The Game Map

[101Man]

Ok, enough with the upgrade questions...a new subject

I was wondering if any country (esp. China, India, Australia) added track to their existing network during the war. The real stickler for me is Australia in the NE/Queensland/Darwin area. Very challenging to get engineers to Cooktown, Darwin, Normanton, Portland Roads, and such without constant sea transport.

[HansBolter]

Nope.

No new roads.

No new rails.

[Bullwinkle58]

35 looks and no answers.

The map is static. In the art folder it's a series of .BMP panels that are stitched together by the code. Underlying the map panels, which are just ink, is the pwhex file. It is a data file that has all of the required data for each hex on the map. All the terrain, all the roads, all the base info, etc. It interacts with the EXE file to handle everything that interfaces with the map and has outcomes. Movement and supply flow being two biggies.

There have been moves in past mods to introduce new map panels and the new panels' corresponding edited pwhex file. So you can, for example, introduce the Alcan Highway as it is being built. I think these efforts had a new map introduction on New Year's Day every year, but it's many years since I've seen them mentioned. Both players have to do the swap exactly correctly and then overlay the old save file on the new data matrix and art. I think the mods worked, but they never caught on as they were a lot of work for not much return.

The map, especially the inability to zoom in, is just a result of the core game design being so old. It's not a Windows game really. WitE has a more modern, zoomable, map by the same design team. It's really nice, but AE won't have that unless, someday, there is ever a II.

[101Man]

Thanks.

[btd64]

However, The RHS mod does add and subtract rails/roads/adds navagatable rivers, etc. It's a much more complex set of scenarios so after you have played the game a bit, take a look at it....GP

[ndworl]

It would have been impossible to build a rail line or even an all weather road across northern Australia during the war. The distance, remoteness and climate combined to make any such project a non-starter. We only got a sealed road across the north in the 1970s and large swathes of that are regularly washed away in summer floods, which can block all land movement for many weeks at a time. That was the logic underpinning the "Brisbane Line", entailing a retreat to a line west and south of Brisbane in the event the Japanese invaded the north. The Japanese would have had no means of moving by land much south of Darwin.

[jcjordan]

Speaking of roads - any idea why the Alcan hwy isn't really there in game? It was completed 42 connecting to Fairbanks

[Yaab]

In stock WITP:AE the map is static during the war - what you see on Dec 7, 1941 is what you get in March 1946. You can use the "Search" option to check threads from years 2008 and 2009, prior to the game release, and see if the devs touched on this topic.

As General Patton said, RHS mod uses map info that changes every 3 months to account for rail and road construction during the course of the war.

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: 101Man

The real stickler for me is Australia in the NE/Queensland/Darwin area. Very challenging to get engineers to Cooktown, Darwin, Normanton, Portland Roads, and such without constant sea transport.

Welcome to the world of the real commanders. [;)]

The bush track to Darwin was only turned into a proper (unsealed) road with the assistance of US Army bulldozers in 1942. Even Queensland Rail required the injection of US rolling stock (still in use until the 1960's) on the pre-war network to cope with the increased movements required by the war activities in the North.

The enormous resources required to expand the rail network were simply not available in the time frame of Northern Australia being under threat.

The Adelaide/Darwin rail link was not completed until 2004. (Wiki). - See also Central Australian Railway originally commenced in 1878. (Wiki)

The world was different (and far wilder) place back then.

[Lawless1]

I lived inAlice Springs from 1997 to 2001, the raliline ranfrom Alice to Adelaide with construction
almost completed on the Alice to Darwin line. I believe the line was completed in 2002 or 2003

[SierraJuliet]

This is what the 'highway'from Alice to Darwin looked like during the war. The wet season was not the time to move. No rapid Japanese advances through this.

[chemkid]

.

[Yaab]

Sierra Juliet, this is some Whiskey Tango Foxtrot stuff. Is it Ostfront or Australia?

[SierraJuliet]

ORIGINAL: Yaab

Sierra Juliet, this is some Whiskey Tango Foxtrot stuff. Is it Ostfront or Australia?

It most certainly is Oz. The place, generally speaking, is so flat that water does amazing things when the rain arrives. I found the pic at Anzac Hill, Alice Springs. I've added part of the information that is provided with the picture. Oh and sorry for the huge size of the photos. I wasn't expecting that when I uploaded.

[Yaab]

Thanks.

The truck photo reminds me of the following story.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Road-St ... rican+road