The Drunken Lizard Pub

Cliché, "to each his own."

If you think of your country as "free" then the use of cheats in games is a matter of free choice.

Some gamers, like me, like cheats. If you do not, fine, no gripe.

Having cheats in any game does not mean you have to use them. But for others (IMO) cheats should be an option.

You are free to play games your way, I should be able to play games my way

Yep, but it also means that people should be free to produce games with no cheats in. Or even cheatproof games (if they can manage it). The trouble with cheats is the same as the trouble with drugs - weak willed people who'd prefer 'not to' get sucked in anyway because 'they are there'.

What is the point of playing games (e.g. patience) when you cheat so you can't lose??

There is a possibility in the game, that you can save during the fights... and with a little patience, you can win every fights, if you just reload when missing a target, the reload is quick. But this also ruins the game, imho.

"Cheating" is simple.

1) Pick a value to change.
2) Save the game.
3) Change only that value and as little else as possible.
4) Save in another slot.
5) Backup both saves. (just in case)
6) Open both of the char files in the save game folders with a hex editor.
7) Do a byte comparison on the two files and examine areas of change.
Look for a change that matches what you did.
9) Edit that byte to whatever you want. (Don't forget about little endian on Intel processors, although that probably won't matter for anything except gold and exp maybe since everything else should be less than 256)
10) Save that file and reload.


I used this to "fix it" when I had just spent 3 skill points to learn a skill right before finding a guy to teach it.
I also like using this to try a different character type without rerstarting since I don't have time to replay games.
Also your inventory is stored in the save game and can be edited. To the guy who said it would be hard to edit in new spell scrolls, I seriously doubt it is. Just find a scroll in your inventory and look for an obvious byte referencing a spell. Eveything else I've looked at in the save file has been extremely straight forward and easy to mess with. (Unless I'm wrong and it really is obfuscated for some reason. But I had no trouble modding the stats on a weapon.)

A few decimal byte offsets:

attributes:

strength- 50
dexterity- 54
endurance- 58
speed- 62
intelligence- 66
wisdom- 70
perception- 74
concentration- 78


skills:

arcane, divination- 86
arcane, elemental- 90
armor, light- 94
cartography- 106
meditation- 122
pick locks- 136
spot hidden- 142
weapons, swords- 170

Max HP- 178
Max MP- 182
Current HP- 186
Current MP- 190

EXP- 194

Resistences- not stored (dynamically calculated)

The save file starts with your character name, so these offsets might change if you character name is longer. But I doubt it since a quick look seems to say it has a fixed-width string buffer.

Also, skills seem to be stored in the order they list in game dialogs, so I'm sure you can figure out the other offsets keeping in mind 4-byte ints.

Note to self: Encrypt any and all data files in games.

Yikes!

Josia wrote:Note to self: Encrypt any and all data files in games.

Yikes!

Why? So your paying customers don't play your single-player game in a way you don't want them too.

Well I finished the game and made a super char to run around and test maps and other stuff - one of the side effects of making this super char is that when I go and buy from shops THEY pay me to take the goods funny really

Looking at save game and items.

A9 = 0.0 lbs
B9 = 0.1 lbs
C9 = 0.2 lbs
D3 = 0.3 lbs - potions

also found value of items and stack amount but don't think I could post a hex sheet here

Iane wrote:Looking at save game and items.

A9 = 0.0 lbs
B9 = 0.1 lbs
C9 = 0.2 lbs
D3 = 0.3 lbs - potions

also found value of items and stack amount but don't think I could post a hex sheet here

Sort of... Look up the IEEE standard for 32-bit float storage for info on the item weights. Although a "guess and check" and gathering approach would work too.
I think weights are the only relevant non-int things stored. (It's also possible that he's storing a reference into a table somewhere in the code instead of an actual float to prevent rounding errors. I haven't taken a close look at it.)

to each his own and all that IMO this doesn't belong on the official boards :/

Rollor wrote:to each his own and all that IMO this doesn't belong on the official boards :/

Quick question: what kind of content would you expect to find in a thread called "Cheats?"
I think it's actually a bit refreshing to be able to talk about stuff like this without the "everything is fine / nothing is broken / do not discuss that pink elephant" policies of most bigger dev company boards.

As long as no internal game information is being posted (such as charts or item lists) then I don't mind. Most people don't know how to use hex editors and if you want to risk corrupting your saved games to get a few stat boosts, that is your choice.

You cannot use a hex editor on the main executable or any other file that is part of the initial installation. That would be in violation of the license that you agreed to when you installed the game.

BasiliskWrangler wrote:As long as no internal game information is being posted (such as charts or item lists) then I don't mind. Most people don't know how to use hex editors and if you want to risk corrupting your saved games to get a few stat boosts, that is your choice.

You cannot use a hex editor on the main executable or any other file that is part of the initial installation. That would be in violation of the license that you agreed to when you installed the game.

So no modding then?

Book I was never designed to be modded. Many aspects of the game are hardwired into the engine, and the scripting system is not flexible enough for public use.

I will work to make sure Book II is more flexible in terms of modding.

I haven't looked that closely at the game itself, only the save files. What I meant was that modding any data files and distributing them would be frowned upon? I was thinking of how the BG 1 modding scene got started.