Admiring the code

[gir489]

The .DAT files are basically ZIP files. If you open it with Notepad++ you can see where the files begin and end with a certain maker. The rest is padding. But if you use a hex editor you can inject text.

The Burst Laser 3 laser doesn't start charging on occasion due to a rounding error, so I fixed it.

[Twinge]

The .DAT files are basically ZIP files. If you open it with Notepad++ you can see where the files begin and end with a certain maker. The rest is padding. But if you use a hex editor you can inject text.

The Burst Laser 3 laser doesn't start charging on occasion due to a rounding error, so I fixed it.

Sure, that's how all the current mods are done - editing the xml or image data contained in the resource and data dat files. But you're talking of actual code and rounding errors, things not present or adjustable within the xml AFAIK.

[UltraMantis]

There's no tool that can patch the exe, so anything not in the resources is "hardcoded".
A tool that could modify the engine during or before running would unlock everything, but probably at the expense of stability. If such a tool could even be made.

The only objection Justin and Matthew made regarding modding is distribution of game resources. Not sure how they would feel about reverse engineering but i assume that it would either be harmless or beyond their control. As long as mods are made of scripts and resources made by the players, and patched into the resources or memory, it would not require any copyrighted content to be distributed. GMM can currently patch and rebuild resource databases adding only custom data which both keeps mod sizes down. This also removes the need to distribute entire resources.

There are a few other tools that can repack resources, but without the ability to append zipped mods. These are usefull when making/testing modded content. Finally there are a couple of savegame editors. All of this can be found in the Master Mod list.