I'm wondering what battlesets have the newer HCE features that are based 1980-1990 or so. I believe I saw the included HCDA/S/? or whichever those 3 or 4 are have active jamming working but didn't know if they have the full set of new goodies. Am I correct? Also.. which other battlesets do/don't have the new features?

 

I've noticed the DB80to95 but haven't seen much in the way of created scenarios for it. Could someone point me in the right direction? I've not dove into scenario creation yet (I will sometime), but playing your own scenarios takes a bit of the surprise out of it, doesn't it?

I'm wondering what battlesets have the newer HCE features that are based 1980-1990 or so. I believe I saw the included HCDA/S/? or whichever those 3 or 4 are have active jamming working but didn't know if they have the full set of new goodies. Am I correct? Also.. which other battlesets do/don't have the new features?

I've noticed the DB80to95 but haven't seen much in the way of created scenarios for it. Could someone point me in the right direction? I've not dove into scenario creation yet (I will sometime), but playing your own scenarios takes a bit of the surprise out of it, doesn't it?

 

Battlesets are collections of scenarios, and the scenarios are written with particular databases (just so there's no confusion). I can tell you about my own databases:

 

The EC2003 and Westpac battlesets that come with HCE all use the HCDB database. It focuses on the period roughly from 1980 to the near future, and covers all of the global theaters that originally shipped with HCE. You need this database to play any of the scenarios that come with the game in the EC2003 and Westpac battlesets.

 

All of the earlier battlesets that come with HCE (including the original GIUK, NACV, MEDC and IOPG battlesets) use a stock database that's embedded into the code and cannot be edited.

 

The HCDA database specifically covers North, Central and South America (the latter of which was not available as a theater until recently, with the intro of the Battleset Builder), as well as select units from around the globe (generally focusing on major nations that might have interests in South America, such as the UK, France, Russia, China, etc). It also covers the time period from roughly 1980 until the near future.

 

The HCUS database that comes with the HCE demo is a US-Euro centric database focused on the period around the end of the Cold War (1991-92). This database has not been released beyond the demo just yet.

 

The HCWW database is a World Wars (I and II) database that is still very much in its infancy.

Ahhh. I mean the HDSA/B/C of the designer series. Does that use the HCDA or are those sets hardcoded on the old stuff?

 

As for EC2003 & Westpac, you're saying that the HCDA has units as far back as '80 for those? Is there an easy way to tell what year a certain model or class entry is for or do I need to dig through the DB for all that info?

 

I'm not always so helpless and full of questions, but I'd like to have a smooth go at the scenario editor when I jump in.

Ahhh. I mean the HDSA/B/C of the designer series. Does that use the HCDA or are those sets hardcoded on the old stuff?

 

Okay. The Harpoon Designer Series III battlesets - HDSA (NACV), HDSB (MEDC), HDSC (IOPG) and HDS9 (GIUK) - all use the 'hard coded' database.

 

As for EC2003 & Westpac, you're saying that the HCDA has units as far back as '80 for those?

 

The stock scenarios that come with the game, for the EC2003 and Westpac battlesets, use the HCDB database. The HCDA database is for user created scenarios in the North, Central and South American theaters.

 

Is there an easy way to tell what year a certain model or class entry is for or do I need to dig through the DB for all that info?

 

There is usually no easy way to tell the 'year' depicted in an entry in the above databases, although there are some exceptions. For example, some entries in the HCDA have the year in the platform name to differentiate between them.

 

I'm not always so helpless and full of questions, but I'd like to have a smooth go at the scenario editor when I jump in.

 

No problem. The battleset, database and scenario name structure isn't terrifically easy to grasp the first time you take it out for a spin.