GEODATA.DAT

Created in the MissDat folder when you start a battlescape mission, also copied to the savegame folder of choice when saving mid-mission. Primarily used to generate a new map at the beginning of combat and to determine which MCD files to load.

File is 92 bytes long for both UFO and TFTD. Values are presented according to byte offset (0 to 91) followed by the equivalent hex offset (00 to 5B) in bold.

Structure

0-1/00-01: Amount of map modules to place vertically (Y dimension of the map / 10).

2-3/02-03: Amount of map modules to place horizontally (X dimension of the map / 10).

4-5/04-05: Z dimension of the map.

6-7/06-07: X-Com craft type (ignore this if a base mission):

 0 - SkyRanger
 1 - Lightning
 2 - Avenger
 3 - Interceptor *
 4 - Firestorm *      
 5 - Small Scout
 6 - Medium Scout
 7 - Large Scout
 8 - Harvestor
 9 - Abductor
10 - Terror Ship
11 - Battleship
12 - Supply Ship

* Requires maps "Interc" and "Fires". These don't exist normally, though XcomUtil adds versions similar to the SkyRanger and Lightning.

8-9/08-09: Alien craft type (ignore this if not a UFO mission). Uses the above values.

10-11/0A-0B: Terrain type. Typically depends on the mission type and location.

UFO                                  TFTD
0: Jungle                            0: Seabed Trash
1: Farm                              1: Pipes
2: Forest                            2: Crashed Plane
3: X-Com Base                        3: Atlantis
4: Alien Base                        4: Mu
5: Urban                             5: Sunken Galleon
6: Desert                            6: Sunken Liner
7: Mountains                         7: Volcanic
8: Polar                             8: Coral
9: Mars                              9: Artefact Site Stage 1
                                    10: Artefact Site Stage 2
                                    11: Cargo Ship Stage 1 & 2 (Check MISDATA.DAT[20-21] for which)
                                    12: Port Attack
                                    13: Island Attack
                                    14: Colony Stage 2
                                    15: T'leth Stage 1
                                    16: T'leth Stage 2
                                    17: T'leth Stage 3
                                    18: X-Com Base
                                    19: Passenger Ship Stage 1
                                    20: Passenger Ship Stage 2
                                    21: Colony Stage 1

12-XX/0C-XX: The next [0-1]*[2-3] bytes list the map modules used to build the battlescape. Reads in order from west to east, north to south. For example, in the case of the largest map (50x50), this list would be 25 bytes.

Values of 253/254/255 mean that the a module does not need to be placed in that area because a large 2x2 module (eg. An X-Com hangar) has already covered it.

I've often observed the Tactical engine partly generating it's own maps, so there must be a way to have some - or all - of these values ignored.

- Bomb Bloke 19:21, 6 February 2008 (PST)

...

37-83/25-53: These values are currently unknown, but they all seem to flag as either 0 or 1.

I thought one of them might determine if victim UFOs had been shot down or not, but I can't seem to see any consistant values that would indicate that.

Some might have something to do with the units present - Although this wouldn't account for all values, I can't think of anything else at the moment.

- Bomb Bloke 19:21, 6 February 2008 (PST)

...

84/54: Amount of craft to be placed on the map.

0: None.
1: X-Com craft only.
2: X-Com and alien craft.

85/55: Mirror of [6-7] (X-Com craft type).

86/56: Y location of X-Com craft on map. Usually a multiple of 10.

87/57: X location of X-Com craft on map. Usually a multiple of 10.

88/58: Mirror of [8-9] (alien craft type).

89/59: Y location of alien craft on map. Usually a multiple of 10.

90/5A: X location of alien craft on map. Usually a multiple of 10.

91/5B: Unknown, never seen it flag.

See Also

• Missdat Files