Drawde
06-30-2003, 02:42 AM
I recently picked this game up second-hand for a few pounds (it's basically a MMORPG cross between
Deus Ex and Anarchy Online) , and have discovered some intriguing things from looking through the game files
and data directories, and playing around with the offline tutorial mode (which is somewhat different to the
offline demo that was released a while ago). It appears that (unlike other MMORPGs) all the world data, including
NPC spawns, quests, etc. is stored client-side, as well as server-side; the client is also capable
of running as a standalone game - unlike the Everquest tutorial, in which all the actions you could do
were hard-coded, the Neocron tutorial gives you free rein to walk around, use tradeskills, shoot monsters/mutants, talk to
NPCs, trade with merchants etc. - just in a very limited tutorial environment. (It uses the same client .exe as
the online game). However, all the world data, dialogue, and scripting for the rest of the world appears to be there.
(Scripts seems to use the LUA scripting language, though since the files are compressed they aren't readable)
Possibly the developers were intending to make it playable as an offline game as well, but didn't have the development
time. (There are also references in the game .EXE to a LAN deathmatch mode, which is also absent from the game).
Anyway, it seems to me that with some editing/hacking of game files it would be possible to access the main game
world offline; possibly by editing the tutorial character data, which is stored in "defs\pak_tutorialchar.def", to change
the starting location.
However, all of the game's data is stored in .PAK files (not the same as Quake-engine PAK files) which appear to be compressed and/or
encrypted. They contain a directory of which files they contain, probably someone with more knowledge of binary storage and compression
techniques than me would be able to decipher them.
Anyone else played Neocron and interested in commenting? I believe that it's downloadable from the game's website and
has a 10-day free trial (you'd certainly need broadband for this since the game requires 2 CDs!)
No idea about how hard it would be to create a server emulator for Neocron, though it might be that if much of the game
mechanics are client-side (which is suggested by the fully-functional offline tutorial and the (abandoned) LAN deathmatch
option) then the server wouldn't have to do so much.
Deus Ex and Anarchy Online) , and have discovered some intriguing things from looking through the game files
and data directories, and playing around with the offline tutorial mode (which is somewhat different to the
offline demo that was released a while ago). It appears that (unlike other MMORPGs) all the world data, including
NPC spawns, quests, etc. is stored client-side, as well as server-side; the client is also capable
of running as a standalone game - unlike the Everquest tutorial, in which all the actions you could do
were hard-coded, the Neocron tutorial gives you free rein to walk around, use tradeskills, shoot monsters/mutants, talk to
NPCs, trade with merchants etc. - just in a very limited tutorial environment. (It uses the same client .exe as
the online game). However, all the world data, dialogue, and scripting for the rest of the world appears to be there.
(Scripts seems to use the LUA scripting language, though since the files are compressed they aren't readable)
Possibly the developers were intending to make it playable as an offline game as well, but didn't have the development
time. (There are also references in the game .EXE to a LAN deathmatch mode, which is also absent from the game).
Anyway, it seems to me that with some editing/hacking of game files it would be possible to access the main game
world offline; possibly by editing the tutorial character data, which is stored in "defs\pak_tutorialchar.def", to change
the starting location.
However, all of the game's data is stored in .PAK files (not the same as Quake-engine PAK files) which appear to be compressed and/or
encrypted. They contain a directory of which files they contain, probably someone with more knowledge of binary storage and compression
techniques than me would be able to decipher them.
Anyone else played Neocron and interested in commenting? I believe that it's downloadable from the game's website and
has a 10-day free trial (you'd certainly need broadband for this since the game requires 2 CDs!)
No idea about how hard it would be to create a server emulator for Neocron, though it might be that if much of the game
mechanics are client-side (which is suggested by the fully-functional offline tutorial and the (abandoned) LAN deathmatch
option) then the server wouldn't have to do so much.