20 replies to this topic

[FodderPHPGuru]

Greetings all,

I've started my own windows based editor for XCom UFO defense. The main reason was the love of XCom and not being able to spend 2 weeks building even a marginal team to assault bases. I looked on the web and founds a ton of info on some of the files that make up a saved game. I deal with binary files in my job, so it was easy to modify one of my classes to read the soldier.dat file. That is when it became fun. In order to get the correct craft name the soldier was on, I had to reference 2 other files. So now I have a nice start to a saved game editor that handles soldiers. I have view to Bases, Locations and Crafts as well. For example the base listview shows a total of soldiers/crafts as well as the stock engineer/scientist count.

My intention now is to create a "Mother of All Battles" saved game that will allow even us 'cheaters' to enjoy a worthwhile challenge.

If there is any interest still out there for xcom editors.... please let me know, and I'll post the application here.

XCom UFO Defense is a timeless classic, and I hope to let my son play some day.[B]

Edited by FodderPHPGuru, 22 January 2006 - 10:01 PM.

[FodderPHPGuru]

A sneak peek!

Follow this link to the first screenshots of this ufo defense editor. Even the original game didn't have drag & drop base editor!

Edited by FodderPHPGuru, 22 January 2006 - 09:58 PM.

[j'ordos]

Looks great! Could it be the hangar graphic has a slight error? Or is it due to low quality pictures?

[ccarter1024]

Looks pretty sweet. Are you ever gonna finish it?

[Zombie]

Don't know. I had the privilege of talking to FodderPHPGuru last year and he seemed resistant to release his editor to the public saying something like he didn't think it was "polished" enough. That's too bad, as this editor really showed some promise.

- Zombie

[FodderPHPGuru]

I lost the code due to a hardware failure after we talked. I did restart the project under the newer .NET release and got far enough to manage my own saved games. If there is still interest I will polish it up and publish it.

[Zombie]

Of course! I'm still interested. Can't speak for anyone else here, but anything you have right now is probably better than what is out there. Looking forward to taking this out for a spin. Keep us informed on your progress!

- Zombie

[FodderPHPGuru]

I've got Saved Games, Bases, Facilities, Facility Items, Soldiers working in a view state.

I want to add diplomacy, then be able to save the edits and then I'll be ready for some alpha testers.

The last part I got working was figuring out which base and ship the soldier was on. I disabled the ability to change which ship soldier was on since there will have to be alot of logic surrounding that. But having the CountIndex right on the ship was something that I hadn't seen on any other editor so far, so I was happy with that.

I'm hoping your willing to be first Alpha tester. I did the latest in .NET 2.0 so I'm hoping you have that framework installed?

Edited by FodderPHPGuru, 04 November 2007 - 10:31 AM.

[Zombie]

Great news!

IIRC, I only have .NET v1.0. I tried updating to v2.0 but my computer wouldn't let me for some reason. I'll have to try again though, I really need to have it installed for other applications which require it.

Edit: I remember why my computer wouldn't let me install .NET v2.0 - I needed XP Service Pack 2. And in order to install SP2 I needed Internet Explorer 5 or later (Only had 4 since it's not a secure browser). Tried to install IE7 but apparently that is only for SP2 users. I sat there for a while trying to figure out my options and decided that IE6 should work. It did. Then I spent 5 hours downloading and installing all the missed updates for windows. Think I still need to install SP2 yet, but at least I'll be up to date. Hopefully nothing will get screwed in the update!

- Zombie

Edited by Zombie, 05 November 2007 - 08:20 AM.

[FodderPHPGuru]

Oh man, you'll be cussing me out if your computer gets messed up. But SP2 is a good thing if your running XP so you will be better off if it works.

[FodderPHPGuru]

I have the editor working in a viewstate only mode... (no saving)

but the UI is done and does about 75% of what I would consider enough to play with.

Are you ready to try it? I'll start working on the saving, my son is bugging me to finish it.

Edited by FodderPHPGuru, 23 November 2007 - 05:27 PM.

[Zombie]

Upgrading to XP SP2 this week (professionally installed of course to eliminate problems) and then the .NET framework v2.0. Will let you know when that is finished.

- Zombie

[FodderPHPGuru]

Great news... I got 80% of the saving working. Specifically Money, Saved Game name, Base Facilities, Base Items, Soldiers, Diplomacy working. There is a bug in the base items I am trying to figure out. But we are close.

[FodderPHPGuru]

I thought the bug was in base.dat, it is in diplom.dat. Thank you WinDiff. I don't know what the problem is, but I am closer than I thought!

[zyxpsilon]

Bump!

Release this gem already... i've been looking for such a device for years and i think i just found what i need.
I'll be honest when i say that i am actively developping a full-blast mod of all things X-Com (UFOD/TFTD/APOC) for another game you people may know; Galactic Civilization 2 (Dark Avatar & Twilight of the Arnor expansions included).
Please visit here ( GalCiv2 ) for a quick glance at the X-Worlds thread(s) in the modding section and even take out the library zips to get an idea of what i'm talkin' about.
There's also the cEvo ( an open-source adaptation of Sid Meier's Civ by a germany coder, Steffen Gerlach) package deal of a similar mod while i think about it... visit my personal site here ( XWorlds for cEvo ) to figure what work has been done over the years about this one also.

And, since i will need all the editing powerhouse i can get my hands on (to actually do some snaps from dosbox sessions) your stuff may be helpful to me. XComUtil is all good and nice, but since it must be run in a box too and does major changes to default dat files without my better knowledge, i'd rather have a better and more recent utility.
Mind you, i do have all Daishiva's and plenty more 'tools' i was able to find over the years - but, there's nothing like the latest **working & sturdy** gizmos to enhance the entire X-Com experience.
Just knowing Cydonia's Fall may very well become a reality soon, as i have heard lately, is enough to bring my spirit right back up about this franchise.

So, please - again! Compile your work and give it to us for testing at least.

Thanks,

(PS; one thing i really would like to have or be told how to... is a quick way to edit anything to enforce a base attack by Aliens when & where i want to... cuz i'd rather fiddle with these as i wish - easily! Up for such a challenge, anyone?)

- Zyxpsilon.

[FodderPHPGuru]

ok, ok

I've been working on a drag and drop for the base tab.

I'll change it over to standard editing and release it to Alpha

Actually once I got the soldier and money editing I had what I needed.

But it is very cool. I took a swipe at diplomacy as well, but it doesn't work right yet.

[zyxpsilon]

...But it is very cool. I took a swipe at diplomacy as well, but it doesn't work right yet.

Go right ahead and use as much "time" as necessary to properly do your stuff - i can wait & certainly will!
It's just that as soon as i can work with a new X-Com editor (XP, ready - that is!) the more progress i can do on the GC mod without having to run through some DOS pains and relatively 'unstable' other progs. No offense to anyone, btw.

- Zyxpsilon.

Edited by zyxpsilon, 17 March 2008 - 10:33 AM.

[zyxpsilon]

Oh... well, It looks like i might have to consider this project abandoned (yet another!) for good as there hasn't been any activities for months. Too bad, it seemed promising.

[Encha]

did youre editor ever get finished Fodder

[FodderPHPGuru]

did youre editor ever get finished Fodder

Like I said... didn't seem like alot of interest... I got all the way to base editing and stopped... I'll dig up the code and see where it is at.