Is 3.6.3 available?

[Hertston]

ORIGINAL: cuthbo2001

I understand that, however as far as I can tell there are other sites out there willinging to offer the exe files to registered users. Where is the cost to matrix? However from what I understand this option was blocked.

I don't think Matrix have anything to do with it; their involvement started with 3.7 ANW and presumably they have no rights with regard to any prior versions?

As someone new to Harpoon with the Matrix version I found this whole debate confusing, off-putting and, frankly, pretty puerile at times from both sides. However, as has been said, it now seems to be water under the bridge. Larry Bond has spoken. The Harpoon HQ folks have have enough, and have moved on. Harpoon 3 is 3.9 and the only option now seems to be to move on.

Hence it is easy to say that ANW will become\is the better\best. fact is regardless there are no options for old time users other than ANW ie. no competition on the harpoon front.

I find that a bit odd.. why should there be any 'competition' between versions of the same product? I suppose it's vaguely analogous to the Vista v. XP thing, but even the XP diehards (including me) don't find it difficult to understand why M$ would want to kill XP off rather than continue to develop and support it any longer than they have to. And M$ have a much bigger budget than AGSI!

[cuthbo2001]

A lot of this has already been said and I don't want to start another protracted round of bickering. My point is simply this. Matrix are entitled to make their own commercial decision , just as microsoft is. However that is not the same as restricting access for want of a better word"patches" to previously released games\versions hosted by third parties at no cost to themselves. If indeed this decision purely lies with AGSI then I apologise to matrix. However given that coordination of development on ANW seems to be communicated via matrix it seems reasonable to assume they had some say\knowledge of this decision to restrict access. Again I would reiterate, give us long term users a real choice, I have no doubt that with the goodwill of helpers ANW will become the harpoon of choice. I have thrown in my tuppence worth and won't be mentioning it again

[Erik Rutins]

It's true that we weren't involved with Harpoon when 3.6.x was the release version. We came on board with ANW and 3.7.0. However, we've discussed this with AGSI and agree that at this point supporting multiple versions (and we would end up supporting them, regardless of how they are distributed) would be more than we can handle. We'd rather support the current version well than all versions poorly and as a small company that's basically the choice when it comes to staff and resources.

When 3.7.0 ANW was released, we offered a pretty good upgrade discount to previous owners who'd purchased earlier versions through AGSI. We've also continued to support ANW for two years now with free upgrades. It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to try to support a version that is more than two years old at this point.

We're putting all our effort into the 3.9.x series of free updates and making those as good as we possibly can. I'm sorry if that's disappointing.

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: FreekS
My main gripe has always been that 3.9 is not backwards compatible with 3.6 from the designers point of view and that too little thought has been given to new behaviours and their impact.

While we can't rewind and somehow add backwards compatibility now, one of our goals in the future is to fix issues and not require scenario rewrites. It doesn't make sense to "break" the existing content every time we upgrade, if we can possibly avoid it.

Having said all that, I find 3.9 very playable. I have been able to (and continue to) rebuild some of my scens for it (which unfortunately costs almost as much time as building new scens). The main challenge for AGSI and Matrix is to PRIORITISE what needs to be done first; what are the real bad behaviours that must be fixed. Among those could be some bug-fixes, could be rebuilding the canned scenerio's and DBs, rewriting the manual and tutorials to help newly starting customers and rebuilding the contact with a wide group of experienced users. My main worry is too much focus on new features, and continued changes to AI and mission behaviour which would continue to damage existing scens.

These are good suggestions and I agree in principle with the priorities expressed above.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: cuthbo2001
Sorry but I can't just accept this BS! I understand quite rightly you wish to make ANW better, best , definitive etc. However it is a little disingenuous to say you wish to win those folks over. In reality what you have done is made ANW the only game in town when it comes to harpoon (other than harpoon classic). If you are confident in your ability in making ANW the best then where is the harm in letting other sites host the patches. Surely nature would then takes its course?

The people who own 3.6.x already have it and there's nothing preventing them from playing it. We have no interest in new 3.6.x sales or any free distribution of 3.6.x for a few reasons. First, we're a commercial enterprise and we need to make money in order to keep improving and supporting Harpoon. Second, regardless of how it was handled, we would end up supporting it - I've seen this wth other releases where similar things were tried and we don't have the resources to do that and focus on new and current versions. This game is simply too complex to keep multi-version support going back more than two years. The third reason relates to some past history that I can't fully explain, but suffice it to say that AGSI prefers that the and we be the only distributors of Harpoon.

Regards,

- Erik

[hermanhum]

ORIGINAL: FreekS

too little thought has been given to new behaviours and their impact.

fb.asp?m=1803646

I heartily agree. There are several instances of this already occurring in the past with new features such as the Signature function, automated defensive fire, and incompatibility between ANW versions. Lengthy debates on the shortcomings of these functions have ensued, but only after the functions already appeared in public release.

Another example just arose. [http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=1804987] AGSI certainly deserves full points for responding to a customer and attempting to provide support. However, in this particular case, the cure may prove worse than the minor ailment. Long-term consideration of consequences and a healthy open discussion of future features is the only way to prevent the introduction of less than successful functions.