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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Loc.dat Modifying


ImFeklhr

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I just got back into X-com and finally found a way to make it work on my Windows XP machine (i run MP3's in the backround which takes up enough system resources that Xcom plays at near normal speed... MoSlo didnt work).

 

Anyway, the game does occasionally crash so I try to save it as often as possible, and I got out of one particularly successful mission, but the game kept crashing afterwards. When I began the mission (crashed alien craft), there was ANOTHER minimized dogfight going on between one of my interceptors and an another alien ship. When I tried to resume that battle after my ground mission finished my interceptor had -4225 Stingay missles and the same for avalanches.

 

If I attacked the ship I could hit it a million times and it would never crash, and it would never attack me. If I disengaged the alien ship would fly off (and eventually land), but the "minimized" dogfight icon would stay at the top right hand corner on the screen. If I clicked on it, the game would crash, or if the figther eventually was redirected back to base the game would crash.

 

So I read the wiki website, took the crash course in the backend files (with some help from the X-com wiki) and used EDIT to remove that Interceptor from existance. I'll lose the craft, but keep the mission I was really happy with.

 

It was my first time trying to edit a file for X-com or use the Windows EDIT program at all. Needless to say I found it very ineresting, as a complete newbie when it comes to computer "code".

 

I was wondering if you knew of the file that handles/stores dogfight battle information? Could I have just edited some other file to end that dogfight so I didn't have to lose the craft? (removing the alien ship from the code did not work).

 

Any thoughts?

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First I'm sure if you were at the wiki you saw this entry

 

Basically don't have any dog fights minimized when saving or going into tactical mission. I thought I'd be ok if I was going into a tactical mission, but nope, it would crash to the previous mission every time (DOS version).

 

The only other thing I know of is to look at CRAFT.DAT. The wiki doesn't have info on it yet, but hatfarm does. I don't think we know of any flags for the dogfights. Probably because we all avoid saving the game in that state.

 

Also take a look at DOSBox I believe it is what the majority of us use (I use it). XCOM runs almost perfectly on this (little slow at times).

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I was wondering if you knew of the file that handles/stores dogfight battle information? Could I have just edited some other file to end that dogfight so I didn't have to lose the craft? (removing the alien ship from the code did not work).

 

Any thoughts?

 

As far as I know this has not been firgured out. However this would be somthing that would be worth looking into. once that location is found it would be trivial to make a auto fixer that cancles all dogfights when the game enters tactical.

 

-Blade FireLight

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Thanks for the input. I, in fact, hadn't read the known bugs section. Or if I did, it was before I encountered this problem

 

My final solution was just removing my Interceptor from the code. It probably would have been more "profittable" to go back to my previous saved game, and just replay the next two missions, and not lose the craft.

 

But I am sure you have all had a mission or two you were proud of and didn't want to replay. That was the case for me.

 

I am glad that this is a specific bug, that I can avoid in the future. I am equally glad to have stumbled across the wiki and this forum.

 

I would have never thought to fiddle with the code of a game, completely beyond my scope of expertise.

 

Interestingly, if I never clicked on the minimized screen, the game wouldn't crash. I accelerated the game for a month, and engaged in other dogfights, and it never crashed. I'm sure it would have eventually become a problem, and I didn't want that hanging over me the rest of the game, but it was funny.

 

 

Thanks guys.

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