MCG Source Code extracted addon - Modding MechCommander

These files are only for modders. They will know what to do with it. Players can not use those files - game will simply crash.

Visit MCGold.iso & have a look into the description for player information & downloads!

Hello dear MC modders,
this is the basic extracted source code for MechCommander Gold - Desperate Measures v1.8 - the latest official MC1 built. This package contains ALL extracted files out of the *.FST libraries MechCommander game engine uses to function. While you fit into modding MechCommander you will notice that the game reads file in certain orders and with different priorities. First thing you have to keep in mind is that the game always searches for uncompressed game files in the first place. And the game searches files in an alphabetical order - which make things confusing sometimes. So the first thing that follows out of that fact is that equal game files can exist more than ONE time in the game. The best example are the MasterDefinition files for campaigns in DATA\MISSIONS. Those files are released uncompressed and are editable by the users in order to modify their campaign missions. But the same files already exist compressed into a *.FST file called "Mission.FST". This file is stored in the main game folder like any other compressed *.FST library the game includes. The reason why users can modify their MasterCampaignFiles is that the MC game engine priors uncompressed files in the active gaming process. You can delete the master campaign files as a test. Game will not crash but just will read the file versions out of the Mission.FST file then. So when you modify your mastercampaign file you can always move the file out of the DATA\MISSIONS folder in order to get game back using the vanilla campaign versions. This works for all compressed and extracted files. So when there are equal files stored in multiple *.FST libraries in the main game folder - game will always use the FIRST version of an equal file it finds - under it's searching conditions. The conditions i already mentioned above: The game reads files out of folders in alphabetical order. So when you have a file Mission0101.fit in Mission.FST - but there is another file called 00_ModUpdate.FST containing the same file Mission0101.fit - MC game engine will always use the version of the 00_ModUpdate.FST and ignore the version in Mission.FST file. When the same file is now existing in an extracted version in DATA\MISSIONS\Mission0101.fit - game will prior this version and ignore the content of both, Mission.fst and the 00_ModUpdate.FST file in main game folder.

I hope this helps understanding - how working with the extracted source does function. And how game files in general functioning in MechCommander. It is most important to understand this procedure at the beginning of your modding process - before running into endless debug sessions.

So what does this package contain?

Well this "Extracted source package" contains all extracted files out of those *.FST libraries:

• extracted ART.FST file (DATA\ART\LOGART\...)
• extracted MISC.FST file (DATA\... cameras, fonts, iface, objects, palette & sound)
• extracted MISSION.FST file (DATA\ MISSIONS\ Profiles & Warriors)
• extracted SHAPES.FST (DATA\SPRITES\...)
• extracted TERRAIN.FST (DATA\TERRAIN\...)
• a folder containing sorted and seperated Vanilla key files for modding MechCommander

On the backbone of this files i began my modding work on MechCommander!

Would you like to know more about Modding MechCommander?

(c) by RizZen 2020