AVE's Apoc Weapon Editor

[AVE]

But a slightly more powerful editor might be useful (a Windows compatible one, preferably with at least a basic GUI) - not just damage, fire rate, accuracy, clip count and damage type, but  maybe what ammo a weapon uses, or whether it auto-recharges, etc. etc.

If someone will supply me with ufo2p.exe weapon|vehicle|armour offsets & format structures (I have already tried to hexedit ufo2p for marsec armour values to 100 - but they displays ingame as damaged to their normal values, ie 32/100, etc, so now I know that my changes were incomplete), i'll try to make in an editor for your Windows fans.

[j'ordos]

Here's what I've found out so far, hope it's somewhat clear... Don't have troop armour&weapons though (only vehicle armour&weapons)

craft data only shows one example (Police hovercar), but it's easy to find the others from there, if not, you have to jump down/up 128 (decimal) each time, IIRC.

hexa.txt

Edited October 21, 2005 by j'ordos

[AVE]

Here's what I've found out so far, hope it's somewhat clear... Don't have troop armour&weapons though (only vehicle armour&weapons)

craft data only shows one example (Police hovercar), but it's easy to find the others from there, if not, you have to jump down/up 128 (decimal) each time, IIRC.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks. Starting to work, sooner or later.

[some time later] Seems like it is a piece of more complete doc. J'ordos, it's your work, or you have got it from somewere? If yours, respects for your documentation creation skills.

Edited June 25, 2005 by AVE

[j'ordos]

Yeah, it's mine, as I tend to lose interest after a while and when I come back later, I have forgotten a great deal about it, so i decided to write it all down

Good luck with the editor, perhaps someone like NKF knows the troop armour/weapons stuff...

Edited June 25, 2005 by j'ordos

[[NKF]]

I've not really begun to dig through the Apocalypse save files, so I wouldn't be able to help much in this effort. Mostly my reluctance in exploring the save file (and other related files) is because it's so large and because I don't know if any of the offsets will remain where they're meant to be if the file grows or shrinks in size (I'm assuming they're using some form of dynamic memory allocation for some parts of the file, like the soldiers and equipment... unless I'm wrong and it's just your good old static fixed sized tables). As for other data like the weapon information, I haven't a clue where that's stored.

 

Mind you, I wouldn't mind seeing a proper game editor up and running. Overkill works to an extent - it certainly lacks in quite a number of areas.

 

I've got an idea why overkill doesn't work too well on most PCs - and I think it has something to do with the fancy non-standard way it manipulates the text mode screen resolution. While it may works fine on some computers with certain setups, a lot of other computers just cannot handle it so they lock up. At least, that seems to be the case for my PC.

 

- NKF

Edited June 25, 2005 by NKF

[Exo2000]

It should work with DOSBox, NKF. That's how I managed to get it to work.

 

Midnight isn't too shabby, but it only does prices, soldiers and stuffs.

 

EDIT: Kersplit!

Edited June 26, 2005 by Exo2000

[AVE]

Here's what I've found out so far, hope it's somewhat clear... Don't have troop armour&weapons though (only vehicle armour&weapons)

craft data only shows one example (Police hovercar), but it's easy to find the others from there, if not, you have to jump down/up 128 (decimal) each time, IIRC.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Progress:

After working w/hexa.txt I have nearly complete viewer now.

Implemented:

1. Manufacturing data. (Notes: Lab size req - WORD! Record is 1 byte longer) Correct information displayed only for Dimension probe-Annihilator.

2. Craft data. It is correct from Alien probe till Griffon AFV. Not 128 bytes, sizeof() instead.

3. Economics ("market") data. Correct only for items which actually appears in buy/sell dialog.

Not implemented yet (not enough time, sorry):

Weapon data. (1st record of part 1 is quite confusing - offset probably?)

Equipment/slots layout.

-----

Sorry, as it is not complete, I will not distribute it in this form.

Edited June 27, 2005 by AVE

[j'ordos]

Hmm, I wonder why they made the lab size requirement a word... Were they planning on having more than 255 different lab sizes or what?

 

just checked it, you actually had to jump 126, not 128 :Blush:

Below the griffon AFV is the overspawn btw., or do you mean it is not correct?

 

No idea how the game calculates the first record of weapon data, but you don't really need it for the editor to function anyway

 

edit : how do you mean the economics are only correct for purchasable items? As far as I understand it, they simply have a '00' for stock increase and available from week... ?

Edited June 27, 2005 by j'ordos

[AVE]

All right, at least a version I can release.

All complete.

Craft information has 4 tabs: Combat, Layout, Manufacturing, Market.

If you cannot see the tab, then for this craft it is disabled for various reasons (mostly because data is incorrect there).

For craft equipment editing there is only one tab. Weapons have more data to edit, other equipment - only some of it.

Post questions, bugreports, other data structures to implement.

P.S. Ahh, place it into apoc main dir, otherwise it will not work.

xcom3edit.exe

Edited July 26, 2005 by AVE

[Mzuz]

How did you get it to run well on DosBox? I tried messing with the speed a great deal, but the game always seems to be extremely slow. Edited July 26, 2005 by Mzuz

[AVE]

How did you get it to run well on DosBox? I tried messing with the speed a great deal, but the game always seems to be extremely slow.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It runs just fine on my 900Mhz Celeron on XPsp1. I disabled sound, used mouse speedup program (game downloaded from theunderdogs).

Try to run it on VMware.

[j'ordos]

Looks good so far

Noticed you don't have much data for the craft equipment (non weapons I mean), I have not yet put it in the text document, but if you go to address 18B5AC, you'll have the SD Standard's power, and a little further is it's top speed. Then the next engines, road engines, weapons control (percentage shown ingame is actually 100 minus the value listed there), cargo/passenger/bio modules, etc...

[AVE]

Noticed you don't have much data for the craft equipment (non weapons I mean), I have not yet put it in the text document, but if you go to address 18B5AC, you'll have the SD Standard's power, and a little further is it's top speed. Then the next engines, road engines, weapons control (percentage shown ingame is actually 100 minus the value listed there), cargo/passenger/bio modules, etc...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ouch. Why Apoc programmers don't make all data unified for all craft equipment (a common struct or such else)? And why they don't make them all fit into one large chunk of data? Piece here, piece there... It would be much easy to make an editor in such a way...

Anyway, thanks for the info. Also, some bugs were found, will be updated when I'll add more of the equipment editing.

[j'ordos]

I noticed that the 'chance to hit' value is still hex, instead of decimal. Why did you make it impossible to alter that in the editor btw? (and many other values too)

[AVE]

I noticed that the 'chance to hit' value is still hex, instead of decimal. Why did you make it impossible to alter that in the editor btw? (and many other values too)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most of the values that are displayed in read-only mode (ie no edit fields) because changing them I fear have no effect in game. Manufacturer is the one. Also I was too lazy to add combobox for it.

But ECM (chance-to-hit) value unchangeable... Its a bug, of course. Forgot to add edit field. Will fix soon, thanks.

[j'ordos]

Yeah, makes sense

Perhaps the score field could be useful to edit too though, and it doesn't require a combobox. (you also forgot to add a space between the ":" and the value )

Also, in what way are the market values for craft you normally can't buy incorrect? In the megapol savegame I could edit them without problems...

edit : what about a separate manufacture tab, where you can also edit what is being produced? (although that would probably mean figuring out what value gives what item first )

Edited August 5, 2005 by j'ordos

[AVE]

Yeah, makes sense

Perhaps the score field could be useful to edit too though, and it doesn't require a combobox. (you also forgot to add a space between the ":" and the value )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, agreed. Combobox for manufacturer will be added too, it is not so difficult as it seems at first sight.

Also, in what way are the market values for craft you normally can't buy incorrect? In the megapol savegame I could edit them without problems...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Savegame? I'm editing ufo2p.exe

Hmm... For some craft it IS incorrect, can't say more about it. OK, will be enabled in next release for craft from police hovercar till griffon. Don't forget to say which values are incorrect then, OK?

edit : what about a separate manufacture tab, where you can also edit what is being produced? (although that would probably mean figuring out what value gives what item first )

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The list for manufacturing is pretty much filled. Actually you can add new item to manufacture only by REPLACING one of the items in list. So, if it is enough, I'll think about it.

[[NKF]]

I take it some of the changes you've introduced don't appear to do anything to the game, right? Well, here's some food for thought.

 

The fact that some game information is stored in the individual savegames also means that these values have to be initialised by something before they can be written to a savegame, right? There's no doubt that they originate in the executables.

 

So if you make changes but don't see any of the changes when you load one of your test savegames, it very well could be that you're not seeing them because the game's obtaining values from the savegame rather than using what's in the executables. To actually see the changes, you'd have to start a brand new game.

 

If you can identify the stats that get stored into a savegame, you may want to mark them as requiring the player to start a brand new campign for them to take effect - or to run an update procedure on some or all of the savegames on the hard disk.

 

- NKF

Edited August 5, 2005 by NKF

[j'ordos]

Yeah, market values and already existing vehicles are not altered in the savegame by editing the exe, that could be it

 

IIRC UFOs have a 'market' list too, can't remember, but it makes sense at least, if you can add them in the buy list using the midnight editor.

 

There is one item in the manufacture list that can be replaced without problems, the no longer used Dimension Destabilizer.

It was quite a letdown when I found out you couldn't ADD manufacturable items

Edited January 24, 2006 by j'ordos

[[NKF]]

The dimension destabiliser ... I love that thing. No damage, but it rips shields to bits in seconds. But I guess that's just an odd side-effect of how the weapon's set up in the data files.

 

There's also the psi grenade, which does nothing and a few of the other unused items that could be salvaged and turned into something useful. Not all of them will appear, but if you can get them on the manufacture list or the market purchase list, then you'll have something going there.

 

- NKF

[[Blehm 98]]

NKF, use the psi grenade on Micronoid or Psimorphs, and watch the effect

 

Oh lets see, i used to give myself alien gas grenades too, just because the game was hard and i wanted fun

[j'ordos]

The dimension destabiliser ... I love that thing. No damage, but it rips shields to bits in seconds. But I guess that's just an odd side-effect of how the weapon's set up in the data files.

 

There's also the psi grenade, which does nothing and a few of the other unused items that could be salvaged and turned into something useful. Not all of them will appear, but if you can get them on the manufacture list or the market purchase list, then you'll have something going there.

 

- NKF

Getting them on the market is possible I think, but there is only manufacturing data provided for the dimension destabilizer, not for the other unused items. Dimension destabilizer was probably the only one of the bunch that was manufacturable by xcom.

Edited August 5, 2005 by j'ordos

[Exo2000]

The Psinade supposedly drains 20~ Psi Energy.

 

0 Psi Energy = Temp Stun.

 

 

Has anyone tried the web gun thing? It doesn't stun an enemy, but it forces them to stand still.

Edited August 7, 2005 by Exo2000

[j'ordos]

Hey AVE, if you're still working on this, I updated the hexa.txt file, now has some information on the research part of xcom apoc, and I found out what value gives what item in the manufacturing part

[j'ordos]

Still hoping AVE'll someday continue to work on this editor, I updated hexa.txt again

[AVE]

Still hoping AVE'll someday continue to work on this editor, I updated hexa.txt again

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Real life issues. I WILL continue to work on this project when I have more time, I promise! May be in the last half of the next month...

[AVE]

No time, sorry.

Anyone interested in sourcecode? Delphi7, very few comments.