
ķ
 XeD                                                                   v1.4 
ͼ

                         an X-COM Apocalypse editor 



 features
 

     Supports cityscape savegame files:

               Editing money
               Editing agents
                    you can easily make difference between x-com agents,
                     biochemists, engineers and quantum physicists
                    rank, face, health, accuracy, psi-skills,
                     biochemistry/quantum physics/engineering skill, etc.
                    also built-in graphics viewer for the photo.pck file,
                     to allow you to select the face you want by the actual
                     picture
                    supports Cyphron's Tinseltown mugshot replacement patch,
                     shows you the name of the guy on the picture and can
                     also auto-rename your agents using the Tinseltown names
                    reordering: both automatic sort and manual sort
               Base editor
                    base layout editor
                    alien containment editor
                    vehicle and agent equipment editor
               Editing vehicles
                    shows you a list of every vehicle, telling you which
                     organization owns the unit
                    it can show you a list of the equipment on the
                     selected vehicle - you can even remove the equipment of
                     your choice from hostile vehicles
                    reordering: both automatic sort and manual sort
               Edit vehicles for sale
                    buy a bunch Annihilators on the first day!
               Research editor
                    nicely organized into seperate Biochemistry and
                     Quantum Physics lists
                    lets you edit the percentage completed from every
                     research manually
                    set every research to 100% by one keypress
               Enable whole UFOpaedia
                  (if you want, you can even enable those UFOpaedia pages
                   which were removed from the final version)
               Import / Export
                  (export all the vehicle or agent data from one savegame,
                   and import it to another!)

     Supports tactical tactgame files:

               Unit editor
                    it can edit every unit in the tactical mission,
                     including x-com agents, aliens, civilians and hostile
                     human units
                    you can edit every detail of all these units manually
                       (rank, health, accuracy, psi-skills, current/max time
                        units, morale, bravery, etc.)
                    fully automatic alien killer by a press of one button
                     (gives aliens critical wounds, so they will die next
                      turn.. works in realtime as well)
                    automatic alien stun command, stuns every alien and
                     allows you to capture them alive
                     (also have the advantage of Multiworms not splitting
                      into Hyperworms; you have to wait a turn with the stun
                      command too)
                    heal command - heals critical wounds, removes stun,
                                    can rescue brainsucked x-com agents
                    pump-up command, pumps up the selected unit to maximum
                     (health, psi-energy, time units and the others),
                     also does everything what the 'heal' command

     PCK support

                    supports nearly all of the PCK files
                    built-in easy to use file selector for browsing between
                     your PCK files
                    can export to Windows BMP format
                    can import both PCX and uncompressed BMP format files
                    smart command line parameter support, with quick macros

     All of these with a quite nice and easy to use interface

     Cool graphics viewer using directly the original game graphics,
      giving you the feeling as if you were in the game :)

     Uses original the X-COM graphics and the original X-COM font - don't
      worry, they are not included with XeD (to keep the archive size
      small and to not violate copyright); XeD can use directly the game
      data files!

     DOS based, just like the game itself

     XeD.INI - lots of useful information and text is stored in the INI,
      so you can easily and quickly change some things in XeD even without
      recompiling the source

     XMS support - loads your whole saved game first, then it will work
      in memory

     Supports both 320x200x256 VGA and 640x480x256 SVGA for the graphics
      parts

     Quite small :)

     Full BP 7.0 source code available

     Freeware

 ...and this of course wasn't all.. so just check it out! =)



 requirements
 

 Basically nothing, if you can run the game, you can run XeD.

 But if you are curious:
   CPU: 80286 or higher
   Memory: approx. 300kb conventional memory + 4 MB XMS
   Video card: color SVGA or better, must be VESA compatible
               (if you have problems with VESA, get SciTech Display Doctor
                from http://www.scitechsoft.com/)

 Oh, by the way. This program definitely requires the final version of X-COM
 Apocalypse.  Not  a demo, not an old rip like the VDR one, but the full and
 final version.

 Please note that XeD requires a FULL INSTALLATION of X-COM Apocalypse.



 disclaimer, warranties, copyright
 

 Make backups, blah blah blah, no warranties, whatsoever, blah blah, blah.
 X-COM is a registered trademark of who cares about this copyright shit. =)



 credits
 

 (c) 1997 The XeD Team

 ͸
  fds0ft             <fdsoft@mail.gyor-ph.hu>                             
 Ĵ
                     main coder, project leader, doc writer and quality   
                     assurance in one person ;)                                                 
 

 Ϳ
  Larze              <Larze@interact.se>                                  
 Ĵ
                     very helpful superhuman with lots of offset info and 
                     help                                                 
 ʹ
  ViS                <vlad@3-cities.com>                                  
 Ĵ
                     formerly the author of xcom3sge, now he joined our   
                     team and working on XeD                              
 

 Ϳ
  AGENT 64           <jgarci15@uic.edu>                                   
 Ĵ
                     ufo2p.exe and tacp.exe editing information           
 ʹ
  Lestat Majere      <lestat-majere@bigfoot.com>                          
 Ĵ
                     vehicles information                                 
 

 If you spend some time over my source and enhance it, send it to me, and if
 it's  good  enough,  I  will include your name and code in my next release.
 Anyway,  if  you  make  some modifications, it would be better if you would
 send  it to me first, and I would merge it all together and then release it
 to  the  world.  This  way  there would not be a zillion different versions
 floating around.



 additional thanks to
 

 These great people helped me with suggestions, bug reports, good ideas,
 or with distributing XeD. Thanks!

 (of course the list is in no special order)

 Leo                   <savrad@aol.com>
 coldstone.            <stoneclan@hotmail.com>
 Thomas Forsberg       <Zombie-jr@usa.net>
 jalen                 <jalen@writeme.com>
 AL                    <Aramus2@aol.com>
 Yale Wang             <yale@cco.caltech.edu>
 Marshall Griffin      <duck1@concentric.net>
 Matt                  <teehole@alliance.net>
 MacK                  <mack@arrakis.es>
 Marc Fisher           <mfisher@topeka.cjnetworks.com>
 Henry Chang           <Henry_Chang@baylor.edu>
 Henryk                <henryk@post1.tele.dk>
 Chancer               <jamie@tower.net.au>
 Leon Koswara          <lkoswara@pacbell.net>
 Steve DeLong          <katt@vt.edu>
 Wayne Conrad          <wconrad@ix.netcom.com>
 Pete Shinners         <petes@netcom.com>
 W_Leung               <leung_w@vol.net>
 DRAK FRAKER           <stalker@swiftech.com.sg>
 aiwah                 <aiwah@tm.net.my>

 Sorry if I missed a few people.



 special grettings to
 

 Brandon Shen/Pand of ModeXiX        <jotun@audiophile.com>



 command line parameters
 

 You can do nearly anything without any command line parameters, but
 sometimes it's a lot quicker to just type in some command line parameters
 than doing everything using the default user interface.

 All command line parameters are hopefully case-insensitive, but to be
 sure, just type them in all lowercase. =)

 /safe             This is for people having problems with the new XMS code.
                   Use it only as a last resort, you will lose some of the
                   features, and it will make XeD a lot slower.

 /save             Skips the main menu and starts directly in the saved games
                   editor menu. Like it was in the old versions before v1.4.

 /pck              Skips the main menu and starts directly in the PCK view/edit
                   part.

 /pck x {pckname} {destination} {picture number}

                   Extracts one or more pictures from a PCK file into
                   standard BMP pictures.

                   {pckname}
                   The name of the PCK file, either with the extension .PCK,
                   but if you don't specify the extension, XeD will assume
                   .PCK automatically.

                   {destination}
                   Name of the target BMP file. (Note: XeD will overwrite
                   already existing files without asking first!)
                   If you don't specify an extension, XeD will assume .BMP.
                   You can also use a special character, a question mark (?).
                   XeD puts the picture's number in the place of the question
                   mark, so for example "test?.bmp" for the 5th picture will
                   be translated to "test5.bmp".

                   {picture number}
                   Tells XeD which picture(s) to extract from the PCK pack.
                   You can use three ways to define which pictures to extract:
                      a) the number of the picture (eg. "5")
                      b) a question mark ("?"), XeD will extract every item
                         from the PCK files
                      c) a range of items, #-# (eg. "10-25")
                   You can add more of this at once, just seperate the
                   commands with commas (but no spaces!).
                   So, for example "1,6-8,3,20-45,60" is a valid parameter.

 /pck i {pckname} {from_file} {picture number}

                   Imports one or more pictures from BMP/PCX files into
                   existing PCK files.

                   The use and the abilities of this command is exactly the
                   same as the "x" extract command.

 Examples:

 xed.exe /pck x c:\xcoma\ufodata\photo c:\photos\photo?.bmp 0-74

 xed.exe /pck i c:\xcoma\ufodata\photo c:\newphoto\photo?.bmp 1,5,20-24

 Please note that you can NOT use Windows95 long directory/file names.



 face numbers
 

 Taken from Larze, here is a short list of the face numbers:

  0 - 29: human female
 30 - 34: mutant female
 35 - 64: human male
 65 - 69: mutant male
 70 - 74: android

 Or just use the built-in PHOTO.PCK viewer to browse through the actual
 pictures.



 questions & answers
 

 q. Why I can't edit the names of the bases with XeD?
 a. It  would  be  rather easy to implement, and rather useless as well. I'm
    not  going  to  add  functionality  what  you can already do in the game
    without any editors.

 q. Can I break up the building rules?
 a. Yes, in a few ways. XeD is not completely fool proof, and if you want to
    make  your  base  look  weird, you can. For example, you can make a base
    without  any  Access  Lifts..  or a base with more than four large labs.
    Just  they  will look ugly, and if you put in more than 4 labs, you will
    not be able to select some of the labs.

 q. Why I cannot add Cells and Advanced Alien Containments in the base layout
    editor?
 a. Because  they  were  removed  from  the final version. They can be still
    hacked  in,  but  I  believe  Microprose removed them for a good reason.
    (Probably  they  were  useless, or did not add anything to the game.) So
    I'm not going to put them in.

 q. Why I cannot edit how many Tracker Guns, Dimension Shifters, etc. are
    in a base?
 a. See  the  previous  question.  They were removed from the final version,
    so..  Anyway, you can put these obsolete items back in, you just need to
    edit the xed.ini file and uncomment them.
    Here's what Microprose said about them:
        > All of the items that you mentioned were removed from the game
        > due to gameplay balance.

 q. Why I cannot set an agent's accuracy higher than 100?
 a. That's a limit in X-COM. Anyway, by playing honestly you cannot get
    accuracy go higher than 96.

 q. Why I cannot set an agent's stamina higher than 127?
 a. Again, that's a limitation in the game itself. Anyway, I don't recommend
    127  either.  That seems to do weird things sometimes. 100 seems to be a
    more stable value.

 q. Why I cannot set Bravery to anything else but the multiplies of ten?
 a. See  the  previous two Q&A. :)  Oh, here is also a limitation of XeD. ;)
    XeD limits Bravery to 250, while even 2550 would be a possible value. If
    you  have a good reason of having 2550 bravery (I'm not sure it wouldn't
    crash the game..), then e-mail me.

 q. After  using  some  other editors  to pump up my soldiers, they had nice
    solid  one  colored  bars.  With  XeD, the bars usually have two colors,
    they  begin with the usual color, then a slightly brighter color. What's
    this?
 a. This  is  normal,  and it is by design.  There are two values stored for
    nearly  everything.  First  there  are some values for the initial stats
    of  a  soldier,  and the second one if for the current stats. X-COM uses
    these two values to make two colored bars, they show how bad the soldier
    was,  and  how  much the improvement is. I could change both values, and
    you  will  get  one  colored bars, saying you that this soldier was hell
    good  always.  I think the other way I've chosen is better, because this
    way you get a text saying something like "600% improvement" on the other
    page of a soldier, while in the other way, you would see 0% improvement.

 q. Don't you fear that a lame fart would just put in his name in your source
    code and claim XeD was made by him?
 a. Well,  there is always the danger of that if you release the source code
    with your program.

 q. I have a webpage, or I just want to get the latest version by mail
    always as soon as it is released. Is there a XeD mailing list?
 a. No, there isn't.  But if you want to get the newest version by e-mail as
    soon  as  they  are released, just drop me a mail and ask me to put your
    e-mail address on my list of people whom I send the new versions.

 q. Where do you live?
 a. In Hungary.

 q. What's the difference between normal stun and safe stun?
 a. In the process of stunning,  aliens get some critical wounds. If you use
    normal  stun,  there is a risk of weaker aliens dying from these wounds.
    Safe  stun  means  that  every alien's health will be increased a bit to
    make sure all of them survive the stun 'treatment'.

 q. Why do I have to wait for the next turn after using XeD's 'kill all
    aliens' or 'stun all aliens' command?
 a. I  could  kill  every  alien instantly, but if I do that, the game don't
    detects  that  every  hostile  unit is dead or unconscious and continues
    to  wait  forever.  As  a  workaround,  both  of these commands use some
    critial  wounds  from which the aliens will die or become unconscious in
    the next turn.

 q. Can I reach you with Mirabilis ICQ?
 a. Sometimes...  I  don't  start  ICQ  always. But anyway, my ICQ number is
    2581285.  Oh, I enabled the 'require authorization' switch just for fun,
    but don't worry, I'll probably authorize it if you try to put me on your
    ICQ contact list.

 q. Hey! I have 100 Megapol Lawpistol Clips in the game, but XeD says I have
    1600. Is this a bug?
 a. "It  is  not a bug, it is a feature." :)  Just look at the end of nearly
    every  clip's  name  in XeD, for example it says (x16) for the Lawpistol
    Clip.  That  means  the  value  XeD  shows  is multiplied by 16. This is
    because  each  Lawpistol  Clip  has  16  rounds,  and  with XeD, you can
    actually edit how many rounds you have, and not how many actual clips.

 q. What about making XeD a Windows 95 based editor with graphics?
 a. Well...  X-COM  Apocalypse  is  a  DOS game. I don't want to make a dumb
    editor's  system  requirements  higher  than  the game itself. But maybe
    I'll put together a Win95 version, while still making the DOS version of
    XeD as well.
    (I have already received asks pro and con the Win95 version...)

 q. Are there any limits on the number of agents/vehicles you can have in
    the game?
 a. Yes, there are limits everywhere...  For example there can never be more
    than  80  vehicles  in  the  game at once, and you cannot have more than
    150 agents with equipment.



 tips and tricks
 

      Do not add Advanced Control Systems or Bio-trans modules to any of
       your bases before you haven't researched them and manufactured some
       on your own already.

      Do not try to heal dead agents in tactical games, or be sure to make
       a backup first. And be prepared that the game may even crash.
       This means don't wait with that heal command. Heal them before they
       die completely!

      Do not try healing aliens in tactical games. No, it wouldn't hurt so
       much, and sometimes it's fun to do it. XeD will put the selected
       Alien under your control and put it into one of your squads if you
       try to heal one.
       Oh, and leave at least one alien under alien control, or the game
       may never end.

      If you want to do a tactical mission on your own and don't want to
       use auto-kill or auto-stun, but don't want to risk the life of your
       agents, use turn-based combat. It is a very big advantage in turn
       based editing that with the heal or the pump up command you can
       give back all of the time units to your agents whenever you want.
       You can walk forever, while the aliens never get a turn; just
       save after every turn and simply heal or pump up your agents with
       XeD.

      Take a look at the XED.INI file, but first make a backup of it,
       and don't blame me if you find any bugs or crashes after using
       an edited XED.INI. For example, I commented out and disabled editing
       of things which Microprose decided not to include in the final
       version due to gameplay balance. Editing the .INI file, you can
       use XeD to put most of these things back in.

      Everywhere in XeD where you can edit a value, you can also use
       plus or minus to quickly increment/decrement the value by one.



 known bugs
 

      If you use the Base layout editor to enlarge your base, the game
       may crash if hostile forces raid your base. The solution is not to
       use the Base layout editor for adding stuff on places previously
       'Earth'. Anyway, XeD has more than enough toys to stop those hostile
       forces before they can reach your base.. So just kill them before
       they can raid you. ;)

      Trying to heal dead agents in tactical missions may even CRASH the
       game now, so don't do it! Save often, and heal them before they die
       completely.

      Do not remove a Lab with the base editor which is currently in use.
       Stop all research and remove the agents working in the lab before
       removing it with the base layout editor.

      If you change a female agent's face to a male face, "he" will still
       scream with a female voice when hit, and vice versa.

 If you find any other bugs, please e-mail me!



 coming attractions
 

      editing placement of weapons and equipment of units in tactical saves
      editing placement of weapons, equipment and engines of vehicles in
       cityscape saves
      weapon stats editor! yes, now we have some information about editing
       the weapon stats, thanks to AGENT 64, ViS and Larze
      more vehicle editing



 how to get the latest version
 

 You can always download the newest version from X-COM Apocalypse Central:
         http://www.gametemple.com/x-com/

 Be sure to check out ViS' homepage too, who is co-author of XeD, and this
 way he may have the latest version of XeD a bit earlier on his page:
         http://www.3-cities.com/~vlad/xcom3/

 MacK's X-COM Apocalypse page also has the latest version of XeD:
         http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Castle/7879/index.html

 If you have an e-mail address and you would like to get the newest versions
 as soon as I send them to Leo (webmaster of X-COM Apocalypse Central), just
 ask me in e-mail and tell me your address. Also, please note if you want to
 get special pre-release beta versions to test or not.



 help me out with..
 

 Yes, I would appreciate if you could give me any information about the
 following:

    - Fixing the bugs listed in the 'known bugs' section.




  -  -

  have fun and have a nice day!

  fdsoft@mail.gyor-ph.hu




 version history, what's new
 

 v1.4 not-released-yet
 ---------------------

  * I've made a little "how to make a mugshot replacement patch with XeD"
    tutorial, with detailed instructions and a ready to be used example.
    Look for xedfacet.zip.
  * Because of taking up too much space (and download time) for users who
    doesn't need the source code for anything, the source code is now
    released seperately, called xed14src.zip.
  + New command line parameters added for the PCK viewer/editor.
  * More support for dummies. ;) XeD can be run from any directory now,
    and it can automatically find the X-COM Apocalypse directory.
  + PCK viewer/editor added. Don't forget to read the new 'command line
    parameters' section.
  + XeD is now using the original X-COM font on the graphics parts.
  + ViS gave me a VESA unit, I changed it a bit and added to XeD. Here are
    some of the cool new things this allows you:
          + Press P in any of the agent/unit lists, and you will get a
            picture showing the equipment placement, the face picture,
            rank, some misc info.. all of this in a nice graphical screen,
            exactly as in the game. Just see it to believe it. :)
          + The same is true for the face pictures browser, just press
            S or V while you are in the face selector, and it will switch
            between VGA and SVGA.
  + Command line parameter "/safe" added. This is for people having problems
    with the new XMS code. Use it only as a last resort, you will lose
    some of the features, and it will make XeD a lot slower.
  + ViS added the organizations relationship editor.
  - PHOTO.PCK viewer fixed, now it's 100% bug free even if you are using the
    Tinseltown patch!
  + In the cityscape vehicles list and the tactical units list XeD now shows
    destroyed/dead vehicles/units with a darker color.
  + Agent reordering: s - auto sort (groups the same agent types together,
    then sorts the soldiers by kills, biochemists/engineers/quantum physicists
    by their skill), t - move selected agent to the top of the list (if you
    want to set the order manually)
  + New command 'e' while in the cityscape agent list, shows you what
    equipment the agent is carrying. Quite useless feature, but I needed
    this for the reorder/sort function and I left it in.
  + Support for Cyphron's Tinseltown mugshot replacement patch:
    it shows the name of the guy/girl on the picture, also there is a new
    command just for fun in the cityscape agent list - press n and XeD will
    automatically rename your agents to their Tinseltown face name. :)
    Of course by editing the XeD.INI file, you can change all of this names,
    to support an other face picture replacement patch.
  + Vehicle reordering: s - auto sort based on vehicle owner and type,
    t - move to the top of the list (if you want to set the order manually).
    NOTE: Please move the vehicles to a building before reordering. Also, XeD
          tries to renumber agent vehicle assignments automatically (and it
          looks to be working fine), but you may also want to remove the
          agents from the vehicles before reordering.
  + I've also added Name editing to both the tactical and the cityscape
    agent editor screens. Yep, someone told me a good reason of including
    it. You cannot edit in the game the name of your scientists. Now you can
    with XeD. :)
  + By popular demand, both the tactical and the cityscape agent editing is
    able the edit the useless things too ;) , that means now you can edit
    Days service, Missions, Kills and Number of Medals.
  - Minor 'Empty saved game slot' bug fixed.
  * XeD is now using XMS. It loads the whole saved game file into
    XMS, so you'll need approx. 4 MBs of free XMS memory. I hope having
    4 MB XMS is not a big deal nowadays. :)
    There are several cool new changes because of this XMS support:
          + it is now very fast, even without any disk cache
          + XeD works always only in the memory.. before exiting, you'll
            be asked if you want to save your changes, or don't touch
            anything
  * I've reworked most of the XeD source code. While most of you guys won't
    see a significant difference, it was quite a lot of work, but it was
    well worth it. Now both me and ViS can update the code quickly and
    easily. (Oh, and now you can actually learn even something useful
    from the XeD source if you are a beginner Pascal programmer. :-) )

 v1.3 13-08-97
 -------------

  + press 'E' to get a list of equipment a unit is carrying in tactical saves.
    you can even see what how an enemy unit is equipped - just don't forget
    that brainsuckers have no equipment at all, just like every dead unit.
    oh, and of course you can remove the equipment of your choice if you
    want. disarm those bad megaspawns before they hurt you. :)
  + new edit vehicles command.. currently allows you to get a list of the
    vehicles in the game (shows both the vehicle name and the owner); and
    then you can see what type of equipment is on the selected vehicle
    (you can also remove equipment.. yeah, disarm those sucker hostile
     vehicles, hehe)  [vehicle editing information from Lestat Majere]
  + added editing vehicles for sale
  + now shows the agent type in the cityscape agent editor list (X-COM Agent,
    Biochemist, Engineer, Quantum Physicist)
  - minor bug introduced in v1.2 overwriting the 'Health' text in the
    cityscape agent editor fixed
  + research editor added!
  + new Import/Export command, allows you to export agents and/or vehicles
    data from one savegame, then import it to another
  + I've built in an early beta of my .PCK viewer, it allows you to select
    visually which agent face you wish to use!
  + a new heal command, for people who don't like big cheats but want a
    small cheat. :)
    it can also rescue brainsucked agents (courtesy of Larze)
  + with a cool idea from Larze, the tactical editor is now able to Stun those
    stupid aliens, without killing them. now you can capture them alive (you
    get + points for it), and also the Multiworms splitting into Hyperworms
    problem is solved with this
  * this doc .txt got a facelift and some new content.
    read it in DOS, not with Windows Notepad ;)
  * new name! :) - thanks to jalen <jalen@writeme.com>
    so XC3SGED is called XeD from now on.. you can type it in easier :)
    (don't worry, this is still the same program :))
  + unit owner info in tactical games, also some new colors based on this
    owner info. aliens are red, civilians are gray, x-com agents
    are the old white and the other human units are green.
    (with this owner info the automatic killer is now finally complete.
     you can safely name your own units like aliens, they won't be killed
     by the automatic killer.)
  - bug reported by Thomas Forsberg (Zombie-jr@usa.net) fixed,
    he was not be able to edit base 3 after the aliens have taken
    control of base 2

 v1.2 07-08-97
 -------------

  - thanks to Larze, xc3sged is now able to edit ranks and faces in cityscape
    saves
  - added rank editing to tactical saves as well (faces not yet)
  - tactical editing now works more or less..
    now you can manually edit every detail of every unit in tactical saves.

    stunning and automatically detecting (and killing) hostile units is
    still not in (how on earth i could distinguish between hostile humans
    and x-com agents..).

  - thanks again to Larze, now there is a quite good automatic alien killer,
    using critical wounds. it cannot detect hostile humans right now, so
    you will have to kill hostile humans one by one, by selecting their name
    and pressing minus. if you want to kill every alien at once,
    just press "*".
  - the "+" pump-up command in tactical games now heals critical wounds as
    well.

 v1.1 06-08-97
 -------------

  uh.. sorry guys :) this version was intented to be the v1.0.
  in fact when I sent the old version to the x-com: apocalypse central, this
  newer version was already ready ;) sorry, i picked the wrong zip in the
  mail program's file selector ;)

  so, what's new:

  - xc3sged.ini cleaned up a bit
  - allow all ufopaedia
  - some tactical editing

 v1.0 01-08-97
 -------------

  initial release


