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xbaebsae · 4 years

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Changes and Deleted Content Part 2 - Far Cry 5: Features and Missions

This is a small passion project series of posts where I share some insight of what’s hidden in the game(s) files, but also some general observations. The main focus will be on character changes or deletions with a few words about functions and deprecated missions.

What will not be touched upon are a lot of the things the Resistance Mod on PC restores, namely deleted store weapons and clothes, weather systems and general gameplay related things like skinning animations. I also won’t go into audio files and their content, as @lulu2992 is already working on an amazing series for FC5 that summarizes them per character.

This part will be significantly shorter Edit from post finishing-Angy: This post turned out really damn long despite only discussing some scrapped or changed features and a couple of deprecated mission strings. I still hope you find this as interesting to read as I found writing and investigating it :)

1. Changed and Scrapped Features

1.1 Guns/Fangs for Hire

Just for reference, the release version of the game has 9 unique GFH/FFH available + 3 slots for random specialists you can hire throughout the world.

Among the game’s UI textures for tutorials is this image, showing an earlier version of the GFH screen.

What this indicates is that the planned amount for active GFHs you can have was originally 4; or the top row could function as some sort of favorites tab. We will probably never know for certain.

Interestingly though, this version has slots for 20 GFHs in total, 18 either filled a character icon or a locked symbol, suggesting the originally planned unique GFH count was 18.

Considering almost every NPC in-game has spawn-able archetypes with battle audio fully in place it is possible that we were supposed to be able to recruit more of them. I will return to the matter of recruitment shortly.

Another thing I’d like to open up for consideration is that there may have been plans for (ex-)cultist GFHs or at least areas where they act friendly towards the deputy. Reason for this assumption is the fact that cultists have recorded lines for when you meet them (spawn them), aim weapons at them (the taunts GFH and friendlies do too), along with idle lines when you use mods to spawn them as friendly followers. The game has no purpose for most of these lines, as you never walk into peaceful cultists outside of the intro. In the intro you have no weapons to aim at anyone, making it impossible to trigger these lines.

You may argue they were recorded for the arcade, but the Seeds are also featured in it and have none of those. However, they may also be a leftover from scrapped missions that would feature cultists that don’t shoot you on sight.

Additionally to that early menu screenshot, I have also found an old reddit thread discussing the game’s Uplay page near release because of the following image:

Unfortunately I was not able to find this particular page myself anymore, and knowing how short lived everything is nowadays, it might be lost in time forever. The commenters discuss that the three additional slots here refer to potential DLC characters, but we don’t get to use any of the DLC companions in the main game (nor do the DLCs share the main game’s art direction). So, this might be another indicator for additionally planned GFH/FFH we never got to see.

One of these was likely the Eagle FFH called ‘’Freedom’’ (Character/Unique/FFH_Eagle_Freedom), which was partially restored through mods on PC as its loaders and everything are still present. It is unknown why this was scrapped.

It also appears that there once were inventory (purchaseable?) items for almost each GFH (Boomer and Jess have none), as these placeholder icons exist inside the game’s ui\icons\inventory folder:

Possible functions: Quest items you needed to obtain to recruit them (implying changed missions); Gift items (for potential level up?)

Now to return to the matter of recruitment: Deprecated mission strings suggest that originally you had to hire unique GFHs similarly to random ones; and that was part of quest lines. These lines appear in ‘oasisstrings’, the game’s main language file(s):

HIRE Jess RECRUIT Adelaide Drubman ADD Adelaide to your squad

In light of the old GFH screen I actually looked up the definition of ‘Squad’, and on wikipedia it is listed that a Squad is a team of 5+ members, further strengthening the theory that originally you could have 4 active GFH (plus the Deputy they’d be 5, therefore a squad).

1.2 In-game Wiki menu

Some of the previous Far Cry titles have a sort of wiki menu that features short bios of characters, explanations of locations, resources and weaponry. New Dawn sort of brought part of this back with the ‘Survival Guide’ (accessible from the pause menu), but 5 does not have this at all. However, in the ui files there are still texture leftovers, implying this feature was planned and it had sections for Animals, Base Jumps, Characters, Destructible Structures, Fish, Locations, Parking Spots (Garages), Plants and Treasure Hunts. The following image shows the ‘undiscovered’ symbols arranged in that order.

Again, no text entries along with a lot of duplicate and unfinished images imply this was scrapped early.

You can view the additional images (minus characters, because they will be handled in the next posts) here.

2. Abandoned Missions

This section will focus on mission strings that still exist in ‘oasisstrings’. For the sake of readability I removed the style code the game uses and the line numbers. You can easily find them by searching part of the text in the files or website listed in References. Please keep in mind that only the mission titles themselves are 100% like that in the files, any assumption as to what they might have been used for is purely speculative, but I attempt to always provide a reasonable explanation with evidence for the theories presented. Also I am not perfect, so it is possible I missed something in-game. In that case please do correct me!

2.1. Investigation Type objectives

There is a set of objectives listed that imply a different setup for Willis Huntley’s mission. It introduces the objectives PHOTOGRAPH, TAG, LISTEN and INTERROGATE:

PHOTOGRAPH potential property PHOTOGRAPH an animal slaughter TAG the target PHOTOGRAPH the target LISTEN to the conversation INTERROGATE the target PHOTOGRAPH cult signs and rituals: BRING the photos back to Willis

The release build mission has you tail someone and steal a VHS tape. None of the above objectives appear. It’s interesting to see that at one point there were mechanics in consideration that included intel gathering.

2.2. Quest centered around Melvin

The only Melvin I could find in relation to Far Cry 5 is Nadine Abercrombie’s grandfather. Melvin Abercrombie joined the cult. It isn’t assured that these objectives refer to him, but if they do it’d mean a potential mission where you speak to a lower ranked cultist.

Please Note that mission strings are not always in correct order.

TALK to Melvin LOOT Melvin's corpse REACH Melvin's house WAIT for Melvin to arrive GO MEET Melvin

2.3. The ‘Redeemer’ Objectives

At some point there was a quest-line revolving around something called the ‘Redeemer’ in Holland Valley. I could not find out what this thing really was supposed to be, but it sounds like it was either a boat or a submarine (???). In this line it appears that the garage in Fall’s End had actual relevance.

FIND a similar engine BRING engine to Mary's garage TALK to Mary's assistant TOW Redeemer Back the Garage (this typo is also in the file) SUBMERGE the Redeemer FLIP the Redeemer upside down GET IN the Tow Truck PUT the Redeemer on the Flat Bed

What this also implies is the inclusion of tow trucks and that there was a ‘Mary’s assistant’ character.

2.4. A few seperate Entries before we focus on plot relevant ones

In light of the afore mentioned wiki menues there is also an objective type that goes very well with its character section:

DISCOVER this character.

This could be attached to unknown entries in the character list.

There also is an unused objective called:

FIND the cow in the field

Which at first glance made me believe it was related to the mission at Cattle co., but it is not used there or anywhere else. I suppose we will never find out what was so special about this mysterious cow.

TAKE Joseph's writings

is also an interesting entry, as it is not related to the mission where you burn his book. This is again an unused string with unknown original purpose.

2.5. Mary May and John Seed

There are two particularly interesting unused mission objectives in relation to these two characters.

For one, it looks like originally we were supposed to rescue Mary May from John’s ranch:

RESCUE Mary May From John Seed's Ranch

This could either be a replacement for saving her in Fall’s End or it is a mission that appeared later on in which John possibly captured her. It gets more possible applications with the next one, though.

FIND John and Mary May's secrets

Now, this one caught my attention immediately, because there are two big things that come to mind in terms of possible application. It could refer back to the novel Absolution in which Mary May gets captured and tattooed by John, heavily implying that part of the plot that made it to the novel was originally intended to be shown in the game (we will get back to this in the character episode when talking about Holly).

Additionally, keeping the previous objective in mind, it could also imply that Mary has been converted during her capture (or her capture was planned) and played a different role in the story overall. Of course, all of this is only speculation as we will probably never know, but the objective specifically says ‘John AND Mary May’s secrets’, refering to shared secrets, not just one of Mary herself (which would fit more into the tattoo theory).

If you have ever even considered the possibility that Ubisoft might have cut a lot of stuff from the Whitetail region of the game, the rest of this Mission section should finally prove this to you. I’d like to make clear here that this is unbiased. I have tried to dig up deleted content equally in all regions but it just turns out that this is the one they really went wild with. There is nothing that stands out in terms of deleted or changed missions in the Henbane area and the Holland Valley content is mostly not that plot relevant minus the last examples just mentioned.

2.6. Eli and the Wolf’s Den

In the final version of the game we are told that Eli is an important character, but he is not very active in any way. Where Mary May assists you on the way to John’s Ranch and Tracey and the others at the prison fight by your side in defense missions, Eli will stay at the Wolf’s Den and have you run his errands for him. Just like the other mentioned characters he has full fight capabilities though. His AI is capable of using that bow, despite him never leaving the bunker.

As it turns out, he used to be a far more active character and there were multiple ways you could encounter him for the first time. For reference: In the game as it is now you will only meet him when he and his people rescue the deputy after Jacob’s first trial. You cannot enter the Wolf’s Den prior to this point.

Inside the game’s animations folders are these three subfolders including the respective files (JJ and Key03 is how Eli is often referred to in the files, I will get back to this in the character post):

This means there were three ways that you would encounter Eli: Inside a cabin, through being captured in a net or by being released by Perkins. This was most likely Doc Perkins, giving her a bit more significance in the game.

The main cutscene files for these are not present anymore, only the animations remain so I could not find out where the exact locations for these were supposed to be at. I however, loaded these animations into a game cutscene so we get to look at them anyway. I have chosen Jacob’s death cutscene for the simple reason that there’s only the player + 1 NPC, it is daytime and there’s no intrusive DOF blurring everything. The video below shows all of them.

Keep in mind that only the player animation matters in the first two! Ignore the rest. The third one features Doc Perkins and has her animation applied to her. As you can see it is very very unfinished, but it shows that she possibly unties the deputy or opens an animal cage, then drives away in a car.

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This unused mission string supports the theory of these different ways further, as it implies that you met him somewhere and he would guide you to the den:

FOLLOW Eli into the Wolf's Den

There are several other objectives that suggest a more active Eli, who might have accompanied you on some missions:

WAIT for Eli to arrive GO with Eli GO inside the Wolf's Den

2.7. Jacob and the Veteran Center

Before swan diving down a very deep rabbit hole, let’s address this unused mission string first:

TALK to Deputy Pratt

Sounds very unspectacular and like something you would do at some point, but this is never an objective in the game. The intended function will forever remain unknown most likely, but possibilities are vast, especially with the upcoming abandoned objectives.

There are hints at an alternate useage of Jacob’s bunker (specifically called bunker here and not armory). Mission strings are:

FIND a way out of Jacob's Bunker LEAVE Jacob's Bunker

Again, on first sight you’d think these are just what’s there in-game. But they aren’t. During the final mission it goes from RESCUE Deputy Pratt straight to ESCAPE Jacob’s Armory. There is no indicator that you’d need to find a way out. The objectives above hint that it was similar to John’s and Faith’s bunker initially, where you had to do a few more things before escaping.

An observation derived from the game’s subtitle file is that at one point there might have been a differentiation between ‘Armory’ and ‘Bunker’ as, most likely, a random NPC says "I don't know where Jacob's bunker is. I'm not sure anybody does, but it's out there somewhere." The armory is (other than John’s and Faith’s bunkers) directly next to a main road, next to McKinley Dam. It is quite impossible to miss. Therefore this statement, along with the inconsistent switch between calling it ‘armory’, ‘bunker’ or ‘gate’, could mean there was originally a different bunker and the armory really functioned as such.

Before moving on to more mission strings, there is one more subtitle entry worth mentioning: "When you tried to arrest Joseph, Jacob got wind of it and things got real crazy here in the Whitetail Mountains." It heavily implies that at some point, Joseph’s family might not have been intended to be present during the opening, and they instead found out about the arrest afterwards. As far fetched as it sounds at first, it does check out with the inactivity and absence of the three heralds after you cuff Joseph (and in case you ever wondered what the three of them are doing while you guide Joseph outside, they de-spawn and are gone as soon as you turn around).

But enough about that and let’s get back to more missions we never got to see.

For instance there is:

GO TO the Veteran's Center

Which, as most of you know, is impossible during the game because you get repositioned everytime you attempt to go close. This string implies a different kind of mission at some point.

HUNT Jacob

No, this also does not appear in the game. The final mission goes from DESTROY Wolf Beacons to KILL Jacob Seed. Possibility in combination with the previous entry is that you were supposed to follow him back to the Veteran Center and that’s where the final fight would be. It could also imply a different kind of trial.

Small observation because we are talking about the final fight: The Prima Games’ guide (based on a pre-release build of the game, it will be featured more prominently in the next post) depicts Jacob at the bottom of the mountain during this encounter. WIth a lot of perseverance I’m sure you can somehow manage to replicate this in-game. But it is interesting regardless that they chose this image. It might imply that at some point he was not positioned on top of the hill, and instead closer to the area he finally dies in.

Before we move on, here are a few other interesting unused strings:

TRAIN TRAIN yourself INTERACT with Jacob for finishing takedown TALK to Jacob

They imply a different way to end the fight along with the possibility to talk to Jacob at some point (unrelated to each other mind you). I have no clue in what kind of scenario you were supposed to talk to him. The only explanation I have is that trials were possibly supposed to be different at some point and maybe they had more intentions to explore the whole brainwashed aspect of it to the point you casually took strolls around St Francis. Now before you say I just made that up, I implore you to wait till after the next part to call me out on it, because there are reasons I offer that possibility up for discussion here.

TRAIN and TRAIN yourself might not be linked to this region at all. But it is interesting to have these sort of objectives as they form the ‘Train, Hunt, Kill, Sacrifice’ part of the region’s theme, when you refer back to other mission strings: TRAIN (yourself), HUNT Jacob, KILL Jacob Seed.

Now to get to the main part. If you ever used mods on PC that let you access the Veteran Center, you will have noticed that the AI acts very strange. Your assigned GFH might wander around, aim at nothing or even attack civillians. Cultists inside the area will not always attack you, while civillians will do. This is most likely why the developers were so quick to patch out the tricks to access the region without mods.

I have seen multiple speculations circling around, but the one that always struck me as the most plausible one is that there was some kind of mission after Pratt rescues you from the cage. It is a very discontinuous cutscene, in which you transition from the cage directly to the top floor of the Veteran Center, implying there were no problems for Pratt and the Deputy to get there, despite having to cross the entire guarded frontyard and going through multiple building floors to get to the office. So, naturally I wasted some time of my life trying to dig up stuff that proves this theory right and I...well I did find something.

Important note so you understand what’s going on here: It is very common in games to load objects underneath the map (outside of sight of the player) to assure they are properly loaded in when they are needed. I have seen posts circulating around which depicted Pratt underneath the building, suggesting they eventually had an area planned there. The more likely case is that Pratt was loaded there for later use in a cutscene.

Why am I saying that? Well, this following screenshot was taken underneath the map during the cutscene where Pratt rescues the deputy and it transitions to the top of the building. I have changed the time to daytime for a bit better visibility.

What you see here is an entirely unused set of either cutscene or gameplay elements. A truck, Jacob (who’s absent in the cutscene we see), Pratt, a random NPC, a bag, a small table (unseen in cutscene), a single door (unseen in cutscene), a double door and 3 small pieces of paper (only two are in cutscene). I have kept watch on these assets for the entirety of the cutscene and none of them were moved into place. Meaning that all of these were here to be used in either a different cutscene or even a gameplay segment.

It brings me back to the mission theory, where there was a potential stealth segment between leaving the cage and entering the office. Maybe there was an alternate cutscene for the case where you’d be caught and the one we see in the game is the one after successfully sneaking up there? We will never know for certain again but it is one possible explanation as to why these assets even still exist. It would also check out with the TALK to Deputy Pratt mission string, as you maybe had to speak to him after reaching a certain area.

Here are also some additional screenshots of the room in front of the office:

It was modelled and filled with a few detail props we never get to see much of.

Another potential mission, which would explain the broken AI behavior better, is the already mentioned theory that they might have planned to do more with the whole brainwashing aspect. Cultists inside the Vet Center area do not shoot and are allied, while civillians act hostile, implying while the player is there they are considered to be allied to cultists. TALK to Deputy Pratt, TALK to Jacob or TRAIN (yourself) could have taken place during this also. Something that could support this theory is also this unused timelapse marking days passing:

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3. The Game’s Title and Closing Words

Internally the game is often called ‘fc zeta’, ‘zeta’ or ‘fcz’. So *sigh* of course I tried to find a deeper meaning behind it all and came to the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet ‘Zeta’. If you count Far Cry: Primal as a real standalone title, Far Cry 5 is the sixth Far Cry release. But because the Greek were special snowflakes or something, the sixth letter actually has the value of 7. So Zeta is actually 7 despite being the sixth. If you count Blood Dragon as a Far Cry release it’d mean FC5 is the 7th release. However, these theories exclude all the expansions and stuff for earlier Far Cry games.

Another indicator that Zeta might have been more than just a number, is this texture used as a decal on some clothing materials:

I have not found someone in-game who has this anywhere, and they might just disable the transparency and use it only for the American flag. But still, why would they make such a decal texture in the first place? Maybe very early name of the cult or resistance group?

Before closing this incredibly long essay, here is an old, unused version of the logo found in the files :)

Phew, we finally reached the end. If you made it all the way down here: CONGRATULATIONS you just read a long af essay! Again, i’d like to remind you that a lot of what you’ve read is pure speculation. I tried to prove my arguments as best as I could with evidence that I provided but only Ubisoft knows what really happened. And they are unlikely to tell us.

The next post will focus on the expansive character list and I may split it into parts because there is a lot to say and show about some characters.

I hope you have a nice day and thank you for reading ♥

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References:

text.farcry.info (website where you can look through Oasisstrings yourself!) languages\english\oasisstrings.oasis.bin languages\english\oasisstrings_subtitles.oasis.bin animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_cabin animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_net animations\narrative\cin_key03_q01_b00_meet_jj_release domino\user\fcz_proto_ld domino\user\zeta_dlcm ui\resources\textures\04_menu\tooltips ui\resources\textures\06_icons\inventory ui\resources\textures\05_hud\tutorials\_images __Unknown\XBT\AE800D066AB2E84A.xbt __Unknown\XBT\FD080AA2BBABE691.xbt Zeta on Wikipedia (english) Squad on Wikipedia (english) Prima Games guide (2018, collector’s edition, print and digital) reddit.com/r/farcry/comments/89nsf1/so_theres_3_missing_guns_for_hire_here_maybe_3/ __Unknown\BIK\C6AB10EDBC81E933.bik

#far cry 5 #gameinfo #obligatory longessay tag #if you ever wondered how much of a nerd i am #look at these essays #and know that i enjoyed writing and capturing footage of every second of this

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xbaebsae · 4 years

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Changes and Deleted Content Part 1 - Far Cry New Dawn

What will not be touched upon are a lot of the things the Resistance Mod (Scavenger for ND) on PC restores, namely deleted store weapons and clothes, weather systems and general gameplay related things like skinning animations. I also won’t go into audio files and their content, as @lulu2992 is already working on an amazing series for FC5 that summarizes them per character.

I start off with New Dawn, because there is far less to talk about here overall. However, in terms of characters there’s still some interesting things to be found, the main one possibly that I’m very very certain Faith was supposed to be in the game!

Some terminology to understand: Archetype (Loader) = A big table that links characters together (appearance, weapon slots, audio, AI behavior), This is what gets spawned first. Character Definition File (CDF) = A table that lists all models and materials a character uses (this is one of the things called in the Loader)

1. The Character List

Just as Far Cry 5 (which I’m already working on dw), New Dawn has a database that stands somewhere at the very start of the load chain of a character. This file links various attributes together (for eg. archetype(I’ll just call it ‘loader’ from now on) and audio files).

For New Dawn, these are the unique character names listed:

Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/FFH_Boar (Horatio) Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/FFH_Dog (Timber) Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni035_PastorJerome Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni043_Hurk_RPG Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni100_CarminaRye_Assaulter Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni109_GinaGuerra_Gunner Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni113_Nana_Sniper Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni114_NatureBoy_Brawler Character/FCB/Unique/GFH/Uni115_Judge_Hunter

Character/FCB/Unique/Highwaymen/Uni105_Twin_01 (Mickey) Character/FCB/Unique/Highwaymen/Uni106_Twin_02 (Lou) Character/FCB/Unique/Highwaymen/Uni107_LilFucker (Irwin Smalls) Character/FCB/Unique/NewEden/Lt004_JosephSeed Character/FCB/Unique/NewEden/QuestGiver_MIS_210 Character/FCB/Unique/NewEden/QuestGiver_MIS_210_Female Character/FCB/Unique/NewEden/Uni108_Zealot (Ethan Seed) Character/FCB/Unique/NewEden/Uni119_ChosenLeader

Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/QuestGiver_MIS_510 Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Key001_NickRye Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni007_GraceArmstrong Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni024_SharkyBoshaw Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni048_KimRye Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni101_Bean Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni102_Selene Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni103_Berserker Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni104_Quebecois (Roger Cadoret) Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni110_ThomasRush Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni111_EverettBarnes Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni116_FarmerRoss Character/FCB/Unique/Survivors/Uni121_Portia Character/FCB/Unique/TBD/Lt003_Faith Character/FCB/Unique/TBD/Uni013_Askuwheatu_DONOTUSE Character/FCB/Unique/TBD/Uni056_Adelaide_DONOTUSE DO_NOT_USE/DO_NOT_USE_Bear_Grizzly_FFH * DO_NOT_USE/DO_NOT_USE_Boar_Giant_FFH * DO_NOT_USE/DO_NOT_USE_Cougar_FFH * DO_NOT_USE/DO_NOT_USE_DLC_Mars_Robot_FFH * DO_NOT_USE/DO_NOT_USE_Dog_FFH * DO_NOT_USE/FFH/DO_NOT_USE_FFH_Bear_Cheeseburger * DO_NOT_USE/FFH/DO_NOT_USE_FFH_Cougar_Peaches * DO_NOT_USE/FFH/DO_NOT_USE_FFH_Dog_Boomer * DO_NOT_USE/GFH/DO_NOT_USE_Uni33_JessLeforge *

* while these are on first sight interesting entries, know that FC5 has these too for various characters. They are leftovers not marked for deletion, as possibly some of their functions are needed for other characters (or they just forgot).

2. The Entries marked in bold

The actual interesting entries in this list are marked in bold letters above. I’ll go through them in list order.

2.1. GFH/Uni114_NatureBoy_Brawler

This highwaymen character is listed as a Gun for Hire, but we never get him in the game. However, the loader file, as well as 4 Character Definition Files still exist for him. I loaded them all into the game and attached some images below. Looks like he was supposed to be a melee GFH with a spiked bat. In the game’s menu text file, he is referred to as ‘Uni114′ instead of his actual name, showing he was possibly scrapped early on.

The CDFs are labeled with levels, making this the only GFH character with a potential changing appearance based on the level you have him at. This functionality was not implemented, though. His Loader only calls the first appearance and has no indication of loading the others.

Reason for deletion could be lack of time to implement this, or simply that they needed an even number of GFH and couldn’t add another.

2.2 NewEden/Uni108_Zealot This is Ethan’s entry and there is not too much to say about this. They call him Zealot in the database and his topless texture set refers to him as ‘michou’ or ‘michoui’. I’m not french, and google was not very helpful so I’m not sure if this is an actual name, or some sort of physical state? Edit: @lulu2992 and @kingmaking have pointed out in the comments that ‘Michou’ is often used as a cute/funny nickname (usually for people called Michel); and that ‘Michoui’ is the québec accent pronunciation of the word ‘Méchoui’, which is spit-roasted meat/entire animals. Since these textures are for Ethan after his boss fight, where he has burn scars, they most likely allowed themselves a little joke with this.

2.3. NewEden/Uni119_ChosenLeader There is not much to say about this one. Interestingly, this character also still has a loader as well as a CDF. However, different to the one above, the CDF only calls for placeholder model files. His text entry is also only calling him ‘ChosenLeader’. He uses a bow like most New Eden characters.

Here is what he looks like when you load him. As mentioned, only placeholder models.

2.4. Survivors/Uni103_Berserker This character is entirely gone. Neither a Loader nor CDF exist meaning they were scrapped very very early on. For some reason the entry in the character database remains, though.

2.5. Survivors/Uni104_Quebecois This is the entry for Roger Cadoret. I googled and ‘québécois‘ is a Canadian dialect of french, hinting that his nationality was decided before he even had a name. It also appears that he underwent a name change throughout development, as his head model file refers to ‘Pierre Luc’ (Head_UNI104_PierreLuc_Aver_M.xbg) instead of Roger Cadoret.

2.6. Survivors/Uni116_FarmerRoss and Survivors/Uni121_Portia Now, I haven’t fully played this game in a long time, so there are chances these characters are actually named accordingly in-game. Farmer Ross appears in the menu text file, however Portia does not. She could have a different name inside the game.

What should be mentioned for both is that they do not use any unique head or clothes models. Their faces, hairstyles and clothes are used by various randomized NPCs in the game world. In fact, the Loader does not call unique CDFs, it calls from the folder of random NPCs. Perhaps these two were initially going to be more important NPCs.

2.7. TBD/Lt003_Faith Possibly the most interesting entry in this whole file is this one. Along with Wheaty and Adelaide, Faith is a character marked for deletion (TBD = to be deleted) from this file, but it never happened. What makes her entry more interesting than the other two is that there was work done to implement her in New Dawn. Her body texture files are present in the files, and they have a different name than they had in Far Cry 5 (pictured left, ND is right):

You might argue that ain’t a lot of change, but changing asset names means changing them in materials and such, too. Which is work, work that developers wouldn’t do if they didn’t intend to use it at some point. This is the only remains of her model in the files though. They possibly forgot to delete this set.

Now, sure that is another indicator that she was supposed to be in the game but the third, very big one is that they actually made a quest giver icon for her. It is not reused from Far Cry 5, they made a new one in the lighting standard of the New Dawn ones! Pictured below is the Far Cry 5 icon (left) and the new one made to be used in New Dawn (right).

Again, they wouldn’t do this if they didn’t have plans to include her. Also, her implementation must have been in longer consideration than ‘Nature Boy’’s, as he does not have a quest giver icon.

Note here, that the text file of the game has no trace of any dialogue that refer to her directly (only one or two lines that are known from Joseph, when he refers back to the events of 5).

2.8 TBD/Uni013_Askuwheatu_DONOTUSE and TBD/Uni056_Adelaide_DONOTUSE More remnants of characters from 5 that were likely considered to be included at some point. ‘Askuwheatu’ is also how Far Cry 5′s database equivalent refers to Wheaty, it’s possibly his full name. This is all that is there for them, though. Their Loader and CDFs are not present, hinting that their inclusion was scrapped early on again. Same for GFH/DO_NOT_USE_Uni33_JessLeforge, but this one is not marked TBD so it possibly has some partial functions in use by something else. Again, Jess LeForge is also how FC5′s database refers to Jess, I’ll add this in the FC5 version of this post.

3. Remains in other Files

It’s possible that there’s tons of other remains from 5 in New Dawn’s files. I only stumbled across parts of Jacob’s AI and archetype during modding recently. There’s no models, audio or anything left in the files, but they kept his InventoryPack entry (unique or shared slots that define which weapons which character holds, many characters share slots, but people who were meant to have unique weapon skins have their own). I haven’t checked every single character Loader in New Dawn to check if someone uses this entry, but chances are nobody does and it’s just some leftover.

Another very stupid thing is that the 1911 pistol still has a skinslot for being his red pistol, but the material override is empty, meaning calling this slot does nothing. It would have been more efficient to delete the whole slot entirely (as they did do on the HTI50 (falsely named MBP50 in-game)). But Ubisoft, right?

Anyway that’s it for now. I’m already working on a Far Cry 5 version of this post, but the character database is way longer and filled with interesting stuff. Also, 5 has multiple characters who changed appearance and/or names during development so it will take me a little more time to gather it all.

Thanks for reading! ♥

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References: databases\generic\characterdata.ndb databases\generic\inventorypack.ndb __Unknown\XBT\E746484E5EAFFAFA.xbt (Faith icon) entityarchetypeslibrary\9015333834185497.ark.fcb (Nature Boy Loader) entityarchetypeslibrary\9015347787667806.ark.fcb (Chosen Leader Loader) entityarchetypeslibrary\9015345244357251.ark.fcb (Farmer Ross Loader) entityarchetypeslibrary\9015352635953791.ark.fcb (Portia Loader) entityarchetypeslibrary\9015213187059356.ark.fcb (1911 Pistol Loader) graphics\_common\characters\bowmore\wardrobe\_dna\uniques\ (various CDFs inside folder) graphics\_common\characters\bowmore\wardrobe\body\_textures\ (location of Faith textures in ND, also location of mentioned Ethan textures) graphics\_common\characters\fc5\wardrobe\body\_textures\ (location of Faith textures in FC5)

#far cry 5 #far cry new dawn #far cry #obligatory longessay tag

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