From: u4657abl@elm.circa.ufl.edu (Marv Conn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Harpoon 1.32 is OUT!!!!
Date: 16 Nov 92 00:19:33 GMT
Organization: University of Florida, Gainesville

This is the readme file from the new V 1.32 release that is now on
Compuserve. Its got some good and some bad news in it.  I haven't had a
chance to play it yet, so I don't know how it works.  I have the 386
only version.


---------------------------------------------------------------------




                  Harpoon 1.32 Release Notes
                  ==========================

        The following document includes a description of the differences
        between PC Harpoon versions 1.30, 1.31, and 1.32.  Also included are
        some tactics and hints that illustrate some of the new features.  You
        should first read through both the 1.30 or 1.31 manual and the
        README.TXT file on your original release diskettes.  The 1.30
        README.TXT file contains some very important information about
        playing Harpoon version 1.3+ that was not covered in some releases of
        the manual.  This summary also contains useful information about
        known limitations and work-arounds for problems that were not
        addressed.  The programmers at Three-Sixty have spent many months
        fixing, cleaning up and fine tuning this program.  We thank you for
        your patience and hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

                                -- Michael Steele

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Low Memory and Insufficient Master Handles with Large Scenarios

When playing a large scenario you should get into the habit of
frequently saving and re-loading your game (using ALT-S and ALT-L). 
Saving the game permits you to restart the scenario where you left
off, should you have a sudden memory crash.  If you re-load a saved
scenario, the program memory is de-fragmented, providing more
available memory than prior to saving the game.  Do this frequently
when you are running low on memory.  Indicators of low memory are: No
Staff Assistant picture, no animations, and warning messages. When
playing with low memory due to scenario size, avoid using the
database, and do not have any air patrols airborne that are not
required.  PC Harpoon pushes the 640K barrier of DOS.  Some scenarios
will cause problems when lots of action is going on at once in a
large scenario.  SAVE EARLY AND SAVE OFTEN!!!

Be sure to follow the recommended system configurations in the
1.3/1.31 manual. If possible, use DOS 5.0 and your mouse driver both
loaded in high menory. 

Large scenarios (with many units) will rapidly use all the master
handles that Harpoon needs to keep track of units in the computer's
memory.  Some of these scenarios will cause Harpoon to crash because
of insufficient master handles. This happens because the default
number of handles is exceeded.  We have added a command line switch
to allow the user to increase the number of master handles available
to Harpoon.  Unfortunately, increasing handles will use up more
memory.  Because of this two-edged situation, we decided to give the
user the ability to add more master handles rather than just increase
the default number of handles.  To help prevent problems, you should
consider playing large scenarios without using the Auto Formation Air
Patrol function.  Auto Formation Air Patrols use up Handles,
especially if you also manually place air patrols. If you want to
still use Auto Formation Air Patrols you need to be aware that these
patrols are present and using both memory and handles. Most large
scenario with many units will run using the H3 or H4 command line
switch (see below).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Command Line Switches

The X switch now toggles EMS (not Extended) memory swapping of the
program overlays.  This does not free up more memory, but does speed
up play quite a bit.  Do not use this with a RAM disk, or when you
suspect conflicts with other TSRs that employ EMS.

The 'g' and 'r' switches now work properly.

The H switch now allows the user to fine-tune the number of memory
handles that Harpoon uses for keeping track of platforms.  The format
is 'Hn' where 'n' is number from 1 to 9.  Each increment of n adds
128 more handles to Harpoon's base handle count.  Please note the
change from an increment of 64 handles in V1.31 to 128 handles in
V1.32.  These should allow users to run large scenarios that would 
previously crash due to 'insufficient master handles' errors.  Such 
scenarios should still be saved fairly often.

Examples:

harpoon L         <---- Keep a log
harpoon X L -gF   <---- Use EMS/EXT, keep a log, and
                        look for the graphic res files on drive F:
harpoon h4 -rE    <---- Use 512 more handles, and look on
                        drive E: for the data res files.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Employment of ARM missiles

Some users have expressed confusion about the proper use of
missiles with anti-radiation seekers.  ARMs may be employed against
non-radiating targets in the expectation that they will turn on their
sensors at some time during the flight of the weapon.  This is why you
can fire ARMs against targets that have no active radars. 

If an ARM missile hits a base or a ship while the target is radiating
(eg. has it's radars on), the active radar(s) will be destroyed and
the missile will cause airburst damage, which may destroy
non-hardened items like aircraft or the ship's bridge, etc.  It can
also start a fire.  If an ARM missile arrives at a base or ship, but
no radar is on, ***little or no damage will be done at all by the
missile!***

Tactics:
ARM strikes are used to blind your enemy to incoming strikes and
should be followed up as soon as possible by a conventional attack
that will do more permanent damage to the target (while the enemy
is trying to repair the radars)..

Advanced Tactics:
Please note that ESM detection occurs every 30 seconds.  If you
try and stimulate the enemy target into turning on their radars 
(perhaps by turning on your radars) just before an ARM arrives, 
be advised that the enemy might not react for up to 30 seconds.
You should time such sneaky tricks so the ARM has at least
30 seconds of flight time remaining to the target.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Surface/Submarine launched homing torpedoes
    
Some confusion about how torpedoes behave has been expressed by our
testers, in particular with homing vs. wire guided torpedoes.  Homing
torpedoes head toward the last known intercept position of the
target, as calculated at launch.  If they encounter a target along
this path, they will attack it.  When they reach the interception
point, they will enter a search pattern centered around the original
intercept path.  If the target has changed course during the torpedo
run, the torpedo has no way of knowing the target isn't where it's
supposed to be.  A good chance exists (especially on long range
shots) that a maneuvering target won't be anywhere near the torpedoes
path if this happens and the shot might be wasted. This is why the
computer will turn away from incoming torpedoes.  The torpedo will
still roam about, trying to find a target until it's fuel runs out. 

In contrast, wire-guided torpedoes will be launched along an
intercept course to a target, but as long as the launching platform
still has an exact fix on the target the torpedo will steer to a
continually updated interception point.  Wire-guided torpedoes will
ignore any other targets that might happen to be in the way while
they are being guided to a target whose location is exactly known.
If the launching platform loses the fix on the target, the torpedo
will continue towards the last known interception point, but will
engage any target it hears along the way.

Tactics:
Always change course when torpedoes are incoming!  This will
wreck the intercept geometry of the torpedo launch, and if you have
time, put enough distance between the targeted ships and the
torpedo's path so they are not heard by the weapon's seeker.

Advanced Tactics:
Jump all over the launching sub!  Wire-guided torps are extremely
dangerous only if the launcher has a good fix on you.  Put some
torpedoes in the water around him and fire back along the bearing if
given the chance.  If the sub decides to run for it, he will lose his
exact fix on you, and the torps will go for the last known intercept
point (which you should immediately invalidate by changing course and
speed).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SAM and Aircraft behavior

Surface groups defending themselves against SSMs now optimize their
targeting decisions to avoid duplicate engagements.  Ships will
contribute to the overall area defense based on their range and rates
of fire.  Ships will choose to engage missiles targeted on themselves
over contributing to area defense when the range begins to get
critical.  SAMs now fly to the predicted intercept point, rather than
the simpler stern-chase methods previously employed.  Rates of Fire
and number of fire-control channels on each platform is a prime
limitation on the number of targets you will see engaged.  There is
unfortunately no way for the user to see the number of director
channels each ship possesses from within Harpoon.  Any number of
reference materials exist (check your local library) that show this
type of information about various platforms.  Our recommendation is
"Jane's Fighting Ships" or "Combat Fleets of the World". (Shameless
plug---> ) The original Harpoon boardgame from GDW is probably your
best bet though, and the price is really great compared to a copy of
"Jane's".

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air-to-Air Missile Combat

The guidance restrictions imposed on SAMs also apply to the
air-to-air missiles as well.  Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH)
missiles require radar guidance to their targets, while Terminal
Active Radar Homing (TARH) missiles have their own radar seekers and
can find target on their own.  Some missiles have Snap-up/Snap-down
capability and suffer no penalties for being launched at an altitude
different from that of their targets (AMRAAM, AA-10, MICA, Sparrows,
SkyFlash, etc).  Missiles without snap-up/down will have a reduced
chance to hit if fired from a different altitude band than their
targets.

Tactics:
At medium ranges, getting off the first good shot becomes even more
important, as SARH missiles will miss if they are not being radar 
guided.  This means if your outgoing missile destroys the enemy
aircraft before his SARH missiles get to you, the incoming missiles
will be destroyed when his planes are destroyed.  As TARH missiles
can acquire targets on their own, you should *not* fire them into a
dogfight from long ranges.  An even chance exists that the aircraft
they decide to engage will be friendly.  Medium range shots against
isolated incoming enemy units present the best geometry.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aircraft endurance

We have fixed several problems with aircraft endurance that make the
version 1.30 changes much more accurate and meaningful. Patrol
aircraft should no longer drop from the skies with no warning.

Now aircraft have a more consistant and realistic model of endurance. 
This table shows fuel consumption coefficients for the various altitude
bands and throttle settings.  (Note: 1.0 = normal fuel consumption rate)

         ------------------------------------
             Helo         Turbo prop        Jets 
Loiter   L   1.0            .75             .75
         M   1.0            .75             .75
         H   1.0            .75             .75
         ------------------------------------
Cruise   L   1.0            1.0             1.5
         M   1.0            1.0             1.0
         H   ---            1.5             1.0
         ------------------------------------
Military L   1.1            1.5             2.5
         M   1.1            1.5             2.5
         H   ---            1.5             2.5
         ------------------------------------
Re heat  L   ---            ---            12.5    
         M   ---            ---            12.5
         H   ---            ---            12.5
         ------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Air-to-Ground Jettisons

Aircraft which are attacked by a sufficient number of fighters in 
air-to-air combat will jettison all air-to-ground ordnance and abort
their mission!  If you find your attack aircraft suddenly have no
more air-to-ground ordnance, chances are good that you let enemy
fighters get too close.

Tactics:
It is now *much* more important to establish at least temporary air
superiority over strike routes.  Send fighters ahead of strike
packages to keep the enemy fighters busy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Weapons Allocation and Rate-of-Fire

Mount Empty - This message appears next to weapons mount selections
that are either empty or are unable to engage due to rate-of-fire or
director limitations.  In either case, the mount is effectively empty
and may not be employed until reloaded. A F[ull Report] for the unit
in question will usually reveal whether or not that unit still has
remaining ammunition.  Rate-of-Fire times tend to cycle every 15 or 30
seconds.  This means you will not be able to use the ordnance mount
until it either reloads or finishes whatever mounts do between
firings.  

For aircraft, this means you may be prompted by the Staff Assistant
to close to a nearer range so you may engage your target with other
weapons.  If you wish to wait until the longer ranged weapons come
back online, simply choose <NO> and try to re-attack in a few
moments.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
SAM/AAM Auto-Fire Logic

When your SAM launchers or Aircraft automatically attack incoming
enemy aircraft (not missiles), they will attempt to fire only when
the incoming aircraft are close enough so they cannot escape by
merely turning around for a few seconds.  This holdoff prevents the
enemy aircraft from suckering your defenses out of missiles by using
'Turn-and-burn' tactics.  This logic is used *only* for aircraft
targets when your SAM range gate setting is at "Optimum Range".  All
other settings will engage aircraft targets at the appropriate range
for that setting.  Missile targets are always engaged at maximum
interception range.

Enemy aircraft *will* attempt to avoid incoming missile fire by
dropping to lower altitudes and/or running away for a while.  All
aircraft attempting to close against surface targets will endeavor to
avoid radar illumination for as long as possible (usually by dropping
under the radar horizon).

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aircraft Intercept Geometry  

The aircraft intercept routines have been substantially rewritten. 
Aircraft given an intercept order will now try to intercept at the
fastest speed allowed by their fuel status, giving much shorter
intercepts than the earlier algorithm, which used the slowest
possible intercept speed.  As a result, much less micro-management of
intercepts is needed as maneuvering targets are less likely to
escape.

Some of the logic is still (necessarily) conservative and most
players will be able to get the best performance by hand controlling
some of the trickier intercepts.  Be aware that manually adjusting 
the speed or altitude of an intercepting group will now remove the
intercept order.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Radar Target Enhancers (Blip Enhancers)

The following helicopters carry radar blip enhancers. 

   NATO   LAMPS-II SH-60 Seahawks/Oceanhawks
   NATO   LAMPS-I  Sea Sprite
   ALL    Sea King             
   ALL    Lynx
   ALL    AEW Helix

Note that some missiles may have more than one method of finding
a target, (for example; InfraRed ) and will not be as easily
fooled by such tricks...

The player has no control over whether blip enhancers are on or off. 
Remember that the 20% chance is cumulative, so the more helos are in
the air, the better the chance that some missiles will be decoyed.
Helicopters are *not* at risk from the SSM missiles,  although some
proximity fused Air-to-Air missiles fired at surface targets could
conceivably attack the decoying helos if they pass close enough.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
New Sonobuoy Display

A new hot key has been added to Harpoon.  The ALT-V combination now
toggles sonobuoy representation between the area display and a new icon
display.  If sonobuoys are displayed in the Unit Window, they will show
either as a rectangle which roughly corresponds to the maximum detection
radius of the sonobuoy or as a sonobuoy icon at the actual location of the
sonobuoy.

Use of the sonobuoy icon is automatically enabled for the 8 X zoom level
on the Unit Window, or if a sonobuoy is located on the window but its
area is not displayed because part of it is off the window.


======================================================================


                 PC HARPOON 1.32 CONTENT LIST
                 ----------------------------

This section of this text file describes the bugs that were fixed in
Computer Harpoon (PC) Version 1.32.   Descriptions of known bugs or
limitations that have not been fixed are also included. Additionally,
some clarifications to the manual and previous README.TXT files have
been included to help clear up some misconceptions and confusion.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Harpoon used it's internal memory Handles inefficiently.  Better
    use of the handles, reduction of waste memory and a bug fix to
    the garbage collection routine has helped to eliminate this. For
    large scenarios that run out of handles before running out of
    memory, a new command line switch (H#) allows Harpoon to start
    with more handles.  About 20,000 bytes of previously reserved
    memory was also freed for scenario use.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    In addition to the regular HARPOON.EXE program, we also included
    in this release is 80386 machine specific version of Harpoon
    named HARP386.EXE.  This version has all the same features as
    regular Harpoon, but has been compiled to take advantage of the
    80386 instruction set.  HARP386.EXE is a bit faster and about
    20K smaller than regular HARPOON.EXE, but can *ONLY* be run on
    80386 machines.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Certain internal speaker sound effects (torpedo launches, etc)
    used to lock the computer.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Several loose pointer bugs have been eliminated, greatly increasing
    the stability of Harpoon.  Many seemingly random crashes have been
    eliminated.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Raw Extended Memory is no longer used for code overlays.  Too
    many TSRs violate identification rules and caused conflicts. 
    Harpoon will now attempt to locate and use EMS 4.0 if the user
    specifies an 'X' on the command line.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Getting a [F]ull report on certain enemy airfields would
    crash Harpoon.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    'F' key was fixed to not allow Full Reports on unidentified enemy 
    ships.                                                                

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Victory conditions are not as obvious or intuitive as might have
    been implied by the printed documentation.  Total victory
    conditions are *always* complementary to your minimal victory
    conditions.  To achieve a total victory, you *must* have first
    achieved, or simultaneously achieve your minimal victory
    conditions.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Unit and Group IDs are now reused, allowing much neater management
    of objects in the playing arena.  This also fixes the problem
    of running out of unit IDs.
                                         
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Bearing-Only (activation point) launches <ALT-B> would crash
    Harpoon when used with certain types of ordnance under
    certain conditions.  Now any type (except torpedoes) of
    ordnance with inertial guidance and some type of autonomous
    terminal seeker may be launched this way.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    The aircraft Air-to-Ground ordnance jettison logic would drop ordnance 
    too easily in some cases.  A significant threat level must be
    exceeded before attack a/c will jettison (about 25% of the attack 
    a/c must be threatened).  Some problems involving unformed airgroups 
    jettisoning ordnance have also been addressed.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Jettisons and automatic area defenses would not update the ASuW or
    AAW range rings around a group if they depleted all remaining
    ordnance in that unit/group.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    The Intercept logic has been entirely rewritten.  Aircraft will
    now attempt to make the soonest intercept possible (taking into
    consideration their fuel status) against other aircraft.  Attack
    aircraft will commence their attack runs against a surface target
    as fast and low as possible to limit exposure to detection and
    defenses.  A group ordered on an intercept will recalculate the
    geometry every few moments.  Manually changing the course,
    altitude or speed of the attacker will negate the intercept
    order and disengage the recalculation feature (effectively
    turning off the 'cruise-control').

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Submarines used to be immune from attack when operating on
    the surface.  Torpedoes will now successfully attack a surfaced
    submarine, although other ordnance types still will not.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Submarines now take sixty seconds to change a depth band.
    Once the maneuver order has been given, it will take a few
    moments to complete.  Be patient. torpedoes now take only
    thirty seconds to change a depth band.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Submarines would rarely fire SSMs against surface targets.
    This depended on range and detection status.  

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Landing or forming airgroups were entirely lost if the
    airborne component was destroyed.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Some (not all) anti-ship ordnance with inertial guidance can be
    used against land targets.  Harpoons can NOT be used against 
    land targets.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Time compression problems sometimes prevented short-ranged
    weapons (eg. iron bombs) from ever being in range.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Because ROF restrictions will make some mounts unavailable
    for a short period of time, some platforms will ask to close
    to the next effective weapon range as soon as longer ranged
    mounts are busy.  Saying <NO> to the Staff Asst. request
    will make aircraft continue on present course until the
    mount recycles.  See the Release-Notes section up above for more
    details

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Some aircraft would lose or postpone attack orders.
    This will still occur in some circumstances.  In
    most instances, merely waiting a few moments will cause the
    attack to commence.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Aircraft only get four (4) attacks with internal cannon. After
    this ammunition is used up, the aircraft will no longer be able
    to attack targets with gunfire.  There is no way for the user to
    tell when an aircraft has expended it's cannon ammo.  This
    ammunition modeling explains why fighters will RTB instead of
    continuing to make gun attacks on some targets.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Surface gun attacks will now cease re-attacking when the target
    moves out of range or is destroyed.
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    In rare instances the detection status of an airgroup changes
    without updating the individual units.  This means a group may
    not be visible on the group map, but some of it's units may
    appear in the unit window.  This rare occurance should not be
    confused with units whose actual group icon is many miles away
    due to wide area patrolling.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Attack ranges against a group tend to indicate the known
    geographic center of detected units within the target group.
    This can sometimes lead to differing reports from the Staff
    Asst. if individual UNITS in the target GROUP are just in or
    just out of range of attacking groups/units.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Aircraft used to return-to-base (RTB) because of BINGO (low fuel)
    or Winchester (no ordnance) and ignore incoming threats
    (missiles, etc).  Now attack aircraft will egress the target
    area at safer speeds and altitudes for longer times, and will
    not interrupt missile-avoidance logic to stroll home at a
    leisurely fuel efficient pace.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    The computer opponent now uses appropriate types of aircraft to
    intercept and attack enemy aircraft. (eg. no more Recon Bears
    trying to intercept Tomcats with their tailgun)

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Aircraft ordered to land on an aircraft carrier will set a course
    toward a rendezvous point.  If the aircraft carrier changes course
    and/or speed so it is not at the rendezvous, the aircraft will appear
    to land in the water.  These aircraft actually land on the carrier,
    but the display shows this inaccurately.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Several bugs with ordnance allocation (especially submarine-launched
    cruise missiles) caused deallocated weapons to be deducted from
    the magazine, even though they weren't fired.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Several bugs in routines handling nuclear weapon damage were
    fixed.  These included value overflows and incorrect damage
    radii calculations for certain types of target.  A bug in which
    point defense SAMs might hit an incoming SLBM was also fixed.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Aircraft carrier plane counts were not always updated
    properly.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Some missiles and torpedoes launched inertially will lose
    track of their activation points and wander in a random direction. 
    These weapons are still armed and dangerous.  Most occurances
    of this have been fixed, but it will still occasionally happen.
    It probably happens about as often as the real MTBF (mean-time-
    between-failures) rating on the missiles anyway...

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Coordinated Area Anti-Air Defense has been overhauled and
    rewritten to make it smarter, faster and much more efficient. 
    Ships will contribute to the group's anti-air defense as needed,
    engaging any free targets and using energy efficient intercepts
    for better targeting.  SAMs are allocated based on perceived
    threat and kill confidence level against the target.  This
    compensates for other restrictions we placed on SAMs; Director
    limits, rate-of-fire times, radar line-of-sight, weapon masking,
    etc..  Note that Anti-Air launches and ROF resets occur *only*
    every 15 seconds.  If a ship does not fire at an incoming SSM,
    chances are very good that it could not do so, and not that the
    crew was asleep.  See the Release-Notes section up above for more
    details.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Some SARH and or Command guided SAMs and AAMs were able to
    engage a target even though the launching platforms' radar
    was off or destroyed.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Yet another problem in the fuel endurance calculations made some
    wingtank fuel (10%) unavailable to aircraft. 

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Certain ordnance guidance modes were not modeled correctly. 
    Notably, Inertial/Mid-Course/Terminal Optical(I/MC/TOPT)
    guided ordnance (such as Walleye's) were handled wrong.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Submarines attempt to put the thermocline between themselves
    and searching torpedoes.  A bug in this code caused them to always
    change to snorkel depth.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Active sonars were always using the low frequency acoustic
    propagation tables for calculating sonar ranges, regardless of
    the actual signal frequency.  This resulted in high and medium
    frequency active sonars having much greater detection range than
    normal.
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Aircraft without a target (assumed to be patrolling) will RTB
    on BINGO without asking.
                                         
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Restrictions on the altitude from which aerial dipping sonar can
    be deployed is now enforced (V-Low or Low only).

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    The command line arguments defining the drive letter to
    search for graphic and database files has been fixed.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    AAM attack code fixed to make Snap-Down attacks with           
    non-capable missiles less accurate, just like Snap-Up case.           

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Victory conditions did not trigger properly if only bases were 
    present on winning side.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Base radar circles were always shown as on, regardless of actual
    emissions.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    When loading a saved game with the "Load Game" option in a currently
    running game, the Group Status window will be displayed on top
    of the Load Game screen if you double-click on a saved game to load.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Checks have been put in place to prevent you from selecting an enemy
    unit and using the bearing-only attack key <ALT-B> to access weapon
    data about the enemy unit.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Plane groups sometimes would begin moving before being totally 
    formed up.  Only groups performing Ferry missions now do this.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Some of the flags shown on the Status Screen are improperly
    placed or overwritten.  This still occurs in Version 1.32

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    The <ALT-F8> Additional Staff options SAM engagement ranges have
    changed in meaning slightly for surface units attacking air
    targets. The 'Optimum' SAM range will attack non-maneuvering
    (missile) targets whenever their course will place them within
    the maximum engagement range.  This setting will engage incoming
    aircraft *only* when the aircraft is close enough as to be
    unable to avoid the SAM by simply turning around for a few
    moments and stepping out of range.  This prevents emptying the
    magazines against taunting aircraft that dance around just out
    of reach.  The other range settings will engage any aircraft 
    target that crosses into the range specified.  Missile
    defense is always conducted at maximum range.
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Submarines now attempt to close to effective torpedo ranges
    if they are out of range (at stealthy speeds and depths) of a
    target group and can intercept successfully.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    If an attacking platform has both Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles
    (TLAM) and Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missiles (TASM) in the same
    multi-cell launcher, Harpoon will automatically select TASMs
    instead of TLAMs for allocation against bases if range to the
    target is less than 250nm.  This will temporarily not allow you
    to select TLAMs due to the Rate-of-Fire restrictions of the
    launcher.  Even if you de-allocate the TASMs, you may not fire
    the TLAMs at bases until the TASMs are gone.  This is only a
    problem with base attacks using multi-cell launchers having a
    combined TASM/TLAM loadouts.  The most significant instance of
    this bug occurs when employing an Improved Spruance DDGs in a
    strike role.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    When loading a saved game with the "Load Game" option in a
    currently running game, the Group status window will be
    displayed on the load  game screen when you double-click on a
    saved game to load.           
                                      
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Some confusion about the weapon allocation menu exists.  The
    weapon allocation menu shows all the ordnance that you are
    capable of firing *right now*.  There may still be more
    ammunition in the magazine, but it needs to be reloaded or the
    mount may need to recycle before it may be used.  If you know a
    PARTICULAR platform has 6 missiles, remember that the
    allocation menu might only allow you to fire them 2 at a time.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    In Harpoon 1.3+, some missiles and torpedoes can initiate search
    patterns to look for nearby targets.  Unfortunately, some
    ordnance that would normally be capable of this are not setup to
    do so in earlier Battlesets (GIUK, NACV, MEDC & USNI).

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Group formation air patrols will inherit their groups' emission
    control (EMCON) policy.  If you wish to have only one
    particular unit radiate, you may do so by selecting it in the
    UNIT window and turning on its' appropriate sensors. 
    Alternatively, you may select "Intermittent" for the GROUPs
    sensor status, and then allow only a particular formation ring
    to radiate.  This is an effective way to make active AEW patrols
    without having the remainder of the group radiate (which might
    reveal their location to enemy ESM).

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Passive sonar range rings were updated too infrequently. 
    This only effected the display and sensor report, not the actual
    detection range of the sonar.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games