Unused text in English.dat

[Zombie]

As many of you know, the X-COM series is notorious for having tons of unused features still programmed in. It is especially prevalent in TFTD and Apoc, but EU is not immune. The other day I was taking a tour of English.dat (a file in the Geoscape folder) and decided to try and figure out what is used and what is unused. The first group of stuff are things most of us already know about:

• ADVANCED AIR TO AIR MISSILE WITH SPECIALLY SHIELDED ELECTRONICS. (Stingray)
  
• AIR TO AIR MISSILE WITH NUCLEAR WARHEAD, BUT AN EXTREMELY HEAVY LOAD. (Avalanche)
  
• HIGH POWERED CANNON WHICH FIRES ARMOUR PIERCING ROUNDS CAPABLE OF PENETRATING 16 INCHES OF STEEL. (Cannon)
  
• THIS LAUNCHER FIRES A BALL SHAPED MISSILE POWERED BY ANTI-MATTER REACTION. THE BALL DESTROYS THE TARGET WITH A GRAVITY WAVE IMPLOSION. (Fusion Ball)
  
• THIS CONVENTIONAL LASER BEAM IS POWERED BY AN ANTI-MATTER REACTION CHAMBER. (Laser Cannon)
  
• THE GRAVITY BEAM DIRECTS A FINELY CHANNELLED IMPLODING GRAVITY FIELD. (Plasma Beam)
   
  
• These chambers contain alien foetuses. The design of these containers seems to suggest that the aliens which use this process rely completely on laboratory reproduction. The rich nutrients ensure rapid development of the foetus. This factory line system could generate thousands of alien clones in a short space of time. The process could be easily adapted for human reproduction, or alien-human hybrids. (Alien Reproduction)
  

Don't know why the craft weapon information was left out of the UFOPaedia. It's there, but goes unused. Alien Reproduction is one of those reasearch items which can be added to the game via an editor, but never shows up through "normal" methods. The programmers probably didn't have the time to include this. At $40,000 per unit, it would have been the most expensive non-manufacturable item you could recover from a mission. By the looks of the chambers, reproduction could have been intended to be the "vats" which is now Alien Food. Can't be sure about this.

 

Here are some additional blurbs:

• TOO MANY BUTTONS! Not sure what this is for, but perhaps it's for the blaster launcher waypoint system?
  
• TAILING UFO and PURSUE WITHOUT INTERCEPTION These are a couple leftover interception status messages. Standoff replaced both of these as the primary way.
  
• HOSTILE, NEUTRAL, FRIENDLY and COMMITTED Not sure about these either, but it's probably either an indication of a UFO's intentions or a unit descriptor on the battlescape. (Hostile=Alien, Neutral=Civilian, Friendly=XCom unit, Committed=Mind Controlled?)
  
• XCOM OPERATIVES RETIRED THROUGH INJURY We can be pretty sure of this as soldiers wounded in combat were meant to retire and not return to active duty. Most likely used in the scoring system at the end of a mission.
  
• "The subject has died due to the trauma of interrogation." and "The corpse may be researched for a full autopsy report". Obviously research messages. Perhaps units under interrogation sometimes died and live aliens sometims didn't divulge anything useful? Or perhaps live Sectopod/Cyberdisc research messages?
  
• "Please look up the page listed below in your Game Manual, and enter the eight digit code listed at the bottom of the page. EG: Page 13 of Game Manual Code: 3994-9668 Please Enter the Code from Page" Not used after copy protection was lifted.
  
• "UFOPEDIA" This is the only non-british spelling of this word in the game. Not sure where it was supposed to go.
  

Lastly, this is kind of a spoiler so don't read this if you havn't finished the game.

 

You have arrived in Cydonia. You gain entry to a large underground complex near the Martian Sphinx. You must destroy the Alien Brain that controls all alien activity. The fate of humanity is in your hands....

Compare this to the current Cydonia research topics:

 

Mars: Cydonia Landing Your Avenger craft has landed in the region of Cydonia on the surface of Mars. Our information indicates that one of the pyramid constructions contains a green access lift to an underground complex. Once you have assembled all your soldiers in the lift area click on the 'abort mission' icon to continue to the next stage. Mars: The Final Assault The pyramid lift takes your battle weary soldiers deep below the planet's surface. They arrive in the heart of a large complex of tunnels and chambers. The alien brain is hidden somewhere in the labyrinth. It must be destroyed if the earth is to be saved from alien enslavement.

It almost looks like there would only be a single mission on the surface of Mars instead of the 2-parter we are all familiar with now.

 

The meaning of some of the text is just conjecture on my part, so if anyone has ideas please speak up. Also, if you find some unused text I didn't mention, post it here!

 

- Zombie

[Danial]

I didn't even realise that the weapon information wasn't used. I think I might have put it in my UFOpaedia site without even realising

 

I did remember seeing the "Too Many Buttons" line in there the last time I looked and wondered what the hell it was for.

[Zombie]

LOL. Yeah, I sometimes forget the craft weapon descriptions aren't in the game either. Too bad the armor UFOPaedia entries don't exist. That would have been a nice find.

 

I'm doubting that the "TOO MANY BUTTONS" text is for the Blaster Launcher now. A warning like this would happen in the battlescape and therefore should come from English2.dat and not English.dat. This one is a real mystery so far.

 

- Zombie

[Bomb Bloke]

My guess on the "hostile" "neutral" "friendly" "commited" list is that it refers to the status of the funding nations.

 

I'm not sure about the buttons one, but I know that minimised aireal combats can be clicked on. Maybe there's a limit?

[Zombie]

The limit is 4 minimized craft at a time. The 5th craft just follows the interception group around. However, I noticed that the TOO MANY BUTTONS message is also in English2.dat, so I doubt this is for craft.

 

- Zombie

[NKF]

Well, you do have a limit for the centre-on-visible-unit icons that pop up whenever you see an enemy. Of course, you'll rarely see 10 or more enemies in the same screen at the same time through normal means excluding the psi-amp.

 

But I don't really see a need for it, so it may have just been used as debug text during development.

 

- NKF

[Zombie]

But I don't really see a need for it, so it may have just been used as debug text during development.

Could be, could be. I just found the TOO MANY BUTTONS text in the executable too! lol

 

- Zombie