New Version of the Harpoon 3ANW Beta Patch v3.90 Uploaded!!

[Greg Wilcox]

Hi everyone,

We've uploaded a new version 3.9.0 as a Public Beta via our Members Club. While we do final testing we figured we'd offer you a change to get it early as well. This is still a beta, but it's stable and solid as far as we can tell.

You can download this as a Registered Download as long as you have registered your Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare serial number in our Members Club (click on the MEMBERS link in the top nav bar).

Please see the reame for more details

FIXES
General
• Some scenarios on load would have their scenario map display truncated
• The Unit Status Window would not correctly resize when using a Window Scheme
• UNREP-flagged Magazines would display loadout names
• The Database Display window incorrectly shoed the Near ATA value for weapons in both the Near ATA and Far ATA locations
• Crash when opening Sensor Settings dialog with multiple units drag-selected
• Incorrect button text in Speed/Altitude dialog
• Fixed Threat Zone polygon editing to fix incorrect error detection
Simulation
• Under some conditions, Daylight Savings Time conditions would cause contact report times to be displayed as one hour off the actual time
• Navigation issues would cause UnRep operations to fail sometimes
• Contacts with ESM information would not display the detected sensors
• Aircraft in Air Groups that were assigned to a mission would be unable to use air-to-air refueling
• Ships reduced to 0 speed would not be removed from their group, which would likely never move again
• Several instances of math overflow/underflow are now checked for and handled in a non-fatal fashion
• Contact speed information was being dropped, resulting in incorrect flagging of hostile units as "Probable Kill"
• Airborne contacts would be reported as being at "Surface" altitude
• Protect Station victory conditions would fail if the units to be kept out were destroyed
• Specific Strike missions could cause neutral units to be incorrectly flagged as hostile
• Weapons with midcourse guidance would home on the true target location instead of the target location as known to the controlling unit
• Aircraft Rate of Climb was incorrectly floored at 100m per simulation interval
• Aircraft dive rate was not being correctly calculated (was equal to climb rate but should have been double)
• A unit hit in rapid succession by multiple weapons and destroyed could be counted multiple times for victory conditions
• Submarine Decoys self-destructed prematurely
• Uncertainty zones that got to close to the North or South pole could cause a hang and eventual crash
• Ships with an uncertain location that had their centroid over land would be reported as "Submerged"
• If a mission attempted to turn off a units engines, it would cause a crash
• The On-Station victory condition evaluation could crash under some circumstances
• Missions would not always be notified to recompute intercepts when their target changed course or speed
• Fixed incorrect handling of multiple-speed torpedoes
• Corrected an error that would generate incorrect short ranges on identified passive sonar contacts
• Fixed a hang when pressing "Ok" on Weapon Reload dialog for an UNREP operation
• Fixed a case where gunfire would be resolved after the firing unit had moved out of range of the target (or vice versa) if the fire had been ordered while the units were in range
Multiplayer
• Resigning a scenario in multiplayer with an aircraft launch in progress could lead to a server crash
• On-Station victory conditions would not trigger in multiplayer
• Player-controlled sides would not be correctly flagged on the server, resulting in AO rules being applied (most notably regarding communications difficulty settings)
• Chat window now opened when entering a scenario
Scenario Editor
• Export Weapon Edits function did not check all units
• Attempting to rename a unit with no unit selected would crash the editor
• Editing a landed aircraft record in such a way that it matched another landed aircraft record present on the same parent unit could cause a crash
• Communications links would not be correctly restored if the side flagship was deleted
• Attempting to create a scenario with a duration of 0 would cause a crash
• Edit Unit Aircraft would lose existing formation patrol information
Database Editor
• Several Comm type flags were missing from the database editor interface
• Loadout Ready Time field relabeled from Text Index
FEATURES
General
• Contact uncertainty zones will now clamp to map boundaries
• Exit button added to battleset selection dialog
• Added a runtime check for overfilled mounts and magazines (a situation which could cause program errors in mount reloading and UNREP processes). Excess weapons are chucked overboard and a message is displayed.
• Refinement to the navigation system to improve performance when navigating around coastlines
• All tutorials remade for the ANWDB.
Simulation
• Passive Sonar classification times and probabilities updated to match paper rules v4.1
• Helicopters no longer excluded from VLow altitude
• ASW Patrol missions will now attack unidentified submarines in their area of interest
• Facility-type units damage resolution changed to more closely match paper rules v4.1
• Submarines snorkeling to recharge their batteries will now be noisier
• Noise ECM changed to conform to paper rules v4.1
• When modifying aircraft loadouts, the weapons currently on the aircraft are now counted as being available
• Ctrl-B added as an alternate hotkey for BOL Attack
Scenario Editor
• Mission Delay timing values are now visible and editable in the Edit Mission dialog
• Added handling for formerly out-of-range years. Years from 1900 to 2154 are now supported.
• Aircraft may now have their parent unit set using Ctrl-P or Edit|Units|Set Parent Unit, then clicking on the new parent with the hand pointer
• Edit Unit Aircraft no longer affects munitions on the parent unit when using Aircraft Logistics
• Scrub Launches command now returns aircraft to a ready, unassigned state
Database Editor
• Added a Sanity Check for overfilled mounts and magazines.

[Kegel]

The launcher menu comes up but I cant launch the game.  All I get is a command prompt.  At the top of the command window, it says "System Time Zone : UTC-5, Eastern Daylight Time. Same thing happens when attempting to launch the database editor or server etc. Only thing that works is the autorun.exe menu.

The Adobe manual and adv manual links still dont work.  (most recent adobe reader 8.1.2).

Does anyone actually play this? I cant be the only one that cant launch the game as I have a very standard setup and a fresh OS install. (XP).

By the way, I received an email advertising 3.9 and it said nothing about it being a beta. Same as this post: tm.asp?m=1755746

Beta or not?

How do bugs like you can't launch the app make it through beta testing? Assuming its a bug of course.

Have to say, I like 3.8 better.

[witpqs]

Hi,

Great to see the new release out - thank you!

I'm a long time Harpoon/Harpoon II/Harpoon III player. I purchased H3ANW a while back and ran through some of the introductory scenarios, then shelved it waiting for updates (which at that time ran past schedule, such is life). I have a semi-specific question about the updates.

In one of the introductory (or maybe tutorial) scenarios, when one side launched a certain type of missile from a ship, it often would immediately impact on a squadron mate that was sailing nearby. In discussion in the forums with Matrix at the time it was found that there were some limitations in how that weapon system could be modeled within the engine, and the behavior I described resulted. Essentially the missile went 'active' just after launch and would kill the launching ship's own TF mates (if the geometry was right). It was agreed that this was unrealistic modeling and that it would be fixed. I'm unsure of the exact nature of the fix, but presumably IRL the weapon has some delay built in to activation. I also don't remember why that particular weapon was different than others that were able to be modeled correctly, but Matrix did explain why at the time.

As it was a long time after that with no releases, I lost track. I know that my description is rather generic, but this is a basic issue that I'm sure would stand out if it were still a problem. I read all of the change list for 3.90 (above) and I didn't see this issue listed. So my question is: did the issue get resolved?

Thanks for reading through such a long post to get to such a short question!

[Kegel]

Um. Try it?

If you can.

[Shemar]

All I can say is it has yet to happen to me. Was that with a targetted launch or a BOL? (Bearing only). As far as I can tell when using BOL the weapon will not activate until the point of intended activation.

[rsharp@advancedgamin]

Howdy Kegel,

I responded to your problems in another thread. We had not had that issue reported in our beta testing.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Shemar

All I can say is it has yet to happen to me. Was that with a targetted launch or a BOL? (Bearing only). As far as I can tell when using BOL the weapon will not activate until the point of intended activation.

Although it was a long time ago, I seem to recall that it was a 'normal' launch of the weapon. It was something about the real life characteristics of the missile that caused them to model it a certain way, which proved to sort of fall between the cracks in the code, so to speak.

I had been away from harpoon for a while, which is why I went through the introductory scenarios. perhaps you never ran into it because you didn't run those when H3ANW was newly released?

[witpqs]

OK, the search functions worked well! Here is a link to the thread:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1167994&mpage=1&key=&#1169044

It was VCDH who was involved, and toward the end of the thread he discerned that the behavior was indeed a bug. The thread is short, so if you do look please read through it all. Otherwise, from reading only the beginning you might well get the wrong idea about the issue.

[Shemar]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Although it was a long time ago, I seem to recall that it was a 'normal' launch of the weapon. It was something about the real life characteristics of the missile that caused them to model it a certain way, which proved to sort of fall between the cracks in the code, so to speak.

I had been away from harpoon for a while, which is why I went through the introductory scenarios. perhaps you never ran into it because you didn't run those when H3ANW was newly released?

I only got Harpoon after 3.8.0 was available. I played the 2-3 first tutorials unde 3.7.0 then I realized there is a patch an dupdated. I did play through the tutorials and although a couple did not work as advertised I don't remember the specific problem. That doesn't mean it's not there of course but since that time I have launched plenty of SSMs from within ship formations both BOL and targetted (although mostly BOL) and I have not seen it happen to me. It should be simple enough to run a scenario and manouvre your fleet in a way that you can test for sure.

[Shemar]

I created a test scenario to test specifically for this bug. I placed a target ship within range and created a friendly group of a Frigate and Cruiser, placing the Firgate so that it will be in the Cruiser's line of fire, as it is firing on the target. I added an AWACS for instant ID of the hostile.

As soon as the scenario starts, the target is detected and I launch a barrage of 8 Harpoons at it from the cruiser, all targetted (not BOL). All pass harmlessly by the frigate and go for their intended target.

Sreenshot:


Having tested with Harpoons, I then added a Norwegian missile boat (using the same platform and weapon system you encountered the original bug with), placing both other ships in it's line of fire. I launched all 4 Penguins at the target and all 4 passed by the friendly ships (directly on top of the frigate) and hit the target (one was intercepted by SAM).

More screenshots and test scenario available for further testing. Test done using H3-ANW 3.9.0 (final version, not the Beta announced in this thread) with the HUD3 database.

[witpqs]

Well thank you for the feedback. I haven't had a chance to reload the software yet, so that's great news. [8D]