map stuff

[el cid again]

Andrew, are you still taking suggestions/requests for the new map? Mine is a small one. I recall you listing your reasons, but I'm going to request anyway that the central hex of teh Olympic Peninsula west of Seattle be made into a mountainous terrain hex. While the mountains there may not exceed 10,000 feet, they are quite impassable for normal purposes. They also reach up to 8000 feet with a base at or near sea level (whereas many other mountains shown on the map have their bases over 6000'). Mt Olympus has one of the largest glacier systems in the lower 48 United States.

OK. I will bow to local knowledge and add it in. Just to make sure I don't make an error, please give me the exact hex number.

I know this area well and he is correct. The mountains on Taiwan rise 8000 feet from sea level and are the highest mountains in East Asia in terms of absolute rise and military obsticle principles. Having sailed the Pacific to many points on the map, I must say your map is a great improvement over stock. It hurt my eyes to see flat for Mt Fuji!!

[el cid again]

NOW I am jealous. I love getting into the mountains, and thre is not much opportunity for that in Australia. I hope to spend more time in the mountains of North America someday...

You want mountains? Come to Alaska. We make jokes about those anthills they have "outside." What most white people call Mt McKinley (and we call Denali - its original, native name) is the tallest mountain in North America. The Wichersham Wall is the single largest sheer rock face anywhere on the planet. I once got to fly close to it in a Boeing 737 - the pilot put the plane on its side so we could look up and down the face - at a distance of about 2000 feet - the wall is more than a few km in extent - and it was truly disorienting. We could not tell which way was up or down, and the snow dazzeled in midsummer. Anchorage is considered beautiful by outsiders - and it is - but it is NOTHING compared to other places in Alaska. Although we can see Denali on a clear day...

Only Antarctica and Norway have places remotely comparable. It is a very different place - a desert in spite of thousands of lakes - you can die of thirst if you don't drink enough. Quicksand so awful no one has ever lived if they got stuck in it (because a bore tide 80 feet high drowns them). The three largest species of bears in the world - professional hunters all - and none of them as dangerous as a smaller species of bear. We even have a fish that will kill you if you pull it in your boat without shooting it first with a shotgun! Natives say you are "cheechakao" for about a year - you need a guide just to stay out of trouble!

[bradfordkay]

Thanks, Andrew. The hex I am thinking of is 135,39. This is the most central hex on your Olympic Peninsula, and if made into mountainous terrain it will improve the look of the map. It will not affect the gameplay any (though maybe there are higher operational losses for a/c flying in the vincinity of such terrain?). I have visited the remains of a WW2 multiengined a/c lost on a training flight in the Olympics - some guidebooks said it was a B-17. You couldn't tell it by what was left, but there were still some training command yellow markings on what was remaining, so my guess is that it was something else.

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Thanks, Andrew. The hex I am thinking of is 135,39.

Is this OK?:

[el cid again]

This is good. There are similar mountains in the same relation to Portland, one hex SW, but not quite as rugged. And the hex north of Port Stevens is a major harbor - Hoquiam - the place I always invade as the Japanese when using "real" maps. Wonderful sheltered harbors and two ports (Aberdeen and Hoquiam) for exporting logs and paper products - right on that road you have. But you hardly need more ports in this part of the map! It is a nice place to land due to the lack of major defenses.

[bradfordkay]

Thanks, Andrew, that's perfect.

El Cid...invasion through Gray's Harbor? Intersting idea... BTW, it is Fort Stevens, not Port Stevens, though Astoria is in the same hex... just to set the record straight...

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: el cid again

We even have a fish that will kill you if you pull it in your boat without shooting it first with a shotgun!

Okay, I have to ask. What fish is that?

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: el cid again

We even have a fish that will kill you if you pull it in your boat without shooting it first with a shotgun!

Okay, I have to ask. What fish is that?

I don't know what fish El Cid is referring to, but we do have a fish like that in Australian waters - the Great White shark.[:)]

[Bradley7735]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

ORIGINAL: witpqs

ORIGINAL: el cid again

We even have a fish that will kill you if you pull it in your boat without shooting it first with a shotgun!

Okay, I have to ask. What fish is that?

I don't know what fish El Cid is referring to, but we do have a fish like that in Australian waters - the Great White shark.[:)]

Well, I've had my fair share of experience with Alaskan wildlife and I can't think of any fish that will kill you if you don't shoot it first. There is a tendency for charter fishermen to shoot halibut before they bring them on board, mostly to impress the land lubber's who pay them to take them fishing. But, I've never seen the need to shoot one before you bring it on board. (the point to shooting a halibut is so that the fish is easier to pull into the boat, not for your safety) It's really funny when the guy shoots the fishing line and the halibut sinks (dead of course), or puts a hole in the boat. Heck, I was a 100lb 16 year old and brought in a 200lb halibut without a gun. (couldn't pull it in the boat, but did shark hook it and towed it to shore. It's like trying to pull a 8x4 sheet of moving plywood into a skiff.)

El Cid, what's the species you're talking about. And, what is the more dangerous smaller species of bear? I've always thought Polar bears were the most dangerous (not afraid of man). Black bears (smallest north american bear) are very timid and shy.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Bradley7735

Well, I've had my fair share of experience with Alaskan wildlife and I can't think of any fish that will kill you if you don't shoot it first. There is a tendency for charter fishermen to shoot halibut before they bring them on board, mostly to impress the land lubber's who pay them to take them fishing. But, I've never seen the need to shoot one before you bring it on board. (the point to shooting a halibut is so that the fish is easier to pull into the boat, not for your safety) It's really funny when the guy shoots the fishing line and the halibut sinks (dead of course), or puts a hole in the boat. Heck, I was a 100lb 16 year old and brought in a 200lb halibut without a gun. (couldn't pull it in the boat, but did shark hook it and towed it to shore. It's like trying to pull a 8x4 sheet of moving plywood into a skiff.)

Well, maybe they just shoot them for the halibut...

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

I don't know what fish El Cid is referring to, but we do have a fish like that in Australian waters - the Great White shark.[:)]

[X(]

[el cid again]

BTW, it is Fort Stevens, not Port Stevens

I knew that! It is, as author Robert K Wilcox likes to say, "a slip of the keyboard." Darn that silly keyboard.

[el cid again]

We even have a fish that will kill you if you pull it in your boat without shooting it first with a shotgun!


Okay, I have to ask. What fish is that?


I don't know what fish El Cid is referring to, but we do have a fish like that in Australian waters - the Great White shark.

It is called a Halibut. Big ones get up to 800 pounds. But even a regular one (at half that) is way to big to be in a boat with - it will literally beat you to death. Happens every year when some unsuspecting outsider pulls one aboard. It is not that the fish eats you like a shark - although it probably could eat you - it is that it smashes you and you become incapacitated and bleed out, in pain, knowing you should not have been so foolish as to think you could manage such a big thing.

[el cid again]

El Cid, what's the species you're talking about. And, what is the more dangerous smaller species of bear? I've always thought Polar bears were the most dangerous (not afraid of man). Black bears (smallest north american bear) are very timid and shy.

Nope. This is widely believed, but actually Black bears kill far more people than any other - or all others. They are much more afraid of you - insecure a psychologist would say - and so they tend to attack (or run). Bigger bears are not very impressed with you - and it is fairly smart to make noise so they know you are about - so they are not surprised. [When surprised a bear, not understand the situation, may attack because it feeles threatened]. I grew up in a place that has none of the larger bears at all - but black bears were a big problem. We had lots of snow - more than 3 meters - and if one got into town in the winter (sometimes they wake up) - hungry and not easily able to move about to hunt - it was a big problem. A black bear is so stong it can kill you without trying - literally if it is playing - and if it is trying - well all bears are professional hunters. We are just part time amateurs. Their heads are sloped armor, able to deflect even rifle bullets from many angles. It is not that easy to stop a bear. But you are much more likely to have to stop a black than any other.