Hi All,

I'm not sure if this message is in the right forum, so if not please feel free to move it or advise where I should repost.

I just purchased Harpoon Ultimate Edition, largely on the strength of http://www.simhq.com/_naval/naval_003a.html. Granted, that discusses an earlier version of the game, but the interface does not seem to have changed appreciably.

I've perhaps jumped in at the deep end as far as the game is concerned, but I figured that it might at least be worth a shot. I've been blind since birth, but also a fan of, among others, Red Storm Rising.

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on how I ought to proceed. Much of the information provided by the game is textual in nature, but the map is also obviously important. As that article points out, I can't set courses for groups easily.

Given that someone obviously has been able to play the game and understand what was happening, I feel like it should be possible. I'm just not quite sure how to begin.

If anybody has suggestions, or tips on how to handle things in an automated fashion, or what have you, it would be greatly appreciated.

One thought I had was to begin with mostly stationary platforms, so I didn't have to worry about movement quite so much.

Other than that, I'm a bit lost. My screen reader is able to parse most of the controls in the game, thankfully.

If I can answer any questions or provide any more information, I'm happy to do so.

Thanks much in advance

Welcome, I have e-mailed Didier asking him to reply. Our last exchange at that e-mail however was in 2005 so it may not be monitored anymore.

 

As for setting courses, courses in the game are tracked as a destination point, there is no real concept of heading. That means if we did get you an UI addition or change it would want you to enter both a heading and a distance which would give the destination/course leg that the game expects. Would that still be of value to you or are you really feeling the need to set a course and speed without defining a distance to travel?

You may find it useful to review the keyboard commands at http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?/files/file/416-keyboard-commands-by-type/

 

One Didier made good use of was rotating through groups by repeatedly hitting the spacebar.

 

Definitely brainstorm what would help you.

Hi,

 

Thanks for the warm welcome and clarifications.

I think courses as the game expects them mights till be useful to me. It also seems that relative courses, (i.E. in relation to a specific group or map feature) might be helpful.

One thing which may be an issue is that my knowledge of naval tactics and related matters is largely non-existent. I'm approaching this as an interested amateur who's read a bit of fiction. It seems from the article that Didier had at least a bit more background.

 

I appreciate your willingness to indulge me in trying to make this game work. I wish I could give more input, but I'm not sure where to begin as of yet.

Thanks much

Welcome to the website!

 

I'm happy and rather proud that we have been able to help visually impaired folks previously, so I am hopeful that we can do it again.

Hi all,

 

Thanks again for the warm welcome. I've been mucking about with the game for an hour or so this morning, off and on. I think I managed to sink a merchant ship or two. I've mostly been toying with the "Eastern seaboard," scenario in GIUK, for lack of any other notions where to begin.

 

I think that my struggle is going to be getting a sense of what exactly is going on. I can obviously use commands to move from group to group, but it's a little disjointed. The staff messages are certainly helpful, but I've got a few prompting me to give orders to aircraft for instance, and I obviously can't do that yet.

I'm frankly impressed I can make any sense out of this game at all. 99% of the stuff on the market is unplayable to me, so seeing something which is mostly there is remarkable, to be honest. I hope we can make some progress.

One thing I'm unsure of is the "instant Action," checkbox. That doesn't seem to be documented in the manual. Does it alter the scenario starting conditions somehow?

 

Thanks for any notions, and your continual support.

"Instant Action" is basically start the game in a random scenario (of those supplied with the original game). Doesn't alter the scenario starting conditions, but usually we don't use it because can generate some almost undetectable software (game engine/GE) errours.

Welcome to the HC world!

 

If there is a check in the Instant Action box the scenario you loaded will start playing as soon as it's finished loading. If there isn't a check in the Instant Action box your game will be paused after your scenario is loaded.

 

During the game to give yourself some time you can also pause the scenario to set orders to your task groups, launch aircraft, launch weapons. I would think that the pause time setting would be very useful for you.

 

I hope this will help.

 

Happy Harpooning!

Eric

So, an update.

 

I managed to play for a decent amount on the "gauntlet," scenario from the GIUK battleset. Lacking the ability to change my surface group's course, I figured it started off in the direction it needed to go. I sped up time a considerable amount until I hit a couple contacts.

I wasn't sure what I ought to do about the surface units. Given that two of the ships are merchants, would splitting the frigates into a separate group have been a reasonable strategy?

I've decided for simplicity sake to let the game handle air patrols. I noticed a lot of the contacts I found were ESMs from the helicopters. They seem kind of ill-equipped to deal with surface targets—at least, the only missions I could ready them for were antisub.

I did have one brief submarine contact, but sent an antisub aircraft to search for him with little effect. I feel like I should have been supervising that process a little more, but I'm not quite sure how.

I eventually got annoyed with the inability to meaningfully plot a course, and quit for the moment. At least I didn't lose—that's happened before too.

Obviously such a relatively simple scenario should be pretty easy. I just feel somewhat hamstrung in my ability to interact at the moment.

I managed to play for a decent amount on the "gauntlet," scenario from the GIUK battleset. Lacking the ability to change my surface group's course, I figured it started off in the direction it needed to go.

Many scenarios are written that way but not all of them. It is up to the individual scenario author whether they give both sides courses and patrols (both formation and long range).

I sped up time a considerable amount until I hit a couple contacts.

Good move, another decision is whether to turn on your own radars before you get a contact. Generally the answer is no you shouldn't (except for AEW planes and MPA planes).

I wasn't sure what I ought to do about the surface units. Given that two of the ships are merchants, would splitting the frigates into a separate group have been a reasonable strategy?

My instinct would be to split off one of the frigates for a surface contact but if I detected a submarine I would attempt to prosecute it with helicopters-only.

I've decided for simplicity sake to let the game handle air patrols. I noticed a lot of the contacts I found were ESMs from the helicopters. They seem kind of ill-equipped to deal with surface targets—at least, the only missions I could ready them for were antisub.

Yes, in some of the newer BattleSets you will find more shipborne helicopters with ASM loadouts for attacking ships.

 

I did have one brief submarine contact, but sent an antisub aircraft to search for him with little effect. I feel like I should have been supervising that process a little more, but I'm not quite sure how.

Yes, ASW is going to be a sore spot for you. Locating and sinking a submarine is a pretty manual affair.

 

I eventually got annoyed with the inability to meaningfully plot a course, and quit for the moment. At least I didn't lose—that's happened before too.

Obviously such a relatively simple scenario should be pretty easy. I just feel somewhat hamstrung in my ability to interact at the moment.

Keep making observations. I'm the programmer guy at the moment and unfortunately won't have much time to make changes for you immediately but if you stick around we'll keep picking away at them.

So some further observations

 

I ran through Gauntlet again and this time tried detaching a frigate as per your suggestion. That seemed to go well, although when I turned on my surface search radar it didn't seem to make much difference. I ended up getting to the point where i could theoretically launch a harpoon, but it was a "bearing only attack." I was pleased that you can watch the progress of an individual missile in the unit display.

The harpoon didn't seem to find anything—I was surprised to see that its time to activation and distance kept going *up*. I would have expected the reverse. We afterwards lost that contact, and I tried to get the frigate back to the merchies, whom I'd ordered to stop—not really realistic, but I figured it was reasonable for practice's sake.

Joining doesn't seem to have an "auto close," feature as attacking does. Perhaps it could?

 

At any rate, if there's anything specific I can report on or try, please let me know. I should clarify that I'm totally blind, playing with speech. Low vision might actually help in this case…

I ran through Gauntlet again and this time tried detaching a frigate as per your suggestion. That seemed to go well, although when I turned on my surface search radar it didn't seem to make much difference. I ended up getting to the point where i could theoretically launch a harpoon, but it was a "bearing only attack." I was pleased that you can watch the progress of an individual missile in the unit display. The harpoon didn't seem to find anything—I was surprised to see that its time to activation and distance kept going *up*.

When launched on a 'bearing only' attack, the Harpoon would proceed to an activation point for its own radar seeker to turn on and search for a target.

 

If it passes that point without actually detecting a target, the countdown timer continues (in the opposite direction) as the missile moves away from the activation point.

When launched on a 'bearing only' attack, the Harpoon would proceed to an activation point for its own radar seeker to turn on and search for a target.

 

If it passes that point without actually detecting a target, the countdown timer continues (in the opposite direction) as the missile moves away from the activation point.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I take it, then, that if a contact is detected via ESM, it isn't something like a radar return, which would be constant? I imagine what probably happened was my patrolling helicopter found something, but during the time my frigate got moving—it was 40+ NM away to begin with, it was long gone. That might explain why the harpoon was having trouble locking on. Do I have things more or less right here?

Thanks for the explanation. I take it, then, that if a contact is detected via ESM, it isn't something like a radar return, which would be constant? I imagine what probably happened was my patrolling helicopter found something, but during the time my frigate got moving—it was 40+ NM away to begin with, it was long gone. That might explain why the harpoon was having trouble locking on. Do I have things more or less right here?

Yes, more or less. The ESM hit is essentially you detecting his radar emissions. You get a bearing, but there is an uncertainty zone instead of a specifically known range.

Removed per admin request.