Crusader_Decomp/docs/regret-game-start.md

No Regret Game_Start Flow

Scope

This note documents the currently opened live REGRET.EXE startup lane around Game_Start and the later helper that performs the actual new-game mission hop.

The immediate goals of this pass were:

• name the directly involved startup helpers in Ghidra
• annotate the startup-state globals that feed the new-game path
• explain why No Regret appears to set the start map twice

Named Functions

The following previously-unnamed functions are now promoted in the live REGRET.EXE database.

Address	New name	Why the name is justified
1058:0bbe	HandleCommandlineArgs	Matches the already-recovered Remorse-side parser role. It compares argv entries against a startup-option table and writes g_warpToLevelNoArg, the difficulty override, map offset, egg override, and the extra startup-video flag.
1030:032d	Game_RunNewGameFlow	This is the full No Regret new-game helper. It plays the ORIGIN/ANIM01 intro lane, opens the difficulty modal when not warping, rebuilds the world/avatar state, and then performs the actual mission-start teleporter hop or the debug -warp path.
1030:022e	Game_DrawCenteredStartupSplash	Called immediately before the teleporter hop in both the normal and -warp startup lanes. It fades black, clears the active gameplay state, centers one startup screen object, and redraws the viewport.
11c8:0d96	Game_EnterFrontendMenuViewport	Used before modal-gump dispatch. It clears the gameplay-style viewport flag, expands the mouse Y range to the taller menu height, and refreshes the screen object.
11c8:0d39	Game_RestoreGameplayViewport	Used after the modal/front-end phase. It restores the gameplay-style viewport state, notifies NPC update lanes, restores the shorter mouse Y range, and refreshes the screen object again.

Game_Start Structure

Game_Start in No Regret still looks like the top-level frontend entry point.

High-level shape:

1. Freeze the current gameplay/process state enough to enter a frontend/modal lane.
2. Enter the taller frontend viewport mode and dispatch the startup modal gump.
3. Handle non-new-game modal results such as exit/other menu actions.
4. For the new-game path, clear world/gameplay state, rebuild the avatar and starter items, and do an early teleporter hop to map 1, egg 0x1e.
5. Fade/reset again and hand back into the wider startup framework.

The key early selector is still:

• 1008:1446 PUSH 0x1
• 1008:1448 PUSH 0x1e0001
• 1008:144e CALLF 0x1030:0000

That early site is real, but it is not the only startup teleporter call that matters.

Actual New-Game Mission Start

The function now named Game_RunNewGameFlow is the important second lane.

It is called from at least two concrete places:

• CreditsProcess_Run at 1008:0056
• another startup/control lane at 1058:0a2a

That already shows it is not dead duplicate code. It is a standalone startup helper reused by the frontend.

Its normal no-warp branch does all of the following in one place:

1. Play the ORIGIN/ANIM01 intro-video lane.
2. Open the difficulty-selection modal.
3. Reinitialize NPC/world/tracker state.
4. Apply any command-line difficulty override.
5. Recreate starter inventory items.
6. Draw the centered startup splash.
7. Perform the actual mission-start teleporter hop.

The effective mission-start selector is:

• 1030:05c3 PUSH 0x1
• 1030:05c5 PUSH 0x1e0001
• 1030:05cb PUSH CS
• 1030:05cc CALL 0x1030:0000

This is the selector that redirected real new games only after the script was updated to patch it together with the earlier Game_Start site.

Startup Globals

These data roles are now annotated in the live Ghidra session.

Address	Current best role
1480:1453	Startup-world transition flag. Game_Start clears it before the early menu-start teleporter hop. Game_RunNewGameFlow sets it during world/NPC rebuild and clears it again immediately before the actual mission-start teleporter hop.
1480:0ac8	Optional command-line warp X override. 0xffff means no direct coordinate warp is requested.
1480:0aca	Optional command-line warp Y override.
1480:0acc	Optional command-line warp Z override.
1480:0ace	Command-line difficulty override parsed by HandleCommandlineArgs. If greater than zero, the new-game flow copies it into g_difficultyLevel before the teleporter hop.
1480:0ad0	Command-line -mapoff additive map offset used by the debug -warp path.
1480:0ad2	Command-line egg override used by the -warp path. When negative or 0x001e, the code falls back to the default startup egg.
1480:0ad4	Extra startup-video behavior flag parsed by HandleCommandlineArgs. Clear means the ORIGIN/ANIM01 lane is played once; set means the same lane is repeated until 1480:95f0 becomes nonzero.
1480:95f0	Startup-video loop exit latch used by Game_RunNewGameFlow and CreditsProcess_Run.

Command-Line Warp Controls

The startup parser exposes more real gameplay-side command-line controls than just -warp.

Currently proven from the recovered parser strings and control flow:

• -warp
• -skill
• -mapoff
• -egg
• -debug
• -demo
• -setver
• -asylum

The same executables also contain the runtime status strings:

• Warping to mission %d.
• Warping to mission %d @ x:%d y:%d z:%d.
• Defaulting to skill level %d
• Destination Egg = %d

That parser behavior is now tight enough to promote the actual syntax:

• -warp <mission> = mission-only manual warp
• -warp <mission> <x> <y> <z> = direct coordinate warp

The key parser detail is that there are no separately recovered -x, -y, or -z switches in this lane. After HandleCommandlineArgs parses the mission number, it checks the next argv token. If the next token is missing or begins with -, the parser takes the mission-only path and prints Warping to mission %d.. Otherwise it consumes the next three argv tokens as X, Y, and Z and prints Warping to mission %d @ x:%d y:%d z:%d..

There is one important precedence rule in Game_RunNewGameFlow: -egg wins over the coordinate override path. When X is present but the egg override is nonnegative, the code still routes back into the egg-based teleporter lane. The direct NPC_Teleport path only runs when X/Y/Z are present and the egg override is still negative.

Could Parameters Replace The Executable Hack?

For a normal fresh game, no.

The executable patch was needed because the stock new-game path still hardcodes the startup selector payload (map = 1, egg = 0x1e) in code. No Regret does that twice, once in Game_Start and once again in Game_RunNewGameFlow.

The command-line warp lane is different:

• it only runs when g_warpToLevelNoArg != -1
• it uses a debug/manual warp flow rather than the ordinary fresh-game path
• it computes the target map from an embedded mission-to-map table plus -mapoff
• it can also change the destination egg
• it can apply explicit X/Y/Z destination overrides through -warp <mission> <x> <y> <z>

So a command line could likely have reproduced the practical destination change for a manual debug warp session, but not the ordinary fresh-game mission-1 behavior that the patch script changed.

For maps with no usable teleport egg, the parameter-only workaround is now clearer too: use -warp <mission> <x> <y> <z> together with -mapoff, and do not pass -egg. That path bypasses the egg lookup and calls NPC_Teleport directly. The current inspected teleport lane does not show any automatic snap-to-ground rescue, so this only works if the supplied coordinate triple is already valid for the target map.

Current best distinction:

• executable patch = changes the stock fresh-game startup behavior
• command-line warp args = invoke a separate manual/debug startup path that can land on a different mission/map/egg and likely a different coordinate triple

Likely Reason Map 1 Is Set Twice

The most likely explanation is that No Regret preserved two valid entry paths into an in-engine gameplay state instead of refactoring them into one shared startup selector.

Evidence for that read:

• Game_Start contains an early teleporter hop immediately after rebuilding the avatar and starter items.
• Game_RunNewGameFlow is a separate, live helper called from CreditsProcess_Run and another startup/control lane.
• Game_RunNewGameFlow owns the full intro-video, difficulty-modal, world-reset, and real mission-start sequence.
• Both paths call the same local teleporter wrapper with the same literal (1, 0x1e, 1) payload.

Current best model:

• the early Game_Start hop is a frontend/bootstrap entry into a playable engine state
• the later Game_RunNewGameFlow hop is the authoritative mission-start step for a real new game after the intro/difficulty flow
• both kept their own literal selector instead of sharing one startup-map global or helper constant

So the duplication looks more like split control-flow ownership and startup code reuse than a deliberate “set it twice just in case” pattern.

Practical Patch Implication

For No Regret, changing the fresh-game destination map must update both hardcoded selectors:

• early Game_Start selector at 1008:1448
• actual mission-start selector at 1030:05c5

Patching only the early site is insufficient because the later new-game helper can silently overwrite that choice during the real mission-start sequence.