Description

This mod is designed to increase the element of 'fog of war' in the game War in the Pacific, by replacing the set of map icons, which are used to display the locations of friendly and enemy land, air and naval units, with an alternative set.

The standard set of map icons have three sets of icons used to show the presence of land units (LCUs), and ships and aircraft at bases. The three sets range from a lighter to darker shade, to represent increasing concentrations of forces in the hex. While this provides useful visual information for the player's own forces, allowing the player to quickly see where their forces are lightly or heavily concentrated by noting the colour of the icons, it also provides extensive intelligence, of the same type, of enemy forces. This 'free' intelligence is especially useful to an Allied player, since they can often see the changes in air strength at bases due to movement of air units by the Japanese player in the orders phase of the same turn.

This graphics mod replaces the three shades of colour with a single colour for all three icon sets. This means that regardless of the level of concentration of forces present in a hex, the icon will always be the same colour, removing the additional information about enemy forces.

It is intended that only the ENEMY map icons are replaced with this alternative set. This means that the colour shades are still present for friendly forces, providing the same useful information about friendly forces as previously, but they are not present for enemy forces, increasing the 'fog of war'. This is possible because each nationality in the game has its own set of map icons, and so they can be replaced individually.

If using this mod when playing PBEM, both players should use the mod, applied as follows:

• The Japanese player would replace the Allied icon sets with the modded icons.
• The Allied player would replace the Japanese icon set with the modded icons.

This would mean that both players still receive the benifit of the different coloured icons for their own forces, but not for enemy forces.

Icon Sets

I originally made this mod for my own customised icon sets. The customised sets have modifications to some of the task force icons. Since others will probably not be interested in using my customised icons, I have also modded an 'official' set of icons. I have included my customised icons as well, to provide an alternative.

Using the Mod

To use the mod, unzip the files to a convenient location, such as to the ART folder located beneath the folder where the game is installed. Any other location will do, though.

The zip file contains four sets of map icon files, which are all stored in sub-folders as follows:

1. Official icon set with normal colours (three shades): These are exactly the same as the map icon files provided with the game. These are stored in the folder 'Official\Standard\Allied_Icons' and 'Official\Standard\Japanese_Icons'.
2. Official icon set with FOW colours (one shade): These are stored in the folder 'Official\FOW\Allied_Icons' and 'Official\FOW\Japanese_Icons'.
3. My custom icons with normal colours (three shades): These are stored in the folder 'Andrews\Standard\Allied_Icons' and 'Andrews\Standard\Japanese_Icons'.
4. My custom icons with FOW colours (one shade): These are stored in the folder 'Andrews\FOW\Allied_Icons' and 'Andrews\FOW\Japanese_Icons'.

Copy the files from the appropriate folder into the ART folder, which is below the folder where War in the Pacific is installed. To use the changed map icon files, you must exit from the game and restart it.

If two players are playing PBEM with the official map icon sets, then, before starting the game:

• The Japanese player should copy the files in the 'Official\FOW\Allied_Icons' into the ART folder, below the folder where the game is installed.
• The Allied player should copy the file (only one) in the 'Official\FOW\Japanese_Icons' into the ART folder, below the folder where the game is installed.

To return to the normal icons, after finishing playing:

• The Japanese player should copy the files in the 'Official\Standard\Allied_Icons' into the ART folder, below the folder where the game is installed.
• The Allied player should copy the file (only one) in the 'Official\Standard\Japanese_Icons' into the ART folder, below the folder where the game is installed.

Download

The mod is available for download here: