Sylpheed/docs/re/structures/asteroid-fields.md

The asteroid-field tables (AsteroidGroup_00N)

Status: ✅ decoded statically, 2026-08-28. Every number below is an exact disc census over all 41 .pak archives using the corpus reader.

Where it sits in the chain

stage-definition-table and stage-mission-tables already record that a stage's Phase_N block carries an AsteroidDefinition field naming a .tbl (test_s8p1_asteroid.tbl in the _Test template, "" in most phases), and unit-datasheet-static already partitions the Generic records and finds 10 per pack whose only field is {EnumAsteroidGroup} — "an asteroid-group file". What neither says is what is inside those ten files.

Stage_SNN . Phase_N . AsteroidDefinition = "S04_asteroid.tbl"
      └── that object:  Generic . EnumAsteroidGroup = "7"
                        AsteroidGroup_000 … AsteroidGroup_006
                              AsteroidModelName  = mob_n050
                              AsteroidFrameName  = Frame_S04_Asteroid_01
                              EnumAsteroid       = 39

✅ The table

10 objects per pack × 6 GP_MAIN_GAME_<lang> packs = 60, holding 384 AsteroidGroup_* records in total. Each object has 4 or 7 groups (12 objects with 4, 48 with 7). Every group record carries exactly three fields, present on all 384 with no partials:

field	distinct values	what it is
AsteroidModelName	28	the mesh — mob_n050…mob_n056 (24 uses each) and mob_n040…mob_n043 (18 each)
AsteroidFrameName	64	Frame_S<NN>[_pN]_Asteroid_NN — the placement frame
EnumAsteroid	37	a count, 1 … 588; 6 633 asteroids per pack summed

Frame_S<NN>_Asteroid is the same name regn-map-grid reports the mission Route tables showing independently — the frame is the join to the map data.

✅ Enum<Thing> is a count; Enumerate<Thing> names a table

EnumAsteroidGroup equals the number of AsteroidGroup_* records in its own object in 54 of 60 objects, and EnumAsteroid is a plain integer. That is the opposite of the Enumerate* convention, where the value is a child table's file name. The -erate is the difference, and it is worth checking the spelling before assuming which kind a field is.

⚠️ Count-style fields still are not safe: the 6 failures are one object, repeated once per language pack — it declares 4 and contains 7.

🔑 The tenth object is unreferenced, and it is the one that miscounts

Joining the ten objects to the nine AsteroidDefinition values by frame prefix:

object's frame prefix	groups	declared	named by
Frame_S01_Asteroid	4	4	S01_asteroid.tbl
Frame_S04/S05/S13/S14_p1/S14_p2/S08_p1/S08_p2_Asteroid	7	7	the matching SNN[_pN]_asteroid.tbl
Frame_Test_Asteroid	4	4	test_s8p1_asteroid.tbl
Frame_Alpha_S01_Asteroid + Frame_Alpha_S01_Haze + Frame_TAlpha_S01_Asteroid	7	4	nothing

Nine AsteroidDefinition names, nine matching objects, and a tenth that no phase names — an Alpha Stage-01 variant with its own Haze frames and a TAlpha set. It is also the only object whose declared count is wrong, which is what an abandoned table looks like.

🔑 S28 has an asteroid volume but no asteroid definition

mcol-collision lists nine _AsteroidVolume_wp collision meshes: S01, S04, S05, S08_p1, S08_p2, S13, S14_p1, S14_p2 and S28_p1. The nine AsteroidDefinition values are the same eight stages plus test_s8p1. So the two sets share eight and differ by one each: S28_p1 has the collision volume for an asteroid field but no table saying which rocks to scatter in it, while test_s8p1 has a table with no volume of its own.

🟡 Not settled

• What EnumAsteroid counts of — instances per frame is the obvious reading and the 1…588 range fits, but it is untested.
• Why S28_p1 has a volume and no definition (S28 is the challenge mission that alone flies rou_f004, see stage-numbering-and-player-craft).
• 🔴 The name→object join did not reproduce by hash. AsteroidDefinition values do not map to their objects' pak entry keys under name_hash, nor under that key reduced mod 0x00FFF9D7 or masked to 24 bits — the join above is by frame prefix, which is direct. Either these keys are not name hashes or archive-naming's resolver differs from unitgroup.name_hash; not chased.