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Problems with the demo
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:36 pm
by Niall_UK
I have played the Gold edition of Harpoon for several years.
Recently I downloaded the Commanders Edition demo and found several problems.
The first is that an aircraft flight was prompted to fire at enemy anti-ship missiles. I selected NO. Yet the prompt kept returning so often that I could not engage the firing aircraft, which is what I wanted that flight to do. Why does the game do this as it makes my choice of play unusable?
Why do Ground Attack aircraft go to loiter when the have run out of air to ground weapons? In Gold Edition they returned to base. This cause several aircraft to be shot down and again made the mission unplayable.
In the convoy mission as Red force the red force surfce group is continually prompted to switch on its radar, even though it was already switched on before the first prompt appeared. This prompt appears so rapidly that it is impossible to play the mission. Again what is going on here?
RE: Problems with the demo
Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:39 pm
by TonyE
What version are you playing? (It will show across the title bar, like 2009.050)
1) If you are at 1:1 time compression you should be able to sneak your order in. What you see may happen if a decent number of enemy ships all fired missiles as one group, you planes are prompted to intercept each missile unit. The why might best be explained by game structure limitations.
2) I don't like the loitering either. There are proponents on each side of the issue and I've been too lazy to change it back to the way I like it (how you see it in the Gold Edition).
3) This is what made me ask what version you are using. Do any of your individual units have their radars off or some other strange situation?
RE: Problems with the demo
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:12 pm
by Niall_UK
I am using the demo - build 2009.050
There were 6-8 salvos of aircraft launched ASvM's. Even though there were no more missiles launched I kept getting the prompt. This prevented me from firing at enemy fighters with F14's before they got in range. Could you not add a command line to the prompt "never fire at missiles"?
What earthly reason can there be for the switch to loiter after all disposable air to ground weapons have been expended? Real aircraft would never do this under any circumstances!"
The prompt to switch on radar was for the same element every time, even though I had switched on the radar before the element was illuminated by enemy radars. I think the only units I had not using radar were submerged submarines and may be 1 aircraft unit which was launching/had just launched. This problem has occured every time I have tried to play the "Convoy" scenario as Red force(in the Red only option), even is I left the radars off until after the 1st prompt.
RE: Problems with the demo
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:19 pm
by TeTeT
ORIGINAL: Niall_UK
...
What earthly reason can there be for the switch to loiter after all disposable air to ground weapons have been expended? Real aircraft would never do this under any circumstances!"
...
There are some weapons with command control guidance, that will not work when the planes leave the area immediately. For these the loiter command is quite useful. Of course for iron bombs armed aircraft it's really inconvenient to hang out over the target area, possibly in AAA range...
RE: Problems with the demo
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 5:36 pm
by Niall_UK
1) I was not using command guided weapons and even if a real aircraft was it would not loiter it would circle at cruising speed.
2) The weapons fired HAD ALRDEADY HIT/MISSED their target.
RE: Problems with the demo
Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 12:43 am
by TonyE
ORIGINAL: Niall_UK
I am using the demo - build 2009.050
There were 6-8 salvos of aircraft launched ASvM's. Even though there were no more missiles launched I kept getting the prompt. This prevented me from firing at enemy fighters with F14's before they got in range. Could you not add a command line to the prompt "never fire at missiles"?
What earthly reason can there be for the switch to loiter after all disposable air to ground weapons have been expended? Real aircraft would never do this under any circumstances!"
The prompt to switch on radar was for the same element every time, even though I had switched on the radar before the element was illuminated by enemy radars. I think the only units I had not using radar were submerged submarines and may be 1 aircraft unit which was launching/had just launched. This problem has occured every time I have tried to play the "Convoy" scenario as Red force(in the Red only option), even is I left the radars off until after the 1st prompt.
Thank you for taking the time to respond, I always want to hear the feedback.
a) I can't say I've ever had it prevent me from firing at aircraft, annoying as the prompts may be.
b) You've got me, whoever pushed for the change knows and I think it was mainly for situations where the planes were not in mortal danger, sitting within enemy range (the game having no good way to know what that range is).
c) Is there any way you would be willing to zip and send a save-game with instructions to reproduce to
hc3@harpgamer.com so that we can take a look? That chunk of code has also seen change and may well have a different result in the next patch which unfortunately doesn't help you now.