Changing the Unchangeable (EXE and DLL Mods)

alcander ... No problem. Glad to see we agree. NightHound ... one of the things I´ve investigated for my mod (I´m planning on making it two-part, one for the SP/Open SP and an "overlay" for MP usage) is Player/clan owned bases... I belive it

&quot;I´m pretty sure a web based rep-hack is on one server somewhere... I forget where&quot; Hamburg City <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> &quot;pay-per-dock jumpgates/jumpholes/space stations - which are very possible.&quot; LOL what about: - removing the 10 Millions per item limitation? or (important) changing the solar hitpoints reset time? (for example weapons platforms do regenerate after 60 seconds) /btw. concerning cloaks: can someone name my one active server with +10 players daily where you can use cloaks? the point is: cloaks are blocked on nearly every server! but well, dont talk about it anyways and shut your mouth!... err Edited by - w0dk4 on 6/9/2005 3:04:05 AM

I have thought of this too but the amount of bandwidth which would be consumed sending all the ini´s etc etc for every player would be daunting. But perhaps something could be done. But I´d also like to know people´s opinions on cheating - is it still a really big issue, doesn´t IONCROSS eliminate most cheating problems?

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> I have thought of this too but the amount of bandwidth which would be consumed sending all the ini´s etc etc for every player would be daunting. But perhaps something could be done. But I´d also like to know people´s opinions on cheating - is it still a really big issue, doesn´t IONCROSS eliminate most cheating problems? <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> coulden´t a xml type thing be done where only the changed info is sent ? you´d have to hide the file other wise cheaters could change it.... Ioncross only stops cheaters once they start cheating, like i could have a mod active eg WTS and be on manhatten every thing would be fine till i either launched/looked at inventory/looking at ships to buy/or equipment, i´ve done it before and ioncross hasen´t kicked a spaz but there´s a posibility that i´ll qtd or be deteched as cheating..... correct me if i´m wrong <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

Erm... sorry folks, I was <i>not </i> attempting to suggest that we should make Cloak modding easier, or something... I´d rather see that &quot;feature&quot; killed with a big wooden stake, if it´s possible. There´s no way to really make it &quot;fair&quot;, I think, now that I´ve done some juggling in my mind- it´s just too darn abusive. As for the rest of the things mentioned... What strikes me is that the best possible use of these discoveries might be some sort´ve EXE patching utility... called by FLMM. If one could be written that would: A. Change the version string B. Implement the byte patch That´d really take care of a lot of things, and Matt´s been around lately... maybe you should contact him, Alcander, and see if he can´t help integrate it into FLMM. BUT. It would still require users to have an unwrapped EXE. That is the one thing we can´t get away from. But let´s face it... if MS was going to shut down the mod community over that... they´d have done so. So long as people aren´t idiots, and distribute the core DLLs (which are as important as the EXE) and many of the core INIs (which are also required), or the THNs... etc... nobody´s &quot;giving away the whole game&quot;. After all, the EXE´s pretty much just another pretty icon without, say, thorn. FL was not designed around the EXE nearly as much as many older games- the EXE provides core functions, but it´s not &quot;the game&quot; in any definative sense... it´s more like a Babbage machine that runs the content. This is like most modern games- if you go mod the Dawn of War game, for example, you´re looking at gigantic stacks of Lua scripts, 3D content, skins, and sounds... and an EXE with associated libraries, which are pulling content in at one end and taking user responses to display cues at another. It´s a much different situation than, say, Pac-Man, where everything is defined in one codebase, including the blitting renderer, the sprites, and the sounds... Erm... getting philosophical... moving right along...

Right and I think this is where games (and everything else for that matter) are going. Everything is becoming more extensible, open, and accessible. I was only using my &quot;whole game&quot; quote as a metaphor, since Freelancer.exe is the catalyst for actually playing the game, obviously you couldn´t do anything if you didn´t have it. Edited by - Alcander on 6/9/2005 7:59:19 PM

There is no way to, &quot;give away a game&quot;, inless you save the entire cd into a zip, then post it on the web for free. Even if you took every file on your computer that you see is related to freelancer, their are still dozens of files that are either hidden, or hard written into your registry. Believe me, I´ve tryed both copying an entire cd, and getting all the files for freelancer to get to a friend, and it wouldn´t work on his computer.

&quot;But I´d also like to know people´s opinions on cheating - is it still a really big issue&quot; concerning noob cheats like weapon mod and looting equipment and eventually cloaking - no it isnt a big issue anymore. (thx to FLAntiCheat and FLCD/other CD Software and even serverside anti-cheat mods) but never forget: cheaters will always find a way to cheat! and why are we now talking about cheats? Edited by - w0dk4 on 6/10/2005 1:16:22 AM

I´m not sure. I´m currently working on my well EXE/DLL research and would love to hear other people´s ideas on new features etc etc. Btw, should I post some screenshots/video/whatever in the mean time to wet people´s appetites? Hmm...maybe I should... But it´s too late right now. See you tomm guys. Edited by - Alcander on 6/10/2005 1:26:44 AM

An important part of this, more so than many think is the impact on MP. I know it has been mentioned, however, this has the potential to be devastating on MP servers. If these changes are to be made and released, if it is not done corrrectly it will kill the MP game. The reason being is that cheats are always on servers, if you have a decent number of players on your server you will understand this. These people are not an inconvenience, they seriously affect the performance and integrity of the server. Thruster and speed mods are still being used, plus many others. Therefore if the game is to be enjoyed for a longer period of time, the changes MUST have an ability for the servers to combat the players who use these *new* mods/code etc. The reason this is so important is that the longevity of the game is down to the mods AND the MP servers. MP server providers will stop if they are inundated with new cheats that they cannot stop. In my opinion if modding or MP servers stop/reduce then the FL game´s decline will be accelerated. In essence then, I suggest that if you are to persue this, please keep in mind the MP effect on servers and cheats.

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>I´m not sure. I´m currently working on my well EXE/DLL research and would love to hear other people´s ideas on new features etc etc. Btw, should I post some screenshots/video/whatever in the mean time to wet people´s appetites? Hmm...maybe I should... <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> hmmm so many choices wet appetite or wet appetite.... hmmm new feature, well i´m not sure if you´d call this a cheat or not but i´d love to have a signitre system where a active camo make you into a incomplete object that´s near you, when you move/shoot/ect the signitre becomes more...ect i can think of new &quot;things&quot; but new features are hard <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>, what having control of multipal ships ? like in x2 , or a command option where you control multipal ships for missions/ect..... that´s all for now <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

Can the distance that your scanners detect other players be changed? We´ve secretly replaced their dilithium crystals with new Folgers crystals. Now let´s watch them go to warp.

Yes, they can, easily and without touching anything but Misc_equip.ini (and misc_good and market_misc if you want to sell the modified scanners) There´s a topic in one of the section called &quot;adding scanners to your inventory in 5 minutes&quot; or something like that. (you just change the scan range entry) edit: just pulled up the ini: it´s actually just labelled &quot;range&quot;. you could also change how far you can scan cargo. Edited by - myrkul999 on 6/10/2005 5:58:53 AM

@ nighthound <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> hmmm new feature, well i´m not sure if you´d call this a cheat or not but i´d love to have a signitre system where a active camo make you into a incomplete object that´s nea

as long as they dont have giant worm thingys with teeth at the end of the tunnels :p

And why not? what´s adventure without a little risk? <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

We already use custom scanners in the Free Worlds mod. I was asking if the range could be increased even farther. We have always wanted to have scout ships that could see other players at around 20k. We´ve secretly replaced their dilithium crystals with new Folgers crystals. Now let´s watch them go to warp.

Ok... some thought on how to do this... Would definitely need alcander´s talents. Basically, scanners would need full-rework. Give each object a &quot;sensor signature&quot; (yes, I know this would be a pain, but might already be there in some form, or else how would freelancer know that a ship disappears at this range, and a station at that one?) which determines how easy it is to spot using sensors, and how much of a &quot;shadow&quot; it casts. Give each type of object a uniqe number in this field, so it´s kinda like IDS #´s... Sensor Signature 2134 is a large space-station, while 2133 is a Kusari battleship, whatever. Objects within the shadow that are giving off thier own signature show up normally at whatever range that signature would give, perhaps less due to being within that shadow. objects within the shadow NOT giving off a signature wouldn´t show up as different than the main object until they a) started giving off enough of a signature to register, or b) entered visual range... still wouldn´t show on scanners, but you could see ´em. How to impliment the ideas I´ve had: make engines, weapon systems, and ESPECIALLY active scanning(scan cargo) raise signature range. Thus, by killing your engines and weapons, and tucking yourself up under a base or into an asteroid/other spacejunk field, you won´t show up till you move, power up weapon systems (click on them in the HUD to turn them green) or scan something. Create a [spoofer equipment type that throws out a huge signature range, designed to look like(Ie pointing to the information for) another type of ship. the ship it´s mounted to would be within this mock battleship´s shadow, and wouldn´t show up till it was close enough. And, of course, tracking missiles and such would do much better against targets with larger signatures.

burnout You mean just ramping up the range doesn´t do it? or are you looking for a way to break some hard-coded limit that I haven´t yet reached?