1 hour ago, agathosdaimon said:

okay thanks - though i looked in my backups folder and none of the files like you show here were in mine - all very strange. so i guess i would just like to know from what folder should i run the beta updates and db update?

You can install from any folder, choosing the right folder to install to is the key.  What is the path to your winharp32.exe (i.e. your game directory)?  I'll be on IRC for at least a half hour from right now if you want to come text chat our way through this.  https://webchat.freenode.net/  channel #harpgamer

 

thanks - though i cant do much at the moment, just gotta go and start my work for the day - i can say that the game directory is c:\matrix games\huce

okay i applied the patches again and i can report that as soon as i did the 2018 beta patch, the winharp32.exe and wscenedt32.exe files disappeared from the folder - very disconcerting, as i am left wondering what else might have disappeared. A  very odd patch that would delete critical game files it seems to be.

 

i added in the db file now too, - very odd that there was no file to overwrite this time , - in the db file there is a commondb.res file, in my huce folder there was only a commondb.rsr file -

also put ht eporter files in the HUCE folder, but how do i actually play the scenario? the files for the porter scenario are not in a format the game recognises,

everything here is just really odd, and i am having to wonder am i even working with the same version of HUCE as you all here? mine is hte matrix store box i bought from matrix,

everything here is just off and screwy, - but if you can clear up my confusion that would be great, otherwise i think i will just give up all this trouble and stick with HUCE as it was prior to my visiting this forum

I recorded a video last night but have to do a bit of editing.  It should be posted in the next 24 hours.  By chance might you have security software deleting the files?  That would make some sense for the winharp32.exe and wscenedt32.exe files but not the commond.res file.  Eric on this thread had Norton security suite deleting winharp32.exe for a while (errantly).

well its ppssible, though i just checked my avast virus chest and they arent there, but i will ad also when i was installign the patches they were throwing up some of these exception errors - you know the types, ones with 0x003530d looking numbers (that wasnt one of them, i just was illustrating what i am referring)

nevertheless, now i have all that done, how do i player the porter scenario, i may as well push on and see if i can play it now yes?

Well no, I'm not familiar with exceptions when installing pieces of HC.  Can you provide detail, screenshots, etc?

ugly video posted that covers the install and set up for the Porter scenario.

 

thanks! i have used thevideo now figure out how to play the porter scenario. There are some other peculiarities with whatever it is that happened to my huce folder after teh patching, but for now, i have that scenario playing and that is the main thing for me and - if i want to play the original scenarios i just need to swap the commondb files over with the original ones again yes?

Whoo hoo, great progress!  Indeed, if you want to play the stock EC2003 or newer BattleSet scenarios, you will want to revert back to HCDB (the original commondb files).

Yes, if you want to dig through the rest of the strangeness sometime, we can set up a time to chat and maybe share your screen.

Glad to hear you are getting to plat the scenario.

Happy Harpooning,

Eric

thanks for all your help guys, - strangeness yes indeed, - i think i get tripped up here on the labels of things - all the codenames and package labels, when you say "newer battleset scenarios" what ones are talking about? are just meaning all the scenarios that come with the matrix ultimate commander edition still?

 

the porter scenario is just what i was after, an air war over the black sea region. i know there are probably many CMANO scenarios out there already for this, but Harpoon in all its iterations has such a charm to it i enjoy

new codename/package label: commondb BattleSet - a BattleSet that uses the commondb.res and commondb.rsr files.  A non-commondb BattleSet has the platform database information embedded in the BattleSet files and is not affected by swapping out the commondb files.  As you can see from the screenshot below, there are far more non-commondb BattleSets than commondb but the bulk of the user-submitted scenarios are in the commondb BattleSets since the commondb/user-editable database brings so much more to the table in terms of making use of the game's functionality.

An acronym list https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/2082-hc-acronyms/ 

Information on leveraging user scenarios plus a link to understanding scenario and saved game filenames https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/13353-user-scenarios-and-custom-databases/ 

BattleSets information https://harpgamer.com/harpforum/topic/11347-battlesets/ (textual view of the graphic below)