Display MoreI decided to try and take apart Wing Commander Armada to learn about how it generates maps. The 'Campaign' mode has 11 pre-set sectors that are always the same but the 'Armada' mode creates random ones. Where do the names come from and how many are there?
Long story short, I found the table of all 704 system names with a hex editor and cross referenced them with the published campaign maps. 704 systems is 11 blocks of 64 each. The first systems in the start of each block all appear in their respective campaign sector while the Armada mode can pull from anywhere in the table for a random map. So here's a spreadsheet of them all... the immediate takeaway is that I've discovered 118 new star systems previously uncataloged in Wing Commander lore! Also the list is super fun, lots and lots of 1994 gags and obvious Origin in-jokes.
Next I wanted to learn more about the planet graphics. I've found they're consistent in each mode. I have learned that it's 26 sets of 30 pre-rendered frames each for each planet... over 500kb of disk space total, a true embarrassment of riches for Origin's last game that shipped on 3.5" diskettes! The 26 planets are assigned in order to the table, so system #1 is PLANET00, #2 is 01, etc. and then it loops around, #27 is 00 again and so forth. Confirmed with testing!
This ONLY applies to the campaign maps; planet graphics are randomized in Armada mode. I found where the game stores the Campaign maps’ x/y coordinates and the starting resource levels! The spreadsheet lists all the jump connections for the campaign mode; someone with more brains than me could generate a pretty cool map with the data!
I also made sprite sheets for each planet! Here's a collection of them animated on the WCPedia.
