Hex Editor on SE IV?

[GeorgiaBoy]

Has anybody used a hex editor on se4.exe for the following reasons:

1) Increase system limit beyond 255
2) When planets are in the same square as a star, the star will always appear on the top.

There are several Hex saavy folks at the BotF forums...I was wondering if the same was true here...

Thanks,

GB

[Captain Kwok]

Nobody I know of has attempting hex editing of SE:IV.

[GeorgiaBoy]

Nobody I know of has attempting hex editing of SE:IV.


Surprising, considering the amount of technical expertise in the SE IV world...It may spark new interest in the game, like it has with BotF.

Thank you very much, SJ.

GB

[Captain Kwok]

Most of SE:IV's settings are easily accessible in text data files, so the the need to hex edit the .exe hasn't really come up too often.

[Arralen]

There are several Hex saavy folks at the BotF forums...
Just curious, and I case I find my BotF CD again ;) - which forum ?
Thanks

[GeorgiaBoy]

There are several Hex saavy folks at the BotF forums...
Just curious, and I case I find my BotF CD again ;) - which forum ?
Thanks

Hi Arralen:

http://www.armadafleetcommand.com/botf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=index

A lot of activity lately. They have increased the map size greatly, introduced an editor...The primary riddle now is increasing the number of minors...

GB

P.S. I still would like to edit the SE IV map so that the stars always appear on top when stacking planets and a star on the same square...

[Fyron]

Try reversing the order you place the objects in the data file.

[GeorgiaBoy]

Try reversing the order you place the objects in the data file.

Thanks Fyron, but no luck.

Has ANYBODY succeeded in doing this (doubtful)?

GB

[Urendi Maleldil]

I would love to see someone crack open the SEIV.exe. Maybe we can get an unofficial patch to fix some bugs and add more abilities for modders. Maybe we could have a game with *gasp* more than 20 empires.

[GeorgiaBoy]

I would love to see someone crack open the SEIV.exe. Maybe we can get an unofficial patch to fix some bugs and add more abilities for modders. Maybe we could have a game with *gasp* more than 20 empires.

+1. I think Atrocities would love that as well.

So, are there any hex saavy programmers out there who would have an interest? If so, maybe we could formulate a wishlist and find a way for us 'non-hexers' to help out as well...

GB

[Fyron]

Maybe we could have a game with *gasp* more than 20 empires.
I think that might be a rather large undertaking, depending on how exactly Aaron coded the data and the UI. Think programming arrays/lists of data and UIs to fit precisely what is needed, instead of a more flexible and adaptable, if more complex, method. The Scores UI component, for example, has two tabs which show 10 empires each. These are not accessed via next/prev buttons (as on the empires screen), but rather explicitly coded "1-10" and "11-20" buttons. The same sort of thing exists for weapon damage at range tables, and many other places. Increasing the number of empires allowable is probably going to require reworking a large number of code blocks, rather than just toggling some sort of internal limit variable.

[GeorgiaBoy]

Since it may be a difficult task, anybody think of ways to spark interest in the folks who have a background?

GB

[capnq]

crack open the SEIV.exeWhich is probably why no-one who has done it has replied in a public forum.

Everyone whom I know of who did hex-edit the .exe was kicked off the old PBW site for cheating.

I suspect the 255 limit is due to that value being stored as a "short integer". If I'm right, changing that would require decompiling the .exe , not just hex-editing it.

[Urendi Maleldil]

... more than 20 empires.
I think that might be a rather large undertaking, depending on how exactly Aaron coded the data and the UI...

I was part of the SEIV beta, and I remember when Aaron expanded the list to 20 empires. I remember him saying something to the effect that it was a matter of changing a few numbers, although I could be mistaken.

Everyone whom I know of who did hex-edit the .exe was kicked off the old PBW site for cheating.

I'm usually a single-player person, and I didn't even think about cheaters. I don't see it as a problem for simultaneous games, since they're processed by the game host using a single .exe, but round robbin style games might be tricky. Maybe some sort of flag could be set in the turn file if a person is using a modified .exe, but that's pretty advanced.

I just really want to see some bugs squashed and some abilities that were requested but never delivered added in. (I'm big into modding). It would be great to bring some of the modability of SEV to SEIV. Plus as a writer and editor, that spelling mistake in the Vehicle types field (Vechicle) drives me nuts.

I still believe an AI helper program that would run alongside SEIV is possible, though I'm not a programmer, so I don't know how difficult it would be.

[capnq]

Everyone whom I know of who did hex-edit the .exe was kicked off the old PBW site for cheating.I'm usually a single-player person, and I didn't even think about cheaters. I don't see it as a problem for simultaneous games, since they're processed by the game host using a single .exeI can assure you that hex-editing in order to cheat in simultaneous games can be and has been done. (I didn't think it was possible, either, until I saw it happen on PBW.)

[Urendi Maleldil]

I would love to see the restriction of one space yard per planet removed. I'm building a mod right now in which I'd prefer to have a planet's construction rate determined by its level of industrial development. So instead of one big Space Yard facility, I would have multiple "Factory" facilities that only give a small construction rate.

Early in the beta you could build multiple space yards on a planet and it would add to that planet's build queue (rather than give multiple queues as in SEIII). Obviously that's unbalancing since space yards are rather powerful, but if balanced right, I think having many small space yard facilities could work well. The capacity in the .exe is there, we just need to find a way to remove the restriction.

[GeorgiaBoy]

It would be nice to have 1 facility per empire as well as other modifiers...More than 255 systems and 20 players would be a blast. Oh well.

GB

[dumbluck]

I would love to see the restriction of one space yard per planet removed. I'm building a mod right now in which I'd prefer to have a planet's construction rate determined by its level of industrial development. So instead of one big Space Yard facility, I would have multiple "Factory" facilities that only give a small construction rate.

SJ found a way around that in his CB mod. Look at the Legacy Infrastructure. It's an upgrade of a non-SY facility to a SY facility.

[Urendi Maleldil]

Yeah, but that involves the SY upgrade trick, which the AI can't do. It also makes it more complicated for players who are unfamiliar with it.