Game Files
Not-for-profit, just-for-fun reverse engineering.
- General note re: Hex editing game files
- Contains a quick introduction to using a most unlikely program to edit your game files, and suggestions on other editors out there.
- A primer for the Command Prompt (aka the command console).
- Information on how to manage directories, files, plus other neat tricks that can be done through the command console that should not be forgotten in today's era of point and click madness.
Hatfarm / Chris Voss and DaiShiva (see file formats) also have notes on a number of XCOM's file formats not yet detailed on this wiki.
Program Files
These are program files and static data files that are not part of the saved game files.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| GEODATA | Text for localization. Includes OBDATA.DAT object data file. |
| GEOGRAPH | Graphics for UFOpaedia and research screen backgrounds. |
| MAPS | Pre-generated Battlescape terrain blocks (.MAP). These are filled in with terrain tiles. A few dozen blocks make up a battlescape. |
| MISSDAT | Holds the data from the previous mission. (Can be exploited). |
| ROUTES | Alien route maps (.RMP) for moving around the pre-generated Battlescape terrain blocks. |
| SOUND | 1990-era sound drivers, or MIDI files for Windows version. |
| TERRAIN | Battlescape graphic tiles for buildings, ships, and terrain (.MCD, .PCK, and .TAB). |
| UFO2EXE\TACTICAL.EXE | The "Battlescape" program in DOS-release of UFO. |
| UFOEXE\GEOSCAPE.EXE | The "Geoscape" program that handles base management and aircraft. |
| UFOEXE\BLACK.EXE | The black screen UFO.BAT puts up when swapping between the above two programs. |
| UFOGRAPH | Misc graphics (.PCK) for soldier equipment screens, smoke, motion detector blobs. |
| UFOINTRO | Holds the introduction movie (.FLI) and the endgame pictures (.LBM). |
| UNITS | Battlescape graphics for soldiers, aliens, and the pixelated guns they hold. (.PCK and .TAB). |
Geoscape Files
These are savegame files used by the Geoscape portion of the game. This can be considered a 'standard' save.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| ACTS.DAT | Contains information which acts with which priority in respective zones aliens are going to try. |
| AKNOW.DAT | |
| ALIEN.DAT | Contains Alien activity in Countries and areas, for graphs. |
| ASTORE.DAT | Has the info on aliens in Alien Containment. |
| BASE.DAT | Has all of the base layout and contents information, radar scanning abilities and other base information. |
| BPROD.DAT | List of equipment being produced. |
| CRAFT.DAT | Has all the craft info, weapons, fuel, damage and items onboard. Also stores UFO information, although information is handled differently from friendly aircraft. |
| DIPLOM.DAT | Diplomacy info, and current and historical Country Funding. |
| DUM.BIN | Dummy file for keeping directory structure. Not used. |
| FACIL.DAT | Info on Base Facilities you can build. |
| IGLOB.DAT | Date and time. |
| INTER.DAT | |
| LEASE.DAT | |
| LIGLOB.DAT | Money! Also financial graph information. |
| LOC.DAT | Location of bases on the planet as well as other things like ships, waypoints and missions. Basically anything that is an icon on the Geoscape world view. |
| MISSIONS.DAT | Contains counters and race info on the ongoing alien acts. |
| PRODUCT.DAT | Info on things you can produce. |
| PROJECT.DAT | These are things you are researching. |
| PURCHASE.DAT | Info on stuff you can buy. |
| RESEARCH.DAT | Completed research. |
| SAVEINFO.DAT | Name of the saved game. |
| SOLDIER.DAT | Data about the soldiers. |
| TRANSFER.DAT | Personnel and equipment being transferred. |
| UIGLOB.DAT | Holds the next numbers for UFOs, Terror Sites, Interceptors, etc. Also contains monthly scores for research. |
| UP.DAT | UFOpaedia info. |
| XBASES.DAT | Alien Base information. |
| XCOM.DAT | Contains X-Com activity in Countries and areas, for graphs. |
| ZONAL.DAT | Information on which zones and with what priority aliens are going to attack. |
(28 files. Note that if you find a geoscape save with additional files, this simply means a battlescape save was made in that slot at some prior point. UFO does not remove unused save files).
Battlescape Files
These are savegame files created and used by the tactical portion of the game. They are only created if the game is saved while in the battlescape. Battlescape saves also contain all the files used in a standard save.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| BGLOB.DAT | Describes ambient light on map. |
| GEODATA.DAT | |
| MAP.DAT | Stores tile information for the whole map. Basically all static structures, such as trees, walls, floors and furniture. |
| MISDATA.DAT | Contains information on craft in use and which alien artefacts are available for use in combat. |
| OBPOS.DAT | Stores all the objects that your soldiers can pick up (guns, corpses, etc). |
| ROUTES.DAT | Stores nodes for soldier and alien spawn points, also acts as waypoints for AI pathfinding. |
| SEEMAP.DAT | Fog of war overlay. |
| SMOKBIT.DAT | Smoke particles and fire patches on the map. |
| SMOKREF.DAT | Smoke particles and fire patches on the map. |
| SOURCEMP.DAT | Light source overlays for mobile light sources (i.e. your soldiers). |
| TERMP.DAT | Light source overlays for ambient (or fixed) lighting. |
| UNITPOS.DAT | Controls ownership, visibility, whether the unit is under temporary mind control, etc. Works hand in hand with UNITREF.DAT. |
| UNITREF.DAT | Contains the primary stats for all units in combat. X-Com owned soldiers in this file are virtual copies of the soldiers in soldier.dat. Works very closely with unitpos.dat. |
| WGLOB.DAT | Battlescape map global information such as map dimensions and the number of turns that have elapsed. |
(14 unique files, plus all 28 standard save files, totaling 42).
Missdat Files
These temporary files are used at run time, when a battlescape game is in progress. The missdat folder also contains all the files needed to create a standard Geoscape save for the game in progress.
When the tactical game engine starts, it first checks SAVEINFO.DAT to see if this is a new battle, or if you're loading a battlescape save game. In the case of the former, it generates a new map, based off these files:
If you load a game, the tactical engine loads from the save slot directly, as according to DIRECT.DAT (which details the path to the slot in concern).
When combat ends, these files are created:
(12 unique files, plus 27 standard save files (does not use dum.bin), totaling 39).
Did You Know?
- If your game crashes and you are returned to previous mission, the game is actually referring to the battlescape information in the MISSDAT directory. Also, if a tactical mission is abnormally aborted, the results are obtained from the MISSDAT folder as well. Because the game was not able to update the files that hold the results of the last mission, your current game will be updated with information from the previous mission that was able to end normally. Abnormal program termination simply means that the tactical game engine crashed or was forced to crash by the user. This can be abused.
- If you have so much money that it all of a sudden it becomes negative (eg: $-2,168,000,000), you can delete the LIGLOB.DAT file and replace it from a new savegame. You cash becomes approx $4mil. You can abuse this by inserting a LIBLOB.DAT that has lots of money into a new game, as well... or never run out of money.
- If your research progress has become corrupted due to the bugs in the research tree of TFTD, replace the RESEARCH.DAT, UP.DAT, PROJECT.DAT, PRODUCT.DAT, BPROD.DAT with files from a new saved game if you don't want to use a hex-editor. This can be abused by inserting old files from a completed game into the save folder of a new game.
- If you insert LOC.DAT and BASE.DAT from an old savegame into a new savegame folder, then you'll have all your old bases and all the alien bases returned.
WANT A NEW GAME? If you dismantle all bases besides your original one, then use an editor to make it like the original new game layout and also edit its stores, then you can have a new game with your 'starting' base and many alien bases (if you havn't destroyed them - see farming supply ships).
i'll be back to complete this EsTeR (question to self: what about soldiers: old base vs new base? is it double load or based on new game, or do they all disappear)