Tutorial II Weapons Free Bug

Tegramon · Post by **Tegramon** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:59 pm

I bought the bundle last night, after some problems with the download server it finally worked. I use Vista x64 Ultimate on a Quad Core with 4 Gig Ram, had trouble only setting the resolution as I wanted, but works perfectly, no crash or anything. There are some bugs in the tutorial ... like Weapons Free has NO EFFECT in the Weapons Tutorial. I am a little sad for the money spent, why did I bought the bundle? Should only have bought ANW ... any use of the Commanders Edition for anyone? Anyway, any idea why the Weapons Free is broken?

rsharp@advancedgamin · Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:16 pm

Howdy Tegramon,

Which game are you playing? Harpoon 3 ANW or Harpoon Commanders Edition? H3 ANW has no enemy craft in tutorial II and HCE has no ROE (weapons are always free).

Tegramon · Post by **Tegramon** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:43 pm

Hy rsharp, I am playing ANW. Indeed, it was mission III, my mistake, tutorial III of ANW. Whatever I do, the boats wont fire at all, even when I set the weapons free!

hermanhum · Post by **hermanhum** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:55 pm

AFAIK, there is no 'weapons free' mode in HCE.

Ships will not automatically fire on other ships even in when Weapons Free is set.  However, ships were supposed to engage the air targets when the Weapons Free command is given.  Unfortunately, this is a bug.  See:

Mission craft attacking other unarmed craft
tm.asp?m=1841037

Also, be aware of some of these other bugs in the tutorials:

noobie WEAPONS FREE and RANGE question
tm.asp?m=1780910

Tutorial 6
tm.asp?m=1710945

Can not seem to get KC135 to launch
tm.asp?m=1814471

Problem with tutorial 6
tm.asp?m=1625449

Tutorial 6 Stratotanker @ zero alt and speed?
tm.asp?m=1772818

Newbie Q - Tutorial 4
tm.asp?m=1753165

If you haven't done it already, DL and install the:
Complete Harpoon ANW Library
and use the tutorials we've already repaired as best we can.  They may not be perfect, but they will give you the least number of problems.

Welcome aboard, shipmate.[8D]

hermanhum · Post by **hermanhum** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:03 pm

ORIGINAL: Tegramon

like Weapons Free has NO EFFECT in the Weapons Tutorial.

And no effect in normal play outside of the Tutorials, either. [:(]

see: H3ANW Auto-Defense Behavior

Tegramon · Post by **Tegramon** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:10 pm

Hi
 
Thanks for the warm welcome, Harpoon is a great game.  I did not need the tutorials so much, played Dangerous Waters before, mastered it and did not need to much explanations about what does what. I installed the database, to my custom install folder ... how do I know the database has installed correctly?

hermanhum · Post by **hermanhum** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:23 pm

When you run the Configuration launcher and look in the Database Manager tab, you should be able to see the PlayersDB listing as shown.

We tried to make it as simple as possible with 1 click to DL and one click to Install.

Let me know if you want a game of MP, sometime.

rsharp@advancedgamin · Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:47 pm

Tegramon,

In Tutorial III the side 'Bad Guys' is actually friendly to the user so they can go through the tutorial unthreatened. Your ships will not automatically fire on friendlies. Note the green color of the contacts as there is a color scheme for the posture (hostile, friendly, and neutral). You can order an attack using F1 and that will let missiles fly.

Tutorial IV has the side postures set so that a Weapons Free ROE will attack.

The other issues Herman mentioned are not necessarily related to this. There is an issue with air intercept (Hotkey F6) where using that order will set a craft to Weapons Tight which defeats the point of the order in many cases. This has been fixed in the next release which is available from Matrix if you feel like trying it out.

Thanks and welcome to the community!

Correction: The contacts you see are from side Neutral and are just that. There are no bad guys in Tutorial Lesson III. Additionaly, the next release currently available from Matrix member services is a beta. So the usual expectations of a beta should be had for that.

hermanhum · Post by **hermanhum** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:29 pm

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

In Tutorial III the side 'Bad Guys' is actually friendly to the user so they can go through the tutorial unthreatened. Your ships will not automatically fire on friendlies. Note the green color of the contacts as there is a color scheme for the posture (hostile, friendly, and neutral).

Emphasis added by HH

I believe that this is physically impossible within the game. Once a side has been made 'friendly' to another side via the posture setting by the scenario designer, it is impossible for the two sides to exchange fire. If this is another new change being implemented for ANW, then it is definitely a bad one.

Tegramon · Post by **Tegramon** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:55 pm

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

Tegramon,

In Tutorial III the side 'Bad Guys' is actually friendly to the user so they can go through the tutorial unthreatened. Your ships will not automatically fire on friendlies. Note the green color of the contacts as there is a color scheme for the posture (hostile, friendly, and neutral). You can order an attack using F1 and that will let missiles fly.

Tutorial IV has the side postures set so that a Weapons Free ROE will attack.

The other issues Herman mentioned are not necessarily related to this. There is an issue with air intercept (Hotkey F6) where using that order will set a craft to Weapons Tight which defeats the point of the order in many cases. This has been fixed in the next release which is available from Matrix if you feel like trying it out.

Thanks and welcome to the community!

Correction: The contacts you see are from side Neutral and are just that. There are no bad guys in Tutorial Lesson III. Additionaly, the next release currently available from Matrix member services is a beta. So the usual expectations of a beta should be had for that.

Thanks for the answer, although, in Tutorial III, when an airplane is identified visually it turns red. That means it's hostile. I am using the latest patch from the Matrix Site indeed.

Tegramon · Post by **Tegramon** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:56 pm

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

When you run the Configuration launcher and look in the Database Manager tab, you should be able to see the PlayersDB listing as shown.

We tried to make it as simple as possible with 1 click to DL and one click to Install.

Let me know if you want a game of MP, sometime.

Sure, I'd love a game of MP when you can. I kinda suck, but it's fun. Played Assault on Zion with full reality settings, it was a bitch, mopped my ass, all those missles missed or got shot!
Oh ... the database works fine, thanks for the screenie

hermanhum · Post by **hermanhum** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:00 pm

The server is up and I'm online.  Check out the connection details (fb.asp?m=1915758), if you want a game now.  If you are unavailable at the moment, just tell me when to come back and we can have a quick game.  It only takes about 20 mins to get in and out of an introductory game.

rsharp@advancedgamin · Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:17 pm

Herman: Correct. It is impossible to attack a unit if it is friendly to you. I was mistaken and meant to refer to attacking neutral units such as in Tutorial III.

A unit friendly to you will establish a data link and join your network. This network membership is what prevents the hostile craft (but friendly towards you) from being attacked. If you change the posture to hostile on both ends and rebuild, your craft will attack. I might look at allowing for a change but I do not know if this was the behavior in previous versions.

Tegramon: The latest version of ANW is 3.9.4 Beta 4 available in the private downloads. If you are seeing hostile contacts in Tutorial III and not just red uncertainty zones then the last patch has a different version of tutorials than I'm using for testing. Thanks for the feedback on the tutorials. I look forward to more and welcome it.

hermanhum · Post by **hermanhum** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:24 pm

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

A unit friendly to you will establish a data link and join your network. This network membership is what prevents the hostile craft (but friendly towards you) from being attacked. If you change the posture to hostile on both ends and rebuild, your craft will attack. I might look at allowing for a change but I do not know if this was the behavior in previous versions.

This 'network inhibition behaviour' has been around since H2 and several scenarios have already been built with this exact performance in mind. Please do not change it.