PHost 3 and later write a file named shipscan.ext during hosting phase 3. This file is generated by PHost but is not otherwise used by PHost. It is meant to benefit add-on programs by indicating which ships were scanned by whom during the current turn. It is a plain-text file with the following format:
- The first line contains the turn number as a decimal integer, a space, and an 18-character time stamp for the current turn. The purpose of this information is to allow add-on programs to check that the shipscan.ext file does indeed correspond to the current turn (the time stamp and turn number should match the information in the lastturn.hst file).
► Note: Note that PHost versions before 4.0k/3.4m write the previous turn number and timestamp to the file, especially the timestamp is useless because it is at that time not stored anywhere else. Since 4.0k/3.4m, PHost uses the same turn number and timestamp as stored in lastturn.hst. In addition, PHost before 4.0 updates lastturn.hst too early, causing the number to be off by two during the host run. - Following the first line is one line per ship slot (i.e. 999 in PHost 4, 500 in PHost 3, independently of the NumShips configuration option). Each of these lines contains two decimal numbers separated by a space.
- The first number is a bitfield of players who see the ship regularly via ScanRange, or via the show command.
- The second number is a bitfield of players who see the ship by means of a ship level alliance granted by the ship owner (or, because he actually is the ship owner).
If a ship does not exist, its line contains 0 0. No existing ship can have a second value of 0.
