tfdesign.tfd

tfdesign.tfd & combat.bin (broken/unused); support/discussion/questions

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DCER
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tfdesign.tfd

Post by DCER »

I've been trying to figure out what this file from stbof.res does.

The result:

The file is not even being used. Fill it with random data, empty it or even remove from stbof.res and the game won't care.


What it was probably meant for (my guess):

tfdesign seems to stand for task force design

The file contains 8 blocks of data each begins with block index (2 bytes) and is then followed by 10x2 bytes.

The data following the block id are most likely numbers of ships for each class type to build. The order is as follows (taken from trek.exe subroutine at 0x17AF8): scout, raider (destroyer), war (cruiser), artillery (strike), command, colony, invalid (outpost), invalid (starbase), invalid (alien), transport.

The numbers don't make much sense - my guess is they were there for testing.

If this file were active, we'd have an easy way to control AI ship building habits, but sadly it's just junk.
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Post by thunderchero »

I think I did same thing with combat.bin last year (with much less testing). when I was playing with combat.mnu for recloak during combat and removing ram command.

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Post by DCER »

Hm, don't know if combat.bin is used but if you remove it from stbof.res the game won't start at all - no crash.log entry either.
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Post by thunderchero »

I think I wrote it with zero's and also left it empty but not removed it.
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Post by Spocks-cuddly-tribble »

DCER wrote:don't know if combat.bin is used but if you remove it from stbof.res the game won't start at all - no crash.log entry either.
Concerning combat.bin:

Sub_479D10 compares values depending on shipfunction for unknown purpose.

values (set in sub_4797C0) are:

3 - scout
4 - destroyer
5 - cruiser
10 - strike
15 - command
1 - colony
8 - outpost
20 - starbase
30 - alien
2 - transport


The values should depend on combat.bin, but it doesn't work. :?

47983C cmp edi, 7Dh -> number of ships

-> 500 bytes steps /entries

combat.bin -> 62500(bytes) / 500 = 125(ships)
I don't know how many bugs is too many but that point is reached somewhere before however many in BotF is.
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