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Data Recipes

Community-reported

Concrete gameplay-tuning recipes sourced from the OWG forum and Discord communities — see Getting Started for the full provenance note.

Weapons​

Fire mode and accuracy​

  • Full-auto AR-16/M16: change every iBurstLength value from 3 to 0 in 41_WeaponProperties.xml (multiple instances per weapon — use find-all), copy the singleplayer copy of the weapon (search hidName without the .Multi suffix) into mymod\patch\21_WeaponProperties.xml, add the file to patch.xml's object list below the existing 22_weapons.xml entry. The "correct" mechanism is the selFireRateMode enum — flipping it directly to FullAuto is cleaner but silences the weapon's firing sound as a side effect (iBurstLength is hard-coded to the sound trigger, not a bug specific to one weapon), so the community sticks with the iBurstLength workaround for audio-safe results.
  • Shotgun pellet count: iBulletsShot (e.g. USAS-12) — raising from 7 toward ~20 turns it into a one-shot kill machine; going much higher risks performance slowdown.
  • Accuracy / bullet spread: bUseAngleSpread defaults False on rifles (shotguns default True) — set True and tune fAngleYawBulletSpread/fAnglePitchBulletSpread (degrees). Whole numbers like 1 are still far too inaccurate; realistic spread needs small decimals (e.g. 0.002). Conversion from a real-world group size (inches, at 1000 yards) to the in-game angle: 2 * atan((GroupSizeInches/2) / 36000). Weapon recoil lives in 42_weapons.xml's <ReliabilityLevelsData> block (see jam mechanics below), not in WeaponProperties.
  • Damage / hit locations: base damage is not controlled by gamemodesconfig.xml's cosmetic <Summary> block — it's in 41_WeaponProperties.xml. Add selHitLocation_Torso_Severity/ selHitLocation_Limb_Severity (UInt32, copy from an existing sniper-rifle entry) near fHealthFailureChanceModifier for realistic one-shot drops. A separate Stim_ImpactDamage block's nLevel sets a weapon's damage tier (reference values: MAC10=7, FAL=14, Dragunov=25, AS50=30).

Recoil, jamming, and reliability​

  • The 42_weapons.xml crash workaround: overriding 42_weapons.xml directly in the patch folder crashes the game on load, every time, reproducibly — renaming it doesn't help. The only working method: copy the target weapon's entire data block out of 42_weapons.xml (in world1/world2) and paste it into the existing corresponding weapon section of 22_weapons.xml (normally MP-only) inside mymod\patch. This smuggles SP-relevant changes (recoil, jam probability) through a file the patch system will actually accept. Repeat per weapon.
  • Jam & reliability: 42_weapons.xml's <ReliabilityLevelsData> block has Failure/Low/ Medium/High sub-objects, each with fHorizontalRecoilPerShot, fVerticalRecoilPerShot, fBulletDeviationMax, and fJamProbabilityPerReload (e.g. Failure=0.12, Low=0.06, Medium=0.03, High=0) — the real jam-probability mechanism, tied to a reliability tier itself driven by gamemodesconfig.xml's per-Act CounterReliabilityRatingsTable thresholds. iClipsForSelfDestruct (low value = degrades+jams faster) and bIsIndestructible/bIsBreakable also apply, but degradation and self-destruct are separate mechanisms, not one linear scale — and an indestructible weapon still shows cosmetic "rust" over time (functional and cosmetic wear are separate systems). The M-79's "jam" isn't a true jam — it's a grenade round physically misfiring at short range.

Magazine capacity and ammo​

  • Magazine capacity (long unsolved, cracked in 2012): in 41_WeaponProperties.xml, search hash 4FBDD114 to jump to any weapon's ammo block:

    HashMeaning
    AB258E09 (BinHex)ammo type string, e.g. "assaultrifle\0"
    88596C97 (BinHex)iAmmoInClip (magazine size)
    2A0F1CC2iMaxAmmoCasual
    C7DA96EAiMaxAmmoExperimented
    EF3C58C3iMaxAmmoHardcore
    DE33B3ECiMaxAmmoInfamous

    A separate bool-like value = "ammo visible on HUD" (true only for belt-fed PKM/M249 — controls whether the visible ammo belt depletes). iClipsForSelfDestruct ties weapon-breaking to magazines fired, not total shots — adjust it inversely if you change magazine size. These are raw little-endian hex (BinHex); change the value's type attribute to UInt32 (or Bool) before running ConvertBinary and it accepts plain decimal/bool (see Getting Started).

  • Small ammo/explosive/fuel pickups (28_pickups.xml, world1): each Ammo.Small_X_Pickup block has per-weapon-category AmmoEntry objects keyed by hash pairs:

    • Ammo: 6D6540FA=Pistols(Star45), BC6782FC=Assault Rifles(AK47), 7D6BD5F2=Sniper Rifles(M1903), EEAE53E1=Shotguns(SPAS12), AA73EE0A=SMGs(MAC10), BD090A47=LMGs(PKM), FC2096BC=Dart Rifle
    • Explosive: 4EE9BFD6=Mortars, CEB9BB1E=RPG-7, 704CA95D=M-79, EA12131E=IED, E710123D=MGL-140 (+ a separate grenades category)
    • Fuel: 31BD6FE9=LPO50 Flamethrower, C86412FF=Flare gun (+ a separate molotovs category)
    • Known open bug: setting a pickup's fRespawnTime very low (e.g. 0.1) makes it visually respawn but become permanently un-collectable a second time — unsolved.

  • Named/unique weapon pickups: e.g. Golden AK47 (28_pickups.xml, Weapons.AK47_new.AK47_Gold) — set fRespawnTime to 0.1 to make it respawn like an armory weapon. To make buddies/mercs wield a named variant, edit gamemodesconfig.xml's <pack name="buddy"> weapon-assignment section and swap in the variant name (e.g. AK47.AK47_Gold).

Weapon archetype reference​

Confirmed directly from the game's weapon definitions, useful for any archetype="weapons.…" string:

  • Assault rifles: AK47, AK47.AK47_Gold, FNFAL, G3KA4, M16, MP5
  • Explosives (throwable): M67, Molotov, IED
  • Launchers: Carl_Gustaf, Carl_Gustaf.Carl_Gustaf_Merc, MGL140, M79, RPG7, RPG7.RPG7_Merc
  • LMGs: M249_Saw, M249_Saw.M249_Saw_Merc, PKM, PKM.PKM_Merc
  • Sniper rifles: AS50, Dragunov, Dragunov.Dragunov_Merc, M1903, M1903.M1903_Merc
  • Shotguns: Ithaca, SPAS12, USAS12
  • Special: Dart_Rifle, LPO50
  • Pistols/SMGs: Star45, Makarov, DesertEagle, SilencedMakarov_6P9, MAC10, Uzi

The _Merc suffix (confirmed by stoatoats) isn't a stat variant — it's the same weapon redefined as a Primary weapon slot instead of Special, because mercs have no inventory slot for "special" weapons (this is why mercs are seen carrying the AS50 sniper rifle on their backs — it's the .Merc-suffixed primary-slot version). Additional variants exist in world-specific weapons.xml files (World 1/2/DLC): mounted-weapon archetypes (MountedWeapons.M249_FishingBoat, MountedWeapons.M249_SandBags.Multi), "rusty"/degraded pickup variants (Secondary.MAC10.Mikes_Rusty), and more special-weapon entries (Special.Flare_Gun, Special.Mortar.Mortar_Merc) — 28_pickups.xml is theorized to define these degraded/rusty pickup variants layered on top of the general WeaponProperties.xml definitions (unconfirmed but consistent with observed behavior).

Weapon-slot and sound​

  • Weapon-slot reassignment: each weapon can only occupy one slot (no simple "any weapon any slot" toggle, unlike FC3's "Ziggy's mod"). Removing the slot-assignment value from a weapon's definition entirely (rather than setting it to a valid slot number) causes the weapon to default into the machete slot without replacing the machete — carry more than the normal 4-weapon limit and cycle through "extra" weapons by repeatedly pressing the machete hotkey. Originally found in the "Jackal mod." The actual field controlling weapon-wheel slot placement is selCategory (confirmed by community member "LowPoly", distinct from the similarly-named Priority field, hash 9BD0BE71, which does something else) — removing selCategory is what triggers the machete-slot fallback.
  • Weapon sound swapping: replace a weapon's sound-hash string with another's (confirmed values: dart=3078303034424635454100, flare gun=3078303034353643344200, silent makarov=3078303034424635433800) and set bIsSilent to True together — confirmed to produce a genuinely silent weapon in play (mercs don't react to gunfire at range). bIsSilent alone does nothing; it needs the sound-hash swap too. Reliability is inconsistent: AS50↔Flare Gun and FN FAL↔Dragunov-with-fire-mode-change both worked for different testers, but at least one other combination resulted in losing sound entirely. A bEmitLight bool also exists per-weapon; no confirmed visual effect was ever observed from toggling it.
  • Full-auto conversion + sound looping: a separate gotcha from the iBurstLength issue above — a .spk sound authored for a 3-round burst, used as the fire sound for a weapon modded to genuinely full-auto, audibly "repeats 3 times with a pause" instead of looping smoothly; the burst-length baked into the sound asset doesn't automatically stretch to match a changed fire rate/mode. Fix: manually re-edit the sound to loop as a short burst.
  • Weapon fields confirmed via live sound/scope modding (Discord, modding, Dec 2025–Jan 2026, Gabor): bUseHiResScope (Boolean, in the weapon's generated entity data, not 41_WeaponProperties.xml) — toggling to False changes scope behavior; iAnimationValue reportedly affects which crosshair is used. A recurring silent-failure cause: fdx4061 spent real time on an invisible-effect bug before realizing he needed m16.multi specifically, not the base m16 entry.
  • Weapon skins/textures: full texture replacement (no simple color/tint parameter exists) has been demonstrated across most base weapons plus UI/loading-screen images, via Gibbed's tools. Whole-mesh swapping between existing characters was achieved as early as 2022 (see the buddy model-swap recipe below); static object import from another Dunia title (Avatar) was achieved by 2024–2025 (see Engine Theory and .xbm/.xbg). Importing a wholly new, from-scratch custom model was the last unsolved piece — resolved as of July 2026 by Quiet_Joker's Dunia-Engine-XBG-Blender-Importer, see the .xbm/.xbg format page.
  • Buddy character model-swap recipe (cosmetic reskin between existing buddies, not custom import — Discord, 🔨-fc2-modding, Jan 2022, Hunter/FC_Redux's author): locate the desired buddy's .xbg model inside worlds.fat's graphics folder, copy it into the corresponding folder inside entitylibrarypatchoverride.fcb, and rename it to match the buddy slot you want to replace (e.g. copy paul.xbg, rename to frank.xbg, to make Frank appear with Paul's model). Useful for making a specific buddy "available" in an Act where they normally aren't. A "cannot load world" error almost always means worlds.dat itself has been moved/deleted from the data folder, not a problem with the swap itself.
  • Weapon pickup/UI icons are partly hardcoded in Dunia.dll itself, a genuine exception to the "everything's in FCB/XML" pattern (Discord, 🔨-fc2-modding, Jul 2022, extensive investigation by Boggalog/scubrah/Hunter/legendhavoc175): each weapon's HUD icon is selected via its sName value, looked up against an icon list; SP uses hud.mgb, MP uses hud_mp.mgb — both currently unworkable by any available tool. Machetes (and MP-specific mounted guns) have no icon entry, falling back to the sawed-off shotgun's icon. A working fix was found via direct Dunia.dll hex-editing: repointing an unused internal icon slot (the "dlc6" placeholder) to the machete texture, and reassigning the sawed-off's own sName so the fallback no longer collides — a confirmed real case of the community patching the game binary, not just its data files (see also the "Multi editor mod"'s modified Dunia.dll in Engine Theory). Not shipped as a finished fix: a separate, unrelated bug means loading any save always force-equips whichever machete is selected from the main menu, overriding current loadout regardless of the icon fix.
  • Mortar/weapon neutering: setting a weapon's damage/range/accuracy/reliability/firerate all to 0.1 (must be nonzero — 0 still deals damage in at least one tested case) leaves the sound/visual effect intact while making it nearly harmless — used to "de-fang" mortar-guy NPCs specifically.

Vehicles​

  • Vehicle armor: reliability-degradation "manuals" (bought from the arms dealer) pushed toward 100% can make a vehicle nearly immune to mortar/rocket fire while you're inside it (mercs' shots visibly bounce off, though bullets were observed passing through the windshield into the seats — not a real collision simulation, more a damage-immunity flag); you still take minor chip damage caught on foot nearby. Independently confirmed to also reduce damage the player takes while inside the vehicle, not just the vehicle's own durability.
  • Vehicle max-HP modding is unreliable — see Gotchas.

Enemies & AI​

  • Enemy loadouts: <PrimaryWeapon difficulty="19" probability="0.25" archetype="weapons.Primary.FNFAL" />-style entries in gamemodesconfig.xml's InventoryPacks section — swap archetype to rearm enemies with any weapon archetype (including named variants like AK47.AK47_Gold), or add a <SecondaryWeapon probability="X" archetype="…" /> entry (probability is a straight 0.0–1.0 chance; 1.00 = 100% guaranteed spawn-with). Caveat: enemy AI has no self-preservation logic for player-granted heavy weapons — mercs re-armed with MGL-140s/IEDs frequently kill themselves and teammates with their own ordnance.
  • Faction infighting (credited to modder StoatOats' "RealMod", reverse-engineered by forum member Vaatho): 10_Ghostpatrols.xml lists every patrol type with a faction-color field (BlueFaction/ RedFaction) — changing a patrol's color to be hostile toward its nominal "own" side produces real, dynamic inter-faction firefights in the open world (confirmed: wreckage/fire observed afterward). Patrol vehicles also have an often-empty passenger slot accepting an enemy-archetype string — confirmed working: Sniper_, MortarMan_, LightMachineGunner_. All patrol models default to a "Caucasian" race string, replaceable with "Nubian" for variety. gamemodesconfig.xml separately defines a <ReinforcementArchetypes>/<MapArmy> pair describing a 5×5 grid of which faction "owns" which map region (not the visible 3×3 in-game map division) — editing this in isolation showed no effect; the patrol-color method above is what actually works.
  • Camo/detection tuning (gamemodesconfig.xml + player.xml): <Plan name="stealth_camouflage"><bonus attr="stealth" value="1"/></Plan> controls the camo suit's bonus (base game default is value="10", not 1), seemingly a 0/1 toggle rather than a gradient. Detection-duration values (player.xml) are counterintuitive: raising them makes mercs slower to confirm a detection (harder to detect you), not more alert. Full field list (guru3D, credit "Freelancer"): PlayerAwarenessResetDelay, LongRangeDetectionDurationLevel1/2, MediumRangeDetectionDurationLevel1, PersonalRangeDetectionDurationLevel1/2, IntimateRangeDetectionDurationLevel1/2, StareAtDetectionDurationLevel1/2, AimingProvocationDetectionDurationLevel1-4, AimedAtDetectionDurationLevel1-3, RaisedWeaponLongRangeDetectionDuration, RaisedWeaponPersonalRangeDetectionDuration — plus two adjacent movement fields in the same block, BumpMinSpeed/ChargeMinSpeed/ChargeAngle (minimum speed to trigger a bump/charge reaction, and its angle threshold). Per-biome FOV blocks exist separately for desert/savannah/jungle in player.xml's SensorySystem/FOVParameters (fLength/fAngle for both FocusFOV and PeripheralFOV), plus global multipliers (fNightTimeMultiplier defaults to 0.5 vs. 4 for daytime). Combining biome-specific FOV narrowing with the stealth bonus is the community's most-praised realism tweak (credited to forum member Diablo_Lobo).
  • Sniper range: vanilla fMaxRange for sniper rifles is 400 (Discord, 🔨-fc3-and-bd-modding, 2023-02-28, "Low"); RangeMultipliers were not applied on a per-difficulty basis in FC2.
  • Grenade drop chance: <ChanceToDropGrenade Casual="1" Experimented="0.5" Hardcore="0.33" Infamous="0.25"/> in gamemodesconfig.xml — set any tier to 1 for every killed merc to drop a grenade.

Player​

  • Fall damage / high jump: fJumpHeight in player.xml (default 1; 5+ is already superhuman, ~20 is common in community patches) combined with fMinSpeedFallDamage/fMaxSpeedFallDamage in gamemodesconfig.xml's DefaultCountersService block (e.g. 1000 to eliminate fall damage) — needed together, since high jump without removing fall damage gets you killed on landing. Crouching instantly reverts to normal movement/jump as a built-in toggle.
  • Movement speed: player.xml, replace all instances (many, with differing defaults) of fWalkingMaxSpeed, fWalkingMaxSpeedCrouch, fWalkingAcceleration, fWalkingDeceleration, archSprintCurve (references Curves.Locomotion.Sprint in curves.xml), fSprintingDeceleration, fClimbSpeed, fSwimmingMinDepth, fSwimmingMaxSpeed. A community-tested "fun but extreme" set: walking/swimming speed both 15, crouch speed 2.5, accel/decel 30/30, sprint decel 20, climb 1.4 — outruns vehicles entirely.
  • Player gravity: fGravity in player.xml — a small/negative value (e.g. -1) approximates low/moon gravity for glider-less "flying" experimentation. Vanilla default confirmed as -20, identical between FC2 and FC3 (Discord, 🔨-fc3-and-bd-modding, 2023-02-28, "Low").
  • The hang glider was never successfully modded — flight time, agility, and glider-based actions (e.g. dropping grenades while gliding) all remained unrealized despite extensive searching of the vehicle data file.

Economy & progression​

  • Arms dealer / weapon bazaar (gamemodesconfig.xml, search cost=): availability (0/1/2 = start/Leboa/Bowa), needsUnlock (0/1 = mission-gated), cost (must be ≥1 — 0 deletes the entry entirely), unlockUpgrade (governs whether the "new items available" message requires owning the base weapon first).
  • Full bandolier/max-ammo reference table (gamemodesconfig.xml, <!-- BANDOLIER BONUSES -->): one <Plan> per bandolier type, each with per-weapon, per-difficultyLevel (0=Casual…3=Infamous) maxammo bonuses. Plans: pistol_belt (makarov/star45/deserteagle/6p9), light_assault_webbing (mac10/uzi), shotgun_bandolier (ithaca/spas12/usas12), assault_webbing (mp5/fnfal/g3ka4/ak47/m16), marksmans_bandolier (m1903/dragunov/as50/Dart_Rifle), rocketeer_satchel (rpg-7/carl_gustaf/mortar), grenadier_webbing (m67/m79/ied/MGL140), pyrotechnic_satchel (flare_gun/lpo50/molotov), gunner_pack (pkm/m249), plus stealth_camouflage (camo bonus), health_basic/health_advanced (healing time + syringe max). This is the complete object-name reference for every carryable weapon/gadget in the base game.
  • Weapon manuals (gamemodesconfig.xml) — three separate bonus systems per weapon: OPERATIONS MANUALS (accuracy/damage/sticky[unresolved]/recoil, percent), REPAIR&MAINTENANCE MANUALS (degradation/unjamtime, percent — full default table is -20%/-35% for nearly every weapon, except the 6P9 which ships with an unusually strong -500% degradation bonus by default; M-79 and flare gun manuals have no unjamtime entry since they don't truly jam), VEHICLE MANUALS (degradation/repairtime, percent). Reflected live in the pause-menu upgrades screen. Setting degradation to -999% lets you drive an already-"destroyed"/smoking vehicle with no further consequence; unjamtime at -99% skips the unjam animation almost entirely.
  • Reputation/Infamy: gamemodesconfig.xml's <Infamy><Acts> block sets per-Act level ranges (startlevel/maxlevel); <Levels> sets minRate/maxRate bands each with a medicine flag, failureChance, and maxNPCInFailure. Behavioral caveat: directly setting a high starting reputation via save-edit does not reproduce the same NPC reactions as organically earning that level through play — dialogue/behavior appears keyed off actual earned progress/state, not just the raw displayed number.
  • Diamond count instability: cheating a large lump of diamonds early (900–1000+) has been observed to break/crash the game. Earning the same or higher amounts gradually through legitimate play (2000+) was reported as stable — front-loading is the risky path, not the total amount.
  • Diamond case respawn/quantity data lives in OA_MissionPickups.xml (Discord, 🔨-fc2-modding, Aug 2022, "LowPoly"): individual diamond case pickups are defined here, distinguished by a value field — most regular cases use 1, 2, or 3; the player's starting case uses 10. Per-case diamond editing is a single well-structured file, not tedious per-sector hand-editing.

Environment & sound​

  • Malaria removal: in gamemodesconfig.xml's <Malaria> block, redirect all four curve references (FirstAttackTime, BetweenAttackTime, MinorAttackQte, MinorAttackDuration) to Curves.PlayerSicknessCurves.HealthMax_Infamous — an unrelated always-high curve, effectively disabling attacks. Confirmed working by multiple independent testers.
  • Ambient sound regions (Discord, Far Cry 2 Multiplayer, modding, Mar 2026, Gabor): FC2 has exactly 7 defined ambient sound regions — Desert, Jungle, Savannah (pure biomes) plus 4 transition/blend regions tDes_Jun, tDesSav, tJun_Sav, tLake. Which region plays for a given patch of terrain is driven by which ground texture is assigned there — the sound-region name is a property of the texture slot, not the terrain geometry itself, so the practical map-wide lever is reassigning ground textures in the "textures inventory" to ones carrying the desired sound region, then optionally lowering sound intensity. Deeper per-instance control exists via soundregions.xml, but changes there are local-only and don't ship with an exported custom map. Untested: whether leaving a sound region assignment empty produces true silence.

Map editor mechanics​

Concrete map-editor tool mechanics, confirmed directly from the stock map editor's decompiled source (tools/third-party/FC2Editor_Source/FC2Editor.Tools/ — see Getting Started for provenance, the editor API surface page for the underlying native calls these tools drive). For the tools themselves and their hotkeys, see Engine Theory.

  • Brush mechanics shared by every terrain/texture/foliage paint tool (ToolPaint.cs, the common base class): radius clamped 1–128 world units; the Distortion slider scales to distortion × radius × 0.7 (max jitter offset is always 70% of the current radius).
  • Texture Painter tuning (ToolTexture.cs): default brush hardness is 0.85 (harder-edged than the shared 0.4 base default); paint accumulates at strength × 512 × dt per second; auto-texture- by-constraint ranges are Min/MaxHeight 0–255, Height Fuzziness 0–32, Min/MaxSlope 0–90°.
  • Terrain Terrace, the 8th terrain tool (toolbar-only, no hotkey found in the decompiled source): steps terrain into level bands — default step height 2 (range 0–32), Strength scaled far gentler than the other brushes (opacity = strength × 0.04, ~25× softer than a typical paint tool).
  • Flatten (F3) has a hidden eyedropper: Ctrl+click samples the terrain height under the cursor into the Height field instead of painting. Its Height range is 0–256 (default 32); Raise/Lower (F2)'s delta range is a separate, smaller -32 to +32 (default 5), since it's relative not absolute.
  • Erosion (F7)'s four knobs: Density, Deformation, Channel Depth, Randomness (all 0–1, defaults 0.5/0.5/0.5/0).
  • Ramp (F5) is exactly two mouse-up clicks (release, not press): the first sets the start point, the second executes the ramp. Forcibly disables the square-brush and Distortion options (circle-only), using Hardness purely as edge-blend width.
  • Road width is clamped 4–16 world units (default 8). While drawing a spline, a new point only auto-inserts once the cursor moves more than 15 world units from the last one; clicking to insert a point mid-segment has a 4-unit hit tolerance.
  • Object placement/move mechanics (ToolObject.cs, ~3,500 lines, by far the largest pure-logic file in the editor source): auto-orientation tilts a placed object to match the raycast surface normal, not just camera yaw. Ctrl+drag while placing or moving performs a freehand yaw rotation at a fixed 0.025 rad (~1.43°) per pixel of horizontal mouse movement. Shift+drag duplicates the current selection in place and immediately lets you drag the copy away, leaving the original untouched — the editor's built-in "duplicate-drag" idiom, not documented in any tutorial reviewed.
  • Move mode's grid-snap size is 1–16 world units (default 1, step 0.25); "Snap Object Size" snaps movement to increments equal to the selected object's own bounding-box dimensions — the practical way to butt identical modular pieces (fences, wall segments) together with zero gaps. "Grab Anchor" grabs an object by its nearest pivot/anchor point instead of its geometric center when dragged. Rotation angle-snap (default 90°) advances one notch per 25 units of accumulated perpendicular mouse movement; "Reset Tilt" zeroes pitch/roll only, preserving yaw.