/Game.dat

Is a Script that stores information on in-game settings and savegames.

Königs-Edition (KE)

Example Contents

  Musik:     TRUE, 0
  Samples:   TRUE
  Random:    TRUE
  Volume:    -1606, -1606, -597
  VideoQual: TRUE
  
  Song:      0, FALSE
  Song:      2, FALSE
  
  Speach:    0, TRUE
  Speach:    1, FALSE
  Speach:    2, FALSE
  Speach:    3, FALSE
  Speach:    4, FALSE
  Speach:    5, FALSE
  Speach:    6, FALSE
  Speach:    7, FALSE
  
  Video:     0, FALSE
  Video:     1, TRUE
  Video:     2, TRUE
  Video:     3, FALSE
  Video:     4, FALSE
  Video:     5, FALSE
  Video:     6, FALSE
  Video:     7, FALSE
  
  Lastfile: "C:\path\to\Savegame\lastgame.gam"
  
  Endlosnr: 3
  Tutornr:  0

  Kampagne: 0, 2
  Kampagne: 1, 1
  
  Objekt:   SPIELNAME

    Name:      0, "Im Auftr d Königs", 1
    Name:      1, "Im Auftr d Königs2", 1
    Name:      2, "Kreuzverkehr A", 3
    Name:      3, "Kreuzverkehr B", 3
    Name:      4, "Endlos rot", 1
    Name:      5, "", 1
    Name:      6, "", 1
    Name:      7, "", 1
    Name:      8, "", 1
    Name:      9, "", 1
    Name:     10, "", 1
    Name:     11, "", 1
  
  EndObj;

Explanation

Property	Data Type	Purpose
Musik	bool, uint	The bool encodes whether playback is enabled. TODO The role of the uint is unclear. Values observed so far are 15, 8, and 0, which could mean it is a bitmask.
Samples	bool	Encodes whether sound effects playback is enabled.
Random	bool	If TRUE, music tracks will play in random order (sequential order otherwise).
Volume	int, int, int	The volume of music, sound effects, and TODO. Values range from -4000 (minimum volume) to 0 (maximum volume).
VideoQual	bool	TODO unclear.
Song	uint, bool	Whether the i-th music track is disabled. When a track is re-enabled in-game, the corresponding line is removed entirely, so a line such as Song: 0, TRUE never occurs in practice.
Speach	uint, bool	Encodes which categories of voice announcements are disabled (TRUE means disabled). Index 0 corresponds to the overall setting (if TRUE, all announcements are disabled). Indices 1-7 correspond to the seven categories shown in-game in their order of appearance (German version: “Ereignisse”, “Inselstatus”, etc.).
Video	uint, bool	Like Speach, but for cutscenes. Index 0 corresponds to the overall setting. Disabling the first category of cutscenes in-game (“Ereignisse”) will set indices 1 and 2 to TRUE. The second category (“Kampfhandlungen”) controls index 5, and the third category (“Diplomatie”) controls index 7. Other indices appear to be unused.
Endlosnr	uint	The difficulty of the last endless game (0: easiest, 3: most difficult).
Tutornr	uint	TODO Unclear. It probably is the index of the next tutorial stage to play, but didn’t behave this way.
Lastfile	string	Filesystem path to the lastgame.gam autosave file.
Kampagne	uint, uint	Campaign progress. The first value is the index of the campaign, the second stores the progress. A progress value of i means all scenarios up to and including index i are unlocked.
Objekt: SPIELNAME	per savegame: uint, char[32], uint	Stores savegame properties. The number of savegames is hard-capped to 12 (any externally added entries will be removed again by the game). The first uint is the index of the corresponding game{i:02}.gam savegame file in SAVEGAME/. The string is the name of the savegame shown in-game. The in-game character limit is 18 chars, though up to 32 chars will be displayed if game.dat is edited externally. The second uint is the number of human players participating (1 = singleplayer, 2 = two-player multiplayer, etc.).

Write events

The game updates the contents of game.dat whenever:

• the user saves a game
• the user switches from the end-of-game stats screen to the main menu screen
• the game is closed gracefully from the main menu

Interaction with Registry Keys

Certain game.dat settings have corresponding registry keys in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Anno1602. For example, the MUSIK_FLAG, SOUND_FLAG, and VIDEO_QUALITAET keys correspond to Musik, Samples, and VideoQual in game.dat. When starting the game, the registry settings take priority over game.dat settings, and the game.dat settings will be modified to match the registry settings on the next occasion (see Write events). The value of these registry keys is set through Config.exe, or through the in-game audio settings.

TODO Investigate this more closely.