Matrix Games Forums

Is this entire game real time? If so, can you pause it to make decisions?

You can put the game on pause, but you will be unable to issue orders until it is re-started.  The map positions are visible, but frozen so that you cannot shift it to other areas unless the game clock is running.

ORIGINAL: LarryP

Is this entire game real time? If so, can you pause it to make decisions?

Does the enemy in a real war allow you pause the battle to make decisions???
For me, it is in fact one of the most realistic factor of HCE....... You can make as lot decisions you want, but the war goes on.
Harpoon ANW, however, allows the player to pause the game to overlook the situation, make decisions, and then continue.


Greets,
Taitennek

ORIGINAL: Taitennek

Does the enemy in a real war allow you pause the battle to make decisions???

Greets,
Taitennek

I don't know... I've never been in the military. I would hope the enemy would be so kind as to let me pause the moment so I could plan to blow his head off. Maybe you could enlighten me as to whether pausing in a real battle is plausible? [X(]

It's a game and I couldn't care less about the reality of the pause key.

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

You can put the game on pause, but you will be unable to issue orders until it is re-started.  The map positions are visible, but frozen so that you cannot shift it to other areas unless the game clock is running.

Thank you, that tells me exactly what I wanted to know. I appreciate kind replies like yours. [&o] [;)]

[/quote]Get real, it's a frigging game. [X(][/quote]


Joking of course [:D]

You were fast on the reply! I changed my original reply as it was too harsh. [;)]

Overwhelming the ability of the player to cope is one of the tactics used in the last few years by scenario designers to make the game more challenging. Then there are also authors like Mark Gellis who make masterpieces without using that tactic (how does he do it?). I think in most scenarios you have time to plan your approach, but having a definite approach usually helps imho.

ORIGINAL: TonyE

Overwhelming the ability of the player to cope is one of the tactics used in the last few years by scenario designers to make the game more challenging.

Exactly! Those are the real time games that I avoid. I'm disabled and my fingers are very slow, so I tend to play mostly turn based games.

ORIGINAL: LarryP

Thank you, that tells me exactly what I wanted to know. I appreciate kind replies like yours. [&o] [;)]

You are welcome. Always happy to try and lend a hand.

In fact, everyone in the HCE community is pretty generous and helpful (even if they're only kidding around [;)] )

ORIGINAL: LarryP

ORIGINAL: TonyE

Overwhelming the ability of the player to cope is one of the tactics used in the last few years by scenario designers to make the game more challenging.

Exactly! Those are the real time games that I avoid. I'm disabled and my fingers are very slow, so I tend to play mostly turn based games.

I agree. I know that you can't stop time in a real battle, but I would also expect to be able to delegate responsibilities to a fully equipped staff, too. The pause key is a good compromise.

Of course, overloading the enemy staff and presenting them with more problems than they can handle in time to matter is a standard goal of military operations, known as "getting inside their decision cycle" ... [8D]

One thing to consider is this is naval warfare, not a true rts game. With time 1:1 you shouldn't have a problem. And you can always pause to think.

ORIGINAL: rich12545

One thing to consider is this is naval warfare, not a true rts game. With time 1:1 you shouldn't have a problem. And you can always pause to think.

Is everything available to view when the game is paused? Some games hide a lot when paused.

This might not be the place for it, but there are some other short-cuts to "real time". I'm thinking specifically of instantaneous changes to speed, heading and depth when ordered... but I don't actually think it makes any difference to the game (unlike Sub Command where I think it did make a massive difference - (though to be fair in SC it was accelerated rather than instantaneous)).

I've just come here from Harpoon 3.6 (which I struggled to get into, in part because I never found the database gave me the right info to make informed decisions... I find the CE information and organization a bit more accessible so will hopefully get back into 3.6 (or even ANW) when I have some idea what all the units are).

Chris

ORIGINAL: LarryP

Is everything available to view when the game is paused? Some games hide a lot when paused.

I think that you are probably at the point where a little demo trial is going to answer most of your questions. There isn't any demo for HCE, but there are demos available of the previous versions. The overall game play is going to be the same, but HCE offers more features.

http://www.harpoonpages.com/harpoon1.htm

http://www.download.com/Harpoon-Classic ... 01169.html

In general, the game freezes you out of your command and display menus when you hit pause. Whatever the map is showing at any particular time is all you get to see.

ORIGINAL: chrisol

I've just come here from Harpoon 3.6 (which I struggled to get into, in part because I never found the database gave me the right info to make informed decisions... I find the CE information and organization a bit more accessible so will hopefully get back into 3.6 (or even ANW) when I have some idea what all the units are).

Have you tried our PlayersDB version? We knew of many of the problems and lack of information within the H3 system and we tried to get around it with more textual information.

Harpoon3.6.3 users can get the:
Complete Harpoon 3.6.3 Library

Give it a try and see if it doesn't work better for you.

Thanks herman... I'm happy enough with CE for now. My head isn't big enough to look at both Harpoons at the same time (let alone try to work out which database I'm better off with).

Chris