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NightfallCheats

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 2 months ago

Chapter I: Cheats & Bugs

 

Skip this chapter if you'd like!

 


 

A. Credit Grab Cheat

 

Due to an error in the game, if you "undo" your move after moving onto a credit square, you keep the money (it doesn't return to the gameboard). For most levels this is more of a time-saver than a cheat, since it means that you don't have to leave the computer with one harmless unit at the end while you travel around collecting up money.

 

B. Floating Unit Cheat

 

A mistake in the game implementation lets the Bit-Man use the Zero program to dig a square out from underneath one of your own units without hurting it. Your unit floating over the void can then attack, but can't be attacked back (or targeted by your own buffing effects). Towers (or any other single-square units) undercut by your own Bit-Men are invincible, and can typically mop up almost every computer army. Your victory is assured due to the computer's bad AI – an intelligent opponent would stand off outside your range rather than committing suicide. The ability to create an invulnerable unit is a serious bug.

 

Most of the scenarios in the game can be beaten with a single Hack 1.0 that never leaves its starting square and a single Bit-Man that undercuts the Hack and then protects itself! All you need is a lot of patience. The computer's armada impales itself uselessly against your Hack. (If all enemy units in the armada are size 3+ speed 2+, then the computer's final unit has to be encircled by Bit-Man. Fortunately computer units are far more interested in your nearby Hack than your distant Bit-Man – until it's too late. You can also move your Hack as long as you undercut all its active squares and remember that you can't return your head to voided squares.) Obviously Satellite or HeisenBug instead of Hack 1.0 makes this exercise quicker. In short, Zero'ing your own units makes the game ridiculously easy. CONCLUSION: The Nightfall Incident game plays much better when you don't Zero occupied squares with your Bit-Man!

 

Example (SPOILER): In the final battle, the computer has 21 top-level units (44 possible movement, 81 possible damage per turn). The computer's life total is likely to exceed 100 squares. The node provides you with 10 upload slots and top-level units are available. Instead, install only 3 mid-level units (Bit-Man, TOWER, Fiddle) costing $3650 total – less than the price of one Catapult. The only installed combat unit causes 3 damage per turn. Since 8 of the computer's units can regain 3 or more life each turn, it should be impossible for the computer to lose. Yet Bit-Man's Zero program makes victory straightforward (see Bit-Man Cheat Illustrations – images contain spoilers).

 

Either:

  1. Bit-Man should not be able to delete an occupied square (recommended), or
  2. Bit-Man should damage the program occupying the square (possibly shifting the head or causing several points of damage if the program is cut in two), or
  3. A program floating over the void should not be able to attack, or
  4. A program floating over the void should not be protected from attacks.

In fact, only solutions (1) and (4) avoid serious game-balance and playability issues.

 

C. Enemy Unit Deletion Cheat

 

There is a convoluted way to delete enemy units from the map, by taking advantage of an error in the enemy information viewing interface. By selecting an enemy attack routine in the program.info view panel, clicking on another enemy unit, then going back to the original enemy unit and clicking "undo," the intermediary selected unit is destroyed.

 

Additional references:

From http://jayisgames.com/archives/2005/09/spybot_the_nigh.php#comment-107516

Posted by: Matchu | October 18, 2006 9:17 PM

"I know there was a way to delete enemy units, and I think this is it:

This may not work for all enemies, but most...

1. Start the battle

2. Click on an enemy (the replacement)

3. Click on their attack

4. Click on another enemy (the replacer)

5. Click back to the first enemy (the replacement one)

6. Click "undo".

If all was done properly (and the enemy combination works), the first enemy you clicked on will move from its original position to be on top the second enemy you clicked. The second enemy's picture will usually remain throughout the entire battle, but the second enemy itself won't exist (it'll basically be a ghost). You can sometimes reduce entire battles into one enemy with this!"

 

D. Hacking Your Saved Game File

 

Your saved game files are plaintext lists that are extremely easy to modify. If you find that the game is way too hard, you might try giving yourself unlimited money or a Stone Golem. Modifying the save file makes the game pointless, since you can simply add ten copies of the best program in the game to your inventory. Or you could just set all the nodes in the game to #WIN and declare yourself a winner.

 

I'll give details on how to modify your save file, but I don't recommend it (unless you want to play the game using your own weird-colored Guard Pups).

 

On a Windows PC, you'll find the save files under your Macromedia Shockwave preferences directory – something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name\Application Data\Macromedia\Shockwave Player\Prefs\NP8DNR5K

 

Your save files are called something like spbslot1.txt, and they look roughly like this (in entirety):

[#SPYBOT: 1, #sLevel: 1, #credits: 8675309, #agents: ["Hack", "Slingshot", "Bug", "Data Doctor", "Frag-Man", "Clog.01", "Hack 2.0", "Golem.mud", "Wolf Spider", "Seeker", "Silo", "Medic", "Turbo", "Hack 3.0", "Golem.clay", "Black Widow", "MandelBug", "BuzzBomb", "Fiddle", "Seeker 2.0", "SCUD", "Satellite", "Ballista", "Memory Hog", "Data Doctor Pro", "Clog.02", "Turbo Deluxe", "Golem.stone", "Tarantula", "HeisenBug", "LogicBomb", "Wizard", "Sumo", "Seeker 3.0", "Laser Satellite", "Catapult", "Clog.03", "Guru"], #nodes: [#WIN, #on, #on, #off, #on, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off]]

 

In the save file shown above, I've bought one copy of each program and earned a lot of money, but I've cheated all the nodes back to their unexplored state and turned off my security clearance, to start the game again from scratch.

 

Section 1. Very very easy - modifications to your save file:

 

Take a look at your spbslot1.txt save file using any text editor.

 

  • Unlimited credits and one of each program: overwrite your save file with the example above.
  • Unlimited credits: change #credits to 1000000 or so
  • Any program: add it in quotes to your #agents list
  • Unlimited clearance: set #sLevel to 5
  • Warez node access: set flags 2, 12, 19, and 29 in the #nodes list to #WIN (also need security clearance)
  • Access to final battle: set #nodes list flag 39 to #WIN ("defeats" the pentultimate node)

 

Section 2. Not very hard - complete details about all save file features:

 

There are up to four files used by Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident. The spbmain.txt file simply tells the game where to find your save files. It is very short and uninteresting. spbslot1.txt, spbslot2.txt, and spbslot3.txt are your three saved game files – these contain all the good stuff.

 

Sample spbmain.txt: In this example, the first two slots have saved games, third slot is empty

["spbslot1", "spbslot2", #empty]

 

Another sample spbmain.txt: Here all three slots have saved games

["spbslot1", "spbslot2", "spbslot3"]

 

Sample spbslot3.txt: At the start of a new game

[#SPYBOT: 4, #sLevel: 1, #credits: 1000, #agents: ["Hack", "Slingshot"], #nodes: [#WIN, #on, #on, #off, #on, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off, #off]]

 

Sample spbslot1.txt: A completed game with a rather extensive arsenal of programs

[#SPYBOT: 1, #sLevel: 5, #credits: 56020, #agents: ["Hack", "Slingshot", "Bug", "Frag-Man", "Data Doctor", "Hack", "Frag-Man", "Bug", "Bug", "Bug", "Clog.01", "Hack 2.0", "Hack 2.0", "Seeker", "Seeker", "Turbo", "Golem.mud", "Medic", "Silo", "Hack 2.0", "Seeker", "Silo", "Silo", "Turbo", "Turbo Deluxe", "Golem.clay", "Data Doctor Pro", "Clog.02", "Hack 3.0", "Hack 3.0", "Seeker 2.0", "Seeker 2.0", "Fiddle", "Memory Hog", "Golem.stone", "Seeker 3.0", "Seeker 3.0", "Guru", "Wizard", "Seeker 3.0", "Sumo", "Golem.stone", "Clog.03", "Clog.03", "Clog.03", "Laser Satellite", "Catapult", "Laser Satellite", "Catapult", "Guru", "Guru", "Guru", "HeisenBug", "HeisenBug", "HeisenBug", "HeisenBug", "Frag-Man", "Frag-Man", "Slingshot", "Clog.03", "Laser Satellite", "Laser Satellite", "Catapult", "Catapult", "Sumo", "Seeker 3.0", "Golem.stone", "Golem.stone", "Tarantula", "MandelBug", "MandelBug", "Golem.clay", "BuzzBomb", "BuzzBomb", "Golem.mud", "Hack", "Hack", "Slingshot", "Slingshot", "Data Doctor", "Data Doctor", "Data Doctor"], #nodes: [#WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN]]

 

Sample spbslot2.txt: A completed highlander game – one of each program, purchased in rank order

[#SPYBOT: 3, #sLevel: 5, #credits: 30940, #agents: ["Hack", "Slingshot", "Bug", "Data Doctor", "Frag-Man", "Clog.01", "Hack 2.0", "Golem.mud", "Wolf Spider", "Seeker", "Silo", "Medic", "Turbo", "Hack 3.0", "Golem.clay", "Black Widow", "MandelBug", "BuzzBomb", "Fiddle", "Seeker 2.0", "SCUD", "Satellite", "Ballista", "Memory Hog", "Data Doctor Pro", "Clog.02", "Turbo Deluxe", "Golem.stone", "Tarantula", "HeisenBug", "LogicBomb", "Wizard", "Sumo", "Seeker 3.0", "Laser Satellite", "Catapult", "Clog.03", "Guru"], #nodes: [#WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN, #WIN]]

 

Here are the parameters:

 

  • #SPYBOT: The Spybot picture (1-4) you chose for your save file. This has no effect on the game.
  • #sLevel: Your security clearance level.
  • #credits: Your current credits.
  • #agents: Bracketed list of your available units, listed in the order that you acquired them. Put names in quotation marks, and beware of inconsistent labeling. Some labels are different from in-game names (Bit-Man = "Frag-Man", TOWER = "Silo", and so on) – see program list.
  • #nodes: Bracketed list of node victory flags. Nodes that you've defeated are marked #WIN. Node locations you've been told about are marked #on. Nodes within reach of a defeated node are also #on. Inaccessible distant nodes are #off, making them invisible. Nodes are not in order – see node list in the Appendix to the Walkthrough Chapter.

 

Additional references:

"here are the default locations for Shockwave save files...

PC: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\MACROMED\Shockwave\Prefs

Mac OSX: Library/Application Support/Macromedia/Shockwave 10/Prefs

On my Mac there were two files that were written to for the game:

spbslot1.txt - contains the save data for my game in save slot #1

sbpmain.txt - contains data telling the game which of the save slots have games saved.

So, to move your game to another computer, make sure you copy both files.

Posted by: jay | September 17, 2005 2:13 AM

Correction to where the files are saved on a PC:

C:\Documents and Settings\Zero\Application Data\Macromedia\Shockwave Player\Prefs\U5C38ZDL

\Zero\ is the account that I am under (so these saves cannot be access via another account).

\U5C38ZDL\ is probably a randomly generated name.

The filenames listed above are correct. As a final note, I am using Firefox version 1.0.6 (so that might effect where the files are saved).

Posted by: Zero | September 17, 2005 8:39 AM "

 

E. Other Bugs and Typos

 

Bug: Activating a kamikaze effect can sometimes end your entire turn. This might happen less often when you activate units in reverse-order; but I don't use kamikaze units so I haven't investigated this bug.

 

Typo: Seeker 2.0 and Seeker 3.0 cause 3 damage at range 2. The help files incorrectly describe them as 2 damage at range 3.


 

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