Matrix Games Forums

Posted: **Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:19 pm**

In most cases the players will be able to change the names themselves if they so desire. The data file is in comma separated values format (CSV) and can be edited using any spreadsheeet or database package.

The exception is that some city/port names are used internally in the program. This is true for all cities referred to in the scenario setups (e.g., Sian, Honolulu).

Posted: **Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:28 am**

WIF uses variants of old Wade-Giles, which was most common in WW2, but isn't consistent. We tried to make it more uniform. There seemed to be consensus to stick to Wade-Giles just for historical flavor.

No problem, I understand perfectly the idea of using the Wade-Giles for a better "vintage" look and flavour [:)]
 
Thanks to you two for your answers, this game is gonna rock [&o]

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:01 am**

Steve -

You mentioned that the program uses some port/city names internally.  Will there be any way for someone who is editing the name file to know that a city name is "reserved"?  Why not just use a unique key internally, instead of the editable name?

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:09 am**

ORIGINAL: doctormm

Steve -

You mentioned that the program uses some port/city names internally. Will there be any way for someone who is editing the name file to know that a city name is "reserved"? Why not just use a unique key internally, instead of the editable name?

The reserved names comes from the fact I am working with the code I inherited from CWIF. What you are asking for falls into the category of making a WIF game design kit, which is not part of my project task list. Where things fall out with little or no additional effort on my part, I will make them available to the players to modify. I have no philosophical difficulty with that. But I do not really need an expanded scope of work.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:57 am**

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

In most cases the players will be able to change the names themselves if they so desire. The data file is in comma separated values format (CSV) and can be edited using any spreadsheeet or database package.

The exception is that some city/port names are used internally in the program. This is true for all cities referred to in the scenario setups (e.g., Sian, Honolulu).

Well, for having had an experience in editing MWiF's CSV files, I can say that when you are modifying a city name that the program don't like, you know it when you start the game again after having finished editing the file. The game will tell you that "old name" is not found.

So you can go back to your changes and put back the original name.

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2006 12:02 pm**

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: doctormm

Steve -

You mentioned that the program uses some port/city names internally. Will there be any way for someone who is editing the name file to know that a city name is "reserved"? Why not just use a unique key internally, instead of the editable name?

The reserved names comes from the fact I am working with the code I inherited from CWIF. What you are asking for falls into the category of making a WIF game design kit, which is not part of my project task list. Where things fall out with little or no additional effort on my part, I will make them available to the players to modify. I have no philosophical difficulty with that. But I do not really need an expanded scope of work.

As a database programmer, I prefer to use numeric keys to refer to records, since numeric-data keys take less memory, are much faster for a PC to handle, and are not typically broken by changing related text in the record, though I do understand that text-data keys are more informative when writing code.

Perhaps, if you didn't want to change your key data from text to numeric, you could keep your text-datatype key and add a separate city/port name field that is identical to the key field (at least to start with), but changing the city/port name wouldn't break the key reference.

I hope I don't sound too much like I'm trying to tell you how to do your job...

Posted: **Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:12 pm**

ORIGINAL: amwild
ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
ORIGINAL: doctormm

Steve -

You mentioned that the program uses some port/city names internally. Will there be any way for someone who is editing the name file to know that a city name is "reserved"? Why not just use a unique key internally, instead of the editable name?
The reserved names comes from the fact I am working with the code I inherited from CWIF. What you are asking for falls into the category of making a WIF game design kit, which is not part of my project task list. Where things fall out with little or no additional effort on my part, I will make them available to the players to modify. I have no philosophical difficulty with that. But I do not really need an expanded scope of work.

As a database programmer, I prefer to use numeric keys to refer to records, since numeric-data keys take less memory, are much faster for a PC to handle, and are not typically broken by changing related text in the record, though I do understand that text-data keys are more informative when writing code.

Perhaps, if you didn't want to change your key data from text to numeric, you could keep your text-datatype key and add a separate city/port name field that is identical to the key field (at least to start with), but changing the city/port name wouldn't break the key reference.

I hope I don't sound too much like I'm trying to tell you how to do your job...

There are several solutions. The easiest would be to leave the code as is and add a supplemental translations file that the players could edit. To start with, all the translations would be Berlin = Berlin, London = London, and so on. if the player wanted to change a reserved name, then he would have to change the second name in this file - besides changing the one in the map labels file.

Like this one, many of the tasks for transforming MWIF into a WIF design kit would be fairly simple, I just have other fish to fry.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:02 am**

Shouldn't Perm be Molotov in this time period? Its a bit tricky since the name was switched to Molotov in 1940.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:17 pm**

Consider renaming 'Mecca' Jiddah.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:25 pm**

Wow Baku is two seperate oil fields now. Looks like Ill have more fun taking them both!!!

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:51 pm**

ORIGINAL: Earl Uhtred

Consider renaming 'Mecca' Jiddah.

I for one prefer to leave it as it is, because it is this way on the WiF FE maps.
I saw that Mecca is not a port in reality, and that Jiddah seems to be the port that the port symbol in the hex represent, but I think that Mecca is far much famous to prevail on the map.

Posted: **Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:54 pm**

ORIGINAL: SemperAugustus

Shouldn't Perm be Molotov in this time period? Its a bit tricky since the name was switched to Molotov in 1940.

Well, I was about to make the label being "Perm (Molotov)", and then I saw how convoluted the hex already was, with the river around it also, and I dropped the idea.

Posted: **Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:15 am**

Perhaps besides the point but...

Should the Hejaz railway really extend all the way to Medina? The route within Saudi Arabia has been out of use since the 1920s if not 1910s, it wasn't functional in WW2

The southern-most working portion of the railroad should be to the Gulf of Aqaba within the Transjordanian borders.

Posted: **Fri Dec 15, 2006 8:16 am**

Rub al'Khali by the way means Empty Quarter not Arabian Desert

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:21 am**

This set of screen shots shows the rest of Russia - well almost all of the rest. There is still some more hexes yet farther north.

From Balkal to Vladivostok by rail. You can take the northern (TranSiberian) or southern (TransMachurian) route. Chita is important.

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:22 am**

A closer view of the TransManchurian route.

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:23 am**

The NW sector of the Okhotsk Sea.

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:24 am**

The island chain from northern Japan to Kamchatka (Risk anyone?).

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:25 am**

The Bering Strait.

Posted: **Sun Dec 17, 2006 1:27 am**

The Aleutian Island Chain.

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