Deadlock for Macintosh - Smaller Map Sizes

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Deadlock for Macintosh - Smaller Map Sizes

Post by Ubergeneral Grunt »

A few months back I played around with Deadlock for the Mac's resources. I was attempting to modify it so that custom resolutions would work (as the game only supports 5 fixed 4:3 resolutions, plus 1280x1024, widescreen isn't available). Disassembly revealed that the window drawing function takes two shorts, indicating that there is most likely a look up table, but I haven't found it yet.

But I did have a look at the dialog box data, which is in Metrowerks' PowerPlant format (as CodeWarrior was used to compile Deadlock for the Mac). By changing the bounds of the world width and height sliders in the custom world window, it was possible to give the generator smaller number parameters than the game normally allows. Deadlock for Windows uses custom sliders which I cannot figure out how to modify at this stage. Much to my surprise - smaller map sizes work perfectly (as long as there are enough landing sites for all players)! Given that the game was not tested for world sizes smaller than 20x20, I did think the game might bug out, but it didn't at all (but then again, I did get 10x10 and 15x15 maps working with Deadlock II with my custom generator).

Map sizes larger than 40x40 don't work however, in fact the "Approaching Gallius IV" screen behaves in the same erratic manner as in Deadlock II when attempting to load larger worlds, with the "Long Range Scan" loading bar loading and continually reloading. I would think the data structure in memory for storing the game world has a fixed max size that can only store a map as large as 40x40. Even a 41x20 map doesn't work, so the data structure is most likely 2D. It might be possible to find the max size for the data structure and change it (both here and / or in Deadlock II) to support larger maps. I did find however that the world view in DL2 crashed when loading more than 110 (or so) territories, despite a map with more drawing properly in the "Choose Landing Site" screen.

The game seems to be inconsistent with crashing in regard to circumstances when not all players get a landing site. Most times the game crashes (if say the game is set for 7 players, but only 6 land, the game most often crashes after drawing the world view and after the advisor has given the introductory message). However, once I did get an end turn message that the player who didn't get to land had been eliminated and the game continued.
Attachments
With this map, the game asks all players to choose a landing site (though no one other than the first player can actually choose), once the last player attempts to choose the game crashes.
With this map, the game asks all players to choose a landing site (though no one other than the first player can actually choose), once the last player attempts to choose the game crashes.
DLMapMod_4x3-SelectLanding.png (40.11 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod-40x10.png
DLMapMod-40x10.png (159.74 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_40x3.png
DLMapMod_40x3.png (115.92 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_4x40.png
DLMapMod_4x40.png (104.95 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_4x40-SelectLanding.png
DLMapMod_4x40-SelectLanding.png (37.44 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_15x15-2.png
DLMapMod_15x15-2.png (183.11 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_15x15-1.png
DLMapMod_15x15-1.png (179.83 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_10x10.png
DLMapMod_10x10.png (147.71 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
DLMapMod_CustomWorld.png
DLMapMod_CustomWorld.png (32.84 KiB) Viewed 30209 times
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