STBOF.INI Unknown settings

[QuasarDonkey]

I was examining the Trek.exe assembly code that reads STBOF.INI (at asm offset 0x493D80), and noticed a few new options for settings:


TACTICAL = [DETAILED, ABSTRACT, QUICK]

DETAILED: manual tactical combat
ABSTRACT: automatic tactical combat
QUICK: ???

Setting TACTICAL=QUICK seems to have some strange effects


VICTORY = [KILLALL, KILL5, BUDDYKILL]

KILLALL: domination
KILL5: vendetta
BUDDYKILL: ???

I don't know if VICTORY=BUDDYKILL has any effect on games. Maybe it's for MP games?


LANGUAGE = [ENGLISH, GERMAN, SPANISH]

This sets the language used for some hard-coded in-game text, but there is only data for English and German, not Spanish There's really no point in me even mentioning it.


SHAPE = [0, 1, 2, 3, 100]

0: Irregular
1: Elliptical
2: Ring
3: Spiral
100: Diagnostic mode

Setting SHAPE=100 enables diagnostic code for galaxy generation. On starting a new game, it will crash, but it will create a bunch of files s1.dat, s2.dat, etc. which seem to show the galaxy shapes. Again, only a curiosity.


SCREENVOLATILE = [YES, NO]

This is not new, but in case you ever wondered what this does, setting it to YES will conserve RAM by unloading unused graphics, etc. from memory. It's better to set this to NO on systems with more than 64 Meg RAM, lol, as it will slow down the game by constantly reloading data.


TURNSTATUS = [ON, OFF]

If set to ON, this should write out some diagnostic information into text files. Of course, the code that writes out the turn log (turn.txt) is bugged -- it overwrites the file every time it writes to it, but a simple patch can fix this.


3D = [SOFTWARE, SOFTWARE1, 3DFX, P2, DIRECT3D, DIRECT3D1]

Which MPR driver to use? I think P2 tells BotF to use the Pentium-II optimized software version of MPR, so this might make the game a little faster than SOFTWARE. Don't quote me on that though.


CURRENTGAME = (number)

This seems to do nothing at all.


Testing these out only requires editing the STBOF.INI file in the BotF folder. Let me know if you figure out TACTICAL=QUICK and VICTORY=BUDDYKILL!

[Flocke]

I don't know if VICTORY=BUDDYKILL has any effect on games. Maybe it's for MP games?

That must be the team play option then, which you can choose for multiplayer, right.

[QuasarDonkey]

Ah, that sounds right. Anytime I plan LAN games, it's always 1v1, so I've never played with teams. Any thoughts on TACTICAL=QUICK?

[thunderchero]

TACTICAL=QUICK

maybe shows combat but no ship command selection?

thunderchero

[QuasarDonkey]

Well I've tried it myself, and it seems to avoid battles altogether. I was able to fly ships on ENGAGE into the combat drone without fighting, among other things. I guess it's an unfinished feature.

[thunderchero]

I also set to QUICK and tested on game all ready in progress and combat happened as normal.

but if you open option screen it shows no option for "tactical combat option" expected since there is no tga files for this option.

I guess it's an unfinished feature.

I wonder how much would be left of the trek.exe if all unfinished features were removed?

thunderchero

[Dr_Breen]

have you tried BUGS = [ON, OFF] ?

[Flocke]

have you tried BUGS = [ON, OFF] ?

roflmao, good one

but hey, we might add this