Entry 76

A new game's save as the game builds it: ccSaveData::Init, NewGame and InitSpcParam, and the merchant's camera

2026-09-23saveworldtest

Filescrates/piney-data/src/save/init.rscrates/piney-data/src/save.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/save.rscrates/piney-desktop/src/savesys.rscrates/piney-fieldui/src/newgame.rscrates/piney-world/src/camera.rscrates/piney-world/src/evcam.rscrates/piney-world/src/lib.rscrates/piney-game/src/world.rscrates/piney-game/src/session.rstools/test_save_init_rs.pytools/test_merchcam_rs.pydocs/formats/save.mddocs/engine/field-game.md

The user found the new game wrong:

• Kite had no skills;
• his stats read 0;
• the bag held 40 zero entries, so Buy refused ("you will exceed the item type limit of 40").

The talk agent traced the bag to ccSaveData::Init. SaveState::fresh had claimed to be Init "as far as it goes", but it went little further than the name, the buttons and the options. An agent has now ported the boot's save completely.

What the game does, now ported

• The boot. The constructor zeroes the record and runs Init(0), then ccThMother runs Init(1) (main 0x001743d0). Init fills the lists with their empties:

  • item slots id -1, category -1;
  • skills -1;
  • the mail order, gate order and gate record lists, fountains and area bans.

  It also sets the buttons, the options, ccSound's levels (256 and output 1), and the time-idol ranks' text, which is read from the disc. One loop is kept as the game has it: the protectArea[5] clear runs 32 times, so it also zeroes fountainRecord[0..27].

• A new game. NewGame(1) then NewGame(0). The trade lists come from NewGame's InitTradeItem, not Init.

• Log in. ccSetupNewGame runs InitSpcParam (main 0x00175d30): the starting equipment, items and skills, through the ported ccChangeEquipment, AddItem and ccSetLevelParam. Then it sets newGameFlag to 1 and runs SetSpcBaseMsg. Both Log in paths (the top page, and --mode world / field:N / dungeon:N) now do all three.

• Kite's stats. They were 0 because the port never ran ccChar:: CalcReal, which the game runs every frame in ccPlayer::Main and ccFellow::Main. The town now runs it on the party each frame.

A new game now starts as the game's does:

• skills 6, 150 and 233 (Saber Dance, Repth, Vak Kruz);
• Amateur Blades and four pieces of armour;
• eight stacks of items;
• 63 HP and 13 SP, with his stats.

Older saves

A slot the port wrote before this has zero lists and no menu buttons. The title's Load now repairs it (SaveData::repair_port_save, in SaveSys::read_data):

• Buttons. Each zero assignment gets Init's, when every assignment but ok and cancel is zero.
• Lists. A list Init fills gets Init's fill when it is entirely zero bytes. The game adds each entry once, so it never leaves one of those all zero.
• Left alone. Lists where zero is a real state are not repaired.

74's repair_buttons on entering The World does the same for the buttons and stays as a second guard.

The merchant's camera

• What the game does. When a shop opens, SetMerchantCamera (gcmn 0x005269d0) makes camera 3 (ecam) the one drawn. Its view is the merchant's position plus 100 up, and its eye is 500 along the merchant's facing, turned 7.5 degrees down. The breeders use fixed views by server. changeCamera(1) goes back to tcam, which kept following Kite meanwhile.
• The port. Camera::set_merchant and World::set_merchant_camera / change_camera implement it, and the runtime handles the shop's two camera requests.
• Mac Anu's merchants. All five take the general branch: the breeders are other towns' npcTbl rows 10, 16, 22 and 28.

Harnesses that started from the wrong save

Many harnesses built their game-side starting save by hand: zeroed memory with ok and cancel set, or a partial copy. So each compared the port against a save the game never has:

• desktop, desktop menu, desktop data, desktop name;
• top page, demo;
• field UI and its five siblings;
• world and event VM.

They all now start from the save the game's own boot builds in eemu (boot_save() / fresh_save() in test_save_init_rs.py). The event VM's fixture was regenerated: its boot had run with ccSnd null, so the volumes were 0.

Checked

• Init and the boot. tools/test_save_init_rs.py, against the game in eemu:
  • Init(0) and Init(1) on zeroed, 0xff-filled and random records;
  • the boot sequence;
  • the repair: game saves and random saves are untouched, and an old port save comes back equal to the boot's;
  • end to end: the boot, NewGame(1), NewGame(0), InitSpcParam, newGameFlag and SetSpcBaseMsg, against --mode world's save. All 0x8530 bytes match, with and without Parody Mode.
• The merchant's camera. tools/test_merchcam_rs.py: Mac Anu's five merchants, the four breeder servers and 24 random characters, over 487 frames, bit-exact. It compares the cameras, world_view and world_screen, cameraGetRot, and the switch back.
• The checks catch breakage. Each port was broken on purpose once, and each check caught it.
• Re-run in a clean worktree with fresh builds: those two, and every harness listed above, plus the workspace's tests, clippy, fmt and the docs check.
• Shots.
  • A new game's Items (8/40), Status (three skills, five pieces, 63/13, stats), Equipment and Skills.
  • The Recorder's and the Magic Shop's cameras.
  • Buy asking how many, then 1 of 40 bought for 900 GP.