Game question

[Cyrano dX]

Like a few folks I suspect, I used to play Harpoon many years ago but I haven't touched the game in a long time.

Back then scenarios usually (not all) went something like this :

Pick a side.
Do lots of micromanagement.
Detect enemy first.
Overwhelm him with repeated missile barrages to overcome superb missile defense.

While that was rather interesting for awhile eventually that cycle would nevertheless become somewhat monotonous.

As I was playing the Demo the last few days I noticed that while the micromanagement was substantially reduced the gameplay was essentially similar.

I'm guessing that with all the new scenarios and databases with the Commander's Edition (that I don't have access to with the Demo) that "traditional" gameplay I was referring to has been dramatically improved.

Am I correct in thinking so ?


Thanks

[hermanhum]

ORIGINAL: JohnnyNeptune

Back then scenarios usually (not all) went something like this :

Pick a side.
Do lots of micromanagement.
Detect enemy first.
Overwhelm him with repeated missile barrages to overcome superb missile defense.

While that was rather interesting for awhile eventually that cycle would nevertheless become somewhat monotonous.

Some things have changed, but some have not. Unfortunately, the "overwhelm him with repeated missile barrages..." part is unchanged. Although ships and submarines have limited munitions, aircraft are still able to launch an infinite number of airstrikes.

If you would like to try the ANW demo ( http://www.computerharpoon.com/public/demo/ ), you should find that they pretty much have the Aircraft Logistics function working. You have to be very selective of your munitions when you only get a few of them. [;)]

Contemporary scenario designers use a variety of different methods to limit the infinite number of air strikes in HCE. Things like overwhelming the player defences, only giving the player few planes, giving the player planes with limited loadouts, written orders telling the player that certain loadouts are dis-allowed, short scenario duration times, etc. are all techniques that I have seen.

The 'detect enemy first' is always a sound tactic in any wargame. I don't think that it is unrealistic in any way.

[CV32]

ORIGINAL: JohnnyNeptune
As I was playing the Demo the last few days I noticed that while the micromanagement was substantially reduced the gameplay was essentially similar.

What were you playing? We haven't released a demo for HCE.

[Cyrano dX]

ORIGINAL: CV32

ORIGINAL: JohnnyNeptune
As I was playing the Demo the last few days I noticed that while the micromanagement was substantially reduced the gameplay was essentially similar.

What were you playing? We haven't released a demo for HCE.

I was playing the Demo for Harpoon Classic 2002 that Herman was kind enough to give me a link to. I had read that while not an HCE demo per se it does give the "flavor" of the game.

[CV32]

ORIGINAL: JohnnyNeptune
I was playing the Demo for Harpoon Classic 2002 that Herman was kind enough to give me a link to. I had read that while not an HCE demo per se it does give the "flavor" of the game.

Okay. Keep in mind that even HC2002 is a bit dated now when it comes to HCE. The 'flavor' of the game has not changed, nor would we want to do that. (This game has outlasted many countless others, and will do so for the foreseeable future). Its the more intricate workings of the game that have been updated, overhauled, changed and improved upon.

[CV32]

ORIGINAL: JohnnyNeptune
Overwhelm him with repeated missile barrages to overcome superb missile defense. While that was rather interesting for awhile eventually that cycle would nevertheless become somewhat monotonous.

Sounds like a Cold War era Soviet Naval Aviation versus US Navy carrier battle group scenario to me. If anyone has a different opinion of how it would have went (i.e. large numbers of missiles pitted against Aegis defense, more or less), I'd like to hear about it. [;)]

Granted, the lack of a logistics model persists in HCE, but there are many other potential scenarios (and battlegrounds, now that just about any spot on the globe is available for a scenario) other than the classic scenario described above.