Universal Game Editor Module For Descent (Registered Version)
by David Melanson, created with UGE v 1.0
Descent. Many MANY levels of 3-D robot combat, with great
graphics, sound, and a dizzying vertigo effect that has to be seen to
be believed. Yeah, we know all that already. And doubtless, most of us
know all the cheat codes, too. So, if we know the cheat codes, WHY would
we bother with a game editor? Well...maybe, just maybe...
1.> We're sick of losing our entire score and have the computer
smugly say "Cheater!" every time we blow up an enemy or open a door or
something when we use the cheat codes, or maybe...
2.> We'd like to see what happens when we reach "Laser Level 5"
and beyond, or maybe...
3.> We just want to make the spaceship into a practically
indestructible weapon of mass destruction. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Anyway, however you got this, this is the latest in my moderately
long line of modules created for Jack Hartman's Universal Game Editor.
Others are primarily adventure games, from Might & Magic IV, V, and V and a
half (Swords of Xeen), Stonekeep, Anvil of Dawn, Ravenloft: Strahd's
Possession AND Stone Prophet, Menzoberranzen, Star Trail: Realms of Arkania
II, and several others. All of these are available at my Website:
http://www.ici.net/customers/overkill/overkill.htm
and choose the "UGE Page" option from the menu on the home page. I consider
all of the work I have done to date to be freeware; therefore, I charge no
registration fee personally. However, I do request that anyone who uses
my modules, please register UGE with Jack Hartman. It's a very nice program,
and well worth the investment (read the documentation that comes with the
UGE files to find out how to register). Okay, enough advertisement...on
with the show!
EDITING DESCENT:
First, unzip the DESCENT.ZIP file into your DESCENT directory.
Fire up UGE, as it says to do in the UGE instructions. Add a new game to
the list, call it whatever you like (usually, "Descent" is a good choice)
and choose "DESCENT.MDL" as your module name. The game file that
you want to modify is in your DESCENT directory, under the name (player
name).SGx, where x is a number from 0-9, representing one of the available
saved game slots. For example, on the Descent Save/Restore screen, the
file for the FIRST saved game slot for my pilot ("Satan") would be
SATAN.SG0. After you choose that, go into the Descent choice on the UGE
menu to edit various features of the game. Now for what you can (and can't)
do with this module...first the bad news:
You can't teleport. There's just too many variables that change
whenever you move. But hey, in Descent, getting there is half the fun! So
that's not a big deal (I hope)
You can't blow up reactors automatically. Oh well, that's life.
You can't change the amount of time you have to get out before
the reactor obliterates everything. I tried; believe me, I tried, but I
couldn't find the proper variable anywhere in the files.
Now the good news...here's what the various fields do:
1.> Keys Possessed: This can give you any one, any two, or all three of the
keys for the level you're on instantly. The keys are coded as follows:
2=Blue Key 4=Red Key 8=Yellow Key.
So, if you want just the Blue key, replace this field's value with
2, and when you restore your game, you'll have the Blue key. Descent's
keys and weapons work in a rather unusual way...they are cumulative. In
other words, if you want both the Red key and the Blue Key, the value you
would enter in this field would be the value for the Red Key PLUS the value
for the Blue Key, which would be...2+4=6. If you wanted the Blue and Yellow
keys, the value you would enter would be...2+8=10. If you wanted all 3
(common choice), enter 14 in this field (2+4+8=14). Get used to this;
it's the same in both Primary and Secondary Weapons.
2.> Quad Laser Active?: This one's simple. Want the Quad Laser attachment?
Replace this field's value with 4. That's all there is to it!
3.> Weapon Energy: All primary weapons except the Vulcan Cannon draw on a
common energy supply...the yellow numbers in your cockpit display. With
this field, you can set that number ridiculously high (well over 30,000!).
And, when it starts to drop low (if ever), just save your game, exit back
to UGE, and set it high again...instant recharge! Note: If the display on
the cockpit looks funny after you set this number really high, don't be too
surprised...it wasn't designed to normally hold values that high, and so
doesn't quite know how to display it...but it works!
4.> Shield Energy: Same as Weapon Energy, except it handles your Shield
Energy (the blue numbers in the cockpit display, and how much protection
you've got before you go boom). Set this to 30,000 and you're ready to go
toe-to-toe with the Level 7 boss...or maybe even the end boss!
5.> # Of Lives: Straightforward enough, this is the number of chances you
have to succeed in your mission. This number (minus 1 for your "current"
life) appears in the upper left corner of your Descent play screen.
6.> Laser Level +1: This is an unusual field that allows you to determine
what kind of "laser" you have. I put laser in quotes because there are
first the "standard" four levels of laser (Level 1, 2, 3, and 4), and then
there are quite a few options BEYOND that level that give you some truly
unique options. Setting this variable allows you to determine just what it
is your ship fires when you have Lasers selected and press the Primary
Weapon Firing key. Note that ANYTHING you set this for will take its energy
directly from the Weapon Energy reserve...even if you set it to the more
unusual settings. A table of what the settings are appears below in Table
A. The reason this is labelled "+1" is due to the first couple settings;
at a setting of 0, your laser is "Laser Level 1," at a setting of 1, your
laser is "Laser Level 2," etc.
7.> Primary Weapons: This field determines which primary weapons you have
available for use. Like the Keys field, these numbers are cumulative, so
adding up the various choices will determine all the primary weapons you
have available. Note: If you set the Vulcan Cannon active, but do not
give yourself any Vulcan Ammo (look down a couple fields), you won't be
able to use the Vulcan Cannon). The selections are:
1=Laser (whatever type) 2=Vulcan Cannon 4=Spreadfire Cannon
8=Plasma Cannon 16=Fusion Cannon
So, let's say you wanted the Laser, the Vulcan, and the Fusion
Cannon, but not the others. (Pop quiz, hotshot...) What would be the
number you'd enter here? 19. (1 +2 +16 )=19.
Want ALL of the primary weapons at your beck & call? Enter 31. End of
story for that one.
8.> Secondary Weapons: This field determines which secondary weapons you
have available for use. While this field ENABLES the weapons, if you don't
give yourself a "# Of..." for the particular weapon type, you won't be able
to use them. Therefore, to properly use, say, the Smart Missiles, you both
would have to activate the Smart Missile option here and give yourself a
number in the "# Of Smart Missiles" field (see below). The selections are
exactly as they are in primary weapons, as follows:
1=Concussion Missiles 2=Homing Missiles 4=Proximity Bombs
8=Smart Missiles 16=Mega Missiles
So, let's say you wanted Concussion, Smart, and Mega Missiles, but
not the other two. What would be the number you'd enter here? 25.
(1 + 8 + 16 )=25. Like primary weapons, if you want
everything available, enter 31 here.
9.> Vulcan Ammo Bursts: You may have noticed that Vulcan Ammo does NOT fire
one round at a time, no matter how quickly you tap the fire button.
Therefore, what this field does is keep track of how many "bursts" of ammo
you can fire before depleting your reserve. Setting this to 1000 gives you
somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,000 rounds, I think...and this can be
set pretty damn high, so you can make your Vulcan into the Hose 'O' Doom
if you want!
10-14.> # Of Concussion Missiles/Homing Missiles/Proximity Bombs/Smart
Missiles/Mega Missiles: These five fields basically let you determine how
many missiles of each type you currently have "in stock," and ready to use.
These can also be set to quite high levels, so you can lay down quite a
barrage of missile fire. Just watch out for over-mining an area; it tends
to be bad for navigating. But you knew that already.
15.> Your Score: Yes, you can edit your score. However, I recommend you
don't set it TOO high (over a billion or so), as it may crash the game if
you continue to score normally and go over the maximum limit. I don't know;
I haven't dared to try yet!
TABLE A: "LASER LEVELS"
A note on these levels. You may note that many of these
repeat other weapon effects, and will doubtless wonder "what's the
point of using THAT?" Simple; if you have the quad-laser attachment
activated, it fires 4 at a time. Imaging firing 4 Fusion cannon
blasts at once! PLUS, firing ANY of these weapons adjusted with
the editor module only costs as much energy per shot as the Laser
Level 1 shots (so you can fire 4 Fusion blasts at once for the energy
price of firing 4 Laser 1 shots). And yes, you can in fact use
the missiles as primary weapons...imagine firing 4 Mega Missiles
at once, and firing at a high rate of speed, at that! (OUCH!) Also,
two other notes: When armed with missiles as "lasers," stay WELL out
of the blast radius when firing, and secondly...if you set the laser
level to anything over 3, if you run into a "Laser Power Up" item in
the game, even though the screen will say "Your laser is Maxed out!"
it will in fact reset your laser level to 3 ("Laser Level 4") so if
you want to keep your custom laser level, avoid those powerups!
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0=Laser Level 1 (what you start with)
1=Laser Level 2
2=Laser Level 3
3=Laser Level 4
4=Slow, large blue balls that do little damage, but look neat.
5=Class 1 drone orange fireballs
6=Reactor shots (slow, big red fireballs)
7=Crashes game (don't use!)
8=Concussion Missiles
9=Yellow "arrow darts"-really fast, high rate of fire, very low damage.
10=Very slow, low-damage blue lasers
11=Vulcan Cannon Bursts (!!)
12=Fast blue medium size fireballs that do pretty good damage
13=Plasma Cannon Blasts
14=Fusion Cannon Blasts
15=Repeat of Concussion Missiles. Don't use.
16=Proximity Bombs (Rather dangerous; I suggest you don't use this one!)
17=Smart Missiles
18=Mega Missiles
19=Slow, but VERY damaging large green fireballs
20=Fast, medium damaging small blue fireballs
21=Homing Missiles (My favorite...set these on, put Quad on, set Weapon
Energy really high, and just cruise around, firing randomly...you
don't even have to AIM!)
22,23=Repeats
24=Slow, low damage orange lasers
25=Slow, low damage green lasers
26=Medium speed and damage green fireballs
All others beyond this number are repeats of previous weapons on the
list. These should be quite enough to help you conquer the worlds, though!
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Well, that's about it for this module. I welcome any comments, questions,
or whatever at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., but PLEASE, no requests. I don't have
every game, and not every game is editable! Good luck and good blasting!
-Dave Melanson (Overkill/Mortuai)
(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Files : 3, NeW:NONE, oLD:NONE
uL Node : 1, NFo:NONE, D?Z:NONE
