Problem with EC2003 in Harpoon 2008.024

[EJohnson]

I recently purchased and downloaded Harpoon CE 2008.024. The EC2003 battlesets appear to be duplicates of the corresponding EC2000 battlesets except that the scenarios don't work properly in EC2003. The description of the battleset in the game does not match the battleset description in the manual which leads me to believe there is something wrong with the EC2003 battleset. Attached are screenshot of the battleset selection screens from the game that shows the duplicate. Also, I don't know if it makes any difference, but the .res and .rsr files for the EC2003 files are much smaller than the others.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

[TonyE]

The EC2003 battlesets are ALMOST copies of the EC2000 battlesets. 
 
The EC2003 battlesets use the user editable database structure and make full use of all of the game model changes that earlier battlesets can't fully take advantage of.  The corresponding battleset files for EC2003 are smaller since they use the platform photos and platform data stored in commondb.rsr and commondb.res instead of it being part of the battleset as it is in EC2000.
 
So it is correct that they look very similar at the outset.  I'd like to hear more about the EC2003 scenarios "not working correctly". 
 
 

[EJohnson]

Hi Tony,

When I open 'Big Fish' as Red in EC2000, the Merlin at Kinloss has the SAS loadout. When I open it in EC2003, it doesn't and I can't select an SAS loadout so technically, I can't complete the mission as described in the orders. EC2003 operates fine but the loadouts don't match EC2000. Is this normal?

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: EJohnson

Hi Tony,

When I open 'Big Fish' as Red in EC2000, the Merlin at Kinloss has the SAS loadout. When I open it in EC2003, it doesn't and I can't select an SAS loadout so technically, I can't complete the mission as described in the orders. EC2003 operates fine but the loadouts don't match EC2000. Is this normal?

I´m not familiar with that mission, off the top of my head, but victory conditions involve killing or damaging enemy units, or keeping friendly units on station in a certain area for a certain time.
Either you´re supposed to keep the helicopter in a certain area for a certain time, then loadout doesn´t matter, as long as the helicopter is there.
Or you´re supposed to destroy or damage certain targets, then it doesn´t even matter which unit does it.
So, you can win the scenario, but not in the way described in the mission briefing.

[TonyE]

I guess we need some volunteers to re-write orders .  Otherwise SireChaos is correct, the victory conditions aren't based on that specific loadout. 
 
 
 

[EJohnson]

Thanks for the feedback.

I guess what I really want to know is if what I am seeing is normal or abnormal. It seems strange to me that the EC2000 battlesets are identical to the EC2003 battlesets, but if everyone is seeing the same thing, I'm cool with it.

I'm a Harpoon player from wayback and I'm pretty enthused that Matrix picked it up and has given it new life. I'm aware that you can completely ignore the ROE in the scenario and still win, but I find it much more fun to try to do as the designer intended. In this scenario, the designer intends for an SAS commando team to 'capture' three fishing boats. In the EC2000 battlesets, the SAS team loadout acts like anti-surface ordinance with 0 range. I was trying to play it but there is a problem with bingo fuel/return to base that is causing my aircraft to run out of fuel and crash. I went to try to play it in EC2003, which doesn't appear to have the bingo fuel issue, and the Merlin doesn't have the SAS team loadout. I could take out the fishing boats with a Sea Eagle launched from a Tornado, but it's not as fun as trying to do it with a Merlin.

[CV32]

ORIGINAL: EJohnson
I'm aware that you can completely ignore the ROE in the scenario and still win, but I find it much more fun to try to do as the designer intended. In this scenario, the designer intends for an SAS commando team to 'capture' three fishing boats. In the EC2000 battlesets, the SAS team loadout acts like anti-surface ordinance with 0 range. I was trying to play it but there is a problem with bingo fuel/return to base that is causing my aircraft to run out of fuel and crash. I went to try to play it in EC2003, which doesn't appear to have the bingo fuel issue, and the Merlin doesn't have the SAS team loadout. I could take out the fishing boats with a Sea Eagle launched from a Tornado, but it's not as fun as trying to do it with a Merlin.

The problem is that when this particular scenario was originally written for the EC2000 battlesets, the EH101/Merlin was pretty new and not even in service. It was modeled in the database at the time as a generic 'EH101', capable of each and every mission that was projected for the type.

Since then, the design has evolved into several different variants of the same helicopter, each with its own set of mission taskings. In the process, the Merlin HM.1 was focused on the ASW mission. (The Merlin HC.3 having the troop transport role).

The easiest way for us to remedy the shortcoming in the scenario is to have a spec ops loadout given back to the Merlin HM.1 in the HCDB database. This isn't a huge issue, its easily done, and from what I understand, the HM.1 does occasionally support spec ops taskings. The drawback is that every HM.1 will have the loadout at its disposal.