Changing the Unchangeable (EXE and DLL Mods)

LOL! Thanks for your nice comments and actually I´ve already been working on those very things also if you can believe it. I have a bunch of projects I´m working on with FL and tinkering with, with varying degrees of success. I´ve been able to change Console chat into Universe chat. Bypassed the $999,999,999 credit limit. Figured out how to make engines sellable. Figured out a way to fire while cruising (proof-of-concept only since I´m not sure this is desired behavior - my goal is to make some kind of equipment you can mount which could allow this perhaps) Removed reputation restrictions (you can hit 0.91, so you should be able to then become affiliated and get a tag) Created a way to disable F1 while you are in space so players can´t do a char or server switch to evade police/death/tax/etc. Found a way to change NavMap locations (and theoretically add new ones - so you don´t have to have just Bretonia, Rheinland, etc) Found a way to in theory create a dynamic economy (all that´s needed is to code a randomization engine - I already know where the price is loaded when you are viewing a Goods list and how to change it) ..and a lot of other miscellaneous things I´m working at on the side. And ofcourse, the tradelane speed patch in question. I´m not sure if when I release some of these things I should put them in an inclusive sort of "update" or have them separate. Any input you guys have on these things would be great. Thanks! Edited by - Alcander on 6/6/2005 7:42:25 PM

Yes, you helped me on switching the locations of LIBERTY and RHEINLAND on the NavMap, so I can vouch for that at least. While you´re at it, see if you can make such a thing irrelevent by finding a way to plug in "... System, ... Space." And the real crowning acheivment; running into a system with "New Madrid System, Hispania Space." AND have it on the NavMap in the right location. (By the way, Alcander, are you the Freelancer God?) MK *edit* I should warn people; some of this, at least, only comes with modifying the Freelancer.exe file. Edited by - mknote on 6/6/2005 9:46:37 PM

My $0.02 on this... it´s a great idea, you ask me. Have it reference an external .ini for the settings, just exactly as with the other stuff. ie: ENGINES_SELLABLE = true TRADELANE_SPEED = 3000 Etc. mebbe put it in contstants.ini

If you can do these things i will bow at your temple that´s for sure, but for what it´s worth try to make whatever you come up with seperate for each discovery, that way people who want those things in their mods can put them in as opposed to having all the new stuff, maybe someone doesn´t want a dynamic economy (i do lol)

I agree with FriendlyFire what are you...... <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> It will be interesting to see if microsoft step in.....hope not Well done Alcander my hat off to you..... <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

Ahem.. I have said before and will say again.. tampering with the .exe is a no no.. Please be discreet.. Need I say more...? Harrier

Hi! I´m also of the opinion that you should release different small mods, which all have one of these features. So, the modders would not have to isolate the feature they want. For example I´m working on weapons that can fire in cruise speed and also made some progress. However it would be good to know, if you did it the same way and if not, if maybe your solution is a better one. All these features you mentioned were not changeale until now and I think that everyone would really like to know how to change them and would be very grateful for your work. So, just go on and make some mods out of them and if you don´t want this, you caould also write a tutorial. It can be for advanced modders, who know the basics so that it would not be so much work. By the way, don´t you want to try out how to make new hp_types? This is in my opinion the most wanted feature. Just immagine: new weapon classes, extra classes for shield and power upgrades, etc. One other question: If you know how to make engines sellable, do you also know how to make for example powerplants not sellable (like engines until now)? As I said, go on and we all will bow before you! Black Eagle

This is the intellectual property of Microsoft. Don´t draw too much attention to yourself please. That said, please continue. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> This has been coming for a loooooong time. Maybe we should start a petition to get MS/DA to release the source code. That would be AWESOME!!!

Right, it is true that some of this only comes with editing the EXE. But that said, I haven´t released anything yet, so I really don´t think I am not I´m drawing too much attention to myself. I am merely saying what can be done and what I have been able to do. I realize EXE tampering is something that is &quot;taboo&quot;, yet many people have made attempts to find hard-coded things in the EXE and change them, the only thing is they tried to no avail. I just find it funny that discussion of modifying the EXE is ok, but when useful progress is made and it involves the EXE it´s not ok. Please don´t take offense harrier, I´m not trying to start an argument, just pointing out what I´ve noticed. If I can do these things without modifying the EXE, great, but for example making engines sellable is really easy, you change one single hex byte in the EXE and that´s it, - you get a feature everyone´es wanted forever. I´ll work on finding alternate methods, but at this point yes, some of this requires changing the EXE like I said. And no, I´m not releasing any of this unless people want it. And if people don´t want the EXE changed or anything, then I guess I can´t release them. EDIT: To Black Eagle, and yes I have been working on hp_types, most of the data appears to be in Common.dll, i just hope none of it is in the EXE or I guess this feature may never see the light of day either... Edited by - Alcander on 6/7/2005 12:49:01 PM

Hi again! Good to hear that you are working on hp_types. I also once tried it and found out that all the hardpoints are referenced in the common.dll. But even with adding a new one (with the same number of references as the original ones and with replacing gaps in the dll) I was not able to use this. FL started as normal and I could play the game, but the new hardpoint type was not realized by the game. However my understanding of dll editing is very low and therefore I think you might get this to work. In my opinion Common.dll has most (maybe even all) of the data in dlls about these hp_types. However the references in the inis are not really clear to me, as I think that some variables might also be connected to this. I´ts probably not only the hp_type thingy. So, good luck with this!!! One more thing: Even if some of your changes alter the exe couldn´t you just write tutorials about this? Because then others could use this only on their own PC or could also try to find a better solution advancing from the point you came to. Just a thought. Black Eagle

Again thanks for your nice comments. To address your questions: 1) Yes the reputation restriction removal should allow bribes to hit allow factions to hit 0.91 as well. 2) This is an EXE modification I made. If a server used FLCD say they would not have to deal with anyone abusing F1, however otherwise the major limiting factor is that a user could simply choose to use the original Freelancer EXE instead of the modified one and continue to abuse F1. HOWEVER, if say the EXE was modified in such a way to include many improvements/enhancements/etc, the user would have no choice to use the modified EXE if they wanted to access to some of the features listed above.

Well, um... I think you should just write up your methods, and explain where the hex locations are and what you´re altering. Two good reasons: 1. Then the knowledge doesn´t get lost. I dunno how many &quot;leet&quot; things from the early days I´ve had to re-invent and document because the &quot;leet&quot; weren´t sharing information with the FL community. We´d still be unable to make custom weapon models and custom cockpits, for example, unless somebody like me had come along. So, uh... don´t make me have to do that with your stuff too <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> 2. Decisions can be made by game designers about which technical features they´d like to implement. And then they´d have to decide whether to announce that they´d included the features, risking MS´s wrath. Most won´t trumpet that, since TLR would have to refuse to release them, to cover their rears. This ´site lives or dies on their sufference... and if they´ve been paying any attention at all, they know that most major mods used hacked Version Numbers... which means that they´re also using unwrapped EXEs. It´s all tolerated because nobody´s being stupid about it, and the mod scene has kept a trickle of sales going for quite a bit longer than MS probably ever expected. But I think that it would be in your best interests to release these things as methods, not as modded files...

Yes, actually you make a good point Argh. And I don´t care about sharing my information at all, the only fear I have is that upon releasing documentation on what I´m modifying and such that cheaters may abuse such information. For example allowing weapons to be fired while cruising is easy but modders will want to control this. If this information is freely available and anyone with a hex editor can pull up how I did this they could bypass any restrictions the creator(s) of the mod wanted to have. This is my only concern. This is why I was kind of leaning toward creating some kind of standardized system that could be used across all mods and was accessible to modders but didn´t directly reveal what was being done behind the scenes - that is I believe modders would be happier that it worked rather than needing it to work AND know how and why it works. Edited by - Alcander on 6/7/2005 5:38:17 PM

Well, it sounds like some interesting ideas. Personally, i don`t touch the exe. Partly because its considered dodgey and also partly because i`m still pretty inexperienced and would most likely make a mess of it anyway. But, why can´t you buy engines? I`ve added that to my mod ages ago with no problems at all. You can buy them fine, but you can only mount one obviously. The only thing is you can`t transfer engines from one ship to another and if you want to limit the amount of engines used you can remove the engine from the goods package and have engines sold only of that class at the base. The engines need to have volume otherwise a player could buy a light fighter engine (which i`ve made faster) and mount it on to a different ship class. The dynamic economy sounds the most interesting to me, it should have been included in the game from the start anyway. I think you can fire while cruising if you mount weapons onto HpCM mounts but i could be wrong, i think it was a bit unstable. I was thinking more of a rear wasp disruptor to slow down chasing ships..

It wasn´t buying engines that was the problem it was selling them - since they can´t be sold or transferred as you pointed out. With my modification it allows both.

Alcander: I know I would kill (at least in game <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> ) to be able to buy and SELL engines in my MOD. I went ahead and made them buysable and was just living with the inablity to transfer them or sell them to upgrade. The money cap removal would be nice as well. Does this create a new cap or do we endup with limitless growth on bank accounts? I also agree with most everybody here in that some of this knowledge need to be handled with great care, especially things like the fire while in cruise mode. Now can you make another piece of equipment trigger that cruise mode weapons shutdown? Now I dont want to cause a flood of requests because then we will never get anymore new stuff but I would love to have you or somebody make the needed changes for credits and engines as I dont feel I could do it without screwing something up.

To all, While discussions of this nature are fine, we need to be circumspect about how we go about things, it is very true that any mod that modifies the version number ,.. (a logical thing really if you want your mod to be individual), is essentailly breaking the ´rules´.. Now it´s true that Microsoft allow us some small ´leeway´ - (it puts money in the bank) but rest assured they monitor the TLR site actively.. who knows, maybe they treat it like R&amp;D, development for jam... lol.. but, if they got out of sorts.. the simplest thing would be to close down the global servers, I´m fairly sure the cost of running them is a lot more than any income they derive from Freelancer.. I think that would sort things out quick smart Argh , While it is true that in the past any new developments made or stuff found the information was jealously guarded and not shared.. and it wasn´t till later that much information on the ´how´s to´ got itself into general circulation.. and those of you that recall those times remember the stink it caused..., The information was very hard to get in those days, however I´d like to point out that you did not develop custom weapons .cmps, Wanderer and Redeye did... then shared the knowledge with me... Some time later I wrote a tutorial on it.. maybe not a good one.. but as I recall the chaingun was mentioned sometime along the way.. The same weapon that has been used in quite a few custom mods. Harrier.

I agree with you care does need to be taken and actions accounted for. But, don´t you think it´s a bit arrogant/selfish of the modding community to think that Microsoft would shut down the global servers to a game that is still on the market just to &quot;punish&quot; them? - this punishes the consumer who just bought a product expecting multiplayer capability and finds no such thing. This leads to technical support calls which would cost a lot more than running a server (as a side note, how costly can it be to send and receive text data which happens to contain server information?). I love this game, but I would also like to make it better because I know what it can be and what it should be and I want to help make it that game. EDIT: *yawn* I´m going to bed - I´m tired so please don´t take offense - I just hope you can see my points. Edited by - Alcander on 6/8/2005 2:15:37 AM