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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> Tech Support >> MAJOR SNAFU

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MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 12:03:33 AM

Ldeathbow

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I have been having difficulty with the Guadalcanal scenario, so I decided to research the historic battle to try to get some in-sight.

Guadalcanal runs ALMOST completely East-West, with Tulgali being North of Guadalcanal!! Look at a globe or map of the area (I found it on maps.goggle.com on-line (among other places). In game, you have Gaudalcanal running Northwest to Southeast with Tulagi being EAST of Guadalcanal island, with the north end of Guadalcanal at the same level as Tulagi - the map shows Guadalcanal is (effectively) COMPLETELY South of Tulagi. OOPS!!!!!!!!!!

Assuming "something" had to give to make Guadalcanal "fit" in the hex system, "in game", then I think it should have been kept more E-W with Tulagi to the North (even if this meant moving BOTH islands 1 hex west of current positions). The "geographic accuracy" of the land mass (and it's orientation to other masses) would seem more important than any distance issues. As is, coming from the south you have clear water access to Tulagi, which (in the real world) is geographically impossible and DOES change ease of access (which will impact combat (as I don't have ships at sea for 1 more hex trying to get AROUND Guadalcanal)). Pivoting Guadalcanal from 12 o'clock to 9 o'clock (using the southern end as the pivot point) and moving Tulagi 1 hex farther west would result in a more accuarate depiction of that area (even if this makes Tulagi 1 hex too far from the adjacent island or too close to some other base/island) - in my opinion.

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RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 12:25:06 AM

witpqs

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Actually, it's a consequence of the map projection used plus where it is centered. We've gotten used to speaking terms of game N, E, S, and W.

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RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 12:41:03 AM

treespider

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Rotate your google map 45 deg and it looks suprisingly similar to the game map in relation to the position of other nearby bases.

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< Message edited by treespider -- 3/12/2010 12:44:34 AM >

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RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 1:14:01 AM

wdolson

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Creating a flat map from a round globe requires some kind of trade off. If the map was just the Solomons area, it could be centered somewhere in the Coral Sea and you would not see significant distortion. This was the case with the first game in this series: Uncommon Valor.

When the map was expanded to the entire Pacific and Indian Oceans fo the original WitP, some visible distortion had to be accepted. The closer you get to the edge of the map, the more rotated things will get. With AE, changing the map system was beyond the scope of the project, so we have the same sort of distortions.

The smaller map scenarios just take a chunk out of the main map, so the same distortion will be there, even though the map is much smaller. To do otherwise would have, again, been a major change that was beyond the scope of the project.

Bill

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Situation Normal - 3/12/2010 5:16:44 AM

jwilkerson

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I think we most of us first saw the original WITP map, we got "dizzy" looking at India sitting on its side - I know I did

. Intellectually I understood the reason - but it still made me feel dizzy. Over time I got used to it. But the posters are correct, you can't have everything when you project a 3D object onto a 2D surface. The projection we used was designed to optimize the distance relationships in the parts of the map where we felt it mattered most - the nominal NSEW orientation of the land masses was secondary.

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RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 12:07:38 PM

dorjun driver

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treespider is on a roll!

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RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 2:12:10 PM

jomni

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The distortion is not so bad. Have you played World War One? They don't even have any reason to distort is as it's an area map instead of a hex map.

< Message edited by jomni -- 3/12/2010 2:23:32 PM >

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RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 3:04:44 PM

Halsey

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MAJOR SNAFU

I served in this guys unit at one time.
He couldn't find his a-- with both hands and a flashlight.

A "torch" for you that really speak English.

< Message edited by Halsey -- 3/13/2010 12:08:22 AM >

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Post #: 8

RE: MAJOR SNAFU - 3/12/2010 10:08:36 PM

RevRick