RHS pwhex set minor update - and the future of pwhex

[el cid again]

Two eratta were found in the basic RHS pwhex file - one does not matter - and I wanted to change the status of the road to Kenai, Alaska.

Some of the secondary pwhex files (RR and RRRiver and LateKyushu) did not have all the corrections they should have had (3 hexes on the New Guinea coast are coastal instead of land, 5 other hex side mis matches corrected)

For the present state of things - with manual pwhex files - this set is issued.

It CAN AND SHOULD be used with ongoing games.

The next editon of the RHS installer / switcher will NOT use these files however. Instead, there is just the basic pwhex file, which you can change as required when you require it - using the program to boss it around. So this is the last issue for the 8 pwhex file set - and we will return to only one.

This will be mandatory for AE - where the pwhex file may not be changed during a game - except we can change the copy inside the save game file. So we are practicing how to modify a pwhex file - so we can do so with that copy when the time comes.

The next next edition may be date driven - but the next edition will be manual - going from crudely changing which file you use to modifying the file at the needed points. Under player control.

[el cid again]

For the uninitiated into the world of WITP pwhexing

the pwhex file is invisible to players (unless they turn on reveal codes and hex side details)
but it is the file that the code uses to say what is in a hex in technical terrain terms

We have variations on the file so you can build railroads, damage the Panama Canal (or repair it),
damage the Kyushu-Honshu RR tunnel (or repair it), and open (or close) the interior river systems
for a turn (so shallow draft vessels may escape - or enter upriver waters) - at least in places where
such communication is possible.

Our goal is to add seasonal variations bye and bye - and possibly other kinds of infrastructure damage
and repair.

This is a demonstration project - we hope Matrix does these things some day - but also it is a frustration
reliever for Dave - who is unwilling to wait years to get there. I am a pwhex programmer - but Dave is
writing programs that manipulate the basic files I have done. One problem we have is art - we seem to
have lost Cobra - and some things should be coordinated with map art changes.

[el cid again]

This is a very slightly revised pwhex file set.

It corrects a communications code eratum in South China

It corrects a mismatched hex side in the Bohei Gulf

It corrects the coastal status of a location in Cambodia on the interior river system

It changes the communications code of Kenai Alaska early in the war so there is no
road (because there was not) - but after the railroad upgrade (17 Nov 1943) this road
continues to be in pwhex files

In some of the files, two coastal hexes of New Guinea are reclassified (while most
had it right)

In some of the files, three mismatched hex sides in Cambodia are corrected (again,
most were right).

It appears that this crude system - a different pwhex file for each change combination -
is going to come to an end soon: we will be able to change features under manual
player control with the next issue of the RHS installer/switcher program - and probably
automatically (by date) with the issue after that. It may be possible to give players
toggles for control of each option in the switcher.

Remember, pwhex files can be changed at ANY time DURING an ongoing game. To
manually make a change (if you do not use the switcher program), RENAME the file you
want simply pwhex.dat - and put that in the top level WITP folder (and - because editors
want to see it there - also in the SCEN folder). If you want to go back to the original file,
rename STANDARDpwhex7.dat to do so. The rename process is easy: just get rid of the
caps at the beginning and the 7 at the end of the file name - all that remains is pwhex -
and of course - leave the extension .dat

The meaning of the files is:

STANDARD = starting pwhex file with no changes
RIVER = standard with interior river system "gates" open
PANAMA = standard with Panama Canal (and RR) damaged/closed
KYUSHU = standard with the Honshu-Kyushu RR tunnel damaged
RAILROAD = upgrades five rail lines/roads
RRKYUSHU = Kyushu with rail upgrades
RRPANAMA = Panama with rail upgrades
RRRIVER = Railroad with rail upgrades

The upgraded lines are:

Axis: The Burma-Siam RR upgrades from trail to secondary rail line (= road)
Allied:
Kenai, Alaska connects by road to the Alaska RR
The White Pass & Yukon RR upgrades from secondary to primary RR (to Whitehorse, Canada)
The Bengal & Assam RR upgrades from secondary to primary RR (in NE india, toward Imphal)
The road on New Caledonia upgrades to primary RR

Two rail connections can be damaged - at Panama City and at Shimonoseke Japan -
and both can be repaired back. Similarly, the Panama Canal can be closed to ship traffic -
but land units are only delayed - not blocked - and also repaired back.