HUD-II Sonar Upgrade Release #1 Notes.

	This test file should be read in association with what I have called the HUD-II Sonar Upgrade #1. It has been my intention to upgrade Harpoon 2 by working on what has been one of it's major downfalls, the performance of sonars within the game and the effect that has had on a major aspect of naval warfare, Anti-submarine warfare (ASW).

	This database is not an "official" release of the HUD-II. It is more or less a "beta" version so that interested users can download it and try out the changes I have made to the sonar system in the game. I have done this, so that I can gather as much feedback from people who decide to try out the changes and their thoughts on the effect these changes have on game play. So I would like to encourage people to inform me of their thoughts regrading these changes, this is vitally important to me if I am to continue with this work.

	There is an accompanying text file that lists all of the platforms I have upgraded. I have not been able to include a "modifications" text file as I normally would. I will attempt to have this available by mid-July 1999. 

	I have made considerable changes to surface vessel and submarine active and passive cross sections along with sonar I/O values, torpedo performance ( seeker performance, correction of fuel values, engine performance etc.) There are really too many changes to mention, as the number of individual edits I have made is probably in excess of 10,000.

	There are a few people who deserve special thanks and without whose help I would not have been able to complete much of the work I have done over the past few months. Jon Reimer has been an inspiration and has offered invaluble assistance to my work. His Microsoft Access database editor is an amazing aid to my work and is one of the major reasons I was able to complete this sonar upgrade. Kelly Crawford has been kind enough to test anything and everything I have thrown at him. He has even gone so far as to design one of the accompanying scenarios that was specially designed to highlight the changes I have made to the sonar system. Michael Andress was kind enough to allow me to include his "Duel of Masters" scen, pitting a Sturgeon class SSN against a Spruance class DD.  This is a very simple scenario, but is a classic ASW scen. Oliver Einhaeuser, has been another of the people to provide the hard work and inspiration for this upgrade. Oliver has spent an incredible amount of time actually working out how the game handles sonar detection. Without his work, none of what I have done would have been possible.

	Where to now? Well I will allow people to try out what I have done, and pass along their thoughts, either to the Harpoon mailing lists, or to me personally. I will then continue with upgrading the rest of the platforms in the database, and will then commence to work on the visual detection aspect of the game, with the help of the work of Mike Deegan and what he has done with visual sighting in his WW2 database. I hope what I have done is of some use and people find a new challenge while using this database in their Harpoon 2 games. I hope to start rebuilding many of the scenarios from Ed Ladner's website in teh near future. If anyone has questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me at the email address below.

	Darren Buckley - July 3, 1999.



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Darren Buckley - Editor HUD-II
dbuckley@tig.com.au

Get latest release of the HUD-II from:

Edward Ladner's Harpoon Website at :
http://www.foto.infi.net/~edladner/   or

Calum Gibson's Website at:
http://www.shoal.net.au/~gib/harpoon.html

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