
 ************** EAW Career Linker v1.1a - Attack in the West 1940 (AITW40) Edition  ******************
 *******************************************************************************************************************

 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.

ABOUT THIS SPECIAL EDITION OF CAREER LINKER (V1.1a) :

The 'Attack in the West 1940' addon uses career files in a specific format 
(Note that CareerXX.sve is bigger than a classic EAW career??.sve file).
This Career Linker utility is 'AITW40' compatible, i.e. it can import data from a 
classic EAW career??.sve file (Poland campaign for example) to a CareerXX.sve file 
(CareerXX.sve is the career file name used in the AITW addon). As well, data can 
be transfered from CareerXX.sve to a new classic EAW career??.sve file (Bob campaign 
for example). 
Of course, as for versions 1.0 and 1.1, version 1.1a may manage data 
transfer between two classic Career??.sve files. 


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

- Carlinkw.exe  (main executable)
 - Datw.cct
 - Tpn.fil
 - this readMe

 HOW TO INSTALL & USE THE EAW CAREER LINKER v1.1a - AITW40 Edition ? ***********

   INSTALLATION
   The three files (Carlinkw.exe, Datw.cct and Tpn.fil) must be copied into 
   the savedata subfolder of your EAW directory (the savedata subfolder 
   contains the career files as Career??.sve where ?? is the number of 
   the career). The name of a AITW40 career file is always Careerxx.sve. 
   If Career Linker v1.0 or v1.1 is already present in this folder, you can erase the corresponding files 
   or leave them, it doesn't matter ...


   HOW TO USE :

   1st Step ****

    Of course, at least two career??.sve files (or one Career??.sve and a CareerXX.sve files) are required in the
    savedata folder, together with the Career Linker V1.1a files. 
    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 career??.sve file 
    found in the savedata subfolder of your EAW directory. If your last campaign is the AITW40 one,
    this file is Careerxx.sve.
    The other one is the career file of the new campaign you want to start. If you want to start a new 
    AITW40 career, this file CareerXX.sve.

   Please note : If you make a separate EAW install for the AITW40 addon, the Career??.sve and CareerXX.sve 
    will not not be present in the same savedata folder. To use Career Linker v1.1a, you will have to get a copy 
    of both of them in the same savedata folder together with Career Linker v1.1a program files. 
    It is recommended to copy all these files into the savedata folder of the EAW install from which you want 
    to start the new career. Thus the new modified career file will be ready to use. 

    To get a new Career??.sve file (classic EAW 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.

    To get a new CareerXX.sve file, run W40.exe (campaign mode DOS program of the AITW40 addon).
    Launch a new career with the addon program. When the program stops, close the DOS window. A new 
    CareerXX.sve file will be present in the savedata folder of your AITW40 install.

    
   2nd Step ****

    Run the utility either by :
    - double-clicking on the Carlinkw.exe file. 
    - using a short-cut to Carlinkw.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. The AITW40 career file will be displayed as #XX (red color). 
 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. 
 If you launched Career Linker v1.1a from the EAW install of your new campaign, you can directly 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??.sve files numbered from 00 to 20 (i.e. Career00.sve to
       Career20.sve), in addition to CareerXX.sve (AITW40 career file). 
       If necessary, you may rename the career??.sve 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 Career??.sve (or CareerXX.sve) 
  file to be modified as "Backup??.sve" (or "BackupXX.sve"). This is useful if you decide to cancel 
  the modification process. Thus, the original career file can be recovered 
  by renaming Backup??.sve as Career??.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
 September 2001

 Dominique.Legrand@univ-lille1.fr



