Demonstration: Overriding Submarine Speeds

[rsharp@advancedgamin]

One issue brought up is submarine performance while on missions. Submarines currently use Creep for many throttle settings. In this thread I'll demonstrate how to override the default throttle settings for missions. You can skip to the bottom for the Executive Summary.

As of 3.10, you can override many mission settings with mission profiles. Consider the following file:

C:\Matrix Games\Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare\Doctrine\MissionDefault_Patrol.hps

[PropertySet]
Name=MissionDefault_Patrol

PropertyName1=MissionParameterSet
PropertyType1=Null
PropertyValue1=

PropertyName2=InterceptBaseThrottle[Sub][Surface]
PropertyType2=Integer
PropertyValue2=1

PropertyName3=InterceptBaseThrottle[Sub][Sub]
PropertyType3=Integer
PropertyValue3=1

Breaking it down:

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C:\Matrix Games\Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare\Doctrine\MissionDefault_Patrol.hps

This is a semi-typical name of a mission profile file. In this case it indicates that it will override the default Patrol mission settings. However, the file name is a guide for the user only.

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 [PropertySet]
 Name=MissionDefault_Patrol
 
 PropertyName1=MissionParameterSet
 PropertyType1=Null
 PropertyValue1=
 
 

This could be thought of as a header of the mission profile.

The [PropertySet] line let's the game engine know what sort of file it is looking at.

Name=MissionDefault_Patrol gives the mission profile a name and this is crucial for the game engine. This determines how the mission profile will be stored and selected. In this case we are using the name of an internal mission profile for the Patrol missions. This causes any properties defined to override the default mission profile properties.

The following declares the parameters as belonging to a mission profile.

Code: Select all

PropertyName1=MissionParameterSet
 PropertyType1=Null
 PropertyValue1=

And now the meat of the issue:

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 PropertyName2=InterceptBaseThrottle[Sub][Surface]
 PropertyType2=Integer
 PropertyValue2=1
 
 PropertyName3=InterceptBaseThrottle[Sub][Sub]
 PropertyType3=Integer
 PropertyValue3=1

First, you may notice that the properties come in triplets with an incremented numeral at the end of each key (precedes the equal sign). This is required as a gap in the numerals will cause the game engine to stop reading the mission profile file. Any parameters following a gap would be ignored.

Second, let's take the 2nd parameter which is named:

InterceptBaseThrottle[Sub][Surface]

This parameter name contains three parts. The actual parameter name which must be exactly what the game engine expects. InterceptbaseThrottle (lower-case B) would not be effective. The second part is [Sub] which determines which sort of interceptor this will affect. The third part is [Surface] which determines which sort of target this will affect the interceptor with.

This parameter will cause subs on patrol missions to intercept surface targets at a certain base throttle. The certain base throttle is set by the PropertyValue. This parameter will not affect sub intercepting other target types.

For more detail, consult:
http://www.computerharpoon.com/wiki/mai ... onProfiles

Executive Summary
Rename the attached file to MissionDefault_Patrol.txt to MissionDefault_Patrol.hps and put it into the Doctrine folder which is typically something like:
C:\Matrix Games\Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare\Doctrine

If you have 3.10 beta 27, this will cause submarines on patrol missions to intercept surface and subsurface targets at cruise throttle instead of the default, creep throttle.

Thanks,