Decoding .rec files

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY - at least to me. Hopefully you all know that .rec files list all the actions and items of you and your opponent. However, what I just noticed (I think) is that each action is only listed once - even if both of you use it. I think the same is true for items. Can anyone back me up on this? It makes it harder than I thought to map out someone's entire setup.

DISCOVERY 2:, and I know some of you know this, but maybe not everyone. You can also read opponent's draw mark and speed rating, round by round.

Is there anything else of use in a .rec file?

Yeah that's true.

ok- Q from a non-programmer:
how do you access your opponents or any .rec file?

I search the gunfighter file in applications (mac). I'm looking for a folder called gunfight that has the .rec files inside. I then ask the finder to list the files by date modified. My last game is now the first .rec file from the top.
Two ways to read the .rec files:
1) open the file with a text edit application.(Mac: Choose other and then find the application on your own).
2) duplicate the file and change the suffix .rec to read .txt on the duplicate, it should then open easily as a text doc.

Good luck getting any info from this, it sure is a mess to try and read.
Listed are the items and actions that both players used but the info is thrown together in a garbled mess of data. I'd only try this if I was super puzzled with the other guy was using.

If someone wants to make a nice post explaining .rec files and how to easily read them I would welcome that post.

Okay...how to decode .rec files:

The first thing of any interest starts with the word "map", after the opening paragraph of gibberish and the players' names. Here you have all the items and actions used in the game, Player 1's listed first and Player 2's second.

Here's an example, in which I'm player 2 (Stanley Goldfarb is Player 1)

r 00010060 map discourse=Taunt,guts_27=Field Surgery,swagger_6=Keen Instincts,acuity_7=Ground Shot,draw=Draw,acuity_29=True Shot,guts_30=Culling the Damned,shoot=Shoot,guts_26=Ornery Cuss,acuity_10=Controlled Quickdraw,acuity_8=Crackerjack,swagger_20=Plain Mean,settle=Settle,swagger_24=Gun Twirl,acuity_4=Dead Eye,swagger_16=Tickling the Iron,acuity_26=Duck Work,reload=Reload,acuity_28=Dog Soldier,guts_28=Horse Hooey,guts_4=Steely Nerve,acuity_13=Methodical,acuity_2=Steady Hand,swagger_15=Peculiar Odor,acuity_19=Fancy Talk,guts_21=Cockeyed,acuity_18=Wily Twist,pistol_bullet_24=No. 7 Express,chaps_44=Hunter's Wings,bandage_12=Field Tourniquet,whiskey_11=Irish Single Malt,shirt_1=Canvas Pullover,pistol_41=Gold-Plated Walker,buckle_44=Show Buckle,whiskey_9=Mule Skinner,boots_77=Skedaddlers,gunbelt_63=Rocky Mountain Holster,hat_81=Shotgun Fedora,gloves_57=Dead Man's Hands,coat_39=Custer's Buckskin,pistol_bullet_20=Splinter Tip Longs,pants_45=Warden Pants,bandage_10=Cotton Napkin,shirt_14=Sturdy Shirt,pistol_34=Buntline Special,tobacco_9=Seegar,boots_79=Slick Boots,spurs_52=Silver Chain Spurs,gunbelt_75=Gold-Dust Holster,hat_49=Evangelina,gloves_53=Skirmish Gloves,eyewear_15=Lustrous Blinkers,coat_16=Rancher's Jacket

I put the bullets in bold because they show the beginning of each player's items listing. Here's the tricky part: no action or item is listed twice, so if you both use it, it only shows up once. If you are player 1 it means it can be especially hard figuring out your opponent's action grid. But hey, here's Stanley's (in italics above):

discourse=Taunt,guts_27=Field Surgery,swagger_6=Keen Instincts,acuity_7=Ground Shot,draw=Draw,acuity_29=True Shot,guts_30=Culling the Damned,shoot=Shoot,guts_26=Ornery Cuss,acuity_10=Controlled Quickdraw,acuity_8=Crackerjack,swagger_20=Plain Mean,settle=Settle,swagger_24=Gun Twirl,acuity_4=Dead Eye,swagger_16=Tickling the Iron,acuity_26=Duck Work,reload=Reload,acuity_28=Dog Soldier

As far as I can tell the actions are listed as they appear on the action grid, left-to-right then top-to-bottom. So all the Guts actions appear first, all the acuity last.
His items are listed from the first bullets to the next bullets.

The next thing that's interesting is the set of lines that looks like this:

r 00022282 player 1 Health=153,Bleed=0,HitPct=74,Energy=55,HasDrawn=0,Stun=0,Knockdown=N,Speed=11,LastAction=whiskey_11,LastActionType=consume
r 00022282 debuff 1
r 00022282 player 2 Health=131,Bleed=0,HitPct=55,Energy=42,HasDrawn=0,Stun=0,Knockdown=N,Speed=18,LastAction=swagger_15,LastActionType=motion
r 00022330 stats Bullets=0-6,DrawMark=55,Consumes=4

Tells you pretty much all you can know from the file. Alas, the line that gives draw mark is only for you, not your opponent.
If someone was bleeding it would give the number of drops. If someone had drawn or was stunned it would make those equal 1, and if knocked down, "Y".

Lines that look like this:

r 00036339 buff 2 guts_21=3
r 00036339 debuff 2
r 00038516 enable guts_26=Y8E,acuity_7=N,guts_28=Y,whiskey_9=Y,bandage_10=Y,tobacco_9=Y
r 00038516 start 5 8
s 00038516 ok start 5 8
s 00043197 action guts_26
r 00043228 okay action guts_26

mean nothing to me. If someone gets any info from them I'd love to know.

Oh, and your chat is listed at the end of the file.

A problem with .rec files (at least on the mac) is that you cannot search the text in them using Spotlight. I like your idea, Jed, of converting them to .txt files because it would make them searchable, so if you wanted to find a fight against a certain person and it was a while ago you could just do a search.
AND...making a little Automator text to do that is easy. If you want the one I just made email me and I'll send it to you - zackbodie@gmail.com