Hexing keys and locks in UB-Maps

This tutorial was originally released in german by Sinclair. Parts of it base upon Snap's research about locks at LotB board.
I just translated this guide and made a few remarks.



This tutorial describes how to hex locks in UB-maps, in that don't have been any locks before. This allows you to add locks to any map.

1. Description of the lock data
(Information by Snap, see topic at LotB)

The first byte is always a counter, that determines the number of records for the different locks (in the picture this counter has the value 09, it is marked in bright green)

The counter is followed by the records for the locks, each records has a length of 14 Bytes and is structured like this:
Offset Bytes Values (hex)
00 2 Grid number
02 1 01 (fix)
03 1 trap level
04 1 trap type
05 1 Key/lock ID
06 8 00 (fix)
(in the above picture the first an the last record are marked in yellow)
  • Grid number: Coordinate of the object (door, box etc.), that should be locked. Has to be entered as a hex value.
  • Trap level: Determines, if the trap can be easily or hardly discovered. Level 15 (0f hex) won't even be discovered by the best mercenary.
  • Trap type:

    Known trap types:

    Hex

    		 Trap
    01 explosive
    02 electric
    03 siren
    04 ???
    05 ???
  • Key/lock ID: With the Lock ID keys are matched to a lock. A lock can only be opened with a key, that has the same ID. You will find a list of all id-values in the file locks.bin in \data\binarydata.slf.

    A list of all lock IDs (by Snap):
    Lock ID Key ?????
    00 Crate key

    00 00 00 0a 19
    01 Tough crate 00 00 00 0f 38
    02 Queen 04 00 00 4b 64
    03 Cheap house 02 00 00 11 2d
    04 house 03 00 00 18 3a
    05 Metal door 04 00 00 32 50
    06 padlock 05 00 01 1e 4b
    07 Avg Electronic 06 00 02 28 46
    08 Queen 06 00 02 50 50
    09 pass Normal 07 00 03 32 4a
    0a pass tough 07 00 03 4b 50
    0b Passcard Orta K4 07 00 03 fe fe
    0c Brothel Back Door 02 00 00 41 41
    0d Tixa Cells

    01 00 00 3c 78
    0e solid house 03 00 00 24 4b
    0f ACA cells 01 00 00 1e 46
    10 San Mona Hotel 03 00 00 20 44
    11 Very tough crate 00 00 00 24 4a
    12 Alma cells 01 00 00 41 5f
    13 Warden 04 00 00 37 50
    14 Alma metal door 04 00 00 4b 5f
    15 Alma garage door 04 00 00 28 4c
    16 Arena entrance 03 00 00 55 5f
    17 Arena guardrooms 03 00 00 14 32
    18 Tixa Metal door

    04 00 00 26 50
    19 Orta basement 06 00 02 fe fe
    1a Orta control door 04 00 00 4b 78
    1b Orta pass Ernest 07 00 03 4b 50
    1c San Mona Desk 00 00 00 37 6e
    1d Medical warehouse 04 00 00 3c 78
    1e Delivery warehouse 03 00 00 32 78
    1f Shooting range 07 00 03 3c 78
    20 Doreens Stash 04 00 00 32 78
    21 Grumm Nmap warehouse 04 00 00 5a 78
    22 Grumm Smap ACAstash 05 00 01 50 78
    23 Meduna Air barracks

    06 00 02 5a 78
    24 Meduna Sam lockers 05 00 01 50 59
    25 Palace Door 04 00 00 55 78
    26 Hicks crate 00 00 00 19 38
    27 Alma Metal door 04 00 00 37 5a
    28 JA25 guardpost workshop 03 00 00 18 3a
    29 JA25 guardpost office cabinet 00 00 00 19 38
    2a JA25 guardpost warehouse 03 00 00 20 44
    2b Fung 03 00 00 2e 4b
    2c powerplant metal door 04 00 00 3c 78
    2d Sewer gate 04 00 00 41 18
    2e Sub1 elec 06 00 02 50 50
    2f sub1 special door

    04 00 00 78 78
    30 sub2 metal door 04 00 00 78 78
    31 sub2 storage 04 00 00 50 5a
    32 sub2 office 04 00 00 32 5a
    33 sub3 room1 06 00 02 78 78
    34 sub3 room2 04 00 00 78 78
    35 sub3 middoor1 04 00 00 50 78
    36 sub3 enemyrooms 04 00 00 32 32
    37 sub3 getsmartdoors 06 00 02 78 78
    38 sub3 controlrooms 06 00 02 78 78
    39 morris door 06 00 02 50 50
    3a Unopenable Door 04 00 00 78 78
    3b Ununsed 59 00 00 00 00 00




2. Inserting locks in a map
The lock data has to be inserted with a hex-editor in the map file.
Before you start, it might be useful to calculate the additional bytes needed for the locks.

There are always 1 byte for a counter and 14 bytes for each lock:
y = 1 + (n x 14) where n is the number of locks.

So 5 locks would make 71 bytes, 9 locks 127 bytes.

You may also copy the lock data from another map and alter the single bytes. This can be useful, if you are not sure, whether you found the right offset or not. At least the symbols with the keys should appear in the map editor, even if they are not at the right place.




Where to insert the locks information ?

This question is not easy to answer, because the structure of the file is different in most map-files. The offset is always at the end of the map data. The lock-data must be inserted after the data of the exit-grids, which comes after the data of the person descriptions. In many, but not all, maps the lock data is followed by a string, which we will call 'Block-String'. (The  meaning of this string is still unknown.)


  1. Maps with 'Block-String'

    If the 'Block-String' exists, it is easy to find. It is a Hex-String with the following structure (see bright blue data in the picture above):

    NN 01 NN 00 e6 33 e7 33 47 33 48 33 ... (N = variable)
    (In some maps i have seen slight variations of the block string. If you are not sure, whether you found the right offset you better use method 2) or 3) to insert the lock data.)

    The bytes with the lock data must go right before the 'Block-String'.
    This method, using the Block-String as a fixpoint is not recommended, because the data before the inserted locks is important. If there are no exit grids in the map, the last byte with the value 00 right before the block string must be deleted.

  2. Maps with exit grids

    The part of the map, that contains the data of the exit grids is the best fix-point to find the offset to insert the locks. The lock-data must be inserted after the data of the exit-grids.

    The lock-data and the data of the exit grids have a similar structure:
    3. - first byte is a counter
    - second byte is always 00
    - data blocks with 7 bytes for each exit grid
    Offset Bytes Meaning
    00 2 Grid Number
    02 2 Destination grid number
    04 1 Destination sector, x-coordinate (1, 2, 3...)
    05 1 Destination sector, y-coordinate (A, B, C...)
    06 1 Destination Basement Level

    With this information the exit grids are easy to find (search for the grid number). You can calculate the length of the exit grid-data with this formula:

    y = 2 + (n x 7) where n is the number of exit grids

    So you have 9 bytes, if there is one exit grid in the map, 16 bytes for two exit grids, 37 bytes for 5 exit grids...
    (See the picture above. In that map are two exit grids, the data is marked in violet)

    (In some cases you must delete one byte with the value 00, that follows after the data of the exit grids. Otherwise the map-editor will crash after you have inserted the locks and try to load your map.)

  3. Maps without exit grids

    Of course you will have maps without any exit grids. In this case things will get complicated, because there are several bytes with the value 00 as placeholders between the person descriptions and the block string (if it exists), that must be deleted.
    But this problem can easily be solved: Before hexing in the lock data you insert an exit grid with the editor somewhere in the map, and search for the grid number with a hex-editor. After you have inserted the lock-data, load the map again with the editor and delete the exit grid.
3. The Keys
Keys are items like weapons, gas masks etc.

You cannot place them with the UB-Editor, but that doesn't matter, because thanks to LotB (Deutscher) we know the hex-values of all items including the keys.
There are two ways to get the keys into the game: As an item, that is placed somewhere in the map or that is hexed in a person's inventory.
How to get an item into the inventory has already been explained by Deutscher, so here you will only find a description for hexing the keys directly into the map.

a) Items have a counter, too, but we don't want to bother ourselves with searching for that counter. It is much easier to change an existing item to a key.
So use the map editor to put any item (for example the canteen, hex d6 00) at the place where the key should appear. Open the map with a hex-editor and search for the grid number of the item. The item data is located before the data for the light. If that data exists you can find an entry like L-Rxx.LHT. But in nearly all cases you can find the offset by just searching for the grid number.

b) The item data consists of records of 52 bytes for each item.
Offset Bytes Hex/Meaning
00 2 Grid number
02 4 00
06 2 item type
08 1 Number of items
09 1 00
10 1 status
11 5 00
16 1 Key/Lock ID
17 21 00
38 1 01
39 6 00
45 1 ff
46 1 ?
47 3 00
50 1 01
51 1 00

After we have found the right grid number, we only need to care about bytes 6 and 7 (item type) and byte 16 (key id).

c) Using the example of the canteen bytes 6 and 7 would be d6 00. We overwrite those bytes with one of the following values:

Hex

 Key Type
0f 01 small key
10 01 prison key
11 01 cheap key
12 01 dull key
13 01 shiny key
14 01 padlock key
15 01 electronic key
16 01 key card


d) The last step is to overwrite byte 16 with the ID of the lock, that the key should match to.



Hints:

  1. Take care, that there are not too many keys and locks with the same ID, especially for important locks.
  2. Take care, that the key and the lock really match. So for example don't use a key card for a wooden door.
  3. For those big doors, that extend over 2 tiles, you must insert 2 locks with identical values.

 

 

 

This tutorial was released in German by Sinclair on 19th of December 2001

translated by Azrael