Docking ships?

[lauter11]

The scenario I'm playing is the second one in the GIUK battlepack. The victory condition is get at least one merchant to Narvik. I got it there, but the game doesn't recognize it as a win. Is there something I'm suppose to do to complete docking or something?

Thanks.

[TonyE]

It would be great if you have a saved game of the situation you can zip and attach to the thread (or zip and e-mail to HC3@harpgamer.com).  Indeed the Victory condition says one Merchant (but of a specific type) for minimum victory, 2 merchants for total victory.  Thank you 

[blueduck]

I seem too remember from a long time ago playing a scenario wher I had to dock a ship that I had to make it part of the formation of the port by using the join group function before it considered the ship docked. Could be worth a try.

[lauter11]

Hi,

Just played it again and got the victory with both merchants. Could losing one of the merchants keep you from getting any kind of victory? I didn't see that in the victory conditions.

Sorry, I don't have a saved game file.

Thanks.

[SteveF2006]

Sure, if you loose one or more of the merchant ships, then the enemy has achieved one of its victory conditions.

[TonyE]

Still, you should be awarded minimum victory with that single merchant (the victory condition does specify a subtype that you can't see with the current SE), perhaps the minimum victory condition for NATO was too restrictive.  One does not have to join with the port formation, you only need be within the box laid out in the SE (some day we'll be able to do reference points for such things as the scenario designer deems fit, the game has the capability but the Platform Editor doesn't.
 
If someone wants to take a look at the victory conditions with the HC97 or Winharp scenario editor and report back, it may be interesting to know the specific class of merchant in the VCs and if that is the issue here.
 

[wazza]

Just had a look in Winharp's SE:

NATO minimum victory:

1 x ships of class ID MRCH on station
Num killed: 1

I've attached a compound pic of the relevant SE windows.

[mack2]

That box is in a somewhat misleading aread. Most people would probably move up area to the right of the box.

Maybe the game could have a toggle to show the victory box for transit missions.

Scenario writers should be as specific as possible imo. If you need 4 ships to survive, then say that you need 4 ships to survive.

Maybe the game could show a secondary "victory" box for those who want it, which spells out exactly what you need for each one. Many other games tell you what you need to do to win.

[wazza]

Yeah, I thought the box was in a strange position... so much so that I re-loaded the scenario again from the Battleset, in case I'd done something stupid and accidentally moved it. It was still in that position, though.

Explains why I never managed to finish the mission as blue, too!

Thus, I guess, "always make your on-station boxes oversize". :>

[CV32]

wazza, is your screenshot from HC97 or some other earlier version than HCE ?

[TonyE]

Yes, that's an earlier SE (which is what I asked for since the victory condition in that scenario will crash the HCE SE).  The VC is indeed indeterminate, it should be telling you a specific ship class instead of a type MRCH.  I was hoping in the earlier SE it would have said something like Merchant or Oil Tanker as a specific class. 
 
The good thing (at least when I looked), is that the on station rectangle is positioned correctly if you use the HCE SE.
 
 

[wazza]

For a bit of historical reference, here's the result of the same investigation using the very early (floppies dated 1992) SE, version 1.01, included with 360's "Harpoon Signature Edition":

[wazza]

... and the second part of the above message. The on station rect in this version of the SE is in what looks to be a more appropriate spot:

(P.S. DOSbox is a brilliant gadget)