Warsim's Point

HHQ Scenario Submittal Guidelines

The HHQ is always happy to receive and host scenarios from our fellow Pooner’s out there. In fact it is one of the biggest reasons we exist. As such we have developed a series of guidelines which editors must follow to be posted. This page will provide you with a quick list of them and an explanation of what they are.

Your first question may be,“Why have these guidelines?" The answer is we want each and every Harpooner out there to have the most enjoyable and realistic naval warfare scenario each time they play. Nothing is worse after a hard day at work than having a scenario fail on you after an hour or play or some oddity, causing you to wonder if your time was well spent. Mistakes do happen but we feel having guidelines minimizes them and just makes all of our limited time in front of our game a great time.

Devising the guidelines was a difficult endeavor, as we did not want to seem too difficult while at the same time wanting to maintain a level of quality. After some thought, debate and reflection on our experiences we realized that most of the guidelines we came up where all about making sure the scenario is functional. Functional guidelines are not debatable and must be followed for a scenario to be posted.

A scenario is described as functional by HHQ standards if:

1) The scenario has been constructed using the current or a near current version of Ragnar Emsoy’s DB2K database.

2) Scenario has been saved in .scn file format. The .sav scenario format should not be used, as it is the format used for save games.

3) The scenario runs from beginning to end of its expected duration without error.

4) The scenario’s platforms are used for the purpose they are intended for.

5) The scenario includes platforms that have been properly grouped in a logical manner. Facilities that have been grouped into bases must be spaced realistically from each other. Ships and aircraft must be spaced in a reasonable manner.

6) All AI controlled platforms within the scenario must be assigned to a mission or plotted.

7) Victory conditions must be set at minimum for the player side. Please be sure that nothing is triggered at scenario start.

8 ) Scenario and Order’s text have been written clearly and in a manner that gives the player instructions on how to play and complete the scenario. We expect no novels but some basic instructions are required.

9) All air facilities have a munitions storage facility (by design or grouping) which must have at least a set of weapons to support at least one load out for each aircraft hosted. All ships already have their magazines loaded so you do not have to worry. Airbases (Remote Airbase, Generic Roadbase, Swedish Roadbase, Landbase) and ammunition holding facilities (ammo dumps) do not and must be filled by the scenario editor.

10) All needed displays and windows provided by the game are neatly displayed, organized and labeled where applicable. The idea here is the player has a neat display. Having windows strewn about gives nothing for the player to mess up while playing!

11) Scenario must have been play tested.

The second smaller grouping of guidelines has more to do with what we consider reasonable. These guidelines will be enforced but do have some freedom involved barring certain conditions.

A scenario is described as reasonable if:

1) The scenario runs at a reasonable rate of speed on the average user’s machine. This is open to interpretation as Harpooner’s specs are across the board. At minimum be sure your game clock runs at least 15 game seconds to 1 real time second. If your scenario does run slow it can be posted on the monster page.

2)The scenario’s order of battle seems reasonable. It can be a little off or a product of the imagination is explained as such within the scenario description.

3) The scenario has a creative theme or out of ordinary battles as long as it is described in the introduction. Nothing hateful, racist, or based on a political agenda will be posted. There is no debate on these three things..

4) The scenario has some creative strategies as long as they have a point. Actions must fit within the physics of real life and not be disruptive to game play.

5) All included aircraft must have reasonably accurate sortie rates for any game day. If Keflavik could generate thousands of sorties a day what would be the purpose of Nato possessing a Navy? Custom ready times already assist with this but please adjust your air craft availability to comply. If you have aircraft that will sit out the duration of the scenario please set them to a ferry load out and at a ready time an hour beyond the set duration of your scenario.

6)The scenario should present a challenge to the player. Pummeling Al Q with 6 US CVBG and thousands of Tomahawks may be cathartic but has very little war gaming value. Some challenge must be present in any scenario.

7) The scenario has been play tested by the editor.

That’s it! So once you have met these guidelines please do send your scenario to us. If you have any questions or need a hand we are always willing to listen and assist. Use that mail!

HHQ Staff