Saved Game Editing

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sixfourfour
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Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Hi,

I'm very sorry to ask this, but I'm working my characters up in the usual way, but you know, that takes yonks and yonks. Lovely work.It's great to explore and stuff, but I'd just like to be able to pump their levels up a wee bit, to save me hours of my life clicking buttons. I have already spent many an hour. :) Loving it, for sure, but is there a quick way?

The files, it would seem, are RTC_V049\Modules\ and are *.SV? files?

Is there an editor for these?
Do these contain the information I need?
Am I on the right track?
Where is the FAQ?
Am I being a dumb ass?

I just want to pump my << Level Wizard up a few and increase my fighting skills. Slash, hack, screemer regeneration room :)

Thanks for your time folks, and for any replies


Peace,
Dunk

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beowuuf
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by beowuuf »

You can't easily edit the saved game file for RTC, they were deliberately designed to not be edited I'm afraid. Though that is the saved game file.

The easiest way to start with powerful characters is to edit the original .txt file that is supplied with RTC, using the RTCEditor. You can create new characters using one of the drop down menus, and then after that, edit one of the mirrors to include your more powerful character.

If you are at the worm room, restarting with powerful characters will mean nothing - you can probably just fireball through all the threats.

I would personally say don't sweat your levels, and just fight through the dungeon using your skills and the items you find around!


Anyway, welcome to the forums!
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Hey :)

Thanks for the reply. Interesting take on things. I was just about to set about two similar files with a hex editor and hope that our good friend did not copy the CRC check that was in the original file ( or seemed to be when I was tinkering with it back then ).

I take your point about starting with good characters, and just going through. I've been down to level 9 and the green gem and now i'm back at level 4 just sitting with worm regeneration and a water supply. You may have a very good point about the levels though. :)

Again, thanks, and I'm sorry that there is no character editor for the save game. Boo :) I'll happily write one, if there is a call for it, in any language you folks are using. Just give me the file format :)

Thanks for the welcome. I love it that there are a few hundred crazy folks on this planet willing to play / develop this game :)

Cheers,
Dunk
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

(( Return To Chaos Comment, I should have added before ))

If my initial look at the save game is correct, then it seems that our good friend uses a crypto algorithm ( of some sort ) to dump out the data, as opposed to just raw data, as between two very similar saves ( in time ) every single byte had changed, aside from a handful! :) Thanks G :/

Boo..Back to throwing away all my time to date, editing the dungeon and starting again. For sure, i'd walk it, but pah :P

Happy hacking folks:)
Dunk
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beowuuf
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by beowuuf »

Well your mistake is not to stay on level 9. Deeper level means better experience gain. There is a fountain with rats nearby at the very end and is the default training area for most people nearer the end of the game
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by Gambit37 »

The deeper levels experience multiplier doesn't apply in RTC, as far as I'm aware. At least, there's no way of setting one in the editor.

@SixFourFour: Welcome to our little corner of web madness! You won't be able to get a file format for RTC save games as it's closed source and the developer is no longer working on the project.

I'll move this post to the RTC forums as it's more relevant there.
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Ah, I see. My mistook :) I'll head back down there then and feast on Rats :) Thank you again :)
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Tis a shame, for sure, that the cat didn't release it under the GPL. I have in mind an internet version, where each human takes two characters. The "remote" client only sends in events about control / interactions, the "server" does the game world and send the results back. I see it as a collaborative effort, but of course, that could be changed. I only see time as being an issue, like, if one party wants to go to sleep. Does G still hang around these parts? I'd love to undertake the programming task.

Adventure Update: I've found the Skeleton Key for level 9 and broken out into the stair case. No idea what to do next:) I'll sort it:)

Cheers folks, and sorry for posting in the wrong place the first time.
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beowuuf
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by beowuuf »

Partially because it had propriotarial code in it that was linked to commercial stuff he did, and partially just the desire of a creator to control their own creation. He occasionally lurks, but is too busy with real life to even look to releasing a new version, let along collaborate on a completely different version I'm afraid.

There are plenty of other clones (2D and 3D) that are currently being tinkered with, perhaps you could look into those. The clone forum is all the way down at the bottom.

I'll also put this into the RTC General forum in the next day or so to keep it closer to GG seeing it.


Edit: And good luck going deeper!

The skeleton keys give you cool short cuts to come back upstairs for various reasons (like that fountain room) but the main stairs are one closer.

Funny you being at that exact area, I'm running a PbP D&D game right now based on DM, and the party are actually at that area! Although it's a little bit different these days for them...
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Ah, you are a real Dungeon Master. Hats off. Shame that George can't find a way to cleave the open source-able bits from the closed ones. Could be a nice project. Of all the clones I've seen so far, this one looks the best. There is one other one that I've my eye on, so we'll see what happens. I like the work that Sophia<sp> is doing. Hack on dude :) Peace.
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by beowuuf »

Yeah, sophia's is going strong in the 2D realm.
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Gambit37
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by Gambit37 »

NOTE: I've moved the open-source discussion to its own thread: Releasing RTC source code / future of RTC.
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zoom
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by zoom »

you can cheat with "cheat engine" it messes around with values stored in memory.
Easy to let hp stay the way they are, or get str up etc.
don´t know if that is what you are searching for...
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Zoom, that's an interesting program. Made me think of attaching Visual Studio to the process and debugging it there. I got access to the assembler that way. Very good. Still, i did not hack it in the end. I just played it till i completed it. And I just did that!!! Nice! Never done that before. Great game. Took me 22 hours of play time! LOL I know folks can do it in an hour! LOL I was just taking my time. Had a few days to kill :)

Does anyone know how to get the statistics again? Those rock :) Good work GG.

Peace,
Dunk
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beowuuf
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by beowuuf »

Congratulations! If you want a real challenge, dump those characters into the CSB dungeon now :)
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Thanks! :) And WOW. I just logged on to ask that very question...How does one do that?! I love the idea :) Is it possible with RTC?
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beowuuf
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by beowuuf »

Of course. Load up RTC, choose the CSB dungeon. At the front entrance, click on the scroll at the bottom. One of the options should be 'make new adventure'. You follow it through from there, choosing the characters from your DM saves

At leats, that's the way I remember it!
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

My goodness. That is so very exciting! Thanks. You're a star. And such a quick response. I was hoping to get some AJAX programming in before you got back to me...but now...pah...off down the Dungeon to eat some Dragons :)

Again, many thanks :)
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Zoom,

I cracked open CE for the sheer fun of it. ( I realise that there are MUCH easier ways to get status up in RTC ). It's a great tool. It's more a cracking tool, I'd say, than just a cheat engine, but it can be used any way.

I found out that the values for health, mana etc are stored as 32Bit Integers which are multiplied by 10 from the actual value. So if your health is 200, then the integer will be in the range 2000 to 2009. As far as I can work out, the single digit is used as some sort of "in between level" business". Either way, wherever you find Health, Mana and Stamina, there are 8 consecutive bytes in memory: the first 4 are the current value and the next 4 are the "max" value. Set the bytes to 06 27 00 00 06 27 00 00 if you want to have 999/999 for those three stats. It so happens that Health, Stamina and Mana are also all stored consecutively, so you can just paste

06 27 00 00 06 27 00 00
06 27 00 00 06 27 00 00
06 27 00 00 06 27 00 00

Over the 24 bytes you find.

All this messing on saves "hacking" the save file, as all you do is "Press Save" and the data becomes part of the perm record :)

Thanks for the info, one and all.
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zoom
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by zoom »

Dunk
then all is good, except that you are now a cheater!! ;)
initially sophia pointed me to cheat engine (great find, thanks again).
I also enjoy sometimes messing with saves..
interesting info, I never thought about modifying several values at once.
never occured to me that data written into memory is very similar to savegames'.


Cheating should not be made a habit. I believe it is somewhat deprecated or frowned upon and not without reason .
I hope the maxed out stats do not spoil the game experience for you too much, dungeon master is a great game after all.
sixfourfour
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Re: Saved Game Editing

Post by sixfourfour »

Aye, well, one persons cheating is another persons tinkering with bytes and words and op codes and stuff :) I will share with you what I know so far:

When you find the offset for the "Live Health" Stat ( Per Character ), then the following offsets are other points of note. Offsets in decimal, not hex.

Health - Current 0
Health - Max 4
Stamina - Current 8
Stamina - Max 12
Mana – Current 16
Mana – Max 20
Food - Current 92
Water – Current 96

For H,S,M, use 9990 as the "max" and for Food and Water use 38000 as the max. All 32 bit integers.

Of course, you could choose life and choose another way :)

Just spreading the knowledge, in lieu of the source code :D ( that's a whole different discussion )

Peace,
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