Modding out a bug midgame

from GalCiv2 Forums

Yesterday I started a game as the Thalans and decided to go Good, in part to do some culture flipping with the 100% influence starbase module they get off xeno influence. Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated when halfway through the game I figured out that the xeno influence module erroneously requires the insurrection coordinator module, which the Thalans don't get. It didn't take too long to find and eliminate the offending line in the xml file, but I still can't build the xeno influence module in that game. Did I miss something in correcting the module bug, is there something else I have to do to get the saved game to use the updated file, or am I out of luck?

 

modding
9,623 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You need to start a new game for the changes to take effect.  That's why the save files are often so large, they contain XML data as well as the save game information.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thanks for the response. You don't by any chance know how to edit the save file directly, do you?

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well you could get a hex editor out but depending on how the file is encoded and your skill with searching for the right hex values... well I'm just saying why spend perhaps hours doing that when you could have started a new game?  I've played a lot of games and not completed them because I forgot to change one little thing in the mod, but the thing that keeps me going is that next game things will be better. :)

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well, the game's not totally shot. I should still win, anyway. Would've been nice if there was a relatively easy, fix, though. Thanks for the help!

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Do you have tech trading enabled?  If so, you can shop around and buy/trade for the tech that unlocks the required module.  Wait, it's pretty high up, isn't it?  Just a thought.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well, I downloaded a hex editor and successfully edited the save file. Got it on the first try, actually, so it only took like 30 minutes to figure out. For posterity's sake, here's what I did:

in a hex editor, ctrl-f "Xeno Influence Module." Here's a portion of the data from just before the text:

00 00 00 00 8F 01 00 00 15 00 00 00 58 65 6E 6F 20 49 6E 66 6C 75 65 6E 63 65 20 4D 6F 64 75 6C 65 10 00 00 00 54 68 61 6C 61 6E 20 49 6E 66 6C 75 65 6E 63 65 41 00 00 00 41 70 70 65 61 6C 73 20 74 6F 20 61 20 62 72 6F 61 64 20 72 61 6E 67 65 20 6F 66 20 73 70 65 63 69 65 73 20 74 6F 20 77 69 6E 20 74 68 65 6D 20 6F 76 65 72 20 74 6F 20 6F 75 72 20 73 69 64 65 2E 0A 00 00 00 53 74 61 72 62 61 73 65 30 31 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 43 75 6C 74 75 72 65 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 6A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 28 00 00 00 D7 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 25 00 00 00 98 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

 

Change the red number to 00 to remove the prereq. I think setting it to 6B should change the prereq to the utopian societies module (the 50% influence module from hyperion starbases), but I didn't actually test it.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I actually have a little save game structures description project that's been going on and off for a couple of years now.

It's not very much, but I've pretty much got civs and planets down pat.

Useful for experiments(and cheating). One time I tried playing dreadlord style - just 1 planet with uber-stats against the whole galaxy. It was fun :)

But yea, save games save a lot of useless info in there. I mean, it saves the entire damn tech and improvement tree, complete with the descriptions... Go figure.

 

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

That's not useless though, it means that your saved game won't generate an error if an XML resource is missing (from the mod folder, say).

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Yea, well, there's also a bit in there that says where to find the data used by the savegame which makes all the other bits superfluous.

Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well from a modding point of view it's rather handy to be able to Alt-tab and make changes to the stuff in the mod folder while I'm playing.  If the resources weren't contained in the save file, then I would get a file in use error and have to exit the game to make the changes.

Of course (barring hex editing) I do have to start a new game in order for the changes to take effect, but chances are I need to do that anyway to see if the AI behaves a particular way (or not).