From: jmr5125@tamsun.tamu.edu (James Reed)
Newsgroups: rec.games.misc,comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Harpoon bugs and complaints
Date: 9 Apr 92 23:47:15 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.misc
Distribution: rec, comp
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station

In article <PALMIERI.92Apr9010949@s6.math.umn.edu> palmieri@s6.math.umn.edu (John Palmieri) writes:
[..]
>Now, here's a whole slew of complaints about the game.  
>
[...]
>	(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.

I never noticed what you are discussing at first, but I've always wondered 
how you (as NATO) happen to know what the Warsaw Pacts Unit Designations are!
It would be much more realistic if they were numbered in order of discovery,
I think.  

[..]
>	(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.  

YES!!!!  I wondered if this bothered anyone else... This REALLY needs to be
fixed, perferably by a two new "overlay" options:

1) Show all planes deployed in formation around a ship in the group window.
2) Show all planes deployed in formation around a base in the group window.

This would allow you to do things such as:

1) Put an 2C Sentry in formation and have the effective range of its radar
   accuratly shown on the display (as it is now, no matter how many Sentries
   you deploy, the group display shows radar range circles as if a Sentry was
   sitting directly above the base).

2) Manuaver to avoid a Sentry(s) radar coverage for a sneak attack on the 
   guarded group/base.

Again, how come you know which units are in formation with an enemy group,
and which ones are just patroling around an enemy group...  (You must have
really good intel, or something).

[...]
>	(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 do hope your joking...  Good grief, its not SUPPOSED to do that, the units
are supposed to (eventually) destroy themselves bangaing away against the 
shore line...  Turning that option off just means you aren't told when this
is occuring.