Map Mod Information

[bradfordkay]

Question; does your map mod include all the viewing options you listed earlier, or is now only viewable as in that last screenshot?

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Question; does your map mod include all the viewing options you listed earlier, or is now only viewable as in that last screenshot?

The main packaged does not come with that version of the map. That is just the version I am currently using.

The main package has two versions of the map:

- A version without hexes.
- A version with hexes, using a light blue colour for sea hexes.

For a sample, please have a look at this web page:
member.melbpc.org.au/~akbrown/witp/mapmod01.html

The main file comes with the maps shown in examples 1 and 3.

I also have two alternative map packages made up, which contain the map versions shown in examples 4 and 5. I will get around to doing a package for example 2 as well soon, if anyone is interested.

If there is enough interest I could do other versions as well, including or excluding various features such as the hex art, hexside art, control zones and weather zones. eventually I also hope to add a few other things:

- Icons for resources/oil/industry.
- Malaria Zone, if I ever get around to mapping it.
- MAYBE some hex numbers here and there.

Andrew

[bradfordkay]

Thanks, it is the map with light blue sea hexes that I liked the best, so you chose wisely.[:)]

[Smiffus64]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
...

- Icons for resources/oil/industry.

...

Andrew

That would be great

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Smiffus64

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
...

- Icons for resources/oil/industry.

...

Andrew

That would be great

It is also hard to do, especially in Japan, which is so crowded with this stuff.

[Subchaser]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
It is also hard to do, especially in Japan, which is so crowded with this stuff.

It’s really hard, but it’s possible. I’m also trying to make the map smart, take a look at these samples, it should be interesting for you





usa
full screen 1
full screen 2

smart map features I’m going to add
- Resources/industries icons
- Major sea routes
- Malaria zones
- ZOC borders
- LBA max ranges (from 6+ airfields)
and some other minor stuff
(only R/I icons were added so far)

ICONS
• Yellow Circle – oil,
• Green Circle – resources,
• White Square – manpower,
• Red Square – heavy industry,
• Blue Square – factories,
• Azure Rhombus – repair shipyard,
• Red hex halo – malaria zone,
• Blue hex halo – major sea route

when your map will be available for download? I can’t wait!!

and thanks again for your fantastic mods!

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Subchaser
when your map will be available for download? I can’t wait!!

The only thing holding me back now is that I need the installer tested on a Windows 98 system, to ensure that it works.

If anyone has Win98, time to test it and wants to help out, please let me know!

Or I could just release it as is and hope for the best...

Andrew

[Apollo11]

Hi all,

ORIGINAL: Subchaser

It’s really hard, but it’s possible. I’m also trying to make the map smart, take a look at these samples, it should be interesting for you

smart map features I’m going to add
- Resources/industries icons
- Major sea routes
- Malaria zones
- ZOC borders
- LBA max ranges (from 6+ airfields)
and some other minor stuff
(only R/I icons were added so far)

ICONS
• Yellow Circle – oil,
• Green Circle – resources,
• White Square – manpower,
• Red Square – heavy industry,
• Blue Square – factories,
• Azure Rhombus – repair shipyard,
• Red hex halo – malaria zone,
• Blue hex halo – major sea route

when your map will be available for download? I can’t wait!!

and thanks again for your fantastic mods!

Great ideas "Subchaser"!

And of course "Andrew Brown" great stuff!

I also can't wait for new map - looks _FANTASTIC_!


Leo "Apollo11"

[Captain Cruft]

Great stuff. I wonder, couldn't you actually embed the colour coding into the place name text so as to save space?

Just a thought off the top of my head.

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: Subchaser

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
It is also hard to do, especially in Japan, which is so crowded with this stuff.

It’s really hard, but it’s possible. I’m also trying to make the map smart, take a look at these samples, it should be interesting for you





usa
full screen 1
full screen 2

smart map features I’m going to add
- Resources/industries icons
- Major sea routes
- Malaria zones
- ZOC borders
- LBA max ranges (from 6+ airfields)
and some other minor stuff
(only R/I icons were added so far)

ICONS
• Yellow Circle – oil,
• Green Circle – resources,
• White Square – manpower,
• Red Square – heavy industry,
• Blue Square – factories,
• Azure Rhombus – repair shipyard,
• Red hex halo – malaria zone,
• Blue hex halo – major sea route

when your map will be available for download? I can’t wait!!

and thanks again for your fantastic mods!

The color is extremely appealing and easy on the eye, Andrey. Wow to you too.[:D][&o]

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: Subchaser

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
It is also hard to do, especially in Japan, which is so crowded with this stuff.

It’s really hard, but it’s possible. I’m also trying to make the map smart, take a look at these samples, it should be interesting for you

Your map looks *fantastic* Andrej, two questions though:

- When it will be available [:D]
- Do you plan on making a version without hex outlines at all?

And a third [:D]

- Do you plan on teaming up with Andrew (you two being namesakes practically) so that you two produce comprehensive map mod that both looks good and adds new features? Frankly, though Andrew's map is very wellcome, it's simply too ugly for me to look at for like couple hours daily (Andrew, no offense please [:D])

And a fourth, for Ron:

- Any hints how to have two (or more) separate instally of WITP on same PC?

Oleg

[Ron Saueracker]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

ORIGINAL: Subchaser

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
It is also hard to do, especially in Japan, which is so crowded with this stuff.

It’s really hard, but it’s possible. I’m also trying to make the map smart, take a look at these samples, it should be interesting for you

Your map looks *fantastic* Andrej, two questions though:

- When it will be available [:D]
- Do you plan on making a version without hex outlines at all?

And a third [:D]

- Do you plan on teaming up with Andrew (you two being namesakes practically) so that you two produce comprehensive map mod that both looks good and adds new features? Frankly, though Andrew's map is very wellcome, it's simply too ugly for me to look at for like couple hours daily (Andrew, no offense please [:D])

And a fourth, for Ron:

- Any hints how to have two (or more) separate instally of WITP on same PC?

Oleg

Oleg, just alter the Sub Directory name when installing. I've got one which is Matrix Games/WITP; another is Matrix Games/War In The Pacific; and another which is Matrix Games/ WITP Tester.

WITP is the one I play with, War In The Pacific is the one which now houses Andrew's Map Mod (got a permanent install as the load/unload feature does not work with WIN 98), and WITP Tester I used as a beta tester.


As to whether Andrew's map is ugly, I beg to differ but I kinda like the nostalgic look it sports. It would be cool if they could make it look like Subchaser's as well because that's a beautiful babe.

[Andrew Brown]

Unfortunately I am no artist. As I have stated before, my map is not about looks. The reason I made a new map is to get a more accurate one. Having said that I have come to prefer the look of my map over the official one, but then again I am biased [:'(]

I would be happy to team up with better artists - anyone really - to help improve the map further. Because the map is a series of bitmap files people can make their own map variants and it will not affect the gameplay at all, unless the map data is also changed. So the look of the map is not the most important thing at all. People can use different LOOKING maps with no problems as long as the map data they use is the same. Collaboration is most important for the underlying map data, otherwise there might end up being lots of different map variants, all incompatible.

It is not just artists that can help either. The map can always be improved by making terrain more realistic, transport links more accurate, even adding/moving/removing new bases etc.[:'(].

Andrew

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown
It is not just artists that can help either. The map can always be improved by making terrain more realistic, transport links more accurate, even adding/moving/removing new bases etc.[:'(].

You should draw a line somewhere though. WITP is very RAM-intensive application, and although I am not a programmer I guess every additional base, unit, resource and map hex occupies more memory and Windows resources. I mean, are "bases" like Boise, Salt Lake City, Saskatchewan, or features like Lake Manitoba and Winnipeg really necessary in this game? I think they add absolutely nothing to this game. WITP already slows to a crawl on machines with 256 MB memory during replay, so please consider removing unnecesary stuff too (not just adding more and more and more just for the sake of seeing new names on the map)...

O.

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko
You should draw a line somewhere though. WITP is very RAM-intensive application, and although I am not a programmer I guess every additional base, unit, resource and map hex occupies more memory and Windows resources. I mean, are "bases" like Boise, Salt Lake City, Saskatchewan, or features like Lake Manitoba and Winnipeg really necessary in this game? I think they add absolutely nothing to this game. WITP already slows to a crawl on machines with 256 MB memory during replay, so please consider removing unnecesary stuff too (not just adding more and more and more just for the sake of seeing new names on the map)...

O.

I haven't tested the game or the mod to see whether it slows the game down. I doubt it would by much as there is such a huge amount of data there already. Adding a few new bases should not have much of an impact. Could be interesteing to test though. I doubt that changing the map data itself has any effect at all, though (i.e. Lake Winnipeg, other terrain) as it is only a different version of map data already present.

The 'Salt Lake City' base is actually the 'United States' base, which is already present.

As for the rest, I guess it is a matter of taste. I believe that having an accurate map is very important in a historical simulation. For me it adds quite a lot.

Regards,
Andrew

[Oleg Mastruko]

Subchaser, I see your modded maps still contain typos from the original version. I trust you'd take care of dreadful typos in spelling of Russian bases yourself [;)] but please make godawful TriMcomalee into TriNcomalee (how this went into "print" in the original game is beyond me, as this base is mentioned in like zillion history books), and also Alor Star into Alor Setar.

I'm not sure whether Amboina (original map) is correct or should it be Ambonia (as on your map): I found some WW2 Dutch maps of the DEI on the Internet but they don't cover this particular area.

O.

[Subchaser]

Your map looks *fantastic* Andrej, two questions though:

- When it will be available

thanks, but I can’t say that this is my map, I’m not Andrew Brown yet , this is somewhat reworked original map with new fonts and eye-friendly color pattern. there were no plans of posting it actually, at least in its current form, but I may upload it for those who want (or have to) to keep original map… as soon as those morons from telecom company will fix my cable, I’m not mentally ready to upload 70mb+ file via dialup… sorry

- Do you plan on making a version without hex outlines at all?

It was done first, grid and everything else was added later. WITNxx - clean map files; WITPxx - smart map, so it’s possible to switch from one variant to another without moving the files.

And a third

- Do you plan on teaming up with Andrew (you two being namesakes practically) so that you two produce comprehensive map mod that both looks good and adds new features? Frankly, though Andrew's map is very wellcome, it's simply too ugly for me to look at for like couple hours daily (Andrew, no offense please )

We have already discussed this idea, he has nothing against another way to visualize his map, but close cooperation is impossible cause we’re using different tools. Nevertheless I’m going to remake his map in old good 3D style anyway (2D is fine by me, but I feel more comfortably with 3D). After brief observation it seems quite doable to me, it still reminds Earth, so I would say… in January it will be ready… very late in January…

Subchaser, I see your modded maps still contain typos from the original version. I trust you'd take care of dreadful typos in spelling of Russian bases yourself but please make godawful TriMcomalee into TriNcomalee (how this went into "print" in the original game is beyond me, as this base is mentioned in like zillion history books), and also Alor Star into Alor Setar.

I'm not sure whether Amboina (original map) is correct or should it be Ambonia (as on your map): I found some WW2 Dutch maps of the DEI on the Internet but they don't cover this particular area.

I will, I will [;)]. It wasn’t changed intentionally, even Khomsomalsk is still misspelled [X(], this mod was originally started as part of my scenario mod, I was going to correct spellings in data base first and left all errors on map as reminder. I’m waiting for two awesome geo-military monographs, when they’ll arrive I’ll correct everything at once, obvious and possiblemisspellings. Map is stored in PSD format so text layer can be updated in seconds.

[Subchaser]

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

Great stuff. I wonder, couldn't you actually embed the colour coding into the place name text so as to save space?

Just a thought off the top of my head.

I’ve tried this, it looks bizarre, so I think I will keep that Christmas décor [:D]

[Oleg Mastruko]

thanks, but I can’t say that this is my map, I’m not Andrew Brown yet , this is somewhat reworked original map with new fonts and eye-friendly color pattern.

Call me shallow... no, call me *extremely* shallow, but that's more than enough for me (although clearing some typos would be additional bonus). I don't see why all the fuss about Hawaii being say 18 hexes away from Anchorage on map A instead of 19 on map B, while in reality it should be like 17 hexes, but then we'd skew map in some other direction, or something, or whatever.

Obviously any WITP map will have to make some compromises as regards the real life distances, so having that in mind, I just want something nice to stare at, all those hours I spend playing WITP [:D]

there were no plans of posting it actually, at least in its current form, but I may upload it for those who want (or have to) to keep original map… as soon as those morons from telecom company will fix my cable, I’m not mentally ready to upload 70mb+ file via dialup… sorry

Your map looks very nice, and I would like to use it, that's all I got to say. When you deem it finished, and have upload capabilities, please share it with the rest of us.

We have already discussed this idea, he has nothing against another way to visualize his map, but close cooperation is impossible cause we’re using different tools. Nevertheless I’m going to remake his map in old good 3D style anyway (2D is fine by me, but I feel more comfortably with 3D). After brief observation it seems quite doable to me, it still reminds Earth, so I would say… in January it will be ready… very late in January…

Great.

O.

[Andrew Brown]

Oleg,

For my map, I have tried to correct as many map names as possible, including the Soviet ones. I got most of the corrected names from the map thread - I think you contributed there yourself.

I will send the list to Subchaser, and I will post it here so that you, or others, can correct it more if necessary.

Regards,
Andrew