解密未知——探索AGE1.8

_MZR_阔比多华 · 发表于 2011-2-2 14:01:19

作者：BF_Tanks
陆续给翻译，速度看心情。说明：原文中废话比较多，省略了……

Hello guys and gals,各位正太和萝莉们好~~~（译者注：无视此句吧…………）

You may remember when I discovered how to Chain-Spawn, and the thousands of possiblities that came from it. Now, I have researched a VERY useful aspect of any projectile-using unit.
你们也许记得我发现了如何群组式生产单位（译者注：见https://www.hawkaoe.net/bbs/thread-31633-1-1.html和https://www.hawkaoe.net/bbs/thread-31456-1-1.html），以及由其衍生而来的上千种可能性。如今，我又弄出了一个非常有用的玩意儿，适用于使用飞行武器的单位。

Here is what I've discovered about the three Graphic Displacement and Missile Duplication Unknown values.
以下便是我对三个“图像移位”（译者注：小霖的AGE译为“移除图像”，以为不妥，便改为此），以及“副投掷物未知”的三个值。

Graphic Displacement and Missile Duplication Research:
“图像移位”和“副投掷物未知”的研究：

Graphic Displacement has three values which are essentially co-ordinates.“图像移位”有三个值，实际上是互相协调起作用的。
Example: A Castle has a Graphic Displacement of 0 - 1 - 4.
例子：城堡的“图像移位”为0，1，4。
After changing the "4" to and "8", I tested it ingame and found that the arrows now spawned higher.
把“4”改成“8”之后，发现城堡的箭矢比以前更高了。
A second test, changing "8" to "16", proves that the third number represents where on the Z-Axis the projectiles spawn from.
这证明了第三个值代表在Z轴，也就是高度轴上飞行武器的产生位置。

With arrows raining from the sky, I changed the second number: "1" to a "4", with no obvious results I upped it from "4" to "16". I discovered that the second Number is the distance from the projectile firing object that the projectiles actually spawn.
To extensively test this, I made a unit that fire's arrows identical to a Castle, but made the graphic displacement 0 - 16 - 1.
Testing ingame, projectiles spawned at unit height, from far beyond the 4 range I had given the unit.
These numbers, just like Range, represent distance in 1x1 Tiles.
Having an outward distance of 16 tiles made for an interesting, cut-scene look. As-if Arrows were being fired from unseen attackers.
将第二个值“1”改成“16”后，测试得出该值为飞行武器产生位置与发动攻击的单位的前后距离。

The two numbers combined create an arc around the unit firing the projectiles. The Second number being the distance from, the Third number being the Height, but the First Number is unknown. To try and find out, I set my Castle-Unit's Graphic Displacement to 0 - 1 - 1.
Ingame, Arrows fired directly from the unit. I then changed the "0" to "4". Ingame, Projectiles were fired 4 tiles to the left of the defending unit's faced direction.

Summary: Projectiles are fired from where the Graphic Displacement governs. Projectiles are also spawned in/from the direction that the unit is facing. EG: The unit faces south with the second Graphic Displacement number being 16, so the projectiles are fired 16-tiles southwards, and aimed at their target. The first Graphic Displacement number seem's to decide how far to the left the projectiles spawn. The second Number decides how far away, in tiles, in the units direction that they should spawn. The third Number decides how high, in tiles, the Projectiles should spawn.

For some really extensive tests, I ran the same tests but with negative values and got what I expected: The opposite. Instead of 16 tiles in-that-direction, it was 16 tiles in the opposite.

Now lets play with Missile Duplication Values, focusing on the three "Missile Duplication Unknown"s. Personally, these have always baffled me as to what they do, so discovering their true purpose would be a benefit to all.
Lets take a look at our Castle-Unit. His Missile Duplication Unkown's are: 2 - 0.5 - 4. Now from that, we can tell that not all three of those numbers are Co-ords.

Looking at unit's with different Missile Duplication's, we can see that Mangonels have 1 - 1 - 99. Onagers have 1.25 - 1.25 - 99 and Siege Onagers have 1.5 - 1.5 - 99.

If we copy the duplication unknowns of the Mangonel onto our Castle-Unit, nothing seems to be different in-game. So why do these totally different numbers seemingly do nothing? A mangonel obviously doesn't fire one rock after the other in quick succession. So why is this behaving differently? Let's try with a Chu-Ko-Nu's Duplication Unknowns.

A Chu-Ko-Nu's are: 0 - 0 - 1, and an Elite's is: 1 - 1 - 1. Let's give our Castle-Unit the 1 - 1 - 1.
Testing in-game, and no change. Re-testing with the mangonel data (1 - 1 - 99) still shows no difference.
Deciding to try something drastic, I swap the numbers to 99 - 1 - 1.
Boom! Interesting results! Projectiles are now spawning several tiles apart in a random order. Narrowing down things a little, I try 50 - 1 - 1.
Projectiles are spawning a little closer, and are even hitting multiple units I placed scattered around. Very interesting.
Now trying 10 - 1 - 1, and things are coming clear. The first unknown seems to determine the range of tiles inwhich duplicated projectiles can randomly spawn. In plain english: The first number set at 99 means that duplicated projectiles spawn anywhere between 0 and 98 tiles to the left and right of the direction the Castle-Unit is facing.

I set this to 1, and decided to play with the second Unknown. Currently, my Castle-Unit stands with 1 - 1 - 1 as its Unknowns. I set the middle number to 3, and what I'm expecting is the same result as the first number but with a forwards/backwards direction rather than left/right.
Testing proved that I was correct. So now lets try something interesting. I've set both the first and second unknowns to 3, and our Castle-Unit looks like this: 3 - 3 - 1.

Testing this, and Projectiles now spawn in a random location inside a 3x3 tile box in the direction that our Castle-Unit is facing. This is fascinating. Hundreds of ideas come to mind, but we're not finished yet! We have a third, mysterious number.
With out Castle-Unit firing arrows out of an invisible box, I set the third number to -99.
Very interesting. Setting the third number to -99, and our projectiles now spawn in one location directly infront of our Castle-Unit's feet, but are fired in a spread of the 3x3 tile box, like the spray of a hose. Changing the first two numbers to 7, and we have an even wider random spray.

This is very interesting. I first thought the third number determined the rate at which projectiles were fired, but I seem to be wrong. Changing the third number from a negative to a positive, and I'm getting the same result. Changing 99 to 0 - Same result. It seems as-if the third number does nothing, however: setting it to 1, makes our projectiles spawn from any random point inside our 7x7 box. Setting the number to 2, has the same effect as 1. Changing the number to 7, and I notice that the higher the number, the closer the projectiles get when spawning and the more they begin to fan-out.

To conclude: The first and second number of the Duplication Unknowns determine the range of tiles inwhich our projectiles randomly spawn, and the third number determines how random the spawn location is inside of our range. The higher the number, be it negative or not, and the projectiles spawn closer and spray out. Combining Graphic Displacement and the Missile Duplication Unknowns, we can make some pretty awesome effects, EG: Random explosions and rubble, Random spawning of units, and much more.
Many times I have been asked for a guide on how to mod. Instead of making a step-by-step guide on making a magical flying militia that eats fire, I'll go one step better. This thread will be used to post any and all of my reserach into the Genie Data and using AGE. All of my notes and findings will be posted here and shared amongst you all.

Though this is not a direct step-by-step guide, it will help you all in both understanding what can be done and what things mean. At some point in the future, I will compile all of this into an organised booklet.

Inb4 Flood of suggestions for EEEv2

Here are some lists I just made while looking into Flare's.
Resource List!
This is a list of all the resources I have been able to indentify, along with additional notes.

0 - Food
1 - Wood
2 - Stone
3 - Gold
4 - Population (Whenever Used, Enabler "2". All Population-Users have this as a negative. Population-giving Buildings have the Enabler set to 4.)
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 - Docks have this at "600"
10 -
11 - Population (Civilisation Specific Relics have this. When used, have this with Enabler "2".)
12 - Decay
13 -
14 - Monument
15 -
16 -
17 - Fish Food
18 -
19 - Population (Civilisation Specific Relics have this. Civilisation Specific Relic Carrying Monks have this with the enabler set to "2")
20 -
21 -
22 -
23 -
24 -
25 -
26 -
27 -
28 -
29 -
30 -
31 -
32 -
33 -
34 -
35 -
36 -
37 -
38 -
39 -
40 -
41 -
42 -
43 -
44 -
45 -
46 -
47 -
48 -
49 -
50 -
51 -
52 -
53 -
54 -
55 -
56 - POREX has this at "1", OREMN has this at "400", with Enabler on 0.

Class List!
This is a list of all the Unit Classes I have been able to indentify.

0 - Ranged, Foot.
1 - Monument/Relic Cart
2 - Trade Cog
3 - Building
4 - Villager
5 - Fish
6 - Melee, Foot
7 - Forage Bush
8 - Stone Mine
9 - Deer/ Wild Horse
10 - Boar/Wolf/Jaguar
11 - Dead/Projectile/Other/Bird/Flare
12 - Melee, Cavalry
13 - Seige/Cobra
14 - Eye-Candy/Bridges
15 - Eye-Candy/Tree's
16 -
17 -
18 - Monk/Missionary
19 - Emperor in a Barrel/Trade Cart
20 - Transport Ship
21 - Fishing Ship
22 - Boat/Saboteur
23 - Conquistador
24 -
25 -
26 -
27 - Wall
28 -
29 -
30 - Nine-Bands/Flags/Flare
31 -
32 - Gold Mine
33 - Shore Fish
34 - Cliff
35 - Petard
36 - Ranged, Cavalry
37 - DOPL
38 - FLDOG
39 - Gates
40 - PILE1,2,3,4,6,8
41 - Pile/POREX
42 - Relic
43 - Monk With Relic
44 - Hand Canoneer/Janissary
45 -
46 -
47 - Scout Cavalry
48 - OREMN
49 - Farm/Fish Trap
50 -
51 - Packed Trebuchet
52 - Tower With Weapons
53 - Monk Boats (AB/BDGAL)
54 - Trebuchet
55 - Seige
56 - RFARC, RFSWD
57 - RCSWD, RCARC
58 - Sheep/Turkey
59 - King
60 -
61 - Horse
Next post will be my research on Flares.

@Jeronimo: That has something to do with the projectile directly, and I haven't clearly looked into it yet. However, it should be noted that I've seen projectiles skim accross the floor (Mainly cannonballs) and also seen a TWAL block an arrow. From an elevation, units get a slight bonus to their range damage aswell as height.

Here it is! My Flare Research:
Flare Research:

After reading Donnieboy's thread, I tested some things using Flares.

In the .dat, there are four different Flare units. the correct one (Used in-game) is ID: 274.
Using 274, I quickly skimmed over the Flare's data to see what I could make out from a brief glance. Here's what I found:

--
It has a Standing and Dying Graphic, both being the same. Ingame they appear blank, so the Graphics may just be the

minimap cross that blinks.

The first Flare is class 30, the one used in-game and all the rest are class 11.
The Flare used In-game has a Line of Sight of -1. Testing In-Game shows that this can be changed and the flare can be

used to reveal area's of the map.

It has a size radius of 1 - 1, and a Placement Mode of 5.

It has a Dead Unit ID of -1.

It's Air Mode is set to 1. Research into Hawks found that their Air Mode is 0. This could possibly be the "Air Layer" of the

map.

The Flare acts like a dead unit - It has a resource that slowly drains. When it is created, it is created as a dead unit and it

dissapears when the resource expires.

It's Visible in Fog.

It has a Resource Capacity of 20, meaning it takes 20/Resource Decay to finish decaying (I think). Resource decay is at 1.

It has a Minimap Mode of 1.

It stores 20 resource of Resource 12.

It has a Movement Speed of 1.
--

The first thing I decided to test was DonnieBoy's idea of creating Units using Flare's. I changed the Dead Unit ID to "4"

(Archer) and fired up the game. In-Game, It took 20 Game Seconds for the Flare to finish decaying and spawn the Archer.

Everything worked fine apart from one very interesting thing:

It created a unit for BOTH P1 and P2.

This shows that when a player uses the Flare, The Flare is spawned by all Players (except GAIA). Further testing of this,

and I've found that you can directly control which player's units you spawn (Always including your own) by using the Chat

Menu and checking/unchecking the tick-boxes that tell the chat who's your Ally and who isn't. Unchecking the box for P2

meant that only the P1 unit would spawn. Interesting.

Next I decided to see if I could make Flares have a cost. I went down to the Resource Costs, all of them being -1 - 0 - 0

(Nothing) and changed Cost 1 to 0 - 100 - 1 (Food - 100 - Displayed.) and tested it ingame with P1 starting with 0 food and

P2 starting with 100.

Ingame and resources aren't being deducted, so I try something else.
Flare's carry 20 of "Resource 12". "Resource 12" is only ever used on Dead/Decaying Units - which leads me to believe it

is a resource for Decaying.

I decide to make our Flare into a living unit, so I give it 10 HP and the Standing Graphics of a Militia. We don't need to

worry about anything else just yet. Interestingly, in-game, the flare now no longer creates the X on the Minimap, which

leads me to believe that Graphic 1751 is the Minimap X.

In-Game, Our Militia-Flares aren't selectable, don't seem to show any signs of movement and units don't auto-attack them.

They aren't Solid, yet they do have a Size Radius and a Minimap icon appears now that they are living. Looking into things,

and I see Dead Unit's, Projectiles, Rugs and some others are class 11. Flags, Shipwrecks and some others are class 30,

which is also the class of the first unused Flare.

I decide to change the In-Game Flares class to "6" (Infantry Unit) and test it ingame.
Testing ingame, our Militia-Flare can't be selected, but when I hover over it I see glimpses of the Attack Cursor, but my

units are unable to touch them. Still trying to be able to select the Flare, I change the Interaction Mode from "0" to "4"

(Militia) and test it ingame.

Success! I can select the Flare! I can't move it or command my units to attack it, but it's selectable, which is a start.
This research opens up alot of possiblities for the Flare. For a final test I completely copied the Militia over the Flare.

Ingame, it seemed I had just fused the Flare and the Militia. The Militia spawned with both the Unit and Flare creation

sound, and it worked perfecly only with a minor different - It had the Flare X for its minimap icon. Strange.

@ Jatayu: Are you sure its 1 dmg and not a percentage?

Also: Part 1 of Projectiles. Part 2 will be looking at doing stuff non-projectile related to the projectiles, like adding Annexes and Dead Unit ID's.
Missile Duplication Continued, with Projectiles:

I've created a new Archer Unit. He is identical to the normal archer except for his name "Project Tyler", which should seem obvious why. I'm looking into Projectiles, but before that I'm getting gritty with the world of Unknown Values!

Archer's don't normally fire multiple Arrows at once, so lets add that in before we do anything.
I take the Projectile ID (363) and put that as the "Missile Duplication Unit". This tells the game that Tyler is going to be firing more than one shot off. I also set the Missile Duplication Amount to 2 - 2.

(With Missile Duplication Amount, the first number is initially how many he will fire. The second number is how many he fires when his Garrison Capacity is maxxed. As Tyler can't hold people, it wont get any larger so we leave it at 2)

This means that Tyler fires two shots. We should also change our Missile Duplication Unknowns so that we can actually see what's happening. I set Tyler's to 1 - 1 - 99 (Same as the Mangonel) so that his Arrows will fan-out and we can see them properly.

Okay so Tyler happily fires away at people like Legolas. That's all well and good, but we want to explore the dangerous stuff! Now, I've been looking through almost every unit or building that fires projectiles, and seemingly everything has the "Unknown 28 (Byte)" set to 0. So why are we able to change it?

To see what would happen, I set it to "1", and tested it In-Game. Nothing seems to have changed atall.
That was dissapointing, but nevertheless I tried again, this time with "2". Again, and no noticeable change.
As a final test I cranked it up to "25" and testing shown still no results. Oh well, it seems this Byte does nothing for us.
Just to be safe, I reset it to "0" and turned my attention to the Missile Duplication Graphic.

Skimming through units, some of them have a Missile Duplication Graphic and others don't. To test, I gave Tyler a random Duplication Graphic (2798 - Taken from a Light Cavalry, ID: 546). Nothing visible, so I tried a random number. (1121) But still nothing. I think this may of been an unfinished thing, possibly for quick reload animations that never made it into the game.

So with Tyler being utterly Pointless, I decided to further the augmentation of his superhero powers. I made a duplicate copy of his Arrow (363) and assigned that to be his normal Arrow (So I can modify his Projectile without affecting any original Data.).
Looking at his new Arrow Data, I skip over to the section in AGE where it says "Type 60 Only". "Type 60" refers to the Projectile, so these bits of data will be very important for us. Currently, Tyler's Arrow's data stands at this:
--
Stretch Mode: 0
Compensation Mode: 0
Drop Animation Mode: 0
Penetration Mode: 0
Unknown 24a (Byte): 0
Unknown 25a (Byte): -0.06
--
Let's take a look at "Stretch Mode". Looking through other projectiles, Nothing seems to have it changed. Assuming it's a binary switch, I set it to 1 and tested it ingame to see the results and nothing is different. It seems we've stumbled accross another unfinished "Mode". By the looks of its name, it might of been a way of Stretching Out projectiles (EG: Fire), but they obviously found a different method of doing things.

So lets try something else. Compensation Mode:

Projectile 323 is the only Vanilla Projectile with this. 323 also appears to be either beta or something not properly used.
So we know it might do something, so I go ahead and stick it on Tylers Arrow (Stretch Mode is back at 0).
Tests again show no results! This is frustrating.

Now lets try something I know. Drop-Animation Mode:

Alot of projectiles use this. If I'm right, Drop-Animation Mode is what causes the arrows to stick when they land, rather than just dissapear. Set to "0", Arrows just land and do nothing, but set to "1" the arrows "Die". Testing it shows otherwise, however. I've set Tylers Arrow to explode harmlessly so I can easily see what's happening when the arrow lands. Currently, the arrow on explodes when it successfully hits the target, otherwise it just sticks in the ground.

Trying to see if I'm even partly right, I check out the Scorpion Projectile, and copy the stats, save for Penetration Mode, because we'll be looking at that later. I've changed the Unknown 25 (Byte) from -0.06 to "0". Testing ingame shows the arrow now has no weight, and sails on until it reaches it's max range! Brilliantly cool! but it's still not what I'm looking for, and I'll come back to that.
So far, I haven't a clue what Drop-Animation must be doing. It's active on several used projectiles but there's no way of knowing just what it does. I have another hunch that it could be related to the literal Animation of the Projectile. I grabbed the graphics of the Throwing Axeman's Axe, because they are animated, and put them on Tylers Axrrow
The Axrrow flies still through the air. Promising sight, so lets try with our Drop-Animation Mode at 0.
The Axrow flies still.. still..
Damn.

Maybe it's the projectile I'm using as a base for this, I'm not sure. There are some things that just cant be changed.

Alright, Moving on to Penetration Mode! Penetration Mode should sound obvious what it does. Hint: Scorpions.
I set Tylers Axrrow to glide through the air like a Scorpion Bolt, and set Penetration Mode to "1". Sure enough, the projectile ignores any collison and glides through females out of the kitchen.

This leads us finally onto the Unknown's. Unknown 24a is set to "0" for everything, so I think it's safe to ignore it. Unknown 25a however, does a wonderful thing. I believe it controls the arc inwhich the projectile flies. Having it at 0, the projectile glides through the air ignoring Gravity. Set to 1, The arrow shoots in a huge arc, getting higher the further away the range is. Setting it to a negative and the game seems to ignore the fact it's a negative. For giggles I put it to 20, and slowed the projectile to a walking pace. I found it hilarious to see Axrows flying furiously out of Tylers head and into space, only to crash land like a failed helicopter.

Part 2 of Projectiles!
Give me an idea of what to look at next, otherwise I'll just look at smaller things and give details on what they do.
We have a man named Project Tyler, and he will be a Superhero among men. His projectiles will be the source of his power and we will be their creator.

Part Two of Projectiles Research:

So we have examined and explained the "Type 60: Projectile Only" data and came to our conclusions but this doesn't necessarily mean that's all we can do. Projectiles, like anything, can have anything altered.
Now, we will be straying away from restrictions and modifying other attributes about the Projectile. We've already established from the previous research that we can change a projectiles Standing and Dying Graphic, Dead Unit ID and Movement Speed.

So let's play with something that could provide us with interesting results. Suggested by a fellow forumer: Tetsuo Shima,
Annexes!

Now, I already have the idea that only Buildings can support Annexes, so this could be either dissapointing or a breakthrough. So I go ahead and set Tylers Arrow as the Head Unit, and choose Tylers Arrow as an Annex (So in theory, He should shoot two arrows per shot) and set the Annex Unit Misplacement (X/Y Axis) to 0.5 - 0.5 (1 Tile, by this measurement. Some measurements have 0.5 as 1 tile, and some (like the Missile Duplication Unknowns) have 1 as 1 tile.).
Testing in-game shows no results. So I decide to do something risky and set the projectile's Class to "3" (Building), to see if the game will think it's a building and create the annex. Testing in-game again shows no result, and the projectile still works even though it's no longer considered a Dead Unit by class. Interesting.
I decide to change the Annex Unit from an Arrow to some random building. I chose the Watch Tower.
Still no results, so I change the projectile entirely from Type 60, to Type 80 (Building).

Testing inga- WOAH WOAH WOAH WHAT THE HELL!
Asoon as Tyler Fires, His Arrow freezes in mid air and a Watch Tower pops out. Suddenly the resource/age/buttons bar at the top of the screen dissapears! I can select my Arrows, and delete them. Just to be same I re-tested, and it turns out that when Tyler fired several "Buildings", the game glitched. The top bar totally dissapears and the graphics mess up.

Asoon as I move the camera, everything goes to normal except I no longer have a top-bar. It only occasionally happens after several tests.

So that was.. Interesting. Curious to see any other wierd results, I changed the Type from Type 80, to Type 70 (Living

Unit). Testing Ingame reveals the projectiles are fired, and just sit suspended in time. Next!

Type 20/25 (Flag), and as soon as Tyler fires a shot, the game crashes to the desktop. NEXT!

Type 30 (Dead Unit/Fish), Crashes to desktop. NEXT!

Type 10 (Eye-Candy), Crashes to desktop! Oh well. Resetting the Projectile to Type 60, and it works fine, but we can't get those Annexes!

Not much else can be done, really. Changing it to spawn something is about it, but from what we've learned already,

EEEv2 will now have Weather Effects. You may even see a certain escaped weapons Project in the next beta.