Modding the Game

This is a compilation of various modding info and cheat keys etc I found via the webs various game sites and forums. My only contribution was to combine them and edit them for readability etc. They all work as I've tested all of it while playing the game. I highly suggest you go to the games official web site and read through the forums there for some really great mods, like Bmans UFO Mod v1.6.

Coasty
coasty63@comcast.net

Setting Up So We Can Do Mods
============================
- Put "XBig.exe" in the directory Data".

- Run CMD (the dosbox window).

- Type in: cd "Data"

- Type in: xbig.exe e system.xbg

- When it's finished you'll find a lot of new files in the "Data" folder.
System.xbg unpacks into a lot of files with the *.xscr extension, and these
are the files that you can edit to Mod the game.

- Rename "system.xbg" to "system.bak" for backup purposes.

- Important: for this step we will use one of the two "Blank*.xbig" files:

* Use "Blank.xbig" - if you have the English retail version of the game.
* Use "Blank - Russian.xbig" if you have the cracked Russian version (but
installed with the English language).
* Copy the appropriate file into the "Data" folder".

- Rename the appropriate file from the above step to "System.xbg".

- Notice that XBIG becomes XBG. this is important!

- The purpose of the above steps is to fool the game into using this new
"System.xbg" file, which is really blank, so the game has to use the other
file that you unpacked from the original "system.xbg".

- Backup all the new folders and the "*.xscr" files so you can edit them, etc.


Modding To Make The Game A Little Better
========================================
Ok, now to do some modding to make the game a little better:

File: Default.cfg
-----------------
soldiers
{
walkSpeed 0.0014 // old value: 0.0016
runSpeed 0.0033
walkFrInterval 90 // old value: 100
runFrInterval 100
rotateInterval 100
}

Removing a single zero after decimal point in walkSpeed and runSpeed values will significally speed up units animation in battles.

camera
{
// All types of movement
speed 0.015
// When following an object, how far from the center of the screen it is
// allowed to go
follow_dist 4
// How far from the unit to jump when shooting
preshoot_jump 0
// Wait this time after jumping to the unit before creating the bullet
preshoot_delay 500
// How long to wait looking at the explosion before shooting the next bullet
// from burst shoot
shoot_retreat_delay 1000
}

Doing the same to speed value here will make camera do it's "selection scroll" so much faster.

File: consts.xscr
-----------------
To change how many technicians and scientists you get with each lab/workshop:

const int WORKSHOP_TECHNICIANS = 10;
const int ADVANCED_WORKSHOP_TECHNICIANS = 30;
const int LABORATORY_SCIENTISTS = 10;
const int DOUBLE_LABORATORY_SCIENTISTS = 30;

To change the economy and how much stuff buys/sells for, just increase:

const float BUY_SELL_PRICE_NORMAL = 0.3;
// Normal buy/sell price is 30% from production price
const float BUY_SELL_PRICE_ALIEN_ARTIFACT = 0.4;
// Unknown ship item price is 10% from buyPrice

FOR SIGHT RANGE to increase range of view (these are MY settings).
This will be MUCH better on the map and give you better viewing degrees:

const float SIGHT_H_ANGLE = PI/1.5;
const float SIGHT_V_ANGLE = PI/1.5;

I also increased the RANGE and made the range for the AI the same instead of greater than mine (but you can just increase each by 2 and leave the aliens with an advantage if you want):

const int SIGHT_RANGE = 16;
const int AI_SIGHT_RANGE = 16;

You might want to set it to 18 and 20 instead of 16 and 16 to give you and the AI an even bigger boost and let the aliens keep their advantage (only slightly).


Debug/Cheats
============
This explains how to enable the debug/cheats and what is available after you enable them.

To unlock TONS of debug and cheat hot keys, open up Const.xscr and change

const bool debugKeys = false;
to
const bool debugKeys = true;

Now all of the debug and cheat keys will work. Here are all the various cheats and debug keys that now work:

Tactical Mode Hot Keys:
-----------------------
Shift + Arrow Keys Rotate camera around and change viewing angle freely.
Numpad +- Zoom camera in and out.
Numpad / & * Change camera perspective.
Numpad 1-9 Number keys moves the camera around.
Numpad Enter Returns the camera to default settings.
Numpad Del Resets camera lock-on/center. E.G. when it locks on to
follow a bullet or scroll to your soldier starting to move
you can tap this.
Numpad Ins Instantly centers camera on your selected unit.
Pause Use pause key to disable that grid/s.
PgUp/PgDown Switch elevation levels.
Arrow Keys Move your units. (Un)fortunately you also move through
walls and impassable tiles when doing that.
Spacebar Press it during aliens' turn to end their turn immediately.
S Fully reveals fog of war and grants complete viewing range.
L Kills all foes instantly. End turn to win.
A Auto-battle. The PC takes over and plays instead of you.
Press space to regain control.
1,2,3,4,5 Equips currently selected soldier in different kinds of
armor, 1 being the worst, 5 being the best.
O If vitality parameter of currently selected soldier is >
35, decreases it by 5 each time you press the key.
P If vitality is <=95, increases it by 5 each time.
U,I Does same things respectively for shooting parameter.
Q Fully restore unit's AP.
K Kill your currently selected unit.
B Blasts whole level to smithereens making a level field out
of it. All buildings, walls, obstacles get destroyed. It
doesn't actually harm any entities. Fun to see first time.

Geoscape:
---------
F7 Brings up the Geoscape debug menu which is very interesting.

It shows the intelligence score for you and the aliens in different countries, which probably influences chances to find each other's bases.

It also displays your exact score country by country, telling you exactly how many, and in which countries, there are alien bases.

It allows you to generate UFO's and terror sites, edit your finances, increase or reduce alien aggression level, enable Geoscape debug mode which grants you a great deal of power over UFO's by just clicking on them. There's no way you can disable it, I guess.

F9 - Displays some debug info including FPS.
F10 - Disables displaying of the debug info.
A - Increase alien agression level by 20 points.
G - Generates 20 random UFO's.
M - Generates a random UFO. Perhaps it also gives you complete radar
coverage over the entire globe, I'm not sure.
B - Generates UFO with retaliation mission.
C - Generates UFO with build base mission.
V - Generates UFO with spy mission.
T - Generates UFO with terror mission.
D - Dumps a bunch of Geoscape-related info to files.
S - Recruits new soldiers.
P - Promote all soldiers, you get to distribute 5 points with each soldier.
Even those who are already of maximum rank.
U - Unlocks the whole UFOpedia.
Y - Adds 10 of every item in your base stores.
J - Adds 1,000,000 of money. Go to the base screen in order to see it.
7,8,9 - Presumably instantly starts base defense missions on your first, second
or third base. For me, the game crashed.

That's it for the debug and cheat keys. There's lots of good cheats here, including recruiting soldiers, leveling them, money, etc.


Editing Saved Games
===================
First, unpack the save game using this command:

ProjectX.exe saveeditor.xscr unpack slot{n}

where {n} is the save slot you want to use.

This creates 3 text files:

baseSave.xsv
globeSave.xsv
metadata

The file "Metadata" is useless, but the other two files are text files that you can edit.

Note: Combat mission saves, when unpacked, also have an additional file,
"missionSave.xsv", and you can win missions easily if you replace all
'stunned false' entries to 'stunned true', which will stun all of the
aliens.

In globeSave.xsv you can edit your money, Game time, and lots of other things, including your troops and inventory. Search for strength and you find:

className "CVector"
} //rightShoulder
shootingACT 86
shootingMAX 86
size 1
strengthACT 92
strengthMAX 92
throwingACT 92
throwingMAX 94
totalDamage 0
unitTypeId "human"
vitalityACT 95
vitalityMAX 95

It's the actual (the ACT) amount of the stats and then the maximum, you can edit those four stats, but agility and perception are located a little further up. Just search for each of them and you can change the stats for each. You can also change what armor they have and so forth. You can search for your trooper names in there as well and the info for them (their inventory, etc.) is around. The "CVector" is a class that stands for a trooper. Now, in baseSave.xsv you can edit what techs are available, what UFOpedia stuff is unlocked, etc. At the beginning you see lots of entries like:

24
{
available false
className "WeaponXFileCartridgeType"
otherData "weapons.Pweapons.other.plasmaRifleAmmo"

Change available to true and you should be able to have whatever you want. I have not played with it yet (you may need to change some other stuff further down?).

UFOpedia entries are under: UFOpediaTree.

On to editing some specific values.

Open "globeSave.xsv" in a text editor. Search for the value 'actualFinance' and change the value after it to 2,000,000,000 to get that much money.

Search for all instances of:

agilityACT/agilityMAX
braveryACT/braveryMAX
perceptionACT/perceptionMAX
shootingACT/shootingMAX
strengthACT/strengthMAX
throwingACT/throwingMAX
vitalityACT/vitalityMAX

and change each value to 100 to max out the stats.

Search for all instances of 'rank' and change the value to 12 for the highest rank.

Note: When units are promoted they get bonus points to spend, and if your stats
are all equal to the max, it will not let you proceed. Setting rank to
the max should avoid the problem.

The values for 'Technicians' and 'Scientists' can be changed to speed up research and production.

Finally, to build base facilities instantly you can change the corresponding 'build' value to 'true', but this can cause issues in the game.

The values in the 'storeItems' section correspond to all the items in your bases, make sure you already have at least 1 or research items may not trigger correctly.

When done, repack the save game with:

ProjectX.exe saveeditor.xscr pack slot{n}

Note: When you unpack and pack a save game the game will be launched and then
just sit there. SO, press alt-F4 to close the program after each
pack/unpack.