TGDB.net - Game news, cheats, solutions, walkthroughs, trainers, saved games and much more!

processor, although I don't think there are many great differences - just better memory management. Three-Sixty have always talked of an enhanced version of Harpoon (Harpoon Gold ?) to utilise the 386+ features, but that now seems to have been merged with HARPOON II.
[Ian]
QU:  I CAN'T GET THE HARPOON v1.32a PATCH TO WORK. THE GAME QUITS WITH THE
MESSAGE "MISSING HARPOON.RSC DATA FILE !" - WHAT'S WRONG ?
ANS: To use the v1.32a patch you must already have v1.30 as the patch requires a file (HARPOON.RSC) from v1.30 to work. Without it the patch is useless. v1.30 is available from Three-Sixty or can be found in the
HDS1 package. [Ian]
QU:  CAN HARPOON RUN UNDER O/S2 ?
ANS: I have found that it does run. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, it is much slower. One advantage however is that OS/2 2.0's MSDOS 5.0 based emulation provides an enormous amount of free ram for those scenarios that you just can't get to fit any other way ...
- 2330.1244@compuserve.com (Robin D. Roberts)
QU:  IS IT POSSIBLE TO UPDATE THE DATA IN THE COMPUTER DATA FILES ?
ANS: As far as I know, this is only possible for the Amiga data files.
Felix Hack (felixh@sunspot.ssl.berkeley.edu or GEnie: F.HACK1) wrote a detailed instruction file, which can be downloaded from FTP.CS.VU.NL
(192.31.231.42). The file is /HARPOON/HARPOON.FMT
QU:  WHEN WILL THE ZX SPECTRUM 48K VERSION OF HARPOON BE RELEASED ?
ANS: I am currently working on the conversion. You've seen Harpoon push the
DOS 640K barrier to the limit - now see it give the Spectrum 48K a hard time ! I expect to have the game finished in about a months time - let's see if I can beat 360 with Harpoon II ;-) It will be in Z80 format - contact me if interested !!!
[Ian]

5.3 OTHER QUESTIONS
                           *******************
QU:  WHAT IS THE HARPOON USERS' GROUP / C3I ?
ANS: C3I is the newsletter of the recently founded Harpoon Users' Group
(HUG). It is the equivalent of the SITREP for computer game players.
The first issue of the quarterly newsletter (vol. 1, no. 1) came out
(July/Aug 1991). The newsletter is divided into sections corresponding to the components of the C3I acronym.
People interested in becoming a member of the HUG and receiving
C3I, can refer to the HUG announcement in CZ v7 msg 11. Or you can talk directly to Carl Norman, the editor of C3I, by e-mail at
71360.2141@compuserve.com. He is especially interested in talking to people who want to write C3I articles.
- Ted Kim (tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu)
QU: WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE HUG ?
ANS: The Harpoon Users' group is currently in "hibernation" and the current issue of C3I running (extremely) late, awaiting the release of Harpoon
II. The Harpoon Scenario Warehouse is currently off-line, but is also expected to be reactivated once Harpoon II is released. The main reason is that the editor of C3I, Carl Norman, is the project manager (and manual author) of Harpoon II. [Ian]
QU: WHAT IS THE USNI BATTLESET ?
ANS: The USNI Battleset is a small Battleset with 5 scenarios, and needs
GIUK to run. Three-Sixty sells Harpoon to USNI (United States Naval
Institute) members with some extra scenarios included, and is copyright. The only way to get this BattleSet is to purchase Harpoon through the USNI. It should NOT be distributed or put on bulletin boards - this is ILLEGAL. It's presence on the previous CZ scenario archive caused that archive to be shut down. [Ian]
QU: OK - HOW DO I LEGALLY OBTAIN THE USNI BATTLESET ?
ANS: The USNI 1991 Christmas catalog advertises a special USNI edition of
Computer Harpoon for the IBM PC. The USNI edition includes "5 all-new scenarios for USNI members only" and "Harpoon secrets from Dr. Peter
Perla, author of The Art of Wargaming". Available to USNI members for
$40. USNI members can get the PC version of Harpoon (and the various battlesets) at a discount through the USNI book service. However, I find my local discount store still does better than the offered discounted prices.
- Ted Kim (tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu)
Full membership in the United States Naval Institute is available to any current or former member of the Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard (and
I believe their foreign counterparts). Associate membership includes anyone else with an interest in naval matters, and includes all rights and privileges except voting. A phone number for membership inquiries is (800) 233-USNI. - creps@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Steve Creps)
                    *********************************
6. THE SCENARIO EDITOR (COMPUTER)
                    *********************************
6.1 GENERAL USE
                             ***************
QU:  CAN YOU PUT WAYPOINTS INTO AIR STRIKE PATHS ?
ANS: No - not possible. [Ian]
QU:  YOU CAN YOU DETERMINE A BASE'S RUNWAY LENGTH WITHOUT CREATING THE BASE
FIRST ?
ANS: For the NACV and MEDC battlesets, runway lengths were listed in the manuals that came with the battleset. For all HDS1 and HDS2 battlesets an ASCII database came with HDS2 listing data for all platforms within
Harpoon. The base/runway data files are BLUE1.DB, BLUE2.DB, RED1.DB and RED2.DB
QU:  HOW DO YOU NEED TO DESIGN A SCENARIO SUCH THAT THE COMPUTER WILL
ATTACK A CONVOY ?
ANS: For the computer to attack a convoy it must: a) have detected the convoy b) have aircraft at a base within range with the relevant weapons loadout (eg Backfires with ASMs)
So in the scenarios you need to have patrols (Badgers, Bears, E-3s) operating near likely convoy routes *and* make sure that there are bombers waiting at a nearby base.
Two problems though:
1) The computer may decide to use the bombers for another mission if the loadout corresponds to alternative targets located
2) If an enemy (an enemy to the computer ie your side) base is between the launching base and the target convoy the computer will overfly that base and get torn to pieces ! [Ian]
ANS: I have found that the computer will attack a convoy if its objectives are to sink that convoy, or parts thereof. The hard part is getting the computer to find the ships!
- Gavin Rewell (s905066@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au)
6.2 OTHER QUESTIONS
                           *******************
QU:  WHERE CAN I OBTAIN USER CREATED SCENARIOS ?
ANS: See section 3 for a full list of sites carrying Harpoon User
Created Scenarios.
QU:  HOW DO YOU USE USER CREATED SCENARIOS ?
ANS: General tips on downloading user created scenarios:
o User created scenarios need to be FTP'd in BINARY mode
o Make sure you have the latest version of the necessary decompression utility (v2.04g is the latest version of PKUNZIP for the PC)
o Make sure you have the relevant battleset in your Harpoon directory corresponding to the scenario you wish to use
ON THE PC:
o To load the scenario in v1.3x, select the correct battleset and use the "[U]ser Scenario" option on the battleset scenario select screen.
o To load the scenario in other versions, select the correct battleset and start any of the battleset scenarios. Once that has loaded use ALT-F1 to select the user scenario
ON THE MAC:
They can't be double clicked (this is a problem with the way
Harpoon was written, not with the scenarios). No User written scenarios can me double click loaded. Launch Harpoon as normal.
Open a Battleset (make sure its the same one that goes with the user written scenario, you can tell which one it is by the first 4 letters of the name of the scenario file eg. IOPGKR0 would go with the IOPG Indian Ocean Battleset). Load any of the scenarios from that Battleset (it doesn't matter which). When the scenario loads, go to the File Menu, and use the "Load User Scenario" command. Command-L will work too. Harpoon will then ask you if you want to quit the current game, say yes, and then load the user written scenario.
- Gary Snow (gsnow@clark.edu)
Anyone want to do an AMIGA treatment ?
QU:  IS THERE A SCENARIO CONVERSION UTILITY ?
ANS: The only scenario convertor available converts from the PC format to the MAC format. Details of availability are described in section 3. [Ian]
                           ******************
7. MINIATURES GAME
                           ******************
Admission here....I didn't find/recognise any answers to FAQs for the miniatures side of Harpoon - sorry ! Below is a posting from Paul Bravey (raggy@dcs.warwick.ac.uk) (slightly edited) with a few questions in. I couldn't find any answers though. Someone let me know if a) these really are FAQs and b) what the answers are! Thanks, Ian.
QUS: 1) Has anybody got the errata for updating the miniatures harpoon from
3.0 to 3.1 typed in to save the hassle and time of sending an envelope on an umpteen thousand mile round trip?
2) Are surface to air missiles just too accurate?
3) Leading on from the last question: are airbursts just too effective?
4) One oddity noticed was that most of the British ships with Sea Dart officially can't use them since they haven't got height-finding radars! The same thing seems to occur with some older russian vessels so can anybody put any light on that?
5) How does a ballistic device travel when dropped from an aircraft?
By this I mean how long does it stay at different altitudes?
6) With sonar, can something be detected in a CZ at any depth or just above the layer?
7) How often do you actually get close enough to actually bother about putting miniatures on a board?
8) Has anybody got a nice program to work out angles and distances between objects after being given the courses and speeds to save me writing one?
- Paul Bravey (raggy@dcs.warwick.ac.uk)
                               **********
8. TACTICS
                               **********
QU:  IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO WHEN A TORPEDO IS APPROACHING ONE OF YOUR
SHIPS?
ANS: You can try to evade. If you change speed and bearing (and depth for submarines) often enough, sometimes you can escape. Speed is usually increased to gain distance, but it causes more noise. (A few times I have been able to distract torpedoes with noisier targets.) If the torpedo uses wire-guidance, attacking the launching platform should help. (Though, I am not sure if that is reflected in the game.)
Sometimes you can just outrun them, especially if you are close to maximum range.
- Ted Kim (tek@penzance.cs.ucla.edu)
QU:  HOW CAN I GET MY ANTI-SHIP MISSILES TO PENETRATE THE USSR SAM UMBRELLA
?
ANS: The best tactic is the bring units in from multiple directions to put as much pressure on the defending ships SAM capable ships. A well coordinated attack, including a few anti-radar missiles usually gives results. [Ian]
ANS: One way is to use a helo or a sub to detect the battle group and move in with a sub to knock down the Slava's and Kirov's before the NATO group launches it's ASMs/SSMs. To do this there are also a few ways.
1. Move the subs very close to the group (within the AAW circle) and launch their anti-ship missiles.
2. Good old torpedoes from 1/2 max range.
Once the SA-N-6 ships are down, they are almost defenceless.
Another way is to concentrate you missiles to attack the Slava's and
Kirov's.  Maybe also target a few ships (like the Sovremenny) with
SSMs too. Leave the Udaloy's alone, they can't do anything. - yuqian@bvc.edu (Suicidal Freshman)
ANS: One method of attack that works is to get the opposing forces to stop or to back-track or to at least slow down, before launching tomahawks. [a bug ? Ian]. I have also found that it is more successful to launch them singly, with a couple of seconds gap between each one. Submarine launches at close range have got excellent results- the old wolf-pack idea of delaying an attack until you can vector in several units from all round the compass works well, particularly with combined TASMs and torps.
- Keith Wain (POSTMASTER@MANADON-ENGINEERING-COLLEGE.AC.UK)
QU:  WHAT ARE THE BEST TACTICS TO EVADE AIR TO AIR MISSILE ATTACKS ?
ANS: The "golden tactic" is to simply turn on the afterburners and run away from any enemy missiles as soon as run away).  It seems that the
Harpoon AI does not use the same tactic for the other side.
- Markus Stumptner (mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at)
[The AI did in Computer Harpoon v1.1, but it resulted in the computer almost always escaping when the chances were it should have been hit (very annoying), so it was disabled. Ian]
ANS: There is also a very good tactics for evading closing missiles that can't be outrun.
1. TURN OFF YOUR RADAR!!!!!!!
2. Go to VLOW with highest speed possible.
3. Change course
4. If missile is still on your tail, zoom to highest possible altitude with highest speed. - yuqian@bvc.edu (Suicidal Freshman)
[Remember in Computer Harpoon v1.3x the strike packages will jettison their loads if "jumped" on by enemy fighters. Ian]
QU:  WHAT STRATEGIES ARE THERE FOR ATTACKING BASES ?
ANS: There are several ways to striking an airbase heavily guarded by sam batteries and I'd like to synthesize various strategies, suggested in previous issues, and tested on our PC:
The first idea is to strike with F-18 configured Standoff (ie, armed with 'poons) and this guarantee a safety position of attack due to the range of 70nm. But the damage inflicted is very poor and the attack must protract in time and cannot be quick and effective. Even with successive waves of strike we cannot destroy or seriously damage the
Opfor before 3 or 4 strikes, with a great waste of time and forces.
[Using Harpoons and Tomahawk TASMs against land bases is no longer possible in v1.3x of Harpoon (to reflect reality). Ian]
Better to distinguish the primary from secondary objectives: first, we have to blind the enemy, by setting up the Intruder with HARM and sending an anti-radar strike (the air coverture is now necessary due to the poor defense and manoeuvrability of the A6, as result of many tries). Then a more effective attack can be sent arming the A6 with