Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: TonyE

Contribute and forget the bashing perhaps?  You've got me programming yet I'm one of the few who would even touch the platform photos.  That 40 or 60 or however many hours would have fixed a lot of bugs, added a lot of features, but no, it was spent working on platform photos that I don't care a bit about, not one little bit.  Sure I'd like to see every platform with a photo or three or five, but I have zero interest in that and don't think it will sell nearly as many copies of the game as fixing bugs and expanding the game capabilities, and yes, at some point maybe replacing the user interface.  H3 will get a new user interface, but heck, they (some of them, beta testers no) also get paid for their efforts!

HCE is volunteer driven, if you don't like the game, become a beta tester, become a platform photo person, become a support person.  I have a good 15-20 fixes/tweaks/features implemented but untested beyond my own tinkering during implementation.  I may as well take a few months off and wait for someone to verify that what I thought I did was actually what I did. 

The real rub is that I'm also a customer.  I paid $62.29 for a copy to give to someone else.  That brings with it some expectation, it is a non-trivial amount of money.  I happen to know that while buying HC, I'm really paying for H3.  So if you expect something from HC, speaking up is a good first step, and while it hurts me personally to hear you speak of the work I've done as if it is nothing I'd rather hear it and at least have a chance to know about it than not ever knowing.  I wish someone was willing to pay me a livable wage to work on HC full time but so far nobody is offering even that (a comfortable wage would be even better!).  Given time HC will get a new interface, it will get a lot of other things as well.  But as it stands, my $62.29 is going mostly to better H3 (ANW) and that will see a replaced UI sooner than HCE (well, that's the plan anyway).  In that respect the cost of HC is hard to swallow and there is an implicit right to gripe when spending that money.

What can a person who wants to support HC do?  Well, it isn't to buy more copies, that's funding H3, it is becoming part of the HC process via beta testing or any number of other roles.  There is no shortage of administrative work if that's your thing.  How do you get involved?  Come see us at harpgamer.com, there are multiple chat links there, I'm frequently around to chat (though being ill since August has meant somewhat fewer hours), ask the questions you need to ask to see if you are crazy enough to get involved in this game.  If that doesn't dissuade you, head right on over to AGSI and sign the NDA as part of the beta tester sign-up process.  http://forum.computerharpoon.com/viewtopic.php?t=49

Read about the HC3 development group for a little more detail on how development is organized.  I do this because I like the Harpoon games and want to see HC live on; it is a hobby for me (hobby being probably the worst and best thing that could be said).

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ORIGINAL: fsleeper

...and there's this thing called VC :)

Harpoon has always had such a great "potential", but it's always never been seized. 3 full versions and since the first version the same problems remains (and hence why it is where it is today) - graphics, graphic, graphics.  It's not something that can be casually dismissed as "yea, but that's a lot of work".  That "busy" work is THE reason Harpoon is where it is today. ALL modern applications seriously address graphics - EVEN WORD PROCESSORS! Harpoon was abandoned en-mass by the community (customer / major game investment) bar-none for lack of asthetic appeal (i.e. loss of immersion / user friendly UI - especially required for complex environments).

Harpoon can STILL crush anything that could be called "competition" - if ONLY you could secure a significant funding and ATTACK the problem - UI / images / animation / asthetic appeal / movies / polished product (including Manual / integrated tutorial). Literally, it's a no-loss venture at this point. Do it and succeed - AWESOME!  Do it and fail, *shrug* - same results as NOT trying and still failing, except the later is either laziness or irresponsible...

Damn harsh words I know - but personally frustrated as I LOVE Harpoon and have to watch it die for a terrible reason....

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ORIGINAL: fsleeper

...and there's this thing called VC :)

Harpoon has always had such a great "potential", but it's always never been seized. 3 full versions and since the first version the same problems remains (and hence why it is where it is today) - graphics, graphic, graphics. It's not something that can be casually dismissed as "yea, but that's a lot of work". That "busy" work is THE reason Harpoon is where it is today. ALL modern applications seriously address graphics - EVEN WORD PROCESSORS! Harpoon was abandoned en-mass by the community (customer / major game investment) bar-none for lack of asthetic appeal (i.e. loss of immersion / user friendly UI - especially required for complex environments).

Harpoon can STILL crush anything that could be called "competition" - if ONLY you could secure a significant funding and ATTACK the problem - UI / images / animation / asthetic appeal / movies / polished product (including Manual / integrated tutorial). Literally, it's a no-loss venture at this point. Do it and succeed - AWESOME! Do it and fail, *shrug* - same results as NOT trying and still failing, except the later is either laziness or irresponsible...

Damn harsh words I know - but personally frustrated as I LOVE Harpoon and have to watch it die for a terrible reason....

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ORIGINAL: RA5C
Just wondering?.. is there a list somewhere with all the wish list items? I have a couple that I would list but fear they are redundant. Maybe a location where they might be listed in categories such as "In The Works", "Maybe Later" and "No Way In Hell"? Thanks...

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ORIGINAL: T6Simtek

How about the ability to give Anti-sub aircraft a patrol box to work in so they automatically drop sonobouys and search.

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ORIGINAL: T6Simtek

Here is another, what about the ability to turn on only aircraft radars and not the ship radars when you have a formation. This would allow you to position a Hawkeye with a Ageis cruiser in the same formation sector but leave the ship radar quiet while the aircraft radar could search, leaving the ship un-detectable to ESM but provide fire support when needed.

If you have already answered questions like these, I apologize, I'm new to this forum and haven't searched all the threads yet.

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however I discussed your issue with another member of the harpoon community and he gets around it by the following:

"- go into F3
- then I go de-select the "Enter New Legs" box
- Now, the "Prev" key turns black and I can use it
- I hit Prev until I get to Waypoint #1
- at this time, I hit the "Insert" command
- and insert a waypoint that leads in the other direction
- that new waypoint is now #1
- once the torp attack is over, I can go in and delete Waypoint #1 and the rest of the course works"

Just a work around until the wish might perhaps be granted

Hope that works for you in the interim?

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1) My biggest wish involves formation manuevering.
Right now and since the very beginning of Harpoon, when a ship formation changes course, the units just pivot in place. So those very capable ASW units you had out in front are , depending on the angle of the turn, off to the side somewhere (In a 180, they are now trailing the formation), and the whole thing is in disarray.
I would like to see the formation follow the line of advance by rotating the entire formation around the main body the appropriate number of degrees. I had suggested this back in the days of Harpoon 2002 Gold but it didn't seem doable then.

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2) Ammo reloads for surface units when they pull into ports, just like aircraft do when they land.

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Right, bingo fuel is the point where an a/c should return to base and still have a 10% fuel reserve for any delays in landing.

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Here's one thing that I think would add not only enjoyment but realism to the game. When you have dedicated certain aircraft to be on a CAP in your formation editor, it would be great if, when they have expended their primary missiles, the game gave you an option to return them to the ship/base to resupply. What ends up happening, especially in large scenarios (which I prefer ), is that your CAP exhausts it's primary weapons, ( AMRAAM, Sparrow, Phoenix ect. ) leaving only last ditch Sidewinders or just the Cannon Bursts. Then, another threat appears but you have no realistic weapon left and your in TROUBLE! And at the same time, you have many aircraft left at the base/ship that could have been placed on your CAP in replacement of the planes that have used up their missiles. Make sense?

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ORIGINAL: VictorInThePacific

6) I believe that what you pulled out of the formation may actually be automatically replaced from the reserve; otherwise you will have to do it manually.

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First, I noticed in the WestPac battle-set (I'm not sure about the other battle-sets) that when I launch aircraft to attack a particular base or ship group, after the planes have launched their weapons, they keep flying at the enemy instead of heading back to base. What would be great is if, after the aircraft have launched their weapons, there would be a pop-up that would ask you if the aircraft should continue on course or return to base. This would be nice because depending on the attacking aircraft, I may want to change their mission. Otherwise, if it is a large and complicated scenario with many things happening at the same time, you may have your planes shot down needlessly!