User talk:Pi Masta - Revision history

Pi Masta: /* Table layouts */ response

2007-03-13T03:18:10Z

Table layouts: response

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:18, 13 March 2007
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	Can I ask that if you do any more ascii->wiki table conversions, that you use embedded tables (see [[Base Stores]] for an implementation) if you're slicing up column(s) to display them side-by-side? Doing that improves the visual separation between the column groups and makes it much easier to move stuff around within the columns than if it's hard-coded a \| d \| g (row) b \| e \| h (row) etc.--[[User:Ethereal Cereal\|Ethereal Cereal]] 16:03, 12 March 2007 (PDT)		Can I ask that if you do any more ascii->wiki table conversions, that you use embedded tables (see [[Base Stores]] for an implementation) if you're slicing up column(s) to display them side-by-side? Doing that improves the visual separation between the column groups and makes it much easier to move stuff around within the columns than if it's hard-coded a \| d \| g (row) b \| e \| h (row) etc.--[[User:Ethereal Cereal\|Ethereal Cereal]] 16:03, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

			:Yeah sure I'll do that from now on. I mainly did that to cut down on the size of the wiki-source, but it is a pain to move the columns around (which is why I just throw it into my python script :D ) --[[User:Pi Masta\|Pi Masta]] 20:18, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

Ethereal Cereal: Table layouts

2007-03-12T23:03:18Z

Table layouts

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:03, 12 March 2007
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	\| Follows the format of [[CRAFT.DAT]] for initial craft stats		\| Follows the format of [[CRAFT.DAT]] for initial craft stats
	\|}		\|}

			== Table layouts ==

			Can I ask that if you do any more ascii->wiki table conversions, that you use embedded tables (see [[Base Stores]] for an implementation) if you're slicing up column(s) to display them side-by-side? Doing that improves the visual separation between the column groups and makes it much easier to move stuff around within the columns than if it's hard-coded a \| d \| g (row) b \| e \| h (row) etc.--[[User:Ethereal Cereal\|Ethereal Cereal]] 16:03, 12 March 2007 (PDT)

Pi Masta: mock geoscape.exe page

2007-03-12T22:12:05Z

mock geoscape.exe page

← Older revision	Revision as of 22:12, 12 March 2007
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		MOCK [[GEOSCAPE.EXE]] page


		The "Geoscape" program that handles base management and aircraft, a.k.a. XCOM outside of tactical combat. [[TACTICAL.EXE]] handles combat.

		'''NOTE:''' In the WinCE version, GEOSCAPE and TACTICAL are one executable, "UFO Defense.exe". Due to this confusion (what wiki pages place things on, when they're practically identical), currently GEOSCAPE, TACTICAL, and UFO Defense information appear here. (Unless and until someone wants to break everything up... then again, having highly related stuff in one place is a good thing.)

		Also see [[Versions]].
		=XCOM: UFO Defense (U.S. DOS) version 1.4=
		* Is 382,957 bytes long for the virgin 1.4 executable
		* Has alien statistics starting at (non-offset) byte 379,729. There are 33 records of 39 bytes each. No alien names, though.
		* If you have installed XcomUtil, it may alter the length of GEOSCAPE. Does anybody have a modified version, so we can put the length here? --MikeTheRed

		=XCOM Windows Collector's Edition=
		* Variously called the Win CE or Gold version on the wiki
		* Is 382,957 bytes long for the virgin 1.4 executable
		* Is 495,616 bytes long
		* Starting at byte 648, reads:
		XCOM: UFO Defense Gold Edition
		This awesome game was compiled on Sep 8 1999 at 08:57:11
		Copyright - 1999 Hasbro Interactive/MicroProse Software
		Party on dude.
		* If you install XcomUtil, it separates your UFO Defense.exe into GEOSCAPE and TACTICAL executables. They are almost identical copies of UFO Defense.exe, however they start at the right place when run. This allows the game to closely mimick the Dos version by having its main loop run in a batch file.
		* Has alien statistics starting at (non-offset) byte 480,145. There are 33 records of 39 bytes each. No alien names, though.
		* Has tank & inbuilt alien weapon stats at byte 447,868 (see below)

		=Offsets=
		{\| {{StdDescTable}}
		\|- {{StdDescTable_Heading}}
		! Offset (hex) !! Description
		\|-
		\| 0x111111
		\| Offset description with link to specifics
		\|-
		\| 0x222222
		\| another offset description
		\|-
		\| 0x333333
		\| Follows the format of [[CRAFT.DAT]] for initial craft stats
		\|}

Pi Masta: Pardon my Wiki-noobness, putting info on my User Page

2007-03-06T00:02:36Z

Pardon my Wiki-noobness, putting info on my User Page

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:02, 6 March 2007
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	~~==Base Items store space==~~
	Currently the [[General Stores]] page lists the space needed for holding items. I couldn't find anywhere here where these values were found, so I assumed they were gathered empirically. However I knew they had to be stored somewhere together. Also I figured that they would be stored as simple integers and not some floating point number. I noticed that each 'size' would become an integer if you multiplied it by 10, so from that ammo clips of size 0.1 would be stored as 1.

	I dug into GEOSCAPE.EXE and found the pattern of sizes like that listed on the stores page (offset 0x5DB34). However it different some areas, namely the HWP ammo was not with the actual HWPs. Also interesting was that there were gaps of 0's between some items, usually from the different groups like craft weapons, to agent weapons, to alien weapons, etc.

	I got to looking at [[PURCHASE.DAT]] as this seemed to be the only logical place for size information to be. Of particular interest was the so called 'sort' order offset. I really doubted the programmers devoted a byte to help 'sort' the information for display, but given what could be gleaned from that file alone it was a good guess. I'm pretty sure it's an index (which technically does sort it) to at least one array (I surmise others below). I used some python scripts to read in a Purchase.dat file and a hex editor to find the pattern in geoscape.exe.

	Simply by placing the values in an array and having each item in purchase.dat use it's 'sort' value to fetch the record in the array, everything matched up, well almost. The plasma beam and Fusion Ball Launcher were backwards (plasma had 20 space while fusion had 12). I almost gave up but then I thought what if the order is wrong? There isn't much info linking to what item a record is in that file, but I looked at the sell price. Turns out I was right, the sell price of the Fusion Ball Launcher is well known as it's the second runner up for [[Manufacturing Profitability]].

	~~===Other Possibilities===~~
	These items have to index to English.dat somewhere (probably in the executable). My guess is that it is near the array that I found. There is probably other information such as the craft weapon statistics. The gaps between these indexes might make it possible to add new items to the game as well.

Pi Masta: purchase.dat and geoscape.exe notes

2007-03-05T23:55:35Z

purchase.dat and geoscape.exe notes

New page

==Base Items store space==
Currently the [[General Stores]] page lists the space needed for holding items. I couldn't find anywhere here where these values were found, so I assumed they were gathered empirically. However I knew they had to be stored somewhere together. Also I figured that they would be stored as simple integers and not some floating point number. I noticed that each 'size' would become an integer if you multiplied it by 10, so from that ammo clips of size 0.1 would be stored as 1.

I dug into GEOSCAPE.EXE and found the pattern of sizes like that listed on the stores page (offset 0x5DB34). However it different some areas, namely the HWP ammo was not with the actual HWPs. Also interesting was that there were gaps of 0's between some items, usually from the different groups like craft weapons, to agent weapons, to alien weapons, etc.

I got to looking at [[PURCHASE.DAT]] as this seemed to be the only logical place for size information to be. Of particular interest was the so called 'sort' order offset. I really doubted the programmers devoted a byte to help 'sort' the information for display, but given what could be gleaned from that file alone it was a good guess. I'm pretty sure it's an index (which technically does sort it) to at least one array (I surmise others below). I used some python scripts to read in a Purchase.dat file and a hex editor to find the pattern in geoscape.exe.

Simply by placing the values in an array and having each item in purchase.dat use it's 'sort' value to fetch the record in the array, everything matched up, well almost. The plasma beam and Fusion Ball Launcher were backwards (plasma had 20 space while fusion had 12). I almost gave up but then I thought what if the order is wrong? There isn't much info linking to what item a record is in that file, but I looked at the sell price. Turns out I was right, the sell price of the Fusion Ball Launcher is well known as it's the second runner up for [[Manufacturing Profitability]].

===Other Possibilities===
These items have to index to English.dat somewhere (probably in the executable). My guess is that it is near the array that I found. There is probably other information such as the craft weapon statistics. The gaps between these indexes might make it possible to add new items to the game as well.