home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Cheet Sheets 1995 April/May
/
CHEET40.ZIP
/
4ECENT.TXT
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-05-07
|
10KB
|
199 lines
~Descent
Unofficial *.PLR file specs for Descent, v0.1 from Darren Lo, via
EMail/Internet.
Well, after a little poking around in the *.PLR files, I discovered
how to get all sorts of cool stuff... there seems to be interest,
so I'm posting cursory offset tables. There are a couple things that
don't seem to do anything, plus others that I haven't bothered to
figure out yet. If you have any additions feel free to send them to
darrenlo@umich.edu.
Each saved game begins with the game name (an ASCIIZ string). This
is an easy way to tell which game you're messing around with. All
offsets are in hex. All ints and long ints in the file are stored
"back-words" in true x86 fashion. (i.e., least significant byte
first, most significant byte last).
You may want to back up your pilot file before mucking about in it
with your hex editor, because I make no claims as to the accuracy of
my typing, counting, record-keeping, or hex arithmetic. Please let
me know if I have messed something up, or if I am just plain wrong.
`Offset: Offset in save: Description:
`------ --------------- -----------
`0-13 X Header info?
`14-2C 0-18 Saved game name
`2E-38 1A-24 Pilot name saved under
`4B 37 Quad lasers if 4, no quads
for other values??
`50-51 3C-3D Energy level when last level
was completed. This appears to
be a signed int. If it is less
than 100, you get 100 energy..
max energy value is for FF 7F
in these two bytes.
`52-53 3E-3F ???
`54-55 40-41 Shield levels. see energy notes
`56 42 Number of lives, besides this
one (so 06 gives you five lives
spare)
`57 43 Last level completed???
`58 44 Laser descriptor byte... see
table below
`59 45 Level at which game was started
`5C 48 Weapon inventory bit field:
00000100 = spreadfire,
00000010 = Vulcan,
00000001 = lasers
`5D 49 Missile inventory bit field:
00000100 = mines,
00000010 = homing missiles,
00000001 = concussion
`60-61 4C-4D Vulcan ammo packs (one pack is
approx. = to 25.501 rounds). I
think this is signed, so don't
go overboard folks ;)
`68-69 54-55 # concussion missiles unsigned
`6A-6B 56-57 # homing missiles (unsigned)
`6C-6D 58-59 # mines (unsigned)
~smart missiles and mega missiles most likely will follow
`72-75 5E-61 Possibly score at beginning of
last level? Can anybody help ?
`76-79 62-65 Current score (signed I think)
`7A-81 66-6D No clue...
~long stretch of ignorance... time of play must be stored somewhere
`A2 8E difficulty level (0=trainee,
1=rookie, etc.)
`A6 92 selected weapon (0=laser,
1=Vulcan, 2=spreadfire) Odd
things will happen if you put
higher numbers here
`AA 96 selected missile (0=concussion,
1=homing, 2=mines)
`AE 9A Display mode
0: Cockpit mode
1: Weird.bitmap-type background
behind a squashed screen...
looks as if video RAM isn't
cleared up or something...
2: Status bar mode
3: Full screen mode
4: Cinematic, shaped like a
movie screen... like the
screen you get when you blow
up
5: "Weird" on bottom half,
cinematic on top... reverts
to cinematic after death
`B2-B3 9E-9F # of pixels to display in
horizontal direction. In
conjunction with the vertical
pixel settings, you can play
with some pretty weird screen
sizes. I like 320 X 23 myself
`B6 A2 # of pixels to display in
vertical direction. This may be
only one byte, but I'm not sure.
the VR modes may require two
bytes... ???
`BA A6 Current level # (starts from 1)
`C2 00 Saved game 2
`170 00 Saved game 3
~many saved games follow...
`6E0 XX Taunt macro 1. A 19-byte
ASCIIZ string
`6F9 XX Taunt macro 2
`712 XX Taunt macro 3
`72B XX Taunt macro 4
and some junk toward the end, probably representing controller
configurations?
Laser Descriptor Byte table:
This byte, at offset 44 within each saved game, is IMHO the funnest
to play with. It appears that Descent references all weapons
internally, both of the player and the baddies, using the same
numbering system. So after level 4 lasers, you start getting into
some neat weapons. :) What's more, slapping on a quad will make you
more powerful than almost anything! Each weapon, regardless of type,
runs off your energy. It takes four shots to deplete one energy unit,
or two shots if you have quads.
CAUTION: If you're running about with level 17 lasers (my personal
favorite) and hit a laser powerup, your lasers will revert to
level 4. But when you die, 16 laser powerups will still go floating
into the room.
~Descriptor Byte Value: Description:
~--------------------- -----------
`00 Level 1 lasers
`01 Level 2
`02 Level 3
`03 Level 4
`04 Big, slow, weak, blue plasma
balls... does anybody recognize
these?
`05 Yellow drone's fireballs (WEAK)
`06 Reactor's red fireballs
`07 Apparently nothing... I speculate
that this might be the weapon of
the green lifter drones... but I
don't know how to use it
`08 Concussion missiles!
`09 Flares
`0A Blue drone's lasers
`0B Vulcan cannon (fires slower than
normal Vulcan)
`0C Spreadfire cannon balls
`0D Nothing again...
`0E And again...
`0F Homing missiles. Put quads on
these babies!
`10 Mines... Do NOT put quads on
these! %-{
`11 Level 7 boss's missiles... these
hit for HUGE damage and then
fragment into tons of little
green blobs that home onto
enemies. The blobs are powerful
but slow.
`12 Nothing...
`13 Just the green blobs from the
boss missiles
`14 Spreadfire cannon balls (possibly
faster or stronger than for 0C ?)
`15 Slow homing missiles
`16 Slow (?) concussion missiles
`17 Spreadfire cannon balls AGAIN
`18 Wimpy, slow red lasers
`19 Slow green lasers
`1A Nothing AGAIN...
`1B Yellow drone's fireballs... seem
more powerful, and maybe faster?
`1C Wimpy, FAST red lasers
`1D Same lasers... possibly stronger?
`1E and above seem to have the same red lasers... I haven't checked
them all of course. Increasing the difficulty of the game will
make some weapons faster or stronger.
Happy hacking!