From: palmieri@s6.math.umn.edu (John Palmieri)
Subject: Harpoon bugs and complaints
Organization: University of Minnesota
Distribution: rec, comp
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 07:09:49 GMT

First, here's a bug:

   Basically, in the middle of the game, two enemy bases moved (one
several hundred miles, the other maybe 50).  More precisely, I was
playing MEDC scenario 8, French Carrier Group vs. Libya, and I was
France.  About half an hour (game time) into the game, the icon for
Tripoli moved to a point just southeast of Sardinia, and then stayed
there for the remainder of the game.  A little while later, Okba Ibn
Nafa moved northeast of where it was supposed to be, ending up just
off the coast of Libya, in the Mediterranean.  Now, these were not
really new positions of the bases; when I sent a plane group to
attack, for instance, the plane group got sent to the right place.  On
the other hand, range and bearing were computed using the new
locations of the icons (and the same goes for computing distances for
information like "Plane group --- entering enemy AAW range" or
whatever the message is; so of course, I didn't get warned when my
planes got too close to the actual bases with the actual AAW
capability).  This error seems repeatable; at least, I have a save
from 20 minutes before the weirdness, and whenever I open that save
file, the same things happen (I think).  Has anyone experienced
anything like this before?  

Now, here's a whole slew of complaints about the game.  

	(a) Every now and then the time compression suddenly jumps to
1 sec.  This appears to indicate that a unit somewhere has fired a
torpedo or missile (and often it's clear what fired, or at least what
was fired upon).  Clearly, there is no way I should know that until I
actually detect the torpedo or missile. 

	(b) Say I detect a submarine group, ZZU.  I have several
complaints about typical program behavior.  First of all, there are
times when I try to select the icon in the group window, and I can't;
this seems to happen when the units I've detected are all at one
edge of the formation, so the location of the group according to the
computer is different from the location of the icon.  So I select the
icon using keyboard commands, and then I center the unit window around
the group.  In this sort of situation, the rectangle representing the
unit window on the group window will not contain the group icon (and
the unit window may very well not show any units from the group,
because I have not yet detected the units that are there).  Finally, I 
manage to find a unit in the unit window.  I select it, and it's unit
ZZ02.  This tells me that there are also units ZZ00 and ZZ01, because
units are always numbered starting from 00.  

	Clearly, I'm getting more information than I should here.  I
shouldn't be able to tell that there are other units, and I shouldn't
be able to tell where the center of the formation is.  

	(c) Here's a similar complaint: every now and then, I detect a
"plane group" at a certain location; I select the icon, and it tells
me that the group is going at 19 kts, throttle at afterburn.  Must be
some planes, that's for sure.  What's going on is that I'm detecting
planes which are part of a carrier group, for example; as in (b), I
can tell from the unit numbering that there are lots more units.  

	(d) Here's a situation where the program gives too little
information, instead of too much: let's say my opponent has an
airbase ABf, with various planes in formation around it.  I might
every now and then get a message "We have an exact fix on unit AB04."
How am I supposed to use this information?  There doesn't seem to be
an easy way to find that unit, especially since it could be 100 miles
or more from base ABf.  Similarly, it's not very convenient to find
out where my planes are, relative to some enemy group, say, if they're
in formation around one of my bases.  After all, if my staff people
know where a certain enemy plane is, you'd think they'd want to tell
me.  

	(e) I have the same complaint as in (d) about the message
"New contact: EW 2C Sentry at 303 degrees."  It doesn't even tell me
what group this unit is a member of, so this message is often hard to
use (especially if the unit is a member of an airbase group, so it
won't get an icon on the group window).  

	(f) Range and bearing calculations should give uncertainties
if you don't have an exact fix on the target.  Does anyone know if the
program gives you the correct figures when you ask for range and
bearing, even if you barely have a fix on the group?  

	(g) If you destroy an airbase, planes in formation around it
are put into new groups (which is fine), and these new groups often
have velicity 0 kts.  That's a neat trick for a jet.  

	(h) What's this nonsense about "Ignore ships running aground"
or "Ignore subs too deep"?  By using these options, I can drive a
submarine over land to Paris, for instance.  [Can submarines at "deep"
depth on land be detected by sonar?]  If we have these options, why
not "Ignore planes out of fuel" or "Ignore ships out of ammunition"?

	(i) Having said that, it would be nice if the program were
more customizable; for instance, it would be nice to let the user
define several different kinds of patrols for planes (so my ASW
patrols would fly and loiter at low or Vlow altitudes, while my EW
patrols would fly and then loiter at VHigh altitudes, without my
having to do this by hand for each patrol).  It would be nice to be
able to disable the tendency that the program has to center the screen
around a selected group at the drop of a hat (I may have the group
window carefully positioned so that I can see all the important
action; then I have to set the course of some group, and the window
gets centered around that group, so I have to reposition it).  This
last one is a bit of a luxury, but I can always dream.

	(j) It's hard to find out how fast planes go (even your own)
if they're not in the air already.  If I want to plan a bombing attack
with several different kinds of planes, it would be nice to know what
their choices of cruising speeds are so I can get the timing right,
before I launch them.  My staff knows, so why don't they tell me?  I
haven't even found this information in the battlebook, but I haven't
looked very hard.  (And if we knew cruising speeds for all the
different planes, it would help to identify enemy planes.  I don't
know if this is realistic or not.)

	(k) In general, the controls and menus are clunky.  I can't
put my finger on very many specific things here, but the game is not
easy to play.  One example is that to cancel some commands you hit
<ESC>, to cancel others (like Set Group Course) you hit "C", and to
exit others (like the Display screen) you hit "E"; there is no reason
for these to be inconsistent.

	(l) Computer play is often atrocious.  One game I flew a group
of 18 planes right past an enemy EW-2C Sentry, closed to within 70
miles of a base, destroyed it, and then hunted down the Sentry and
shot it down.  All of this went basically unchallenged (but it must
have been detected).  Because of this weak play, the time limits in
the scenarios almost never come into play.

	(m) One Mac-specific complaint: it is not very
System 7/Multifinder friendly; in particular, you should be able to
switch to another application while the game is paused, and I don't
think you can.


Questions?  Comments?  Corrections?  Additions?  Flames?  I'm waiting...


-------------------------------------------------------------
		o
		|\
		o )		John H. Palmieri
	       / /		palmieri@s6.math.umn.edu
	      /	o		School of Mathematics
	     / /|		127 Vincent Hall
	    o / o		University of Minnesota
	    |/ /		Minneapolis, MN 55455
	    o /			612-625-0072
	   / /
	  ( o			Homotopy spoken here.
	   \|
	    o
--
-------------------------------------------------------------
		o
		|\
		o )		John H. Palmieri
	       / /		palmieri@s6.math.umn.edu
	      /	o		School of Mathematics
	     / /|		127 Vincent Hall
	    o / o		University of Minnesota
	    |/ /		Minneapolis, MN 55455
	    o /			612-625-0072
	   / /
	  ( o			
	   \|
	    o
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