Mission Types

2008-03-11T07:18:50Z

Insomnia: Changed punctuation of a sentence, so it reads as (I believe it was) intended. No wording changes.

There are a number of different '''Mission Types''' that can occur during you campaign against the aliens, and while there are a large number of similarities between them in the way they work, each has at least some moderate differences that are likely to require tactical adjustment, and a few require fairly radical changes in the way you go about things.

== Mission Variants ==

* [[UFO Crash Recovery]] - The ol' sweep-and-clear.

:These missions become available whenever you shoot down a UFO over land without destroying it during a [[UFO Interception]].

* [[UFO Ground Assault]] - Getting greedy for elerium.

:You can assault a landed UFO from the ground, as long as you can get your strike team there before it takes off. If it hasn't landed yet, have a [[Skyranger]] tail it so you'll be ready for when it does.

* [[Terror Mission]] - Screaming civilians, house calls, big robots.

:The aliens will regularly attempt these missions in an attempt to pull your teams into a fight where you cannot afford a slow and patient attack plan.

* [[Alien Base Assault]] - Kicking over the nest.

:Occasionally the Aliens will try to set up local bases on Earth, if they do you can opt to go in and flush them out.

* [[Base Defense]] - All hands on deck! Sound the big siren!

:If you are doing well, and shooting down lots of UFOs, the aliens will come searching for your base every now and then. If they find it, you may find you get visitors to your base - and they are a bit more worrying than Jehovah's Witnesses.

* [[Cydonia]] - Here be spoilers.

:Eventually you can [[research]] a way to defeat the alien threat, and go and engage them on their home soil.

== General Tips ==

* [[Night Missions]]
* [[Field Manual: Terrain]]
* [[:Category: Terrain]]
* [[Alien Missions]]
* [[Damage]]
* [[Explosions]]
* [[Experience]]
* [[Experience Training]]

[[Category:Missions]]

Game Files

2008-03-11T06:59:31Z

Insomnia: Added a missing short file description.

Not-for-profit, just-for-fun reverse engineering.

* General note re: [[HackerTools|Hex editing game files]]
:<small>Contains a quick introduction to using a most unlikely program to edit your game files, and suggestions on other editors out there.</small>
* A primer for the [[Command Prompt]] (aka the command console).
:<small>Information on how to manage directories, files, plus other neat tricks that can be done through the command console that should not be forgotten in today's era of point and click madness.</small>

[http://www.stonepool.com/xcom/hacking/index.html Hatfarm / Chris Voss] and [http://www.daishiva.com/phpBB2/generic.php?page=progLinks.shtml DaiShiva] (see [http://www.daishiva.com/programs/XCFormat.html file formats]) also have notes on a number of XCOM's file formats not yet detailed on this wiki.

== Program Files ==

These are program files and static data files that are not part of the saved game files.

<table {{StdDescTable}}>
<th {{StdDescTable_Heading}}>File</th><th {{StdDescTable_Heading}}>Description</th>
<tr><td>[[GEODATA]]</td><td>Text for localization. Includes [[OBDATA.DAT]] object data file.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[GEOGRAPH]]</td><td>Graphics for [[UFOpaedia]] and research screen backgrounds.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[MAPS]]</td><td>Pre-generated Battlescape terrain blocks (.MAP). These are filled in with terrain tiles. A few dozen blocks make up a battlescape.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[Saved_Game_Files#Missdat_Files|MISSDAT]]</td><td>Holds the data from the previous mission. (Can be [[ExploitsA#Score_Points_For_Free|exploited]]).</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[ROUTES]]</td><td>Alien route maps (.RMP) for moving around the pre-generated Battlescape terrain blocks.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SOUND]]</td><td>1990-era sound drivers, or MIDI files for Windows version.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[TERRAIN]]</td><td>Battlescape graphic tiles for buildings, ships, and terrain (.MCD, .PCK, and .TAB).</td></tr>
<tr><td>UFO2EXE\[[TACTICAL.EXE]]</td><td>The "Battlescape" program in DOS-release of UFO.</td></tr>
<tr><td>UFOEXE\[[GEOSCAPE.EXE]]</td><td>The "Geoscape" program that handles base management and aircraft.</td></tr>
<tr><td>UFOEXE\BLACK.EXE</td><td>The black screen UFO.BAT puts up when swapping between the above two programs.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UFOGRAPH]]</td><td>Misc graphics (.PCK) for soldier equipment screens, smoke, motion detector blobs.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UFOINTRO]]</td><td>Holds the introduction movie (.FLI) and the endgame pictures (.LBM).</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UNITS]]</td><td>Battlescape graphics for soldiers, aliens, and the pixelated guns they hold. (.PCK and .TAB).</td></tr></table>

== Geoscape Files ==
These are savegame files used by the [[Geoscape]] portion of the game. This can be considered a 'standard' save.

<table {{StdDescTable}}>
<th {{StdDescTable_Heading}}>File</th><th {{StdDescTable_Heading}}>Description</th>
<tr><td>[[ACTS.DAT]]</td><td>Contains information which acts with which priority in respective zones aliens are going to try.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[AKNOW.DAT]]</td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td>[[ALIEN.DAT]]</td><td>Contains Alien activity in Countries and areas, for graphs.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[ASTORE.DAT]]</td><td>Has the info on aliens in [[Alien Containment]].</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[BASE.DAT]]</td><td>Has all of the [[X-COM Bases|base]] layout and contents information, radar scanning abilities and other base information.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[BPROD.DAT]]</td><td>List of [[equipment]] being [[manufacturing|produced]].</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[CRAFT.DAT]]</td><td>Has all the [[craft]] info, [[Craft Weapons|weapons]], fuel, damage and items onboard. Also stores UFO information, although information is handled differently from friendly aircraft.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[DIPLOM.DAT]]</td><td>Diplomacy info, and current and historical [[Country Funding]].</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[DUM.BIN]]</td><td>Dummy file for keeping directory structure. Not used.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[FACIL.DAT]]</td><td>Info on [[Base Facilities]] you can build.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[IGLOB.DAT]]</td><td>Date and time.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[INTER.DAT]]</td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td>[[LEASE.DAT]]</td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td>[[LIGLOB.DAT]]</td><td>Money! Also financial graph information.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[LOC.DAT]]</td><td>Location of bases on the planet as well as other things like ships, waypoints and missions. Basically anything that is an icon on the Geoscape world view.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[MISSIONS.DAT]]</td><td>Contains counters and race info on the ongoing alien acts.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[PRODUCT.DAT]]</td><td>Info on things you can produce.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[PROJECT.DAT]]</td><td>These are things you are [[research]]ing.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[PURCHASE.DAT]]</td><td>Info on stuff you can buy.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[RESEARCH.DAT]]</td><td>Completed research.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SAVEINFO.DAT]]</td><td>Name of the saved game.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SOLDIER.DAT]]</td><td>Data about the [[soldiers]].</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[TRANSFER.DAT]]</td><td>Personnel and equipment being transferred.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UIGLOB.DAT]]</td><td>Holds the next numbers for [[UFOs]], Terror Sites, [[Interceptor]]s, etc. Also contains monthly scores for research.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UP.DAT]]</td><td>[[UFOpaedia]] info.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[XBASES.DAT]]</td><td>[[Alien Missions#Alien Base|Alien Base]] information.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[XCOM.DAT]]</td><td>Contains X-Com activity in Countries and areas, for graphs.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[ZONAL.DAT]]</td><td>Information on which zones and with what priority aliens are going to attack.</td></tr></table>

(28 files. Note that if you find a geoscape save with additional files, this simply means a battlescape save was made in that slot at some prior point. UFO does not remove unused save files).

== Battlescape Files ==
These are savegame files created and used by the tactical portion of the game. They are only created if the game is saved while in the battlescape. [[Battlescape]] saves also contain all the files used in a standard save.

<table {{StdDescTable}}>
<th {{StdDescTable_Heading}}>File</th><th {{StdDescTable_Heading}}>Description</th>
<tr><td>[[BGLOB.DAT]]</td><td>Describes ambient light on map.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[GEODATA.DAT]]</td><td>Details the map type and overall map structure.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[MAP.DAT]]</td><td>Stores tile information for the whole map. Basically all static structures, such as trees, walls, floors and furniture.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[MISDATA.DAT]]</td><td>Contains information on craft in use and which alien artefacts are available for use in combat.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[OBPOS.DAT]]</td><td>Stores all the objects that your soldiers can pick up (guns, corpses, etc).</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[ROUTES.DAT]]</td><td>Stores nodes for soldier and alien spawn points, also acts as waypoints for AI pathfinding.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SEEMAP.DAT]]</td><td>Fog of war overlay.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SMOKBIT.DAT]]</td><td>Smoke particles and fire patches on the map.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SMOKREF.DAT]]</td><td>Smoke particles and fire patches on the map.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[SOURCEMP.DAT]]</td><td>Light source overlays for mobile light sources (i.e. your soldiers).</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[TERMP.DAT]]</td><td>Light source overlays for ambient (or fixed) lighting.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UNITPOS.DAT]]</td><td>Controls ownership, visibility, whether the unit is under temporary mind control, etc. Works hand in hand with [[UNITREF.DAT]].</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[UNITREF.DAT]]</td><td>Contains the primary stats for all units in combat. X-Com owned soldiers in this file are ''virtual'' copies of the soldiers in soldier.dat. Works very closely with unitpos.dat.</td></tr>
<tr><td>[[WGLOB.DAT]]</td><td>Battlescape map global information such as map dimensions and the number of turns that have elapsed.</td></tr></table>

(14 unique files, plus all 28 standard save files, totaling 42).

== Missdat Files ==
These temporary files are used at run time, when a battlescape game is in progress. The missdat folder also contains all the files needed to create a standard Geoscape save for the game in progress.

When the tactical game engine starts, it first checks [[SAVEINFO.DAT]] to see if this is a new battle, or if you're loading a battlescape save game. In the case of the former, it generates a new map, based off these files:
*[[GEODATA.DAT]]
*[[MISSION.DAT]]
*[[OBPOSREF.DAT]]
*[[UNIPOS.DAT]]
*[[UNIREF.DAT]]

If you load a game, the tactical engine loads from the save slot directly, as according to [[DIRECT.DAT]] (which details the path to the slot in concern).

When combat ends, these files are created:
*[[CODE.DAT]]
*[[MISSION2.DAT]]
*[[OBPOS2.DAT]]
*[[OPTION.DAT]]
*[[UNIREF2.DAT]]
*[[UNITPOS.DAT_(MISSDAT)|UNITPOS.DAT]]

(12 unique files, plus 27 standard save files (does not use dum.bin), totaling 39).
-----

=Did You Know?=
* If your game crashes and you are returned to previous mission, the game is actually referring to the battlescape information in the MISSDAT directory. Also, if a tactical mission is abnormally aborted, the results are obtained from the MISSDAT folder as well. Because the game was not able to update the files that hold the results of the last mission, your current game will be updated with information from the ''previous'' mission that was able to end normally. Abnormal program termination simply means that the tactical game engine crashed or was forced to crash by the user. This [[ExploitsA#Score_Points_For_Free|can be abused]].

* Other exploits with gamefiles can be found [[ExploitsF|here]].

[[Category:Game Files]]

UFOpaedia - User contributions [en]

Mission Types

Game Files