
 ********************** EAW Career Linker v1.1 *****************************
 ***************************************************************************

 Ending a campaign in EAW and then starting a new one is often frustrating.
 As a matter of fact, there is no memory of your performances from your past 
 campaign(s). 
 The Squadron Editor of Charles Gunst's ECA Panel offers the
 possibility to change essential data of a career file such as dates,
 names, ranks, number of kills, missions ... However, 1) the changes have 
 to be done in a manual way and 2) points and medals cannot be introduced/changed. 
 Points are essential data which control the attribution of further higher 
 ranks and medals. 

 This DOS utility is designed to copy your exact score (kills/missions, rank, 
 points and medals) from a career (or campaign) you completed to another 
 one you are starting. As well, the details of the missions listed in the 
 logbook of your previous campaign(s) can be copied to the new campaign 
 logbook (This is the main improvement of v1.1 compared to v1.0). 
 Caution : a maximum of 80 missions can be displayed on a logbook.
 You can decide to copy or not to copy the whole listing of missions from 
 the previous campaign(s). An option permits the copy of a part of the listing
 (e.g. the 20 last missions). Another option (strongly recommended) lets the 
 program automatically copy a listing of all missions where medals, 
 promotions or transfers were obtained and only these ones.
 
 It may also transfer some active pilots from the last  career to the new one.
 The whole process is easy and takes only 1-2 minutes.


 CONTENTS OF THE ZIP ********************************************************

- Carlink1.exe  (main executable)
 - Dat1.cct
 - Tpn.fil
 - this readMe

 HOW TO INSTALL & USE THE EAW CAREER LINKER v1.1 ? ***************************

   INSTALLATION
   The three files (Carlink1.exe, Dat1.cct and Tpn.fil) must be copied into 
   the savedata subfolder of your EAW directory (the savedata subfolder 
   contains the career files as Careerxx.sve where xx is the number of 
   the career).
   If Career Linker v1.0 is already present in this folder, overwrite the files with the new ones.   


   HOW TO USE :
   1st Step 
    Of course, at least two careerxx.sve files are required. 
    One of them is the career file of your last campaign from which you want to 
    extract the data. Usually, this file is the more recent careerxx.sve file 
    found in the savedata subfolder of your EAW directory.
    The other one is the career file of the new campaign you want to start.
    To get this career file, you must run EAW, start the new campaign, play
    or not the first mission. Since the kills of this first mission will not be taken into
    account by the program, it is better to abort the mission from the beginning (Escape).
    Click on OK on the result board and then quit the barracks and EAW.
    A new career file should be present in the savedata subfolder.

   2nd Step :
    Run the utility either by :
    - double-clicking on the Carlink1.exe file. 
    - using a short-cut to Carlink1.exe on your desktop or preferably
    - configuring the external applications section of Mattm's EAWStab.

 After the main screen, the program will display the career files present
 in your savedata subfolder with some corresponding infos such as names, 
 time periods and squadrons. You will have to select the career file of your
 last campaign and the career file of your future campaign.
 Then, follow the instructions and it is done. You can run EAW, load and fly 
 the new campaign. 


 KNOWN BUGS AND "PROBLEMS"  ****************************************

    1) due to display limitations (size of the DOS screen), the program will 
       only consider career files numbered from 00 to 20 (i.e. Career00.sve to
       Career20.sve). If necessary, you may rename the career files.

      2) The score (kills, points ...) of the last mission of the previous 
       campaign you achieved will not be taken into account. As a matter of fact, 
       the data of the last mission of a finished campaign are never saved by EAW. 
       Thus, this cannot be fixed.

    3) If you decide not to copy the details of missions of the previous campaign(s),
       clicking on a medal obtained in the previous campaign(s) will lead to a crash-
       to-desktop. As a matter of fact, the data (place, number of kills, date) which 
       correspond to these medals are not present in the new career file. However, 
       "upgrading" a medal (barrets ...) will fix this problem. If a Crash-to-Desktop
       occurs, don't worry and run EAW again : the data are saved at that step.
       In the case you decide to copy the details of missions, clicking on a
       medal will display the related data (no CTD).
	
   4) The locations of 'old' missions are displayed using the current tarnames.str file.
       For example, if you played a previous campaign in the European Theater of 
       Operations and then start a new campaign in Caucasus, the locations of the 
       last ETO missions that are displayed on the logbook will have russian names 
       instead of ETO names. This cannot be fixed.

 NOTE : 

 The program will automatically create a backup copy of the Careerxx.sve 
  file to be modified as "Backupxx.sve". This is useful if you decide to cancel 
  the modification process. Thus, the original career file can be recovered 
  by renaming Backupxx.sve as Careerxx.sve.

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS : Many thanks to Chris 'Sluggy', TRON, 
 Jean Michel, Jean 'JPI' Pigeon, Brian Gizinski and Pathfinder for accepting to test
 (and testing, of course ;0) ) and to improve this utility.


 I hope you'll find it useful.


 Dominique 'DOM' Legrand
 April 2001

 Dominique.Legrand@univ-lille1.fr



