Creature struct (creature_pool / DAT_0049bf38)¶

This document tracks the main creature pool used by crimsonland.exe.

Pool facts:

• Entry size: 0x98 bytes.
• Pool size: 0x180 entries.
• Base address: creature_pool (DAT_0049bf38).

Key helpers:

• creature_alloc_slot (FUN_00428140) finds a free slot and seeds defaults.
• creature_spawn (FUN_00428240) spawns a creature and writes position/type/heading.
• creature_update_all (FUN_00426220) is the primary update loop (movement, targeting, AI, attacks).
• creatures_none_active (FUN_00428210) scans the pool and returns nonzero when empty.

Field map (medium confidence):

Global counters:

• creature_spawned_count increments on each creature_alloc_slot call (total spawns).
• creature_kill_count increments on creature death paths (used by the HUD progress ratio).
• creature_active_count is recomputed each creature_update_all pass.
• creature_update_tick is a global tick counter used to throttle some target updates.
• plaguebearer_infection_count increments on Plaguebearer contagion kills and caps spread.

Spawn slots (used by creature_update_all when creature_link_index selects a slot):

• creature_spawn_slot_owner — pointer to the owning creature (used for collision and cleared on owner death).
• creature_spawn_slot_count — current spawn count.
• creature_spawn_slot_limit — max spawns before the slot stops.
• creature_spawn_slot_interval — seconds between spawns.
• creature_spawn_slot_timer — countdown timer to the next spawn.
• creature_spawn_slot_template — spawn template id passed to creature_spawn_template.

Survival reward tracking (globals):

• survival_recent_death_pos_x / survival_recent_death_pos_y — up to 3 recent creature death positions (recorded in creature_handle_death).
• survival_recent_death_count — increments with deaths (caps at 6) and gates the survival weapon reward check in survival_update.
• survival_reward_handout_enabled — one-time survival handout gate (cleared after the handout or after 3 death samples).
• survival_reward_fire_seen — set when the player fires; blocks the survival reward checks in survival_update.
• survival_reward_damage_seen — set on player damage; blocks the survival reward checks in survival_update.

AI mode behaviors (DAT_0049bfc8 / offset 0x90)¶

The AI mode selects how the target position (target_x/target_y) is computed inside creature_update_all. These notes are medium-confidence.

Notes:

• Linked modes use DAT_0049bfb0 as the linked creature index and DAT_0049bfb4/b8 as the per-creature offset.
• Mode 7 interacts with the 0x80 flag and the DAT_0049bfb0 link index; if either guard fails, the mode resets to 0.

Related notes:

• See Detangling notes for helper naming and other pool context.
• The pool is updated in creature_update_all; use that routine for new field discoveries.
• On death, creature_update_all queues a rotated sprite via fx_queue_add_rotated using the creature tint and size. The effect_id is usually the creature type_id, but short-strip creatures (flags & 0x4 without 0x40) force effect_id = 7 (likely a generic corpse sprite).
• Animation phase (0x94) is incremented by a per-type rate stored at &DAT_0048275c + type_id * 0x44 and wraps at 31 for the primary strip or 15 for the short ping‑pong strip. The renderer then selects a frame index for the 8×8 atlas (see FUN_00418b60).
• creature_update_all scales the animation step by movement speed, size, and a local scale factor (tether/orbit cases), using rate * speed * dt * (30/size) multiplied by 25 (long strip) or 22 (short strip) before wrapping.
• Flags 0x4 and 0x40 influence sprite selection in FUN_00418b60: 0x4 selects the short 8‑frame ping‑pong strip and 0x40 forces the long strip even when 0x4 is set.
• FUN_00418b60 computes the short strip frame as frame = base + 0x10 + ping_pong(int(phase) & 0xf), where ping_pong mirrors indices > 7 to 0xf - idx. The long strip uses frame = base + int(phase) (mirrored to 0x1f - frame when type_flags & 1 and frame > 0x0f), with negative phases falling back to base + 0x0f.

Creature flags (partial)¶

The creature_flags bitfield is consulted in creature_update_all and related helpers:

• 0x1 — periodic self‑damage tick (creature_apply_damage with magnitude dt * 60).
• 0x2 — stronger periodic self‑damage tick (creature_apply_damage with magnitude dt * 180).
• 0x4 — short ping‑pong animation strip (see render notes above).
• 0x10 — ranged attack: when attack_cooldown <= 0 and target distance > 64, spawns projectile type 9 and plays sfx_shock_fire (DAT_004c3f9c).
• 0x40 — force long animation strip even if 0x4 is set.
• 0x80 — uses creature_link_index as a timer that toggles AI mode 7 with randomized positive/negative durations.
• 0x100 — ranged attack variant: spawns projectile using the creature_orbit_radius field as the projectile type id and plays sfx_plasmaminigun_fire (DAT_004c3fa0).

Creature type table (creature_type_texture / DAT_00482728)¶

Stride: 0x44 bytes (0x11 floats). Indexed by type_id.

Field map (partial):

Known initial entries (from the reset/init routine that loads creature textures):

Notes:

• No references to offsets 0x1c..0x30 were found in the decompiled output. Only offset 0x20 is initialized (to 1.0), so the remaining fields appear unused or reserved in this build.

Spawn template ids (creature_spawn_template)¶

creature_spawn_template uses template_id (aka param_1) as a spawn template id. It assigns the creature type id (&creature_type_id, formerly DAT_0049bfa4) and optional flags (&creature_flags, formerly DAT_0049bfc4). The table below lists the direct assignments found inside the helper.

Generated by uv run python scripts/gen_spawn_templates.py.

Notes:

• The table is mirrored into src/crimson/spawn_templates.py for Python usage.
• Flags 0x4 and 0x40 are the only bits with confirmed animation effects.
• Flag 0x8 triggers the split‑on‑death behavior (see FUN_0041e910).
• Flag 0x400 calls FUN_0041f5b0 on death (spawns a bonus entry using two 16‑bit values from &DAT_0049bfb0).

Spawn id sources (call sites)¶

template_id is supplied by a mix of scripted spawners and data tables:

• FUN_00402ed0, FUN_00402fe0, FUN_004030f0, FUN_00403250: mode setup helpers called from FUN_00403390 (hard‑coded spawn ids like 0x34, 0x35, 0x38, 0x41, 0x24, 0x25).
• survival_update (FUN_00407cd0): milestone spawns using 0x12, 0x2b, 0x2c, 0x35, 0x38, 0x3a, 0x3c, and 1.
• Tutorial timeline (FUN_00408990): scripted spawns using 0x24, 0x26, 0x27, 0x28, 0x40.
• Quest/timeline spawner (quest_spawn_timeline_update, FUN_00434250): pulls spawn ids from the table at DAT_004857a8 (pfVar4[3]) with counts in pfVar4[5].
• AI subspawns (creature_update_all): periodic spawns using &DAT_00484fe4 + iVar6 * 0x18, which is seeded for some template ids inside FUN_00430af0.

Quest spawn table (DAT_004857a8)¶

Quests populate a fixed table at DAT_004857a8 (entry size 0x18, count in DAT_00482b08). quest_spawn_timeline_update (FUN_00434250) walks the table and spawns entries whose trigger time has elapsed.

Entry layout (dwords):

Notes:

• quest_start_selected (FUN_0043a790) chooses a quest builder from the table at DAT_00484730. The function pointer lives at &DAT_0048474c; when null, it falls back to quest_build_fallback (FUN_004343e0) (two entries with spawn id 0x40, counts 10/0x14, trigger times 500/5000).
• quest_build_zombie_time (0x00437d70), quest_build_lizard_raze (0x00438840), and quest_build_surrounded_by_reptiles (0x00438940) are examples of quest builders that write multiple DAT_004857a8 entries with varying spawn ids and timings.