Matrix Games Forums

Hi, I just got HCE (updated to 2008.24) and need advice on a couple of things-

Firstly why are the lat/long lines missing from the top quarter of the map? It's nothing to do with the north pole because they're also missing no matter what part of the world I'm in and at all zoom levels.
I've tried all the listed resolution settings but the glitch stays put.

Second, some of the important text in my staff message boxes is cut off by the box border but isn't the box expandable to take it in?
Again I've tried all the resos without success.

Third, is there any way to slow down the dramatic missile launch and incoming animations, blink and you miss them..

Congratulations on acquiring HCE, and I'm sorry in advance for the rest of this post which will probably come off a little more bluntly than might be nice.
 
Lat/Lon lines are missing at the extremeties because nobody has cared all that much about them.  I know in my 6 years or so of coding HC I've not spent more than 5 minutes looking at the code for them.  My feeling is that they just aren't used and when they are nobody has cared that they don't extend all the way to the map edge. 
 
The staff message boxes are no sizeable for historical reasons (I've recently made some huge breakthroughs that ease modifying the UI but you won't see results for quite a long time yet).  If you use large fonts stuff will get cut off until you close the game and run a settings reset, after which I think you'll find the text is no longer cut off.  Find it at: http://harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?autocom=downloads&showfile=228
 
There is no way to slow down the animations.  I'm personally glad people enjoy them, I think the feel from on high is that they really date the game, I happen to think they are neat and more animations should be added [X(]
 
Keep the questions coming, eventually we'll be able to give a more pleasing answer to something [;)]
 
 

Okay thanks, I downloaded the registry re-set thingy onto my desktop but now what do I do with it?
 
As for lat/long lines they provide a useful at-a-glance reference help for the eyeball on an otherwise empty ocean, I'm surprised not everybody uses them.
 
And the animations were great in the old days of the game, real edge-of-seat stuff as you saw your missile slowly homing in on a ship and then letting out a great cheer when it struck home! Pity they're too quick to follow nowadays and therefore virtually useless..

Once you've downloaded the registry re-set thingy, double-click it to run it and follow the minimal prompts, it goes quickly.
 
Then fire up the game again and you should see the entire staff messages, but you'll have to re-arrange the windows.
 
 

I'm a small-scen freak (about a total of a dozen ships/planes/helos/subs) per side; is there any way I can tell which of the game scens are small, or must I open every one individually to find out? 

Well, you can get some indication by reading the scenario descriptions, but other than that AFAIK you're stuck doing it the hard way.

Or I suppose I could create my own scens and throw in a lot of random factors to keep me in the dark about enemy OOB which will vary every game..

ORIGINAL: Poor Old Spike

I'm a small-scen freak (about a total of a dozen ships/planes/helos/subs) per side; is there any way I can tell which of the game scens are small, or must I open every one individually to find out?

Hmm,

my scens are rather small...

But i´ve published only 4 or 5 of them...

Most (if not all) of the scenarios created by Mark Gellis tend to be of the small, well balanced kind. And the good news (for all of us) is that Mark just bought HCE. [:)]