Castles II: Siege and Conquest Save Game Format

Castles II: Siege and Conquest Save Game Format

Format type	Saved game
Save locations	Unknown
Elements saved	?
Games	Castles II: Siege and Conquest

The Castles II: Siege and Conquest Save Game Format is used to store the game details of Castles II: Siege and Conquest.

The file is of fixed length, of 11682 bytes for the floppy version and 11733 bytes for the CD version. As such, the location of each byte determines the meaning of the data stored at that location.

File format

The file is encrypted using bit-wise XOR, or bitxor. The second byte (byte 1) is the encryption bitxor value. The file is split into sections. From the 5th byte onward, the first byte of each section is bitxored with the encryption bitxor value, as well as with the length of that section (modulo 256). Every remaining byte in each section is bitxored with the immediately preceding (bitxored) byte. In this way, randomly changing the value of a given byte will likely change multiple values within the game, rendering the save game buggy or unusable. This is also further complicated by that many game fields take up 2 bytes (in little endian style), thus changing the value of a given byte will likely make that field's value too large or garbage. Thus, to correctly edit the same game file, the values need to be correctly re-encrypted.

For example, the first section (tasks) has a length of 936 bytes. 936 modulo 256 is 168. Say the encryption bitxor value was 172, and the first 5 bytes of the tasks section from the save game file were 5, 4, 4, 136, and 171. To decrypt these values, bitxor the first value (5) with the encryption bitxor value (172), to get 169. Then bitxor this value with the length of section modulo 256 (168), to get 1. For subsequent bytes, take the bitxor with the immediately preceding byte value; 5 bitxored with 4 is 1, 4 bitxored with 4 is 0, 4 bitxored with 136 is 140, and 136 bitxored with 171 is 35. So the decrypted values are 1, 1, 0, 140, and 35. The 1st byte means the task is in progress, the 2nd and 3rd bytes (little endian) are the current progress of the task (value of 1, indicating a task which just begun), and the 4th and 5th bytes (little endian) are the total progress needed to complete the task, in this case 140 + 35*256 = 9100.

In Excel, the bitxor of two values can be via the BITXOR command for newer versions, or by using the following formula for older versions (assuming the two values are in A1 and A2):

=BIN2DEC(SUBSTITUTE(DEC2BIN(A1,8)+DEC2BIN(A2),2,0))

Although the below tables gives data types as unsigned integers (UINTs), it is possible that some (or many) of them are actually signed (INTs). However, generally speaking, most of the values should be from 0 to 127, so this does not make a difference. A notable exception is that the progress to the next Adm/Mil/Pol are signed integers, but for Adm, the player needs to reach a threshold of 125 for 8 Adm and 140 for 9 Adm, making it very difficult to reach 8 Adm and impossible to reach 9 Adm through task completions alone.

Start byte	Length	Data type	First byte bitxor	Description
0 (0x0000)	1	UINT8	(none)	Unknown (value is always 16 (0xA0) )
1 (0x0001)	1	UINT8	(none)	Encryption bitxor value for rest of save file (from byte 4 onward)
2 (0x0002)	2	UINT16LE	(none)	Number of sections in save file (value is always 25 (0xA9) for floppy, 29 (0xAD) for CD)
4 (0x0004)	936	UINT8	168	Tasks; each task uses 26 bytes of data, tasks 1 to 6 for each of the 6 factions
940 (0x03AC)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown, likely number of tasks (value is always 36 (0x24) )
942 (0x03AE)	858	UINT8	90	Player stats; each set uses 143 bytes of data, for each the 6 factions
1800 (0x0708)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown, likely number of players (value is always 6 (0x06) )
1802 (0x070A)	36	UINT8	36	Relations between factions; each set uses 6 bytes of data, for each of the 6 factions
1838 (0x072E)	2	UINT16LE	2	Faction of the human player (0 = Valois, 1 = Anjou, 2 = Albion, 3 = Burgundy, 4 = The Pope, 5 = Aragon)
1840 (0x0730)	9252	UINT8	36	Territory data; each set uses 257 bytes, for each of the 36 territories
11092 (0x2B54)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown, likely number of territories (value is always 36 (0x24) )
11094 (0x2B56)	400	INT16LE	144	Variables for plots
11494 (0x2CE6)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown (to be determined)
11496 (0x2CE8)	88	Unknown	88	Unknown (to be determined)
11584 (0x2D40)	2	UINT16LE	2	Days left until next plot event
11586 (0x2D42)	72	INT16LE	72	Months left before revolt for each of the 36 territories (2 bytes each)
11658 (0x2D8A)	2	UINT16LE	2	Time of day (once it reaches 48 or 50 or so, advance to next day)
11660 (0x2D8C)	2	UINT16LE	2	Current date (add 1, i.e. save file value of 6 is in-game date of 7)
11662 (0x2D8E)	2	UINT16LE	2	Current month (0 = Jan, 1 = Feb, 2 = Mar, etc.)
11664 (0x2D90)	2	UINT16LE	2	Current year
11666 (0x2D92)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown (to be determined)
11668 (0x2D94)	2	UINT16LE	2	Plots on or off (0 = off, 1 = on)
11670 (0x2D96)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown (to be determined)
11672 (0x2D98)	2	UINT16LE	2	Faction of human player (but not used? byte 1838 is what determines human player stats)
11674 (0x2D9A)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown (to be determined)
11676 (0x2D9C)	2	UINT16LE	2	Unknown (to be determined)
11678 (0x2D9E)	2	UINT16LE	2	Battles on or off (0 = off, 1 = on)
11680 (0x2DA0)	2	UINT16LE	2	Difficulty (0 = easy, 1 = easy, 2 = hard, 3 = impossible)

For the CD version of the game, the last few sections are instead:

Start byte	Length	Data type	First byte bitxor	Description
11680 (0x2DA0)	2	UINT16LE	2	Music level
11682 (0x2DA2)	2	UINT16LE	2	Speech on or off (0 = off, 1 = on)
11684 (0x2DA4)	2	UINT16LE	2	Difficulty (0 = easy, 1 = average, 2 = hard, 3 = impossible)
11686 (0x2DA6)	36	UINT8	36	Territory's unique castle ID (0 = none, 1 = Beaumaris, 2 = Bodiam, etc.)
11722 (0x2DCA)	11	UINT8	11	If human has built unique castle (1st byte always 0, 2nd byte is Beaumaris, 3rd byte is Bodiam, etc.; 0 = not built, 1 = built)

Tasks

Each task consists of 26 bytes of data. The tasks are stored from the first task to the sixth task for each of the factions, in the order of Valois, Anjou, Albion, Burgundy, The Pope, and Aragon.

The data for each task is:

Start byte	Length	Data type	Description
0	1	UINT8	Status (1 = in progress, 3 = not active (completed or cancelled), 4 = unavailable)
1	2	UINT16LE	Current progress on task
3	2	UINT16LE	Needed progress to complete task
5	2	UINT16LE	Unknown (usually 0, but sometimes 1 for computer tasks)
7	1	UINT8	Task ID
8	1	UINT8	Number of Adm points used on task
9	1	UINT8	Number of Mil points used on task
10	1	UINT8	Number of Pol points used on task
11	7	Unknown	Unknown
18	1	UINT8	Target territory (0 if none, else 0 to 35 for the 36 possible territories)
19	1	UINT8	Target faction (0 = none or Valois, 1 = Anjou, 2 = Albion, 3 = Burgundy, 4 = The Pope, 5 = Aragon, 7 = neutral)
20	5	Unknown	Task-dependent data
25	1	UINT8	If task was cancelled (0 = not cancelled, 1 = cancelled)

The list of Task IDs are:

Task ID	Name
0	(blank)
1	Gather Food
2	Cut Timber
3	Mine Iron
4	Refine Gold
5	Build Castle
6	Police Realm
7	Infantry
8	Archers
9	Knights
10	Ballista
11	Catapult
12	Siege Tower
13	Trojan Rabbit (unavailable in game)
14	Attack
15	Saboteur
16	Scout
17	Spy
18	Diplomat
19	Merchant
20	Happiness
21	Council

Note that TASKS.BIN has more data on the characteristics of each task.

Player stats

Each set of player stats consists of 143 bytes of data, for each faction in the order of Valois, Anjou, Albion, Burgundy, The Pope, and Aragon.

The data for each player is:

Start byte	Length	Data type	Description
0	1	UINT8	Maximum Adm points
1	1	UINT8	Maximum Mil points
2	1	UINT8	Maximum Pol points
3	1	UINT8	Available Adm points
4	1	UINT8	Available Mil points
5	1	UINT8	Available Pol points
6	1	UINT8	Happiness
7	1	UINT8	Number of territories
8	1	UINT8	Possible Food production
9	1	UINT8	Possible Timber production
10	1	UINT8	Possible Iron production
11	1	UINT8	Possible Gold production
12	1	UINT8	Number of completed castles
13	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Food
14	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Timber
15	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Iron
16	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Gold
17	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Infantry
18	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Archers
19	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Knights
20	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Ballista
21	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Catapult
22	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Siege Tower
23	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Trojan Rabbit (unavailable in game)
24	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Infantry (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
25	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Archers (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
26	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Knights (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
27	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Ballista (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
28	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Catapult (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
29	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Siege Tower (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
30	1	UINT8	Current Amount of Trojan Rabbit (repeat, value used by game is above value not this one)
31	1	UINT8	Church standing (0 = excommunicated, 1 = not excommunicated)
32	1	UINT8	Unknown (always 6?)
33	1	UINT8	Unknown (always 0?)
34	1	UINT8	Unknown, but probably related to attack effectiveness (is based on Mil points, army size and happiness)
35	1	UINT8	Unknown, but probably related to defense effectiveness (is based on Mil points, army size and happiness)
36	1	UINT8	Rank (based on score), updated at beginning of each month
37	1	UINT8	If claimed the throne (0 = haven't claimed, 1 = have claimed the throne)
38	1	UINT8	Unknown (0 if computer, 1 if human)
39	3	Unknown	Unknown (seems to always be 0)
42	8	ASCII	Name (in ASCII)
50	22	Unknown	Unknown (seems to always be 0)
72	2	UINT16LE	Current score
74	1	INT8	Progress toward next Adm point (since is signed, difficult to advance to 8 Adm, impossible to advance to 9 Adm)
75	1	INT8	Progress toward next Mil point
76	1	INT8	Progress toward next Pol point
77	1	UINT8	Number of possible concurrent tasks
78	1	UINT8	Unknown (0 if computer, 1 if human)
79	1	UINT8	Starting territory
80	6	UINT8	Opinion of each of the factions (Valois, Anjou, Albion, Burgundy, The Pope, Aragon), minimum of 1, maximum of 9
86	6	INT8	Months since was last attacked/saboteured by each faction (-1 means never)
92	6	INT8	Months since last successful diplomacy with each faction (-1 means never)
98	1	Unknown	Unknown
99	1	UINT8	Church standing message (if different from byte 31, give appropriate message)
100	1	UINT8	Resource type needed to pay troops (0 = food, 3 = gold)
101	1	UINT8	Amount of food/gold needed to pay troops
102	1	UINT8	If human player didn't pay troops
103	1	UINT8	Number of troop units
104	1	INT8	Days left before checking to pay troops (-1 = don't need to pay troops)
105	1	UINT8	If computer player didn't pay troops
106	1	UINT8	After claim, days left before Pope decides on claim
107	36	UINT8	Apparent map to player for each of 36 territories (6 = unexplored, 8 = Valois, 9 = Anjou, 10 = Albion, 11 = Burgundy, 12 = The Pope, 13 = Aragon, 15 = neutral; add 16 if partial castle, 32 if small castle, 48 if large castle; add 64 if player owns territory; add 128 if player is computer)

Relations between factions

Each set of relations is 6 bytes long, storing each faction's relations with each of the 6 factions (including themselves). The order is Valois, Anjou, Albion, Burgundy, The Pope, and Aragon, for both each set of 6 bytes and the 6 bytes within each set. The relations are as shown in the "relations" screens, with values from 1 to 9. Though probably not important, it should be noted that a player's relation with himself is 9 if he's a computer, and 8 if he's the human.

Territory data

The data for each territory is 257 bytes long. After an initial set of data containing basic information about the territory, the rest pertains to the castle on the territory (if it exists), such as the ID, location, hitpoints, etc. of each piece.

Start byte	Length	Data type	Description
0	1	UINT8	Owner (0 = Valois, 1 = Anjou, 2 = Albion, 3 = Burgundy, 4 = The Pope, 5 = Aragon, 7 = neutral)
1	1	UINT8	Resource (0 = Food, 1 = Timber, 2 = Iron, 3 = Gold)
2	240	UINT8	Data for each castle piece, in sets of 3 bytes for each of 80 allowed pieces
242	2	UINT16LE	Number of castle pieces in data
244	2	UINT16LE	Number of castle pieces to be built (i.e. actual castle)
246	2	UINT16LE	Total built castle points, excluding moat (in tenths of a point)
248	2	UINT16LE	Total possible castle points, excluding moat (in tenths of a point)
250	2	UINT16LE	Percentage completed (including moat if applicable)
252	2	UINT16LE	Whether or not moat will be built (0 = no moat, 1 = moat)
254	2	UINT16LE	Moat points completed, max 500 (in tenths of a point, so value of 500 means 50 points)
256	1	UINT8	Castle build priority (0 = uniform, 1 = outward, 2 = inward, 3 = tower)

Each castle piece is composed of 3 bytes, in little endian form. The first 6 bits (the "small" 6 bits of the first byte) are the horizontal coordinate of the castle piece, with 0 being at the left. The next 6 bits (the "large" 2 bits of the first byte being the smaller bits, and the "small" 4 bits of the second byte being the large bits) are the vertical coordinate of the castle piece, with 0 being at the top. The next 4 bits (the "large" 4 bits of the second byte) are the type of castle piece. For the last byte, the first bit (the "small" bit) is if the piece is a small piece (0) or a tall piece (1). The next 5 bits are the points value of the piece, which is up to 19 for all small pieces except the keep and is up to 31 for all tall pieces and the small keep. Note that this includes the door. The next bit (representing 64) is 1 if the piece has been modified since the last time it was viewed by the human player, 0 if no change since the last time. The practical use of this bit is unknown. The last bit (representing 128) is unused.

The pieces are:

Value	Name
0	Square tower
1	Round tower
2	(Unused)
3	Keep
4	Low wall (east-west)
5	Low wall (northwest-southeast)
6	Low wall (north-south)
7	Low wall (northeast-southwest)
8	High wall (east-west)
9	High wall (northwest-southeast)
10	High wall (north-south)
11	High wall (northeast-southwest)
12	door (east-west)
13	door (north-south)
14	(Unused)
15	(Unused)

Note that the castle file, *.LYT, is simply the first 246 bytes of this territory data, in unencrypted form.

The territories are:

Territory ID	Name
0	Brittany
1	Normandy
2	Rouen
3	Amiens
4	Calais
5	Flanders
6	Vannes
7	Chartres
8	Reims
9	Nantes
10	Maine
11	Orleans
12	Dijon
13	Poitou
14	Tours
15	La Marche
16	Blois
17	Nevers
18	Bourbon
19	Angouleme
20	Limoges
21	Rochefort
22	Bergerac
23	Auvergne
24	Bordeaux
25	La Tour
26	Quercy
27	Loire
28	Lyon
29	Valence
30	Gascony
31	Toulouse
32	Albi
33	Narbonne
34	Nimes
35	Provence

Variables for plots

These are mostly related to data used in the plots in a given game. They are used to store plot details such as the player's choices (plot progress -- such as where in the plotline the player is -- is stored elsewhere). Each variable is two bytes long, signed. They are referred to in lib.clu as variable 1000 to variable 1199, and thus will be referred to in the same way here; these are stored as variables 0 to 199 in this section, each two bytes long. Though they can be used to store different things, a number of these variables are used in the same way and stored across different plots. Known variables are below.

For the fractional values, once they reach 100, they increment the related field. For example, if the fractional human player relations with The Pope reaches 106, then it will be changed to 6 and the human player's relations with The Pope will increase by 1.

Variable	Length	Data type	Description
1088	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player relations with The Pope (out of 100)
1089	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player relations with Aragon (out of 100)
1090	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player relations with Anjou (out of 100)
1091	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player relations with Burgundy (out of 100)
1092	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player relations with Valois (out of 100)
1093	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player relations with Albion (out of 100)
1099	2	INT16LE	Fractional human player happiness (out of 100)
1197	2	INT16LE	Faction of human player (0 = Valois, 1 = Anjou, 2 = Albion, 3 = Burgundy, 5 = Aragon)

Months left before revolt

This gives the months left before each territory will revolt, in 2-byte signed integers for each of the 36 territories (for a total of 72 bytes). It decreases by 1 on the 1st of each month. Once the territory is at 5 months or less, it'll start warning that a revolt is likely. Once the territory is at 1 month, on the 1st of the following month it will revolt. If the value is 0xFFFF then it is not counting down months to revolt (because it is neutral or because a Large Castle is nearby.)

Credits

This format was reverse engineered by Vanshilar. If you find this information helpful in a project you're working on, please give credit where credit is due. (A link back to this wiki would be nice too!)