Subset Games Forum

Arcalane wrote:Crack open data.dat with the extractor tool and take a look at blueprints.xml - that'll tell you all of the weapon/etc. names without having to do shenanigans with multiple save files.

I definitely will, that's a good idea. This will help, but there's still plenty that needs to be reverse engineered as it were....

so would it be possible to maybe change your ship to a normally unobtainable one such as a rock scout or a pirate vessel?

id kinda love a pirate vessel...

The files seem to be binary, which means it won't be an easy task.
I've never done any binary file reverse engineering, but I found this: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4514701.
I hope it'll help you, good luck!

There is an extractor tool that works for these .dat files? Where might I find that?

UnholyPariah wrote:so would it be possible to maybe change your ship to a normally unobtainable one such as a rock scout or a pirate vessel?

id kinda love a pirate vessel...

Theoretically, unless there's game logic beyond the save file that prevents it. That said, my initial attempt has not worked. There's additional data floating around here that I haven't been able to identify, and unfortunately it seems to vary between two save games using the same ship class. So it could have to do with the map that's been generated? It's also possible the files are partially encrypted/obfuscated in some way.

I've also noticed that different ship types put their weapon load-outs in slightly different places in the file. For example, the Red-Tail begins its at block 09 of offset 690, whereas the Rock cruiser's begins at block 08 of offset 680. Even two games with the same ship have them in slightly different locations. So editing what's on your ship is easy, as you just replace what's there. But even then there're complications ... there seem to always be 12 blocks separating weapon 1 from 2, but sometimes they're all 00 and sometimes they're not. So it may or may not be possible to add something to slot 3 in a save game that only previously had 2.

So unfortunately this is looking like it's going to be much harder than I thought, at least to do much.

It'd be great if the devs added some form of mod tool/support so stuff like this would be simplified...

any progress on that save game editor? i'm hopeful, it'll open up new avenues of exploration and modding.

Jessen wrote:any progress on that save game editor? i'm hopeful, it'll open up new avenues of exploration and modding.

So far all I've been able to figure out how to do is change weaponry in a given slot from one to the other. That and changing the name of the ship....

There's still too much of what appears to be random data, but which apparently matters, thrown in that I'm not sure if this is going to be possible without either some input from the devs or a lot more reverse engineering than I'm capable of. As I mentioned in my other post, even seemingly identical games don't have the same information in the same place. So I'm honestly not sure where to go from here.

I'll be having a look at the save files when I get home, see what I can figure out. Mind sharing what you've got on weapon slots etc.?