Re: Harpoon on the PC

From: "Robert W. Eldridge" <bob_eldridge@mindspring.com>

> FYI, Harpoon is now in it's 4th version. It has consistently evolved
and
> improved, and is now, IMHO, far superior to any other modern naval
> simulation (including Warship Commander, which I have played but which
is
> now woefully out-of-date.).

Agreed as to out-of-date. And the expansion to cover Subs was of a
lesser
quality.
But the last ed of Harpoon I saw still wasn't up to the same standard
*as a
simulation* though may be a superior game.

You really need a ref or computer moderation though. Limited
Intelligence is
what it's all about - otherwise it's an exercise in numbers to see how
many
of your ASMs get through his defences, and how many of his get through
yours.

> Harpoon 4 for the computer is due out shortly I
> understand, at least accroding to my last conversations with Larry and
Chris
> (Carlsen). I'll tell Larry you liked his books when I see him at
> HISTORICON<g>.

I'd be interested.

Hands up all chief designers of naval combat systems on the list.
Anyone else but me?

FWIW I had a key role to play in the STN-Atlas COSYS system (basically
the
chief technical architect of the software, and assistant architect for
the
system as a whole), and a relatively minor role in the ISUS-90 submarine
combat system (head projectwide software guru, interprocessor comms TL,
and
Audio ie processing the sigs to something an operator can hear).

Alas, although I know some of the actual performance figures rather than
the
ones in the games, "If told you, they'd have to shoot me. Then you."
Plus
there's still a lot of uncertainty due to environmental conditions,
MTTBF/MTTR
etc. Don't underestimate the latter, it can dominate the tactical
situation,
especially with older and bleeding-edge equipment.
And "lab conditions" Pk's can be taken with a large dose of salt.

What's been surprising in the last 10 years is how close to predictions
actual performance in the field has been.