Information - Adereth's Technical Document

Well, here's my technical document, which will be packaged with AltDuke Avatar (verison 1.3.98ß), when I release it next month (April). Some things have been changed to conform and override the general evilness of Windows 98, but the content is the same. Still requires TERMINAL, as mentioned in the original document.

Alternate Duke Nukem Engine
Version 01.3.98ß - "Avatar"
---------------------------
User's Guide/Technical Manual
Geoff "Link/Adereth" Halliday
March 29, 2002


> Weapons

1. Tazer Stick (Charged)
Ammunition Type: Power Cells
Weapon Type: Melee
Notes: CHEWS ammo.

1b. Tazer Stick (Ammoless)
Ammunition Type: None
Weapon Type: Melee
Notes: Rumors of ineffectiveness in breaking glass (unconfirmed)
> Source: http://www.cygnusloop.com/lameduke/

2. 9mm Pistol
Ammunition Type: Bullets
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Laser site is inaccurate, being a weapon, it is subject to ALL hitscans.

3. Quantum Explosion Dynamo Particle Accelerator Cannon (QEDPAC)
Ammunition Type: Power Cells
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Original Graphic (1.3.95ß) later evolved into Chaingun Cannon.
> Only way to kill slimers.
> Easiest way to kill Drones.

4. Pipebomb Ammunition Type: Pipebomb
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Puts the FPS in a coma.

5. Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launcher (RPG)
Ammunition Type: Rocket-Propelled Grenades.
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Can fired while holstered.
> Buggy[er].
> Needs to be aimed before it can be fired.

> Enemies In order of coding:

1. Female Guard
These ladies are what you'd call a... real threat. Being the brute force of the Fazis, a cheesy alliance between Neo-nazis and extreme feminists, they're armed to the teeth with a very powerful machine gun.

2. Male Guard
These war-hardened artillary officers aren't the kind of people you'd play games with. Specially trained to use a rocket launcher, they're perfect at making their enemy's day just a little bright.

3. All-purpose Generic Brand Trooper
Not specifically well trained*, Troopers carry the largest threat in numbers, where they can easily mow you down with their powerful QEDPACs or 100% compatable. However, not being trained very well has a very painful downfall--they'll freak if you pull out an RPG.
*Or well coded, either.

4. Cyborg Captain
These semi-robots are significantly more threatening than their Trooper subordinates. Armed with an RPG (no pun intended), they can be fatal at close range. Watch out!

5. Octabrain
The Octabrain is much like it's Duke 3D counterpart in appearance. The differences are:
> They shed both green and red blood.
> Their shots are more dangerous, numerous, and smarter.

6. Drone
AltDuke drones are much different from the character in Duke 3D sharing the name. Instead of exploding once they're close enough, they prefer to hang back and shoot you up. The easiest way to get rid of them is to use a QEDPAC, which fries their circuts. Asta la vista, baby!

7. Slimer The only difference from the Duke 3D slimer is that the AltDuke slimer can only be killed by a QEDPAC.

> Technical Notes
> (Recommended reading if you want to do heavy damage to the game)

> 1. FAQ

What are all these .LDT files?
Those are actually MIDIs that have just been renamed to conceal their nature to the average idiot.

AltDuke doesn't like my maps, and I can't open it's in BUILD. Why?
AltDuke uses the more antiquated BUILD map version 5. This means they have to be converted by special programs (BACKMAP and CONVMAP) before they can be used. These can be found in two places: At http://www.advsys.net/ken/ under the BUILD section, and at http://www.geocities.com/adereth_2000/lameduke/ as MKLDMAP.

I don't recognize some of AltDuke's CON language. What is all this?
I recommend you download the Perseus Document from http://www.geocities.com/adereth_2000/lameduke/ . There I've described it as well as I presently can.

What the heck are .LDC files? GAME.CON refers to them, but how do I edit them? Is this some kind of offshoot of CONtrol Code?
.LDC files are critical blocks of CONtrol code that several things rely on. Please, do not edit them except in the most critical cases.

I have a problem. My name is Bob Murton.
I'm sorry, I can't help you with that problem.

Quantum Explosion Dynamo? Isn't that...
Yep! Pried the core from the wreckage of the OMEGAMATIC [TM] m'self.

Why doesn't AltDuke work on my blazingly fast, ultra-compatable Windows 5.0 system with 8 quadrillion gigs of RAM and a 8,000,000 GB harddrive?
Because you're a friggin' idiot. Windows ME [and similar] lack an important tool called the Microsoft Disk Operating System (aka MS-DOS). If you've got XP, then try compatibility mode. (As of March 28, this is the only question I've actually been asked, the rest are speculation)

> 2. The Editing of Various Elements

> The Score Table
Hexice (6) upon a time, on a computer far, far, away, the highscores table worked. Twice upon a time, on a computer far, far, away, the end level screen worked, too. But let's get back to the highscores table. As it doesn't actually work, I recommend using the messages for perhaps an ad or author info. The file the high scores are in is called USERDEFS.TMP. Go figure. But, this is one of the few elements I've gotten to work fully. To edit it, I recommend using a hex editor, and if you plan on screwing around with scores, you'll also need a hex calculator (such as Windows's CALC.EXE in scientific mode).

To change the messages, just type whatever you want. There's a limit to how long these messages can be, trust me not to know.

To edit the scores, first, on DEC mode, type in the number you want to use, such as 4263123 (part of Apogee's phone number). Then, flip to HEX mode, to get the proper representation of your number (in the example, this would be 410CD3). If the number has an odd quantity of digits, and 0 to the front. Next comes the fun part. You have to reverse the number in two-digit chunks (bytes).

Examples:
DEC: 4263123   DEC: 74565
HEX: 410CD3    HEX: 12345 (012345)
FIN: D30C41    FIN: 452301

Finally, find the appropriate number in USERDEFS.TMP to overwrite, save, and glower at your marvelous work! :)! By the way, the game engine is the thing that sorts the scores, so as long as the scoreboard doesn't actually trigger, then feel free to put numbers in random orders, such as 4263123, 87653, 1243, 4567898. The sky is the limit!