole after new formation assignments, when the

ships got to their new stations, the group would return to

the ordered speed). Added code to say that if the group

speed is zero, no formation patrol event will be able to

set the group to a non-zero speed. This does not prevent

the player or AI from giving the group an order to move again.

(thanks Herman)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=92

- Chg:B079 GE Fixed wrapping of moderate length classnames. Very long classnames

however will still wrap. (thanks Herman)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=79

- Chg:B071 GE Dipping sonars and sonobuoy dropping can once again happen from Low or

VLow, not just VLow. This is the quick fix, not the right fix. Larry

is correct that the documentation states VLow for dipping. However,

finding and changing the code in all of the right places poses a

danger not currently worth the risk (the danger of making more

and new problems). (thanks Herman)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=71

- Chg:B103 SE More properly disable the "Set Air Patrol" button when zooming into and

out of the main body of the formation editor. (thanks Herman)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...amp;showbug=103

- Chg:0000 SE Fixed a bug I (TonyE) created in 2009.015 that resulted in aircraft

ending up on the wrong ships when editing a group. (thanks Akula)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?showtopic=3697

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.022

==============

- Chg:0000 GE When prompted to choose a group to land at, highlight the

home base of the first plane in the air group by default if

the home base still exists. (thanks Akula and others)

- Chg:0099 GE Added debug logging to help track down the occasional problem

of not being able to click on the map to select an enemy

group for attack. The various messages are...

1) Group YWp clicked outside of select Group dialog

2) Group ZCS clicked inside of select Group dialog

3) Group AGU clicked but not valid for this operation

4) No Group was clicked

When launching an LR attack, 2) is the proper message and

should result in the enemy group being selected. 1) you

should get when clicking on a group to give orders. 3)

should happen when you are launching a LR attack and click

on a friendly group. 4) is pretty self explanatory and will

happen in many situations.

We're interested in hearing what result you get when the

map clicking becomes unresponsive, rather than 2), what

happens?

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=99

- Chg:0000 BS Integrated the expanded WestPac battleset as seen in the Demo.

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.023

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Fixed the crash bug Larry found in the prompt to choose a group

to land at when ferrying aircraft. (thanks Wombat)

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.024

==============

- Chg:B099 GE Player should no longer lose the ability to click target groups

on the map as a scenario progresses. This bug happened

because a variable used in figuring out where the player

clicked on the map wasn't being initialized to zero.

For the time being the logging of this in the MessageLog has

been increased. (thanks Lots of us)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=99

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.025

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Alt-t once again will rotate thru three settings for showing

paths. a) no paths shown, selected group path shown,

c) every friendly group's path shown, unless Show All is

activated in which case every group's path is shown.

(thanks Miller7219)

- Chg:0000 SE Make sure to enable the Orders and Orders2 menus after issuing

an Attack command from the course editor. (thanks Akula)

- Chg:0000 SE Alt-t once again will rotate thru three settings for showing

paths. a) no paths shown, selected group path shown,

c) every group's path shown. (thanks Miller7219)

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.026

==============

- Chg:0000 GE A 'bonus' increment to the number of SAMs to fire at incoming

targets was supposed to be applied if the target is moving at

> 1300 kts. Unfortunately the code was using a speed not in

kts so the bonus was always applied. That has now been fixed

and the units match.

- Chg:B044 GE In the case where a platform only has surface search radars yet

also has SAMs, allow the platform to fire non IR guided SAMs

if the platform has surface search radars turned on.

(thanks to Reckall for a scen that demonstrated this and to

others for coming close)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...&showbug=44

- Chg:0000 SE When creating an LR Patrol if user clicks Repeat Patrol before

adding planes to the patrol, the SE would crash. Fixed by

disabling and enabling the button at the appropriate moments.

(thanks Brad)

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.027

==============

- Chg:0106 GE Implementing a new eff115 (Autonomous Sensor Intelligence) that

determines when the AI should turn on active sensors and when

to prompt the player to do the same. Added a new log type

option to the command line for this, emcon_ai . Also added

a new command line option to switch back to a fixed version

of the old eff115 that will properly notice if a group's

radars are already on. The option is -e

i.e. c:\games\HCE\Winharp32.exe -e

would revert to the fixed old eff115 that is much more apt

to turn on radars than the new code.

(thanks Lots of People)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...amp;showbug=106

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.028

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Similar changes to eff115 except for sonar this time. There

will be no suggestion to turn on active sonars until an

approaching torp/sub/ship is detected within active sonar range.

For incoming torps, the range is always the max active sonar

range, for ships and subs there is a random factor.

(thanks Brad)

- Chg:B109 GE Removed BOL ASM/SSM PH modifiers since the related data fields

are also used for other purposes. We also have no idea in

more recent battlesets (since EC2000) whether the Red side is

using. (thanks Miller7219)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...amp;showbug=109

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.029

==============

- Chg:0000 GE ASMs/SSMs with the Snap Up/Down flag can now be shot at by

point defense weapons. (thanks Miller7219)

- Chg:0000 GE Fixed wacky characters in the "Please turn on your radar"

messages. (thanks Miller7219)

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.030

==============

- Chg:B111 GE Radar, ESM, and many other detections weren't happening at the

right ranges since 2009.026, fixed up the problems leading to

that situation. This may reinforce the performance penalty

alluded to in 2009.027. (thanks Reckall)

http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?a...amp;showbug=111

- Chg:0000 GE Fixed the wacky/absent explanation in the "Please turn on your

sonar" messages.

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.031

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Changed formatting of new detection messages a bit so there are

fewer missing spaces (i.e. no more lack of space before the

"Method Radar" part of the message and such.

- Chg:0000 GE Minor performance tweak to eff115.

- Chg:0000 GE Fixed formatting issue of command line switch reporting in the

log file.

- Chg:0000 BS Stripped photos/graphics from EC2000 battlesets while restoring

the correct strategic maps for said battlesets.

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.032

==============

- Chg:0000 GE EMCON messages for sonar weren't always appearing as a result

of a utility function returning 0 as the active sonar range

when active sonar wasn't on. Wrote a new function to give

theoretical active sonar range if it were on. (thanks Akula)

[TonyE]

HCE - 2009.033

==============

- Chg:0000 GE Refined the EMCON situations for turning on Active Sonar...

If detected unfriendly unit is:

A torpedo within friendly unit Active Sonar range, turn it on.

OR

Using Active Sonar and is within friendly unit Active Sonar range,

turn it on.

OR

if friendly unit is a surface craft AND friendly group meets

an aggressiveness factor AND enemy unit is within friendly ASW

weapon range AND within friendly Active Sonar range.

 

The respective Message Log entries in debug builds are:

torpedoes at %dnm are within active sonar range

contact at %dnm is within active sonar range and using active sonar

contact at %dnm is within ASW range

(thanks to Brad for puzzling this out)

- Chg:0000 GE Fixed a bug in the radar function that wasn't telling radar at

what altitude the target was residing.

- Chg:0000 GE New command line options to enable a launcher program later on.

-b 1 (would load battleset 1 which is original GIUK)

-c 1 (would load scenario 1.0 of the selected battleset)

-c "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\MyScen.SCp" (would load MyScen.SCp)

-v "C:\Matrix Games\HCE\MySave.hpp" (would load saved game MySave.hpp)

-d C:\Games\HCE\hcdb-090427.res (would load hcdb-090427 as the commondb)

-r C:\Games\HCE\commondb.rsr (would load commondb.rsr as the commondb resource file)

-g 11111111 (explained below from left to right)

1st digit is player side in the scen 0 = Blue, 1 = Red

2nd digit is Nuke Release Enabled 1=yes, 0=no

3rd digit is Snorkeling subs 1=yes, 0=no

4th digit is Real Weather 1=yes, 0=no

5th digit is Maintenance Failures 1=yes, 0=no

6th digit is Full Ordnance 1=yes, 0=no

7th digit is Auto Formation Patrols 1=yes, 0=no

8th digit is whether to exit the game at scen end 1=yes, 0=no