Is 3.6.3 available?

[WetJustice]

Hi,

I wanted to play some old scenarios. Is there anyway I could get 3.6.3. I have ver. 3.9.

Thanks.

[WetJustice]

Can the HarpoonHQ DBs or scenarios be used with 3.9?

[TonyE]

There is no way to ethically acquire 3.6.3, even if it seems that it being unavailable is unethical in and of itself.
 
Some of the HHQ DBs are updated for 3.9, some others work but are not optimized.  The Colonial Wars DB for instance is edited with 3.9 in mind while DB2000 at present is still more of a 3.6.3 beast.  HHQ can certainly fill you in more completely, www.harpoonhq.com
 
 

[WetJustice]

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't see the point in not having 3.6.3 available to people that payed. Is there any reason for this Matrix?

[rsharp@advancedgamin]

Howdy guys,

We simply don't have the staff or budget to support or offer older versions. We maintain that the latest version we offer is the best version though there is still a lot of work to be done. I do not see what is unethical about not distributing older versions of the game or any software.

DB2k and most other community databases do offer a 3.9 compliant version of their databases and scenarios, according to them.

Thanks,

[mikmykWS]

We're not doing much Harpoon stuff at all these days besides supporting a bunch of guys that still visit our site, Paul's project etc. Most of our focus is on our real lives and frankly given all thats gone on with this game the last couple years thats probably best. We are definitely not interested in the politics surrounding the messes of this game! What a bad way to spend time and something that nearly shut our site down.

Please leave us alone. If we do get requests for 3.6.x we'll be directing them to you.

Thank You!

Mike HHQ

[Erik Rutins]

WetJustice,

ORIGINAL: WetJustice
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't see the point in not having 3.6.3 available to people that payed. Is there any reason for this Matrix?

We were not even involved in Harpoon back in the 3.6.x versions. Our releases started with 3.7.0 and Harpoon 3 ANW. As Russell noted, we also do not have the resources to support older versions of the game, but we are putting all our efforts towards making the new versions better.

Regards,

- Erik

[Dimitris]

Of course, when the HarpoonHQ site voluntarily offered to take on the slack of completely supporting the 3.6.3 version that so many guys were asking about (including hosting the relevant exe's for use by registered customers - said exe's hitherto freely available to the public), *someone* tightened the screws on AGSI to send their legal hounds after us.

So, perhaps the "we do not have the resources to support older versions" line may not cover the entirety of the reasons.

[Sirius..]

Hi if your interested I have Colonial Wars DB and Scenario's for 3.6.2/3 at the following location
Colonial Wars database at the Harpoon Headquarters

happy pooning

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Sunburn
Of course, when the HarpoonHQ site voluntarily offered to take on the slack of completely supporting the 3.6.3 version that so many guys were asking about (including hosting the relevant exe's for use by registered customers - said exe's hitherto freely available to the public), *someone* tightened the screws on AGSI to send their legal hounds after us.
So, perhaps the "we do not have the resources to support older versions" line may not cover the entirety of the reasons.

Although I've heard quite a different version of that story, I think it's fair to say that it's in the past now. Going forward, we're focusing on making 3.9.x+ as stable and error-free as possible, so that there will be no need to look back to 3.6.x. It's clear to me that the reason for the 3.6.x requests is that people knew that version well and a lot of content was created to work around the issues it have. The versions since then have fixed many things and added some nice new features including multiplayer, but they've also introduced a fair number of bugs and we haven't been as responsive and forthright as we should have been in dealing with that.

Our goal now is to make 3.9.x better than 3.6.x ever was in all respects, so that's where we are focusing all our energy and resources.

[Dagooz]

rsharp:

We maintain that the latest version we offer is the best version though there is still a lot of work to be done.

vs this

Erik Rutins

Our goal now is to make 3.9.x better than 3.6.x ever was in all respects, so that's where we are focusing all our energy and resources.

Kinda contradicts eachother. One is saying that ANW is better, but then saying the goal is to make ANW better than 3.6.3 you imply that ANW is actually worse at present point...

[Shemar]

Only if you don't read it properly. The way I read it is that 3.9.x is 'better' but there are aspects of the game that 3.6.x may be better and as a result 3.9.x is not necessarily 'better in all aspects' than 3.6.x
 
You can say that a Ferrari is better car than a Ford F150, but the F150 is still better at hauling loads. There is a difference between 'better' and 'better in all aspects' and something can easily be better but not better in all aspects than something else. In fact, this is usually the case with everythng in life. [;)]

[Dagooz]

Well, this is harpoon vs harpoon so...

[Shemar]

That does not change anything. Since you need it explained, 3.9.x is overall much better than 3.6.x, however there are some things that used to work better in 3.6.x (I am told I never played it, but that's the implication) therefore 3.9.x. is not (yet) better in all apsects than 3.9.x. No contradiction.

[Erik Rutins]

Dagooz,

ORIGINAL: Dagooz
rsharp:

We maintain that the latest version we offer is the best version though there is still a lot of work to be done.

vs this

Erik Rutins

Our goal now is to make 3.9.x better than 3.6.x ever was in all respects, so that's where we are focusing all our energy and resources.

Kinda contradicts eachother. One is saying that ANW is better, but then saying the goal is to make ANW better than 3.6.3 you imply that ANW is actually worse at present point...

My point was simply that there are some folks who consider 3.6.x to have been the best release. Our goal is to win those folks over with 3.9.x.

Regards,

- Erik

[cuthbo2001]

My point was simply that there are some folks who consider 3.6.x to have been the best release. Our goal is to win those folks over with 3.9.x.

Sorry but I can't just accept this BS! I understand quite rightly you wish to make ANW better, best , definitive etc. However it is a little disingenuous to say you wish to win those folks over. In reality what you have done is made ANW the only game in town when it comes to harpoon (other than harpoon classic). If you are confident in your ability in making ANW the best then where is the harm in letting other sites host the patches. Surely nature would then takes its course?

[rsharp@advancedgamin]

I understand that it seems simple to offer both versions but we are not going to deal with multiple publishers or make publishers deal with multiple versions. We will not handle two different registration schemes or the added support required even if people in the community believe they will handle it all.

We are going to put our resources to moving forward with the game. That means a better set of features made more stable than ever.

It is a matter of business sense but it is not disingenuous.

Thanks for the years of support,

[cuthbo2001]

I understand that, however as far as I can tell there are other sites out there willinging to offer the exe files to registered users. Where is the cost to matrix? However from what I understand this option was blocked. Hence it is easy to say that ANW will become\is the better\best. fact is regardless there are no options for old time users other than ANW ie. no competition on the harpoon front. The whole thing does leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth

[Dagooz]

The everlasting problem that will keep slapping you (AGSI) in the face: Winning people over should have been done at release but the game has never delivered. This is just the classic 'doing too little too late' reaction. A lot of people has already left this and a miracle will have to be pulled off to haul them back to H3. I dont believe its possible but best of luck with that.

[FreekS]

All,
 
As a designer of scenarios for 3.5 through 3.9 I've worked with all versions. 3.6 was very good; it was stable, had fixed many bugs from the past and others I had learnt to work around. 3.9 has some very good additions/improvements over 3.6; amongst those are Multiplayer, fixing the terrible Visual Sighting Bug that 3.6 had, making the Sun turn the right way around the Earth and ensuring Ordnance in Dumps could actually run out.
The cost for these great improvements has been high; many new behaviours and bugs were introduced and specifically scenario designers like myself have found that many of their old scenarios, finetuned to 3.6 do not work as intended and I for one have not released about half of the scens I have ever made for 3.9 (yet).
My main gripe has always been that 3.9 is not backwards compatible with 3.6 from the designers point of view and that too little thought has been given to new behaviours and their impact.
 
Having said all that, I find 3.9 very playable. I have been able to (and continue to) rebuild some of my scens for it (which unfortunately costs almost as much time as building new scens). The main challenge for AGSI and Matrix is to PRIORITISE what needs to be done first; what are the real bad behaviours that must be fixed. Among those could be some bug-fixes, could be rebuilding the canned scenerio's and DBs, rewriting the manual and tutorials to help newly starting customers and rebuilding the contact with a wide group of experienced users. My main worry is too much focus on new features, and continued changes to AI and mission behaviour which would continue to damage existing scens.
 
Erik, thanks for the positive steps taken. Hope we can communicate about priorities and strategies with the full community.
 
Freek