Author Topic: Corruptive Hex-Editting Alteration Tactics Immorally Nudging Game  (Read 3036 times)

ThePublicDomain

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So, cheating... EDIT: I'm an idiot and this probably belongs in 'Bugs'. Sorry :( I would consider everything here to be "bugs" as of version 1.13.3 and do recommend them being patched if that kind of active resistance to cheating is desired, and insist that this breaks gameplay and ruins the fun and challenge encouraged by the developers in the balancing of this game. Was told I could make a thread as there's no moral opposition that will stop it, which is good, because problems can't be fixed if they aren't talked about, :)

I've currently been using CheatEngine, which is a staple for many Windows games.

Unrecommended, of course. The amount of times the game has straight-up crashed from these unauthorized value changes are uncountable, not to mention zone transition failures and load failures. And there are hard-level caps so its unwise to max everything since you won't be able to level up... You must spend all available points when you level up, it has no expectation that you may have already selected all the perks or whatever, so you end up stuck.

For full disclosure, the numbers I've manipulated successfully are

- item amounts (eg. forcing a stack of 99999 charons, which does explode into 400 stacks of 250 if you put it into a locker or something)
- available base points, skill points, perk points (most easily done at the player creation)
- base points themselves (can be set to anything but the game only understands a max of 20... forcing the bracketed 20 to anything higher will cause a crash)
- skill points themselves (have not found a "max" but it is roughly 110 or so through normal gameplay. unsure of any effective max limit on the damage bonuses of altered guns, melee, and psi skills but there seems to be none. mercantile seems limitless too; traders ask for at least 20+ of whatever they're looking for if value is 500+)
- ammo loaded into a gun (couldn't figure out for energy). (forcing "10" 7.62 bullets to stay in a gun corrupts those bullets if you remove them, producing question mark items labled as ammo that no gun understands; game crashes soon anyway from this, couldn't survive a screen transition, wouldn't recommend bothering to attempt, this game HATES values being 'forced')
- experience points. didn't test much, could see all sorts of issues possible if you try to level up more than one level, but I made no such attempt. good luck

things I really wanted to screw with but couldn't:
- carry weight. probably possible with some delicate tweaking with strength values but I couldn't get more than 350.
- action points. values didn't follow their marked amount,atleast not for my attempts. did not try with movement points, getting the action points was the intented prize :P
- more of any one object. so no component cloning, still requires trader hunting and a secret wish for some sort of fast travel system, lol
- player speed. if I could figure out how to make sprint last more than 7 seconds...

Most attempts to manipulate the game will cause game problems and you will likely overstep somewhere if you attempt. Highly recommended to play the game as it was intended. Destroying challenges reduces the gravity of you being simply one person. Wiped out Protecterate entirely at Fort Apogee... The bodies in that boxing room... It was insane. Went through with the lucky knife and some hypos. Fun for ten minutes but you may have ruined entire quests (on playthrough attempt #5 now due to triggerhappiness)

Now, I have no idea how to fix these issues, nor am I really capable of any sort of complex brute testing of the game, so I just tried to screw with numbers I could see that can be changed. Smarter script kiddies could likely get farther with effort.

Another interest/hobby is core file manipulation, but I am oblivious to whatever editor would be ideal and that further entrentches into the whole "screwing with someone else's hard work and intellectual property" territory so I, again, haven't really made any earnest effort (gave up when it failed WordPad and a hex editor).

You guys are doing a beautiful thing here. I think I like screwing with RPGs because I'm jealous of those who manage to make them. Fix away, if plausible. :)
« Last Edit: February 23, 2015, 01:23:13 pm by ThePublicDomain »

Styg

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Re: Corruptive Hex-Editting Alteration Tactics Immorally Nudging Game
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2015, 04:25:08 pm »
EDIT: I'm an idiot and this probably belongs in 'Bugs'.

If you manage to "cheat" without using external tools or file manipulation then it should be posted in bugs, for everything else posting it here is fine.

Btw, perhaps I wasn't clear in the other thread - I have no intention of preventing people from cheating using tools, that'd be a giant waste of time, so if you're posting this for my benefit, don't bother. If you're posting it for fun, though, carry on. ;)

DarkChipCoffee

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Re: Corruptive Hex-Editting Alteration Tactics Immorally Nudging Game
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2015, 12:06:12 pm »
Great stream, great experience.