AE map screenshots

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Kaletsch2007

Hi Andrew,

I remember, I read something about limitation of ships able to use navigable rivers. Can not find it, could you repeat that one please ?

Ships have to be smaller than 15,000 tons to be able to use navigable rivers.

Secondly, in one of the sreen shots in an recent AAR, i saw the river navigable between HANKOW/WUCHANG and NANKING. But it seems to me it is not navigable between NANKING and the CHINA SEA. Is that right, or is it just the quality of the screen shot ?

Tx in advance !

The "river" below Nanking is actually made up of ocean hexsides. This means that: Ships of any size can cross them, just like any other ocean hexside. Also, LCUs cannot cross them. So no crossing by LCUs of the Yangtse below Nanking unless you use a ship, and also any size ship can move as far along the "river" as far as Nanking. Between Nanking and Hankow it is ships smaller than 15,000 tons only.

Andrew

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Chad Harrison
Just curious:

What is the size and potential size of Babeldaob's port and airfield? It was a much, much larger island than Peleliu, but I dont know how much of that was good for base building.

Thanks again

Chad

Babeldaob is a port 3(2) and an airfield 4(3).
Peleliu is a port 0(0) and an airfield 1(2).

Andrew

Andrew

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: pad152

Legends - what is the clear hex with the lines (Bottom Right) ?

Three legends are the same and show clear hex.

The extra clear hexes in the legend are just unused bits. Maybe I should "remove" these.

Andrew

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

So there are "secondary railroads" now? Maybe they have less capacity than major RRs?

There are no capacity limits for railways (yes we did consider adding them but it was decided to be "out of scope"), but the "minor" railways have a lower movement rate than the "major" railways.

Also, I noticed some railways in the same hex as roads in northern Oz -- maybe you can choose which to use?

Yes, that is one change in AE - you can choose to use either the road or the railway. Note that there are restriction on using the railways - using them is considered a form of strategic movement.

Finally, I'm curious about the compass rose next to the legend. I assume this is a reference for setting air search arcs. It's not a big deal, but I'm curious: is East the same everywhere, lol? Because of the projection, 090 degrees might look like "hex directly to the right" near Los Angeles, but more like "hex to the bottom-right" near Japan. I assume "the hex directly to the right" is always 090 (East)?

You are right, East is not the same direction in different parts of the map. The "N, S, E, W" letters on the compass rose are for aesthetics only. The "rose" is there to help with setting search arcs as you guessed.

Andrew

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: JWE
A TF will mosey along the path and sit in the Holding Box till time/distance is done and then, poof, show up at the entry hex.

Which, btw, is NOT the hex just next the Box. And, iirc, moves around a bit, so you can’t get gamey with huge sub TFs lying in wait.

That is a VERY nice feature!

[RevRick]

You are right, East is not the same direction in different parts of the map. The "N, S, E, W" letters on the compass rose are for aesthetics only. The "rose" is there to help with setting search arcs as you guessed.

Andrew

So, are those bearings given relative bearings for every hex, then, that is, no matter where you are, the bearing directly perpendicular to the right will be 090, the bearing directly ahead of and away from you will be 000, etc., etc., etc.

[Chad Harrison]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

Babeldaob is a port 3(2) and an airfield 4(3).
Peleliu is a port 0(0) and an airfield 1(2).

Andrew

Thanks Andrew. Interesting possibilities for both sides there now . . .

[witpqs]

Basically they are bearings of convenience:

N - E - S - W are actually Up - Right - Down - Left on the map, regardless of the true direction on the real earth.

In AAR's and other posts on the forum I often see people use the compass direction in that same fashion. For example if you left Columbo to fly to Cox's Bazaar on the game map you fly East, in reality you would fly North. What I've seen is people just go with 'East' because it matches 'Right' on the map.

[scott64]

What are holding boxes? [&:]

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: khyberbill

We discussed the concept of "bases" very early in AE development. In theory, every land hex should be a "base" hex, because it is possible to build port facilities and/or airfields just about anywhere. The base concept for WitP goes back a very long way though, and a total redesign was not possibility, so we stuck with the "base" concept as is. The major difference is that there are a lot of new bases due to the larger map size.

You could sprinkle little bases all over the place to simulate certain things, but I am against doing that - the game design is what it is.

Andrew

And it is good. I like it. It is easy to push soldiers out of an airplane when you are sitting at a computer. A little bit harder IRL!!! We have to remember that this is a game and we can't always drop a company behind the lines to cut off an army!!! Even if we do bag a few Indian or Chinese divisions in the process.

That is less likely to happen anymore...due to how the hexside control works.

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

Maybe you should get together with Treespider to make a mod [:)]

Now Andrew...you know I was only talking about two hexes...[:-]

[treespider]

ORIGINAL: RevRick

You are right, East is not the same direction in different parts of the map. The "N, S, E, W" letters on the compass rose are for aesthetics only. The "rose" is there to help with setting search arcs as you guessed.

Andrew

So, are those bearings given relative bearings for every hex, then, that is, no matter where you are, the bearing directly perpendicular to the right will be 090, the bearing directly ahead of and away from you will be 000, etc., etc., etc.

000 is the top of the monitor, 090 is the right side, 180 the bottom, 270 the left

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: RevRick
So, are those bearings given relative bearings for every hex, then, that is, no matter where you are, the bearing directly perpendicular to the right will be 090, the bearing directly ahead of and away from you will be 000, etc., etc., etc.

Correct. The bearings are always the same. They don't change depending on where on the map the hex is. They are map bearings rather than "real world" bearings.

Andrew

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: scott1964

What are holding boxes? [&:]

Holding boxes are special hexes where TFs that are doing "off map movement" are placed. This allows these TFs to be accessed directly from the map, by clicking on their icons, just as you can with any other TF. Without these, the TFs that are moving "off map" would have disappeared from the map, and only have been accessible from the TF list. We wanted to still allow them to be accessed from the map as well.

Andrew

[Kaletsch2007]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

ORIGINAL: RevRick
So, are those bearings given relative bearings for every hex, then, that is, no matter where you are, the bearing directly perpendicular to the right will be 090, the bearing directly ahead of and away from you will be 000, etc., etc., etc.

Correct. The bearings are always the same. They don't change depending on where on the map the hex is. They are map bearings rather than "real world" bearings.

Andrew

Private, tell me "How is everybody able to find the direction NORTH ?" "Sergeant, look at the map. It is always at the top !" [:(]

[Chad Harrison]

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

Correct. The bearings are always the same. They don't change depending on where on the map the hex is. They are map bearings rather than "real world" bearings.

Andrew

Personally, I dont see how you could do it any other way in a *GAME*. Can you imagine having to recheck the relative North direction *every time* you wanted to assign coordiantes for any given location on half the globe?

Yeah, Ill go with the 'up is North, down is South' option.

[bradfordkay]

ORIGINAL: Chad Harrison

ORIGINAL: Andrew Brown

Correct. The bearings are always the same. They don't change depending on where on the map the hex is. They are map bearings rather than "real world" bearings.

Andrew

Personally, I dont see how you could do it any other way in a *GAME*. Can you imagine having to recheck the relative North direction *every time* you wanted to assign coordiantes for any given location on half the globe?

Yeah, Ill go with the 'up is North, down is South' option.

Well, when I was doing my "Dispatches" AAR (before deciding that I needed to spend more time on the turns and less time writing about them), I was doing just that for the dispatches...

[Chad Harrison]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

Well, when I was doing my "Dispatches" AAR (before deciding that I needed to spend more time on the turns and less time writing about them), I was doing just that for the dispatches...

That makes my head hurt just thinking about it!

[JeffroK]

Excellent work Andrew,
 
I thought the countryside around Bourke was a bit green, but the 8" of rain over the weekend will fix that.
 
?What is the base 3 hexes NW of Pt Moresby?

[sspahr]

I haven't seen any reference to Dobodura here, and it looks like there's no dot adjacent to Buna.  Did you combine Dobodura and Buna?