Any way to find lost items?

[Dungeon Smash]

I made a foolish error - I ran into a squirrel whilst travelling on the world map, and stopped to hunt it.  I dropped most my items to make it easier to throw spears at it, but after killling the squirrel, I simply walked off and accidentally left most my items.  I didn't realize until stopping later and trying to craft something.

Anyway, stupid mistake, I know.  But is there any way to use the game's files to easily find out where the items are?  I checked the message log, which gave me a vague idea (it's in a forest), but not the specific location.  Is there any way to look this up?  Has anybody more experienced figured this out before?

I realize it's cheating, but I've already searched for a while and I just want my stuff back.  Thanks in advance.

[MrMotorhead]

You can look in the msglog.txt file located in your survivor's save folder.  You will see entries like this:

Code: [Select]

(143270):h6h3:[#]{061D0484}      | Zooming out ...

dunno --:time:???:map position   | message here

So you can somehow interperet that the map position where you find the messages that you dropped your things is where they should still be.

Now we just need to figure out how that data is encoded

[Dungeon Smash]

i wondered if perhaps that referred to location, but I'm not sure what it means...

[MrMotorhead]

Ok here's my test character moving in the zoomed out map one square at a time:

Code: [Select]

(600060):96gk:["]{076D065B}      | -- moving north
(000000):96gk:[B]{076D065A}      | Bushes
(600060):96gk:["]{076D065A}      | -- moving north
(000000):96gk:[B]{076D0659}      | Bushes
(600060):96gk:["]{076D0659}      | -- moving west
(000000):96gk:[F]{076C0659}      | Field
(600060):96gk:["]{076C0659}      | -- moving south
(000000):96gk:[B]{076C065A}      | Bushes
(600060):96gk:["]{076C065A}      | -- moving east
(3C5A98):96gl:[:]{076D065A}      | It starts to rain.
(000000):96gl:[B]{076D065A}      | Bushes

So it looks like the formula is 4 digits for east-west position then 4 digits for north-south position.  Numbers get larger moving toward the east and south.

It appears to be in hexadecimal so 0123456789ABCDEF.

You should be able to find your stuff by subtracting your current position (north-south and east-west separately) from the position where you see the log entries for killing the squirrel and dropping your things.  That will let you know how many squares you will need to move to find the map location in question.

[Dungeon Smash]

Wow!  Interesting!  I'll give it a shot.

[MrMotorhead]

Ok here is an example problem.  Paulie started life at 07C70466 and now he's at 0773065A so let's calculate how far he has moved "as the crow flies"

First we'll look at east-west position 07C7-0773 = 54 (hex) = 84 squares to the west

Now for north-south 0466-065A=-214 (hex) = 532 squares to the south

I just use the stupid windows calculator to do the math in hex and then convert the answer to decimal (normal numbers), but realize that it doesn't like to get a negative result doing the subtraction, so just subtract the smaller number from the larger one and keep track of the direction separately.  Numbers get larger moving toward the east and south.

[Dungeon Smash]

Exciting stuff. Thank you for doing the math.

I managed to find the items, although more through random luck than anything else.  I checked the hexidecimal positions to get a good idea of the area, and then simply searched systematically.  Not the most precise, but it worked.  If anybody knows a quicker way, you could still post it here to help others in the future.  I'm just happy to have my stuff

[davidor]

If you for whatever reason unable to use msglog method (e.g. deleted msglog.txt), cannot find the items in the spruce maze or for whatever reason trying to dig out a specific item, you can use this complicated method (which require some knowledge of course) to get the exact location of a item in local map:

Spoiler: show

1. open xxx.OBJ
2. find the item
3. each slot is 172 bytes and count the number
4. add 50000 to that number
5. open ZOOMMAPS.DAT
6. search for that number
7. the structure of this file is
first 8 bytes global location <<< the same thing in msglog
next 4096 for buildings
next 4096 discovered
next 4096 terrain
next 4096 steepness
next 72000 things <<< you are here somewhere
each thing(include items, npc, tracks, etc.) slot contain 36 bytes and the reference number should be the 12th
the exact position in the map are save in first 4 bytes
row column

happy digging

[BTA]

I somehow lost three axes someplace: masterwork splitting axe, masterwork carving axe and masterwork woodsman's axe. All in the same place, I am sure. But, where?

It bugs me, like a mosquito buzzing around in my mind. I will find that place.

I use custom markers MUCH more often now. I shamelessly save scum often after being lucky enough to create an archer that started out as a grandmaster then unlucky enough to drown finding out the game is realistic enough to have thin ice. Most of my old saves were deleted long ago.

[davidor]

This isn't 100% but sometimes you lose items when you savescum. Not all the files are update at the same time so when you pick up/drop some items and you zoom in/out and somehow the game 'accidentally crushed' those item will duplicated/vanished.

See if you can use the methods mentioned above to find your items.

[Modest Grouse]

Thank you MrMotorhead, successfully used this after I dropped a pile of furs to hunt down an elk. I was on MacOS so opened a terminal and did 'tail -f msgs.txt" to see my current location as compared to the point where I'd dropped.

[paulkorotoon]

Just in case someone doesn't know, it is possible to drop items while on wilderness map and have them visible.

Spoiler: show

And when dropping stuff while zoomed-in, leaving a mark on F6 map really helps (appliable to the first case as well). After you've finished your business, just go back to the marked location, climb a tree, scroll mouse wheel down or hit Ctrl+‘-’ to zoom out, and you'll most probably spot your items at once (to make it easier, avoid dropping them behind trees). In rare cases, like when you drop something at the very edge of a location, it can take you two or three climbings.