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WIP Map for BAT Il2 Pathfinder TGA & WAW: "hybshavingmirror80" by fatty_finn 2017-2018
This map is designed for long navigations over the ocean, and in so doing, to recall Francis Chichester's crossing of the Tasman Sea [East-West] in 1931*, from New Zealand to Australia. Other famous navigators of the region are also remembered, dating from ~1000AD, to the 1940s.
Because this is a sizeable piece of ocean [1200 x 400 miles], I couldnt get the map to work in 1:1 scale.
The map is 1.6 to 1** - the biggest I could manage.
Quite a useful scale though, as 1 real mile is represented by 1km in the game. So, the map is ~1200km across, causing problems with Il2's 1000km spawn limit. But - for limited uses, there are some ways around that problem, and I've had fun in the attempt! Two TGA missions are enclosed, to demonstrate.
Two BAT versions of the map are provided: one for TGA [=Navigators of the South-West Pacific], and one for WAW [Sub-Hunters of the Tasman]. For this: Two different ed_m01 files are provided, prefixed TGA... and WAW.... Within BAT, install the map twice, in TGA and WAW. Within each, rename the appropriate file as ed_m01.tga". You must also install the map's texture files twice.
Two trial missions are supplied for each version [the TGA missions are complete. The WAW missions will run, but they are WIP. No written orders yet].
Both maps are very sparsely populated. To get a slightly more populated version [for 1931 and 1942], you'll have to run the relevant mission supplied [either of the two TGA missions for 1931, and two WAW missions for 1942]. If you want to make your own mission files, please use one of the supplied missions as a starting point [unless you feel like re-populating the whole map from scratch!!].
Chichester flew a Gypsy Moth floatplane, which we dont have in Il2, so I'm using the Hawker Osprey instead. This is a much bigger, faster plane altogether, so the missions have to be adapted accordingly. They are much shorter [timewise] and you should start with max 85% of a full tank. Too easy otherwise.
I have provided two civil skins: Chichester's own NZ-registered aircraft [for OspreyS], and a fictitious sister aircraft skin, designed for a Mercury-engined Hawker Hart , from the equally fictitious "Te Kao Aeroclub"***
In BAT, put these 2 skins in the TGA skins folders OspreyS and Hartmercury, respectively.
For the WAW version, all action centres on the Aussie coast, on the western edge of the map. This includes 12 small crosses, indicating ships attacked by enemy submraines or mines, in this region. Eight of the 12 ships were sunk, most notoriously the hospital ship Centaur, with great loss of life. [= the red cross near the NW corner of the map]. Many more ships were sunk to the south-west of this map, so there was a lot of enemy activity on the East Aust. coast. [including some aircraft].
But, despite much aerial patrolling, not a single enemy vessel was found. Here's your chance to square the ledger!
*inspired by a magazine article from the late Terry Gwynn-Jones, published in "Aviation", March 1994, pp30-37 [Empire Press, USA], and my own time living on a Pacific Island-lost in the huge & wondrous ocean.
**There are exceptions to the above 1.6:1 scaling. The offshore island groups are 1:1 [Norfolk, Lord Howe & Three Kings]. This was a necessary compromise, as their topographies cant be rendered well at any reduced scale. So, the map has a hybrid scale [or "hyb..."].
***with thanks to the Il2 modders whose great skins I have adapted these from: archie 1971 & stanislao
instruction for BAT install:
in MAPS folder you will find the all.ini file.
In the section headed
**__PACIFIC_AND_ASIA__** Netmountains/load.ini
add this line
hybshaving_mirror80 hybshaving_mirror80/load.ini
You must do this twice: once in #WAW3, and once in #TGA3, to run both versions of the map [1931 & 1942].
happy navigating
f_f Jan 2018
Author
Topic: new WIP map of Tasman Sea (Read 5461 times)
