RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed...

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [Modern] >> Harpoon 3 - Advanced Naval Warfare >> RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed...

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RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 10/3/2007 9:34:54 PM

analog

Posts: 23
Joined: 7/13/2006
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Maybe some specific information that caused the message, for example:
"Target out of range, Distance to maximum range launch point for weapon (type) is (X) nautical miles"
This is helpful since weapons ranges, particularly for AA missles whose actual range depends on the target course and speed. It is always the case that the target can be within the range circle of the weapon but be out of range because the target would be out of range by the time the missle would get there. This information will help the player decide to go ahead and close in on the target or go for a different target.

The same can be done for the Altitude message. Now the player can decide to attain the correct altitude or go for another target.

Post #: 1

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 10/4/2007 12:44:23 AM

Flankerk

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You'd need an option to turn these off as I suspect the message in box could well get spammed with input.

Having said that the messages that are lacking tend to be those to do with combat. ( Stating the obvious)

For example , is there any way to identify who the hostile unit is? Often you are tracking say 4 subs, one goes hostile ( IE launches a torpedo) could the message say K123 has launched a torpedo instead of K123 is hostile?

Is there any way that K123 could be highlighted in the message box? I know I have played some of Klaus's monster scenarios and not had a clue which is the offending unit, simply because I am tracking so many.
I end up clicking through 12 contacts just to find who is K123. It'd be very nice indeed to be able to click on that message and take me to the actual unit.

Another problem with the messages, other than you don't always know who originated them, you don't know what they signify. Target is hostile doesn't help identify if they lobbed a shell at you, launched a torpedo or just spoke to you in an offensive manner. Narrowing that down to what was used would be nice. It might one day even allow for ROE, where you could not engage unless the enemy used gunfire for example.

Some flag to stop non night ops aircraft/helicopters taking off would be a nice addition to the editor, coupled with a message along lines of unable to launch as nightime etc.

Another that needs consideration is the damage inflicted. Say you have a scenario where a ship approaches land and gets struck by shell fire. Often the launching gun battery is not detected. The message box again tends to read something like DD123 has suffered damage. It doesn't say what from, and again you often struggle to locate the defending unit. Agreed, you might not know that the ship had been struck by a particular gun battery, however you ought to know that it was say gunfire?

That will likely do for me, for the moment

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Post #: 2

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 10/9/2007 7:57:59 PM

BurntFingers

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Hmm... I'd say more detailed messages over why weapons not launched definitely helpful (unit moving too fast/too high/too close as well as out of range).

Dunno Flanker. Those sort of things aren't my cup of tea... often you don't know who is shooting at you. If it's a supersonic missile, you would have trouble telling that from gunfire.

I'm thinking along the lines of the UK troops in Gulf 1 that were (mistakenly) hit by 2 Mavericks. The explosions were so sudden they thought they had run into a minefield.

OK, a warship has better views/better sensors than APCs (they were dismounting at the time) but I think you are right to say "make these optional".

< Message edited by BurntFingers -- 10/9/2007 8:10:36 PM >

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Post #: 3

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 10/22/2007 4:53:02 AM

KlubMarcus

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Joined: 10/5/2006
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quote:

ORIGINAL: VCDH

Our question is: What messages are you looking for?

A dialog box that allows me to change the IFF status of a contact from: Friendly, Neutral, Hostile, etc... Under the Group/Unit Status Menu there is a Report button. When you pull up the Report window there should be an option to change the IFF status of a contact. I've lost many scenarios because during the confusion I managed to click on the wrong contact and tagged it as a hostile.

Post #: 4

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 1/3/2008 12:44:25 PM

hawk66

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From: Germany
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In addition:

If messages are not self-explanatory (due to additional explanations/data needed) you could add a 'drill-down' feature (link etc.). That means, the message have a detail area which can be opened/collapsed. That prevents, that the message area gets too crowded/confusing
The staff dialog 'messages' would benefit if they are more customizable. So, for example, I want often that the dialog pops up, if there are vampires inbound but not if plane xyz gets re-acquired.

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Post #: 5

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 1/4/2008 2:16:43 AM

JRyan

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quote:

ORIGINAL: KlubMarcus
A dialog box that allows me to change the IFF status of a contact from: Friendly, Neutral, Hostile, etc... Under the Group/Unit Status Menu there is a Report button. When you pull up the Report window there should be an option to change the IFF status of a contact. I've lost many scenarios because during the confusion I managed to click on the wrong contact and tagged it as a hostile.

I will 2nd that one...

(in reply to KlubMarcus)

Post #: 6

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 3/26/2008 8:31:20 AM

Blacklight

Posts: 45
Joined: 8/27/2006
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quote:

quote:

ORIGINAL: KlubMarcus
A dialog box that allows me to change the IFF status of a contact from: Friendly, Neutral, Hostile, etc... Under the Group/Unit Status Menu there is a Report button. When you pull up the Report window there should be an option to change the IFF status of a contact. I've lost many scenarios because during the confusion I managed to click on the wrong contact and tagged it as a hostile.

I will 2nd that one...

I put my vote in for this one too.

Also, the above suggestion about the messages telling us why we can't lock on a certain target is a good idea if you make it so you can toggle it on and off.

(in reply to JRyan)

Post #: 7

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 4/28/2008 5:41:14 AM

KlubMarcus

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Joined: 10/5/2006
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I have a problem with the UI because the menus allow me to shoot at targets as if they were within range, but the units DO NOT FIRE! I call it the stupid programmer bug. You tell your defending unit to get between the enemy and your own units, but they won't fire even though they are CLEARLY within range and in perfect position while on patrol. It's as if the friendly AI program keeps recrunching the numbers prior to launcing, but the enemy AI program just fires. It's so frustrating to see enemy units who have shorter weapon ranges compared to your own units go past and shoot the units you are defending who are BEHIND your defenders! BTW, the defenders outgun and outnumber them, too! Plus, I already marked the enemy units as Hostile back when they were taking off. This is with H3:ANW v3.9 with PlayersDB Apr 2008. The only way around it is to cheat by loading from the last Save point, take your units off of patrol, manually move them in front of the enemy's course, and manually launch each weapon at each target. It's so idiotic because the AI program should be faster and more precise. Moving and targeting manually takes so long and involves so much guesstimation that I'm shocked the AI program can't handle it from within the game.

< Message edited by KlubMarcus -- 4/28/2008 5:57:34 AM >

Post #: 8

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 8/11/2008 2:38:20 AM

RedMike

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In case it hasn't been mentioned before, I'd like to be able to click on a message and have the specific unit highligthed in the tactical window.

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Post #: 9

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 8/11/2008 3:04:13 AM

rsharp@advancedgamin

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KlubMarcus, Next time you encounter that situation, please keep a save game. We can often diagnose any problem with a save game prior or during the odd behavior.

RedMike, It has been mentioned by the coders and the game actually supports it internally. However, we're not going to invest anymore in this UI. So at least take some comfort from that fact that we will implement the idea in the next life.

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Post #: 10

Problem - 8/11/2008 3:17:18 AM

hermanhum

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quote:

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

KlubMarcus, Next time you encounter that situation, please keep a save game. We can often diagnose any problem with a save game prior or during the odd behavior.

From the description provided, I'm pretty certain that this is the phenomenon in question:

Missiles not releasing

Missiles not releasing even though they are assigned in Weapons allocation window [Originally reported by KlubMarcus]

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Post #: 11

RE: Attention Players - Your Input is Needed... - 8/11/2008 3:30:13 AM

RedMike

Posts: 1281
Joined: 3/14/2002
From: Alaska
Status: offline

What are we talking...Harpoon4 ??

That's cool. I hope you continue the CIC UI themes, I much prefer them to HCE's UI.

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Post #: 12

RE: Problem - 8/11/2008 7:46:16 AM

FreekS

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Joined: 5/12/2006
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quote:

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

quote:

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

KlubMarcus, Next time you encounter that situation, please keep a save game. We can often diagnose any problem with a save game prior or during the odd behavior.

From the description provided, I'm pretty certain that this is the phenomenon in question:

Missiles not releasing

Missiles not releasing even though they are assigned in Weapons allocation window [Originally reported by KlubMarcus]

In my experience this is the most frequently encountered bug during a normal game play. I seems to happen with basically any plane/missile combination and also often with Ship/SAM.

Freek

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Post #: 13

RE: Problem - 8/11/2008 6:37:13 PM

rsharp@advancedgamin

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Pending confirmation from the beta testers, I killed this bug last night. The fix will be in 3.9.4. The other issue I see here is the canceling of the user's orders without notice.

For the curious: The code to plan the attack, or find capable weapons, used a different target course than code to validate the attack and actually fire the weapon. But only when targeting planes.

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Post #: 14

RE: Problem - 8/11/2008 10:16:39 PM

FreekS

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Great! Lets continue to talk about bugs then - gets them fixed.

. However I also want to say that I have been playing a new 4-sided scen (being built) for days now and thoroughly enjoy the game every time; bugs and all!!

Freek

< Message edited by FreekS -- 8/11/2008 10:17:01 PM >

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Post #: 15

Problem - 8/11/2008 10:56:33 PM

hermanhum

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quote:

ORIGINAL: FreekS

thoroughly enjoy the game every time; bugs and all!!

And some people enjoy walking on fire, too.

We also call them freaks

Just kidding. Looking forward to that 4-sided scenario.

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Post #: 16

RE: Problem - 8/13/2008 1:18:20 AM

Sigma8510

Posts: 167
Joined: 4/15/2006
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quote:

ORIGINAL: FreekS

quote:

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

quote:

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

KlubMarcus, Next time you encounter that situation, please keep a save game. We can often diagnose any problem with a save game prior or during the odd behavior.

From the description provided, I'm pretty certain that this is the phenomenon in question:

Missiles not releasing

Missiles not releasing even though they are assigned in Weapons allocation window [Originally reported by KlubMarcus]

In my experience this is the most frequently encountered bug during a normal game play. I seems to happen with basically any plane/missile combination and also often with Ship/SAM.

Freek

Hey Herman,
Could this be the same problem I encountered with my surface units not auto defending themselves against missiles when you and I played MP?

Joe B.

(in reply to FreekS)

Post #: 17

Problem - 8/13/2008 3:36:22 AM

hermanhum

Posts: 2209
Joined: 9/21/2005
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quote:

ORIGINAL: jbaxter1964

Hey Herman,
Could this be the same problem I encountered with my surface units not auto defending themselves against missiles when you and I played MP?

That is certainly an interesting hypothesis. I'll try to remember to keep an eye out for it the next time we get an MP game going. Thanks for mentioning it.