HC'97 - Steam Version Issue - Okean Vessels replaced with Kalinin Vessels!?!?!

[beaveman]

I played HC'97 20-25 years ago and loved it.  I completed a good chunk of the scenarios and battlesets back then.  I noticed a few weeks ago that it was available on Steam, so I purchased it for nostalgia's sake.  I completed all of the GIUK scenarios from the first battleset and moved on to the NACV battleset.  Here is where I am running into issues.  All three of the Okean class vessels in the first two scenarios are replaced with Kalinin class vessels.  It is very odd to have a cruiser sailing solo with no escorts.  It also causes severe imbalance issues, making the scenarios completely impossible for US/Blue and unenjoyable/non-challenging for USSR/Red.  After doing a search in this forum for Okean, I learned that it is also used in the "Ambush" scenario of the NACV battleset.  I checked that, and sure enough that has the same issue with Kalinin class instead of Okean class.  I'm not sure what other scenarios use Okean class vessels, but my guess is that at minimum, every scenario from the NACV battleset that uses Okean class vessels will have that error.  I looked up the individual ship names all of those "Kalinin" class ships were actual Okean class vessels - Repiter, Reduktor, and Zond - also confirming the error or bug.

The Steam version was automatically updated to 1.63d.  Is this a known issue with HC'97 or is it something unique to the Steam version?  Is anyone aware of a fix?

[donaldseadog]

22 hours ago, beaveman said:

Is anyone aware of a fix?

I don't for certain but does the steam hc97 have a scenario editor that would let you edit the battleset scenario and replace the units with something more suitable.

It sounds like a clerical error in putting the database together. In these old games the database is built into the game,so fixing it is a major item that I'd guess isn't likely to happen, but who knows.

Someone else might very well have better ideas.

[TonyE]

Those are some powerful AGIs!  I can confirm that the HC97 we published with Matrix Games also has/had that flaw.  I suppose that would mean it is a known issue since for nearly 30 years <g>.

The same flaw is present in the most recent builds so was not corrected.  What we did with some similar situations is programmatically override bad BattleSet data when the BattleSet (which in those old ones included the platform database specific to each BattleSet) did have issues.  The tools to re-generate those legacy BattleSets were lost to time.  

MicroProse has the ability to fix in a couple of ways (via programmatic override or painstakingly re-building the BattleSet).

I suggest the time is much better spent re-making such scenarios in newer BattleSets that do not have the flaw, something you can do without any exotic tooling.

I'm 99% sure I wrote a utility that could at least view but possibly update some of the legacy BattleSets but haven't located it yet.

 

[beaveman]

Following a suggestion from someone else on the Steam forum, I was able to find an almost 30 year old fix!

Dr. Who's Harpoon Pages

https://www.harpoonpages.com/harpoon1.htm

The 4/04/97 update can be downloaded and imported into the Harpoon Classic 97 folder to replace the NAVC.res file (I created a backup of the original file just in case).  When I ran the scenarios using that updated file, the ships all appeared correclty as Okean class instead of Kalinin class.

The website also includes an update for the EC2000 scenarios.  Were there any old bugs you can remember from those scenarios - anything I should look out for before deciding whether to apply that update as well?