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XCOMUTIL.EXE 6.2 for XCOM/UFO and TFTD by Scott T Jones, stjones@aol.com
This program modifies saved game files or program files for X-COM:UFO Defense
(versions 1.0 and 1.4), UFO:Enemy Unknown (the European release of XCOM,
versions 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2), and XCOM:Terror from the Deep (versions 1.0,
2.0, and the unnumbered Beta release) all by MicroProse. Use this program at
your own risk, only after making backups of the directories containing the
files it modifies. I am not liable for any damages this program may cause.
You may freely distribute this ZIP file only if it is not modified and no
money is charged for distribution.
Please report any bugs you find in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
newsgroup or send them directly to me at stjones@comland.com or
stjones@aol.com. The latest version is always available from my XCOMUTIL
Homepage at https://members.aol.com/stjones/xcomutil/ or its shadow at
https://www.comland.com/~stjones/xcomutil/.
A history of fixes and improvements is listed at the end of this file, as well
as a section on known bugs. Fixes and enhancements will be provided as my
free time permits. Since I make no money from this program, I only add
functions that I personally want to use. Suggestions are welcome, but I
reserve the right to ignore them.
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Overview:
There are many XCOM editors which people use to make XCOM easier. Those are
fine for novice XCOM players. However, after playing several games at the
superhuman difficulty level, anyone would get bored. After playing TFTD at
the superhuman level, I have discovered that something was needed to make it
less impossible to play and less predictable. This program is intended to
make both XCOM and TFTD interesting again, even challenging, but without
making them impossible to win.
This program is the result of my work decoding data in the XCOM and TFTD
executable and data files and the files in the saved game directories, GAME_1
through GAME_10. The only code I have disassembled is the few lines of code
around the references to the IGLOB.DAT file, so that I could fix the
Difficulty bug in XCOM and UFO. It is not my intention to steal algorithms,
but rather to understand the data.
My thanks go to the authors of the base and weapon editors that allowed me to
set files to the unique states that allowed me to easily understand the file
layouts and implement some of my flags. Special thanks go to Marco Kaiser for
his MAPEDI10.EXE program which enabled many of the enhancements that have been
made since version 5.0.
XCOMUTIL is a command line utility, not an interactive editor. It was
intentionally written that way to allow you to modify saved games in a generic
way without learning everything about them and ruining the surprises. It also
allows you to define your 17517q1617r own .BAT or .CMD files to automatically apply the
changes you want.
NOTE: Use of XCOMUTIL usually requires that you save your game, exit the
game, run XCOMUTIL, then reload your modified game. However, beginning with
XCOMUTIL 5.0, you can execute XCOMUTIL between the phases of game by using
special batch files that will be described later. By using these batch files,
the game can be greatly enhanced by the addition of new ships.
XCOMUTIL.EXE and its install file, XCUSETUP.BAT, try to make backup copies of
all of the files it modifies that are not part of a saved game. These backup
files all have the extension .XCU. Most, but not all, of the changes made to
files by XCOMUTIL are reversible. However, you can undo almost everything by
copying .XCU files back to their originals.
The best time to make changes to the saved game files depends on the flags you
are specifying. Refer to the chart that appears later in this document.
Since backups are NOT made of any saved game files, you should save your game
twice, using two different saved game numbers, to make a backup copy of your
saved game before running XCOMUTIL against one of them. You can then reload
the first saved game with the modified files to fight your enhanced battle.
When you are done, you can reload your game from the second saved game. This
is very important if you are switching sides with the aliens. In that case,
success will mean the elimination of many of your men, possibly including the
loss of a ship or even a base.
It is best to run XCOMUTIL from the main directory of XCOM or TFTD, the one
containing UFOEXE and the GAME_1 thru GAME_10 directories, but it can be run
from anywhere if you do not mind typing long paths. The XCOMUTIL.CFG file
MUST be found in the current directory, if it is to be used. The syntax of
XCOMUTIL is as follows:
XCOMUTIL path [flags] [WRT]
The path to the directory containing the files to be modified is required. If
it is not specified, or if the expected files are not found, a single screen
of help will be displayed. The level of XCOM:UFO Defense, UFO: Enemy
Unknown, or XCOM:Terror from the Deep will be determined automatically.
NOTE: The WRT flag MUST be coded if you want any changes to actually be made.
This is a safety feature that allows you to preview the results of using
XCOMUTIL. Many people have forgotten to use the WRT flag and have erroneously
reported that XCOMUTIL does not work.
All operations on the files are controlled by the flags, all of which
optionally begin with a slash and may be coded in any mixture of upper and
lower case. Any number of flags may be coded in any order. If no flags are
specified, only general information is displayed.
Flags which modify GEOSCAPE.EXE or TACTICAL.EXE are permanent changes which
effect all future combats. The path required for these flags is probably
UFOEXE, so that the XCOM or TFTD version can be determined. The remaining
flags only effect the saved game files in the directory you select. The paths
required for these flags are probably GAME_1 through GAME_10.
Only objects which are carried by aliens or which are on the ground will be
changed by this program. Remember that the primary intent of this program is
to make the game more difficult. If you want to improve your own equipment,
use a different editor or utility.
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Hard Disk vs CDRom:
For all of the features of XCOMUTIL to work, you need to install your game
completely to your hard disk from your CD. For TFTD, this is as easy as
switching to the HARDDISK directory on your CD and entering INSTALL. For the
original XCOM CD, you need to execute the following steps from the DOS command
line:
XCOPY x:*.* y:\XCOM /S
INSTALL y:\XCOM
CDSETUP y:
where x: is your CD and y: is the drive on which you wish to install XCOM.
When this is done, XCOMUTIL can be installed by unzipping XCOMUTnn.ZIP into
your XCOM directory and running XCUSETUP. Now you can run XCOM/UFO or TFTD by
entering RUNXCOM.
If you bought XCOM and TFTD in the Conquer the Universe package from
MicroProse, you should have no problems, since they only install to your hard
disk.
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XCOMUTIL Batch Files:
Because XCOMUTIL is a command line utility, it is easily incorporated into
batch files. The XCOMUTIL package for DOS contains XCUSETUP.BAT, the XCOMUTIL
installation procedure, and RUNXCOM.BAT, which runs both XCOM/UFO or TFTD with
all of XCOMUTIL enhanced features. The OS/2 version of XCOMUTIL cannot be
used with RUNXCOM.BAT because it executes XCOMUTIL between the phases of the
game.
XCUSETUP.BAT makes backups of most of the files that XCOMUTIL is likely to
modify. These backups all have .XCU as the file extension. During the
execution of XCOMUTIL, it may create additional backups of less frequently
modified files.
XCUSETUP.BAT will also ask if you want to use the advanced features supported
by RUNXCOM.BAT. If you reply Y to this prompt, XCUSETUP will patch
GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE to enable all of your ships to carry soldiers.
Once this is done, you must always use RUNXCOM.BAT to run the game or soldiers
could be lost. XCUSETUP.BAT can safely be run more than once, if you decide
to add the enhanced features at a later date.
RUNXCOM.BAT is used instead of UFO.BAT or TERROR.COM to allow XCOMUTIL to
perform all of the fixups defined in the XCOMUTIL.CFG file that are required
to use the new ship designs. RUNXCOM.BAT also logs all of your battles by
appending all of XCOMUTIL's output to XCOMUTIL.LOG. You can delete or edit
XCOMUTIL.LOG at any time to eliminate old information that you no longer want.
If you have the XCOMUTIL.RND file in your current directory, RUNXCOM.BAT will
randomize the maps used by the game according to the directions found in that
file. XCOMUTIL does not come with a default XCOMUTIL.RND. This file will
probably be provided with any new package of maps to enable randomization of
the maps, if that is the map designer's intent. If you want to merge the maps
from multiple packages, you will have to edit XCOMUTIL.RND yourself. If you
have problems or no longer want to use this function, you can rename or delete
XCOMUTIL.RND.
If you have the XCOMUTIL.EQP file in your current directory and no equipment
is currently assigned to your ship, RUNXCOM.BAT will automatically equip your
soldiers/aquanauts on entry to a battle from your probable base of origin. If
this base of origin is incorrect, equipment will be taken from the probable
base of origin, but returned to the true base of origin. XCOMUTIL does not
come with a default XCOMUTIL.EQP. This file must created by you as described
in the EQP and EQL flag sections. If you have problems or no longer want to
use this function, you can rename or delete XCOMUTIL.EQP.
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New Ship Designs:
XCOMUTIL supports a variety of new ship designs. If you use RUNXCOM.BAT to
run the game, you can load soldiers/aquanauts on all of your ships. I have
included new maps for the Interceptor and Firestorm of XCOM/UFO and the
Barracuda and Manta of TFTD. XCUSETUP.BAT will patch the program to allow
them to carry troops and tanks, but RUNXCOM.BAT is required to invoke XCOMUTIL
to perform the fixups necessary to place the troops inside the ships when
entering a battle.
In addition to these four new ships, I have modified the Avenger and
Hammerhead to be more spacious. This allows the Avenger to carry up to 30
soldiers and the Hammerhead to hold up to 20 soldiers and up to 2 tanks. Due
to restrictions on the use of tanks, the defaults for the Avenger and
Leviathan are set to the normal 26 units. However, the section on
XCOMUTIL.CFG will explain these restrictions and tell you how to modify the
file to increase the new Avenger to 30 soldiers and the Leviathan to 28
aquanauts.
My goal in these new designs was to make the ships look as much like their
pictures in the UFOpedia as possible.
It was the intent of this version to make it as easy as possible for other
developers to modify XCOM/UFO and TFTD to allow you to use their new ship
designs for both the human and alien ships. I will make new ship packages
available via the XCOMUTIL Homepage as they are developed.
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New Crew Positions:
The new crew positions are intended to provide the greatest possible
visibility upon landing. In the case of the Leviathan in TFTD, the new
positions correct the Floating Man bug and allows tanks to exit the ship
first. If you do not like the positions I have chosen, you can edit
XCOMUTIL.CFG to define your own.
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Flag Descriptions:
The function of each flag is described below. Flags are listed by logical
groups rather than alphabetically, roughly in the order of simplest to most
complicated. Near the end of the document is a table that summarizes when
each flag is used.
WRT = Enable writing of changes to the files in the selected subdirectory.
You should be able to safely run XCOMUTIL as many times as you like
before running it with the WRT flag. This is a safety feature.
NOTE: The WRT flag MUST be coded if you want any changes to actually be
made. This is a safety feature that allows you to preview the results
of using XCOMUTIL. Many people have forgotten to use the WRT flag and
have erroneously reported that XCOMUTIL does not work.
DIS[:n] = Increase the level of information to Display. This displays all of
the known information about the files and shows the way the information
would look if WRT were used to actually modify the files. When this
flag is used, many screens of information may be displayed. You should
either use the MORE utility to make the listing pause at the end of each
screen or redirect the output to a file for later printing or viewing
with an editor. DIS:n is the same as specifying DIS n times. The
following are some examples:
XCOMUTIL GAME_1
will display minimal information about the first saved game on a single
screen.
XCOMUTIL GAME_1 DIS | MORE
will display all of the information about all friendly units (including
those under Mind/Molecular Control) in the first saved game with a pause
at the end of each screen (due to | more).
XCOMUTIL GAME_1 DIS:2 | MORE
will display all of the information about all units, friendly and
hostile, in the first saved game with a pause at the end of each screen.
XCOMUTIL GAME_1 DIS:3 | MORE
will display all available information about the first saved game,
including complete object information, with a pause at the end of each
screen, and:
XCOMUTIL GAME_1 DIS DIS DIS >ABC.XYZ
will copy the same information to file ABC.XYZ for browsing.
FIX = Permanently Fix bugs in XCOM/UFO and/or TFTD. You should specify UFOEXE
as the directory so that the XCOM, UFO, or TFTD version can be properly
determined. Note that this flag may not work if you are running
XCOM/UFO or TFTD from a CD-ROM. The game may have to be installed on
your hard disk to allow the necessary files to be changed.
To apply all fixes, simply enter:
XCOMUTIL UFOEXE FIX WRT
If you are using any version of XCOM or UFO, this flag will fix the bug
which disabled the difficulty levels, forcing all games to played at the
Beginner level. Fixing this bug greatly enhances the game, but it
uncovers another bug. That is, when the difficulty level is high, the
object table can overflow, causing bodies to disappear when they fall to
the ground. Both of these bugs were fixed in TFTD.
If you are using any version of XCOM or UFO, this flag will fix the bug
which left some parts of your base disconnected from the rest while
defending your base. XCOMUTIL changes the default state of the walls to
open instead of closed. Thus, when the program fails to add the
connecting corridors, the passages are still open. The side effect of
this fix is that the edges of your base will look unfinished, with dirt
showing at the ends of hallways. This bug is fixed in TFTD.
If you are using XCOM 1.0 or any version of UFO, the FIX flag will
effectively remove the copy protection checks by changing all of the
numbers to zeroes. That is, you will now always enter 00000000 for any
code that is requested. This follows the intent of MicroProse which
removed the copy protection itself in the XCOM 1.4 patch. This FIX is
intended to allow those who want the old sounds to avoid the copy
protection. XCOM 1.4 is still strongly recommended because of the other
bugs it fixes. This flag modifies GEOSCAPE.EXE for XCOM and UFO only.
The first TFTD bug that can be fixed at this time is the one which
reversed the maps of the small and very small ships. This resulted in
one room ships with many aliens and three room ships with only one
alien. The bug is fixed by swapping the contents of some of the files
in the MAPS and ROUTES directories. Although this is a permanent
change, it can be undone by copying the .XCU files (XCOMUTIL backup
files) back to the original files.
The unit positioning bug in TFTD 1.0 when using 26 men in a Leviathan is
fixed by using any of special batch files with XCOMUTIL.CFG. Therefore,
the LEV flag from older releases has been removed.
BAS = Use the configuration for the default base that I feel is more
reasonable. The base facilities are placed in a long line, improving
its defense and allowing immediate building anywhere. Short range
radar/sonar has been replaced with long range radar/sonar, alien
containment has been added, and the living space has been increased to
100 so that the number of scientists and engineers could be increased to
50 and 20, respectively, while still leaving room for the same number of
new recruits. This gets the game started more quickly, but does not
unbalance the game by giving you anything that you could not immediately
buy for yourself. The TEC:HUMAN flag performs a similar function for
technology. This flag modifies GEOSCAPE.EXE. Although this is a
permanent change, it can be undone by using the BAS:UNDO flag.
FLY = Turn on flying ability for all Celatids, Silacoids, and Engineers for
XCOM or turn on flying ability for Tentaculats in TFTD. This flag
modifies GEOSCAPE.EXE. You should specify UFOEXE as the directory so
that the XCOM version can be properly determined. Although this is a
permanent change, it can be undone by using the INC:0 flag.
GAU = Use improved Gauss weapons that do not need clips, making them similar
to XCOM lasers. The weapons have also been modified to match the verbal
description of each weapon in the UFOpedia. This flags modifies
OBDATA.DAT in the GEODATA directory. You should specify UFOEXE as the
directory so that the XCOM version can be properly determined. Although
this is a permanent change, it can be undone by copying the OBDATA.XCU
file back to the OBDATA.DAT file. This flag only works for TFTD.
TNK = Use improved Tanks/Coelacanths with the same time units and armor as
Hovertanks/Displacers. This flag modifies GEOSCAPE.EXE. You should
specify UFOEXE as the directory so that the XCOM version can be properly
determined. Although this is a permanent change, it can be undone by
using the INC:0 flag.
INC:n = Increase the Time Units, Energy, Reactions, Strength, MC Strength,
Firing Accuracy, Throwing Accuracy, and Armor by from 0 to 150 percent.
This flag is a way of setting the difficulty level of XCOM. It is not
recommended for use unless the difficulty level is set to Beginner, due
to unpredictable results when the 255 limit is exceeded on some of the
statistics. If INC:0 is specified, the alien statistics are restored to
their default values. This flag modifies GEOSCAPE.EXE.
NMC = Removes Mind/Molecular Control skill from all aliens. This flag
modifies GEOSCAPE.EXE. Although this is a permanent change, it can be
undone by using the INC:0 flag.
PSI = Give Psi skill to all alien leaders and commanders. This flag modifies
GEOSCAPE.EXE. This flag does not work with TFTD. Although this is a
permanent change, it can be undone by using the INC:0 flag.
MSK = Set the minimum Psi or MC skill of all soldiers/aquanauts to 1. This
forces the Psi or MC strength of all soldiers/aquanauts to be visible
and eliminates the need for Psi/MC Labs, except as a prerequisite. This
should only be used outside of battles.
SHP = Display all available ship information. This overrides the DIS flag.
The statistics display includes the speed, acceleration, fuel, armor,
crew, and number of tanks. The weapons display includes the range,
accuracy, damage, reload time, number of ammunition, and ammunition type
of each ship weapon. The terrain display includes the name of the ship
file, the number of rows, columns, and levels of 10x10 terrain blocks,
the human/alien affiliation of the ship, and the names of the terrain
files utilized by this ship type.
SHP:CFG = The definitions of all of the ships and ship weapons will be changed
according to data found in the XCOMUTIL.CFG file. This flag actually
makes use of some dead data in the game to transform the Interceptor,
Firestorm, Barracuda, and Manta into fighter/transports.
WARNING: Once these definitions have been changed, the special batch
files provided with XCOMUTIL must be used to run the game or soldiers
and equipment can be lost.
This flag modifies both GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE and is a permanent
change that can only be undone by restoring these files from their
corresponding .XCU files. The changes that are possible with this flag
by modifying XCOMUTIL.CFG are VERY DANGEROUS and should not be attempted
unless you fully understand everything in the section on XCOMUTIL.CFG.
MAP = Display all available map information. This overrides the DIS flag.
The display includes the map type number, the name of the map file, and
the names of the terrain files utilized by this map type.
RND = Randomize the maps used for ships and other terrain. This is used to
force the use of the XCOMUTIL.RND file when not using the MISSDAT
directory between the phases of the game. For more information, see the
section on the XCOMUTIL.RND file.
TEC = Adds the ability to view or build new technologies. The default version
of this flag makes the entire UFOpedia visible, but gives you no new
technology. You can learn about alien technology, but you can not use
it until you actually research it.
The TEC:HUMAN flag allows you to produce anything your engineers could
build if your scientists fully researched all human technology. This
does for manufacturing what the BAS flag does for your initial base. It
frees your scientists to research truly new technology. It is not
intended to unbalance the game. The UFOpedia is not modified.
The TEC:HYBRID flag gives you everything that TEC:HUMAN gave you plus
any new technology based on alien technology. This gets around many of
the bugs in the TFTD research tree without giving you all of the
strictly alien technology. This can seriously unbalance the game. The
UFOpedia is not modified.
The TEC:ALL flag gives you the ability to produce ANYTHING your
engineers might ever be able to build during the game, but the UFOpedia
is not modified. This should only be used if you care nothing about
play balance.
NOTE: Items enabled by TEC:xx are not yet researched, so they will not
appear in the UFOpedia without actually researching them. Actual
research is also required if you need a prerequisite for research of new
base facilities. Only human and hybrid items can be used without
research, although these include all new craft, weapons, and armor.
However, when using TEC:ALL, you can build a totally alien item,
research the item you built, then use it, without ever having actually
captured it.
B2S = Change all alien blaster bombs and blaster launchers to stun bombs and
small launchers. This also works for Disrupter Pulse Launchers and
Thermal Shock Launchers in TFTD. This makes combat less dangerous.
S2B = Change all alien stun bombs and small launchers to blaster bombs and
blaster launchers. This also works for Disrupter Pulse Launchers and
Thermal Shock Launchers in TFTD. This makes combat more dangerous.
W2H = Change all alien pistol and rifle weapons to heavy weapons. This makes
combat more dangerous.
W2R = Change all alien pistol and heavy weapons to rifle weapons.
W2P = Change all alien rifle and heavy weapons to pistol weapons. This makes
combat less dangerous.
CHG:old:new = Change objects of type old to type new. This will change any
known object into any other known object. For example,
chg:alien_grenade:elerium-115 will change every alien grenade that is
carried by an alien or is lying on the ground into a clump of 50
elerium-115. However, because both old and new can be abbreviated to
the shortest unique string of characters which identifies the object,
chg:z:v would change every Zrbite to a Vibro_Blade in TFTD. Be very
careful when using this flag. Unusable situations can be created.
DEL:name = Delete all objects of type name. This is equivalent to using
CHG:name:NOTHING. This is useful for disarming aliens or making more
room for additional opponents. Names can be abbreviated just like the
CHG flag.
LST = When used within combat, it will list of all of the object names
available for use by the CHG and DEL flags for your version of XCOM or
TFTD. When used this way, all other flags are ignored.
When used outside of combat, it will list all of your soldiers,
regardless of their bases, in their current order. It displays rank,
name, missions, kills, and base.
RPL:oldrace:newrace[:oldrank[:newrank]] = Replace aliens with other races or
ranks. Races fall into the following groups:
Armed Aliens = Aquatoid, Gill_Man, Lobster_Man, Tasoth
Small Terrorists = Calcinite, Deep_One, Bio-Drone, Tentaculat
Large Terrorists = Triscene, Hallucinoid, Xarquid
This flag allows you to change any alien race to another within its
group. Armed Aliens are special for two reasons. First, they can not
only be replaced by other armed aliens, but also by small terrorist.
Second, they can be replaced by rank.
You can replace all aquatoids with calcinites by specifying either
rpl:aquatoid:calcinite or rpl:a:c, due to the use of abbreviations. You
can also replace all Gill_Man Soldiers with Lobster_Man Commanders using
rpl:g:l:so:c. To replace a ship full of Tasoths with Deep_Ones and
Bio-Drones you could use rpl:t:d:s and rpl:t:b to replace the
squad_leaders with Deep_Ones and the remaining soldiers with Bio-Drones,
or use rpl:t:d:so and rpl:t:b to replace the soldiers with Deep_Ones and
the squad_leaders with Bio-Drones. The difference is because the
abbreviation s matches squad_leader before it matches soldier. If the
newrank is not specified, the oldrank is used and missing ranks will be
converted to soldiers.
This flag works only with saved game files and effects only the current
battle.
DXC = Delete all extra clips carried by the aliens. This does not delete the
clips that are already loaded into weapons. This is used to free up
more room to be used for generating additional aliens or making room for
stunned aliens and/or corpses at unnaturally high difficulty levels.
typ:n = Add n units of SEC, SNA, ETH, MUT, FLO, CEL, SIL, CHR, CIV, or ALL.
ALL:n is used to quickly specify n units of each of the other types.
This flag does not work with TFTD.
Due to limited space in the object and unit tables, you may not be able
to add all of the aliens that you want. The game has a limit of 80
units of all kinds, including humans, aliens, and civilians. Tanks and
large aliens use 4 entries each. The game also has a limit of 170
objects. This must accommodate not only all of the equipment used by
both sides, but also the bodies that accumulate during the battle. I
strictly enforce both limits. You may want to use the DEL:name and DXC
flags to make more room.
All weapon carrying aliens are equipped with Heavy Plasma weapons and a
single clip. Thus, each one requires one entry in the unit table and
three entries in the object table. Large aliens use four entries in
each table. The remaining three types aliens and civilians use only one
entry in each table.
I simplified the distribution of the new units by placing them in the
same locations with existing units of the same size. Once they begin to
move, this stacking of aliens usually corrects itself. This was done to
avoid decoding the map. However, the result was that large aliens
cannot move when stacked together, since they block the movement of each
other. Therefore, additional large aliens are not allowed.
Civilians are treated as a group unto themselves. They are placed only
with other civilians to avoid instant annihilation.
XFR:n = Transfer all uncarried items to the nth base. This circumvents the
TFTD multi-stage battle bug. It does not transfer Elerium/Zrbite or
human corpses. Large corpses and other non-transportable objects like
alloys or plastics are also not transferred. If only XFR is specified,
n is assumed to be 1.
MNY:n = Set the current amount of money in the treasury to n. This is a
CHEAT, but it has been included because it allows you to ignore money
and continue otherwise lost games. If MNY or MNY:0 is specified, the
treasury is set to $1,000,000,000.
ACT:n = Set the current XCOM Activity in each area to n. This is a CHEAT, but
it has been included because it allows you to ignore your score and
continue otherwise lost games. If ACT or ACT:0 is specified, the
activity in each country and area is set to 10,000 for a potential score
of 150,000.
FND:n = Set the current funding for every country n times $1000 per month,
where n is from 10 to 10000. This also restores countries lost to the
aliens. I like to use FND:10 to set the funding to $10000 for every
country at the beginning of the game when I use the BAS flag. This
forces you to be very careful with your money, since you have almost no
monetary support.
VIS = Make the entire map and all opponents visible and sighted. This is
extremely useful for finding the last alien on the battlefield.
WIN = Force a victory in battle by inflicting immediately fatal wounds on all
aliens that are not already stunned. After reloading the game, just end
your move and all remaining aliens will die. This is intended for
situations where you are unable to kill the last alien or when you just
want to finish the first phase of a battle so that you can play the
second phase. WIN:STUN will attempt to stun the aliens instead of
killing them. All large aliens will still be killed to avoid bugs in
the program. The number of live aliens actually captured may be limited
by the space in your Alien Containment facility and other unknown
factors in the program. Use WIN:STUN at your own risk.
LVL:n = Set the difficulty level to supported difficulty level n, where n is 1
through 5. The effects of this command will not be seen until the
beginning of the next combat.
LVL:EXP:n = Set the difficulty level to an EXPerimental difficulty level n not
officially supported by the program. XCOM/UFO used levels 0, 1, 2, 3,
and 4 as supported difficulty levels 1 through 5, while TFTD used levels
0, 1, 2, 4, and 6. This flag lets you set ANY difficulty level you
like, but makes no guarantee that it will work properly. For example,
when you set a high level of difficulty, the object table tends to
overflow, leaving you with unarmed aliens and/or missing Elerium or
Zrbite. The ARM flag will correct these problems for an individual
combat. You will be warned if the object tables are in danger of
overflowing any time you run XCOMUTIL against a saved game. The effects
of this command will not be seen until the beginning of the next combat.
Use this at your own risk.
ARM = Correct the problems caused by using very high difficulty levels set by
the LVL:EXP:n flag by ARMing any as many unarmed aliens as possible. It
also checks for the possibility of lost fuel and adds one Elerium/Zrbite
item to the battleground if the object table is full and no
Elerium/Zrbite was found in the table.
All unarmed aliens are given a Heavy Plasma or Sonic Cannon with a
single clip. To accomplish this, unnecessary items are taken from armed
aliens in the following order:
XCOM/UFO TFTD
Plasma Pistol Clips Pistol Power Clips
Plasma Rifle Clips Blasta Power Clips
Heavy Plasma Clips Cannon Power Clips
Alien Grenades Sonic Pulsers
Mind Probes M.C. Readers
Stun Bombs Thermal Shock Bombs
Blaster Bombs Disruptor Ammo
If these resources are exhausted before all of the aliens are armed,
weapons which use ammunition will be replaced by pairs of Heavy Lasers
or Heavy Thermic Lances, in the same order shown above. If this is
still not enough, a message will report that some weapons could not be
allocated. Please note that the more items you bring to a battle, the
harder it is to fully equip the enemy, since both humans and aliens
share the same object table.
No check is made to determine how much Elerium/Zrbite should have been
available due to the kind of alien ship on the battlefield. Sometimes
you will not get as much as you should, sometimes you will get
Elerium/Zrbite when none was actually missing. This should average out
to be fair without forcing the elimination of too many other items.
SWP = Swap units with the aliens. WARNING: This is the most destructive flag
in the entire program. You should NEVER continue your game from a saved
game on which you have used the SWP flag. You should ALWAYS save your
game twice, using two different saved game numbers, to make a backup
copy of your saved game before running XCOMUTIL with SWP and WRT. You
can then reload the first saved game with the modified files to fight
your enhanced battle. When you are done, you can reload your game from
the second saved game.
The SWP flag allows you to play the aliens and hunt down the soldiers
and civilians. It also allows you to play two-player battles by
performing the following steps:
When each player finishes moving, he or she must save the game and
quit to DOS. Do not use the end of turn icon.
XCOMUTIL must be executed with the SWP and WRT flags to swap the
loyalty of the units and update the new player's Time Units, Energy,
Health, and Stun Level, and to reset various flags and light levels.
The game must be reloaded to allow the other player to move.
WARNING: This mode uncovers a number of subtle bugs in XCOM and TFTD
because they were never designed to be played in this way. Due to a bug
in the initial placement of equipment on the aliens in both XCOM and
TFTD, it is possible to pick up an item and not be able to put it down
again. If this happens, your only option is to reboot. Be careful!
Two player mode is implemented by NEVER leaving the first move of the
battle. This means that no timed events will occur, such as grenade
explosions, and that you cannot watch during the hidden movement phase,
because it no longer exists. The battle is over when XCOMUTIL reports
that one side has been eliminated. That is, when either the fatal
wounds or stun level of every unit matches or exceeds its health.
The alien player is limited to the same technology as the human player,
which can leave some of the aliens logically disarmed. You may want to
use the CHG flag to give the aliens more useful weapons before starting
to play.
Many of the terrorists are powerless, since they have no weapons to
fire. This is the same problem that has always existed when using
Mind/Molecular Control. You may want to use the RPL flag to change them
into more effective aliens before starting to play.
To avoid giving away the enemy locations due to the areas of light
around the units in darkness, the light level of the entire battlefield
is set to the same dim level. This will be corrected as soon as the
first unit moves. At the start of the move, you may also find the
cursor on an invalid level. To correct this, just use the Up-Ladder
icon until you reach a visible level.
I have tried to simulate the effects of fatal wounds and stunning, but
some problems still exist because I am not using the normal end of turn
processing. A stunned unit will not recover by itself, but once its
stun level has fallen to or below its health, you can recover the unit
by merely selecting to use a medi-kit on it. You will not even have to
use a stimulant.
Because I cannot totally duplicate the effects of death, fatal wounds
will only reduce your health to zero if you are already stunned. If
not, it will go no lower than 1. The stun level will also be kept below
your health to avoid the creation of a Wraith whenever the health of a
unit falls below its stun level without going through normal stun
processing. This Wraith is impossible to hit with normal weapons and is
invisible whenever it is not moving. This is a known bug in TFTD.
However, with all its disadvantages, two-player mode has one major
advantage: the players do not have to be using the same machine. The
saved game files can be zipped and sent to another player via modem.
EQP:n = Equip the current squad of soldiers/aquanauts from base n according to
the equipment type specified at the end of each name. Since equipment
is taken from the base and not the ship, use of this flag eliminates the
80-item limit during combat. Examples appear at the end of this
section.
WARNING: Be very careful when using this flag. It is possible to load
your soldiers with so many objects that there is no longer any room in
the object table for the bodies of humans and aliens when they are
killed. If this happens, XCOMUTIL will warn you that you have exceeded
design limits. However, aside from disappearing bodies, you should
experience no other problems. This was a bug that frequently occurred
in TFTD in large battles until MicroProse increased the size of the
object table. With the use of the EQP flag, this bug will probably
reappear from time to time.
If only EQP is specified, the base of origin of the soldiers/aquanauts
is used. The determination of this default requires that each base have
at least one soldier assigned to it. I hope to remove this restriction
at a later date.
WARNING: Specifying a base other than the base of origin is NOT a good
idea, since all equipment is returned to the base of origin at the end
of the battle. This can result in objects migrating from one base to
another in an unpredictable manner. This should only be done to
override the default if it is incorrect, perhaps after one of your bases
has been destroyed.
The EQP flag can only be used on the first turn of combat and should not
be used on a combat when the humans and aliens have been swapped. This
flag is for sophisticated users only. It assumes that you know how to
change the names of the soldiers/aquanauts to add an equipment type.
The EQP flag forces all of the items in the usual ship's inventory to be
transferred back to the selected base, making room for the new equipment
to be loaded. Each soldier/aquanaut then takes new equipment from the
selected base according to the equipment type at the end of his or her
name. Equipment types are of the form /x. They are case sensitive and
can be a maximum of 7 characters after the slash. The default equipment
type, /, will be used if no equipment type is found at the end of the
name.
Equipment types are read from the XCOMUTIL.EQP file that you must create
by either copying lines from the XCOMUTIL.EQL file that is created by
the EQL flag or by manually creating the XCOMUTIL.EQP file. Use of the
EQL flag is VERY strongly recommended. Your first XCOMUTIL.EQP file
will probably just be a copy of an XCOMUTIL.EQL file. As you develop
more equipment types, you will probably only want to add new entries to
the file to avoid losing any data.
The XCOMUTIL.EQP file resides in the directory containing the saved game
directories. The same XCOMUTIL.EQP file is used for all saved games,
since I felt it was unreasonable to have to copy the file into every
saved game directory. There is a limit of 32 entries.
For those of you who are gluttons for punishment, each entry in the
XCOMUTIL.EQP file consists of a line with the equipment type, followed
by a variable number of lines describing each piece of equipment to be
used. These lines are of the form:
loc:objname[:loadname]
The loc field describes where the item is to be carried. Valid loc
fields are:
RH1 = Right Hand RS1 to RS2 = Right Shoulder
LH1 = Left Hand LS1 to LS2 = Left Shoulder
RL1 to RL2 = Right Leg BP1 to BP9 = Backpack
LL1 to LL2 = Left Leg BL1 to BL6 = Belt
The object field is name of the object to be placed at that location.
The optional loadname field is the object to be loaded into the object
in the objname field.
For the sake of readability in files that you generate manually,
entirely blank lines are completely ignored and lines that begin with a
semi-colon (;) or a double-slash (//) are treated as comments.
When equipping the soldiers, no checking is done to ensure that items
are placed in a valid location for their size. This another reason why
the EQL flag is so helpful, since the XCOMUTIL.EQL file will contain
only valid configurations taken directly from existing saved games.
NOTE: When used with the MISSDAT directory, there is an extra
restriction on the EQP flag: You are not allowed to have any equipment
allocated to your ship. If you fail to meet this condition, you will be
stuck with the equipment on your ship. If this restriction is not
enforced, soldiers sometimes have weapons that are not ready. It also
provides an easy way to choose whether you want automatic equipping of
your soldiers without exiting the game. However, because of this
restriction, you will be stuck with whatever equipment is in your base
for a base attack unless you save your game, run XCOMUTIL on the saved
game directory instead of the MISSDAT directory, then reload your game.
EQP:n:filename = Equip the current squad of soldiers/aquanauts from base n, as
for EQP:n above, using filename.EQP instead of XCOMUTIL.EQP.
EQP:filename uses filename.EQP with n assumed to be 1.
EQL = Generate XCOMUTIL.EQL from the current squad. This flag scans the
current squad for soldiers/aquanauts with explicit equipment types
specified and generates entries based upon what they carry. Examples
appear at the end of this section. It assumes that you know how to
change the names of the soldiers/aquanauts to add an equipment type.
For example, if at least one soldier has /xyz at the end of his name,
the XCOMUTIL.EQL file that is generated will contain a single entry for
equipment type /xyz that lists everything that soldier was carrying. If
you copy these lines to a file named XCOMUTIL.EQP, then every time you
use the EQP flag, every soldier with /xyz, /XYZ, or even /xYz at the end
of his or her name will be equipped with these objects.
To initialize the default equipment type, add the equipment type of /,
with no additional characters, to your XCOMUTIL.EQP file. The easiest
way to do this is to use the EQL flag on a squad with at least one
soldier/aquanaut with only a / at the end of his or her name.
WARNING: If multiple soldiers have the same equipment type but
different equipment, the resulting entry is unpredictable. Therefore,
it is best if only one soldier with each equipment type is in the
current saved game.
The XCOMUTIL.EQL file resides in the directory containing the saved game
directories. The XCOMUTIL.EQL file is an informational file that is
written every time that the EQL flag is specified, even when WRT is not
specified.
REN[:ALL] = Renames the soldiers in XCOM according to their attributes. It
does this by adding an equipment type to the end of the name. The
following characters in the equipment type represent the following
atttributes:
m = Marksmanship >= 60 (firing accuracy)
M = Marksmanship >= 70 (firing accuracy)
r = Reactions >= 50
R = Reactions >= 60
p = Psi Strength >= 60 and Psi Skill > 0
P = Psi Strength >= 80 and Psi Skill > 0
k = Psi Skill >= 30
K = Psi Skill >= 60
w = Strength < 25 (weak)
c = Bravery == 10 (coward)
REN will only add equipment types to names which do not already have
them. This allows you to use these equipment types as defaults for new
soldiers without effecting any unique equipment types you may have
defined. However, if you want to strip away any old equipment types and
rename all of your soldiers, use the REN:ALL flag.
If the resulting string exceeds the maximum length for a name, the first
name will be replaced by an initial. If this string is still too long,
no change will be made.
This flag can be used with the EQP, SRT:EQP, and EQL flags or just as a
way to see information that is unavailable unless in the attributes
screen. This flag is only allowed outside of combat and is not valid
with TFTD in this release. I have not yet decoded all of the fields in
SOLDIER.DAT for TFTD.
SRT = Sorts all of the soldiers/aquanauts by rank. It also moves all empty
slots to the beginning of the list so that new soldiers/aquanauts appear
first in the list and the ships. Because a bubble sort is used, the
first sort may be much slower than later sorts, but order within ranks
will be maintained. If both SRT and SRT:EQP are specified, SRT is
performed first. This flag is only allowed outside of combat.
SRT:EQP = Sorts all of the soldiers/aquanauts by the order of their equipment
flags as they appear in XCOMUTIL.EQP. Because a bubble sort is used,
the first sort may be much slower than later sorts, but order within
equipment types will be maintained. This flag is only allowed outside
of combat.
SRT:EQP:filename = Sorts all of the soldiers/aquanauts by the order of their
equipment flags as they appear in filename.EQP.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
Equipment Type Examples:
To generate .EQP files for sorting and equipment distribution, you first need
to add equipment types to the ends of the names of your soldiers/aquanauts.
To do this, go to the Soldiers/Aquanauts area on the Bases screen. If you
click on the name of a Soldier/Aquanaut when viewing his/her statistics, you
can change the name to anything you like. Because there is a limit on the
length of names, you may have to abbreviate the name to add your equipment
type.
An equipment type is a slash (/), followed by up to seven characters at the
end of the name. The equipment type is case sensitive. I typically use / for
average soldiers, /m for good marksmen, and /M for very good marksmen. If no
/ appears in the name, the type defaults to /.
Once you have added equipment types to the names of your soldiers, save your
game after you have distributed your equipment to your soldiers at the
beginning of a battle. Exit the game, then run:
XCOMUTIL GAME_x EQL
to produce XCOMUTIL.EQL. Please look at this file with a text editor or just
enter TYPE XCOMUTIL.EQL to display it from your command line. The format is
fairly simple.
If you rename this to XCOMUTIL.EQP, you can now run:
XCOMUTIL GAME_x EQP WRT
to re-equip your soldiers in exactly the same was as when you created the
XCOMUTIL.EQL flag. Using a text editor, you can merge many different copies
of XCOMUTIL.EQL into a large XCOMUTIL.EQP file with up to 64 different
equipment types. You can also create multiple .EQP files, such as DAY.EQP and
NIGHT.EQP to allow different equipment distributions for different battle
conditions. You select other .EQP files by using the EQP:filename flag. For
example, EQP:CAPTURE would select the CAPTURE.EQP file.
You can control the order in which your soldiers are loaded into your ships by
the order in which the equipment types appear in the .EQP file. This sorting
is done on all of your soldiers at all of your bases. You perform this
sorting by using the SRT:EQP or SRT:EQP:filename flag to group all of your
soldiers by equipment type. I usually put /c, for cowards, first. Since the
first soldiers off the ship are the most likely to die, the cowards will die
before they get a chance to panic and hurt someone else. My next choices are
usually /r for soldiers with high reactions or /R for soldiers with very high
reactions, since this improves their chances for survival. With 64 possible
equipment types allowed, you can mix these to mean whatever you like. In my
games, I use /MRb+ to represent a brave soldier with very high reactions who
is an excellent marksman.
Things to Remember:
Equipment types are added to names at your bases before combat begins.
You do not have to use the EQL flag to produce your .EQP file, but it
definitely makes it easier. A text editor is all you really need.
Sorting can only be done outside of combat when no soldiers are being
transferred from one base to another.
Sorting can be performed with a .EQP file that contains only equipment types
and no equipment. However, if this minimal .EQP file is used with the EQP
flag, you will end up with totally unarmed soldiers.
Sorting is permanent and does not change from battle to battle.
Equipment is loaded at the beginning of each combat either by using the
EQUIP.BAT file or by saving your game at the beginning of a battle, exiting
the game, running XCOMUTIL, then reloading your game.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
XCOMUTIL.RND:
The XCOMUTIL.RND file is used to randomize the use of pairs of .MAP and .RMP
files. The .MAP file defines the layout of the terrain, while the .RMP file
defines starting locations and routes for the aliens relative to that terrain.
XCOMUTIL.RND is used only with saved games or MISSDAT so that the game time
and date from the SAVEINFO.DAT file can be used to seed the random number
generator.
The XCOMUTIL.RND file contains one line for each .MAP/.RMP file pair that is
to be randomized. This file is case insensitive. For the sake of
readability, entirely blank lines are completely ignored and lines that begin
with a semi-colon (;) or a double-slash (//) are treated as comments.
Each valid line consists of up to 64 file names, separated by blanks. The
first file name on each line defines the name of the target file. All of the
names on the line are candidates for the source file name. That is, the
backup copy of the target file is always a candidate for the source file.
Every name on the line has an equal probability of being selected as the
source file name.
For example, to randomize the map for the Medium Scout in XCOM, we could use
the following line:
UFO_110 ABC XYZ
In this case, the target files are UFO_110.MAP and UFO_110.RMP. There is a
one-third chance that each of UFO_110, ABC, and XYZ will be selected. If
UFO_110 is selected, selected, XCOMUTIL will copy MAPS\UFO_110.XCU to
MAPS\UFO_110.MAP and ROUTES\UFO_110.XCU to ROUTES\UFO_110.RMP. If ABC is
selected, XCOMUTIL will attempt to copy MAPS\ABC.MAP to MAPS\UFO_110.MAP and
ROUTES\ABC.RMP to ROUTES\UFO_110.RMP. If ROUTES\ABC.RMP does not exist,
ROUTES\UFO_110.XCU is copied instead. If MAPS\ABC.RMP does not exist,
XCOMUTIL will terminate with an error message.
You can control the probability that each file is selected by repeating names
on the line. Consider the following line:
UFO_110 UFO_110 ABC ABC ABC XYZ
In this case, ABC will be selected one-half of the time, UFO_110 will be
selected one-third of the time, and XYZ will be selected one-sixth of the
time.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
XCOMUTIL.CFG:
This file is used by XCOMUTIL to redefine all of the ships used in XCOM/UFO
and TFTD. It is used both to patch GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE by using the
SHP:CFG flag and to rearrange your soldiers and tanks on entry to combat. You
should not even consider modifying XCOMUTIL.CFG unless you fully understand
what you are doing.
The layout of XCOMUTIL.CFG is fairly simple. It consists of nested sections
beginning with NAME and ending with /NAME, similar to HTML tags. This file is
case insensitive. For the sake of readability, entirely blank lines are
completely ignored and lines that begin with a semi-colon (;) or a
double-slash (//) are treated as comments.
Each ship has a section identified by its name. For example, the Interceptor
section defines data specific to the XCOM Interceptor. The section for each
ship contains Crew sections that define the row, column, level, and facing of
each unit upon entry to combat. The row and column are relative to upper left
corner of the ship on the battlescape. The level and facing are absolute.
Levels begin with 0 at the top and 3 at the bottom, except in bases which have
only level 0 and 1. The facings begin with 0 for North and 1 for NorthEast
and continue around to 7 for NorthWest.
Each Crew section begins with a "Limit:c t" line which defines the maximum
crew size and maximum number of tanks for this arrangement of units. Tanks
are always represented by 4 entries in NW, NE, SW, and SE orders. All entries
for the same tank MUST have the same facing. In XCOM/UFO, most units face
north, so soldiers and tanks can share the same entries. In TFTD, most units
face south, forcing unique layouts for each number of tanks. The first Crew
section within the selected ship with sufficient limits is the Crew section
that will be used. If no matching Crew section is found, no rearrangement
will be performed.
There are three special sections, XCOMShips and TFTDShips, which are used only
by SHP:CFG. These sections define all of the information that must be patched
into GEOSCAPE.EXE and TACTICAL.EXE. The Stats and Weapons sections within
each of these define the ship and ship weapon statistics that are shown in the
UFOpedia. The Terrain section defines those attributes of both the human and
alien ships that are used by map designers.
The R/C/L/A colums of the Terrain section define the number of 10x10 blocks in
Rows and Columns, the number of Levels to the map, and whether the ship is
Alien or human. If the size is set smaller than the .MAP file, the ship may
not appear at all on the battlescape. If all of the alien ships are marked as
human, the alien ship will look exactly like the human ship. If the Stats
define a larger crew complement than any Crew section defined for the ship,
the results are unpredictable.
WARNING: There appear to be limits on soldiers and tanks other than the
limits defined here. If you have more than 4 tanks or if you have any tanks
and you try to have more than 26 total crew (the number of soldiers plus 4
times the number of tanks), soldiers may be randomly placed after XCOMUTIL
places the units on the battlescape. If you understand this warning, you can
modify the Avenger to a maximum crew of 30 and the Leviathan to maximum crew
of 28. There are already crew positions for the additional soldiers defined
in the XCOMUTIL.CFG that is shipped with XCOMUTIL.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
Special Features for Developers:
If QueryInfo is the only parameter specified, XCOMUTIL will exit immediately
with the error level set to the value you have requested with the second
parameter, as defined below. Both parameters are case sensitive and the first
is more than 8 characters long to avoid conflicts with possible directory
names under the normal DOS file system. There is no other output from
XCOMUTIL.
Version = The error level is set to 100 times the current version number. For
example, version 6.0 will set the error level to 600. This parameter is
useful for verifying the level of XCOMUTIL from a batch file.
HumanShip = The error level is set to the index of the human ship that is
being used in this battle. The value corresponds to the order of the
ships displayed by the SHP flag, beginning with 0. This parameter is
useful for making decisions about map fixups that may be required in batch
files.
AlienShip = The error level is set to the index of the alien ship that is
being used in this battle. The value corresponds to the order of the
ships displayed by the SHP flag, beginning with 0. This parameter is
useful for making decisions about map fixups that may be required in batch
files.
Terrain = The error level is set to the index of the terrain that is being
used in this battle. The value corresponds to the order of the terrains
displayed by the MAP flag, beginning with 0. This parameter is useful for
making decisions about map fixups that may be required in batch files.
Chars = XCOMUTIL will wait for a string to be entered from standard input. It
will scan the third parameter for the first occurrence of the first
character that was entered. If the character is found in the nth position
in the string, it will set the error level to n and exit. Otherwise, it
will set the error level to 0 and exit. This parameter is useful for
handling Yes/No prompts in batch files.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
Flags vs Paths and Combat:
Flag UFOEXE GAME_n (Combat) GAME_n (non-Combat)
ACT X X
ARM X
B2S X
BAS X
CHG X
DEL X
DIS X X X
DXC X
EQL X
EQP X
FIX X
FLY X
FND X X
GAU X
INC X
LST X X
LVL X X
MAP X
MNY X X
MSK X
NMC X
PSI X
RND X X
RPL X
S2B X
SHP X
SRT X
SWP X
TEC X
TNK X
VIS X
W2H X
W2P X
W2R X
WIN X
WRT X X X
XFR X
typ:n X
The MISSDAT directory is used for temporary storage between phases of the
XCOM/TFTD programs. It should only be used with batch files which insert
calls to XCOMUTIL between the phases of the game. The AFT flag is used only
with the MISSDAT directory to indicate that after-combat data is to be used
instead of before-combat data.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
Known Bugs:
The Base of Origin for an attack is not always correctly determined. If
this is incorrect, you need to explicitly specify it for flags like EQP.
This bug has existed since version 4.2 and no fix is expected unless I make
a major breakthrough in my decoding of the data files.
Aliens replaced with the RPL flag retain their original flying ability. I
could not figure out how to correct this, but it has little effect.
The current ship may be reported as a Skyranger or Triton when no ships at
all are present. This is a very minor bug that allows me to report ships
even when terrains are replaced.
XCOMUTIL may not properly identify some foreign versions of GEOSCAPE.EXE.
The results may be unpredictable. Please report any such problems to me
immediately. I will provide new patches as soon as I can identify these
unique versions of the game.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
Wish List for Future Versions:
The ability to redesign the research tree for both XCOM and TFTD.
Identification of the base of origin for use by the XFR and EQP flags.
Support the addition of large aliens to battles.
Duplication of existing aliens instead of addition of specific aliens.
Ability to indicate that all or selected research has already been done.
I hope this will be the last version of XCOMUTIL, but I have been saying
that about almost every version since 1.0.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ------------
Change History:
15 MAR 95 -- Version 0.0. First Beta test version of XCOMUTIL.EXE. Known
bugs: Stacking of large aliens prohibits their movement,
Modification of SEEMAP.DAT when /SWP and not /WRT.
21 MAR 95 -- Version 0.1. Fixed SEEMAP.DAT bug and eliminated the need for
slashes in flags. Large alien bug still exists.
03 APR 95 -- Version 0.2. This version now works with both the shipped and
patched versions of XCOM:UFO Defense. Many of the flags also
work with XCOM:Terror from the Deep. The LST flag has been
added to make the use of CHG and DEL easier.
11 APR 95 -- Version 0.3. This version now displays and modifies the TFTD
alien statistics. The NMC flag has been added to eliminate all
alien Mind/Molecular Control skill.
14 APR 95 -- Version 0.4. This version displays the level of XCOM or TFTD
files and displays and sets the difficulty level in saved games.
Minor bugs in error handling have also been corrected.
30 APR 95 -- Version 0.5. This version circumvents the TFTD multi-stage
battle bug which discards all uncarried items when going to the
next stage. The default base option has been improved by
increasing the number of Scientists from 10 to 50, the current
treasury can to be set to one billion dollars, and the FLY flag
can toggle the flying ability of Tentaculats on and off.
Civilian corpses will now display properly in the list of
objects. Standard display now includes the names of all bases
and the amount of money in the treasury.
23 MAY 95 -- Version 1.0. This version is no longer a Beta. That is, I do
not expect to make any further enhancements, except for bug
fixes. Time will tell.
This version fixes my Xarquid/Hallucinoid corpse identification
bug. The MNY:n flag has been added to set the current amount of
money to n. The ACT:n flag has been added to set the XCOM
Activity in all the areas of the world. The XFR flag can now be
used to replace XFR:1.
24 MAY 95 -- Version 1.1. This version fixes a bug in the DIS flag for XCOM
only, not TFTD, which has existed since at least version 0.5.
04 JUN 95 -- Version 1.2. This version is now compatible with the TFTDV2
patch. The LEV flag has been added to fix unit positioning
inside Leviathans. The standard display of units has been
improved. The last three digits of the saved game time is the
turn within combat.
25 JUL 95 -- Version 2.0. This version adds difficulty levels to XCOM using
the INC:n flag, which replaces the ACC flag. The ability to vary
races has been added via the RPL flag. The GAU flag has been
added to make the Gauss weapons act like the lasers from XCOM.
Abbreviations are now allowed in the CHG, DEL, and RPL commands.
The display of the combat turn has also been made more obvious.
10 AUG 95 -- Version 2.1. This version adds a limited two-player mode to all
battles through an improved SWP flag. The VIS flag has been
enhanced to make the map brightly lit and all opponents visible.
The DIS flag now reports the health, stun level, and fatal wounds
of all units at the current display level. The RPL flag now
supports both XCOM and TFTD. The Tank bug in RPL, which resulted
in human weapons being dropped at the feet of aliens has been
fixed. The RPL flag now maintains ranks where possible during
replacement. The XCOM version checking is now performed earlier
to allow better flag validation.
21 SEP 95 -- Version 2.2. This version adds the MSK flag to set the minimum
Psi or MC skill to 1 and the SRT flag to sort all soldiers and
aquanauts by rank. The bug which made civilians shoot at
soldiers has been fixed. Standard display now distinguishes
between combat and non-combat saved games.
27 SEP 95 -- Version 2.3. This version fixes two bugs. First, it prohibits
the use of the SRT flag if any troop transfers are in progress to
avoid loss of the transferred troops. Second, it checks for
combat before opening files to avoid failures when attempting to
open non-existant files. This changes the standard display by
eliminating invalid combat information. The new WIN flag has
been added to force a victory in any battle.
22 OCT 95 -- Version 2.4. This version adds the FIX flag to permanently fix
bugs in either XCOM or TFTD and fixes two bugs. The first is a
minor bug in XCOMUTIL in the use of the GAU flag which changed
the length of the OBDATA.DAT file in the GEODATA directory, but
caused no detectable harm. The second is a bug in TFTD that
reversed the maps of the small and very small ships. Using the
new FIX flag will permanently fix this bug by renaming some of
the files in the MAPS and ROUTES directories. The effects of
both the GAU and FIX flags can be undone by copying the .XCU
files (XCOMUTIL backup files) back to the original files. New
file handling routines have allowed me to reduce the size of
XCOMUTIL.EXE while adding more function. The documentation has
been extensively revised.
28 NOV 95 -- Version 2.5. This version enhances the FIX flag to remove the
copy protection checks in the XCOM 1.0 GEOSCAPE.EXE, as was done
by MicroProse itself in the XCOM 1.4 patch.
29 DEC 95 -- Version 3.0. This version breaks the 80-item limit and allows
the equipment of soldiers to be setup prior to the mission
through the use of the EQP flag. The EQL flag has been added as
an aid to setting up the XCOMUTIL.EQP file that the EQP flag
uses.
07 JAN 96 -- Version 3.1. This version adds the TEC, TEC:HUMAN, TEC:HYBRID,
and TEC:ALL flags to make new technology available. The BAS flag
has been enhanced to add more engineers. The documentation has
been enhanced for the EQP and EQL flags.
28 JAN 96 -- Version 3.2. This version adds the SHP and SHP:a:b flags to swap
ships in TACTICAL.EXE. This allows you to display and/or swap
the alien ship layouts used for battlefields.
29 AUG 96 -- Version 3.3. This version was primarily created to change my
E-mail id to stjones@comland.com. To make it worthwhile for
those who upgrade to this version, it contains minor
documentation corrections and clarifications and a partially
implemented MAP flag that currently displays all of the types of
terrain available for battlefields. A future version may also
enable the change feature of this flag, if I can figure out how
to safely do this. MC Skill was also removed from the list of
attributes modified by the INC:n flag, since increasing this
attribute made the game unplayable unless NMC was used.
14 OCT 96 -- Version 4.0. This version finally fixes the difficulty bug which
disabled the setting of difficulty levels and enhances the LVL:n
flag to dynamically change the difficulty level of XCOM or UFO
games already in progress. It also adds the ability to modify
GEOSCAPE.EXE for all versions of UFO:Enemy Unknown.
29 OCT 96 -- Version 4.1. This version fixes a minor bug in XCOM/UFO when
changing the difficulty level of a game that was saved prior to
applying the Difficulty Fix. The true difficulty can now be
detected and it can be changed to any level via the LVL:EXP:n
flag. The EQP flag has been enhanced to accept filenames and
WIN:STUN has been added to allow you to win a battle by stunning
your opponents instead of killing them.
03 NOV 96 -- Version 4.2. This version adds sorting by equipment type with
the new SRT:EQP[:filename] flag. It adds the ability to list all
of your soldiers to the LST flag. A new table has been added to
the documentation showing when each flag is appropriate and what
path should be used.
12 NOV 96 -- Version 4.3. This version corrects a number of bugs in both
XCOM/TFTD and XCOMUTIL. The new ARM flag fixes the Unarmed
Aliens bug that is the result of the object tables being too
small. The DXC and DEL flags are now operating properly after
being broken since version 1.2. This file has been greatly
enhanced to hopefully explain the use of .EQP files.
27 NOV 96 -- Version 5.0. This version can run between the phases of the
game, allowing on-the-fly logging and equipping of soldiers. The
LOG.BAT and EQUIP.BAT files have been added to the DOS version to
support these new functions. Support has been added for UFO 1.1,
a new TNK flag has been added to enhance the movement and armor
of tanks, the BAS:UNDO flag has been added to undo the BAS flag,
and the DIS:n flag can now set the display level instead of
specifying DIS n times. More information is now displayed to
support logging.
30 NOV 96 -- Version 5.1. Emergency version to correct two bugs in 5.0. The
critical bug was that any change to SOLDIER.DAT destroyed
SOLDIER.DAT. The second bug was that the LOG.BAT and EQUIP.BAT
files did not support the new sound code in XCOM 1.4 or any
version of TFTD, causing XCOM and TFTD to hang.
09 FEB 97 -- Version 5.2. The RND flag has been added to randomize the maps
used for ships. New .MAP files have been included to go with
RANDOM.BAT. PLANE.MAP has been included as an alternate version
of the SKYRANGER in XCOM. The RANDOM.BAT and MAPSETUP.BAT files
have been added for use with the RND flag.
04 MAR 97 -- Version 5.3. The new FND:n flag sets the funding in thousands
for all countries, including those previously lost. The new
SHP:INT flag for XCOM adds the ability to load up to 28 troops on
your INTERCEPTORs when using the new LOG.BAT file. The new
SHP:ALT and SHP:UNDO flags will modify and restore the maps for
the SKYRANGER and HAMMERHEAD. The BAS:ATK flag has been added
for use with the MISSDAT directory in LOG.BAT to rearrange troops
and equipment when attacking alien bases.
11 MAR 97 -- Version 5.4. This version corrects the Missing Man bug that has
plagued XCOMUTIL since version 5.0. You can now safely use any
function that modifies the files in the MISSDAT directory, such
as EQUIP.DAT and SHP:INT. The BAS:ATK flag has been changed to
allow it to safely be used with Base Defense missions. The order
of the troops on the INTERCEPTOR has been changed for easier
movement and greater safety for higher-ranking officers.
15 APR 97 -- Version 6.0. This is a major revision that adds many new
functions that make some old flags obsolete. The flags that have
been removed are BAS:ATK, LEV, MAP:a:b, SHP:ALT, SHP:INT,
SHP:a:b, MAP:a:b, and RND:a:b. This is a developer's release
that allows map designers to easily incorporate their new maps
into XCOM/UFO and TFTD. I have redesigned many of the human
ships, both to improve the game and to serve as examples for
others. Most of the new features are enabled by the SHP:CFG
flag, which updates all ship and ship weapon descriptions from
the XCOMUTIL.CFG file. The new REN flag will rename the soldiers
in XCOM to include equipment types. The most obvious change is
that ALL ships can now carry weapons and soldiers or aquanauts.
The Laser Cannon now has longer range, but does less damage, in
an attempt to make it a more useful item. The LOG.BAT,
EQUIP.BAT, and RANDOM.BAT files have been merged into a single
RUNXCOM.BAT file. All of my alien ships have been removed and
will be packaged separately.
24 APR 97 -- Version 6.1. This version fixes an irritating bug that forces
XCOMUTIL to abort if GEODATA.DAT is not found. It also corrects
some minor problems in the documentation and XCOMUTIL.CFG. This
version is smaller due to some code cleanup, but it displays
extra information about the ships and terrain during combat.
27 APR 97 -- Version 6.2. This version fixes the Disjoint Base bug in XCOM.
It also fixes a minor bug in RUNXCOM.BAT that prohibited the use
of XCOMUTIL.RND.
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