Finding the first step?

[ape705]

Hi there, I've added a collection of user-found fixes to the tech support forum. May be of interest to you.

 

Keybinding issues

Enabling Antfarm Zoom

Enabling 1080p movies

Running on XP

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/803971-fixes-from-the-forums-keybinding-issuses-run-on-xp-enable-antfarm-zoom-enable-1080p-movies/

[sterling191]

Something to note, it appears that soldiers recruited after the start of the game will not have any modifications made to their stats based on changes made in the BalanceMods fields.

[zowrath]

One thing I wonder, since this is a Steamworks game, can you get banned from Steam for editing your .exe file? If there's call-home function within the .exe to retrieve updated info could it also include an integrity check? Does anyone here have debug-experience and can do a check of the code?

 

Creative Assembly went on to hide some db-files inside their .exe to control DLCs so people wouldn't just edit the files and get all DLC goodies. Could Firaxis be doing the same? Because lots of times modders do make mods that are same or similar to upcoming DLCs and that's a loss of income for them. Perhaps they plan to make the ini-files loose or editable after future DLCs have been released?

 

I think it is worth considering, and if anyone here has any connections as a tester or otherwise to Firaxis/2k perhaps they could ask?

[snwkill]

The "Not created equal" option from the second wave menu might come in handy with finding what controls that

[Beknatok]

Spent some time messing around with different things in DefaultGameCore.ini last night.

 

First, I tried to adjust SkyRanger Capacity, but I'm going to start a separate thread about that shortly.

 

Next, I explored trying to change/add abilities to soldiers, armor, and weapons. My overall goal was to creatively try and find a way around being limited to carrying only 1 "backpack" item at a time. Specifically, I tried to add Medi-Kit heal, ArcThrower Stun, Ghost, & Grapple. I was met with mixed results.

 

Adding Ghost and Grapple to the base Kevlar armor was successful. However, because animations don't exist for the Kevlar armor, using Grapple was comically wonky. But it worked. Ghost works just fine... didn't know it has limited charges (4x).

 

When I added Heal & Stun to either the Assault Rifle and/or Kevlar armor, they both appeared on the Ability bar, but had no charges.

 

So the next thing I want to figure out is how to adjust the # of charges, a given ability has. Anyone have any ideas for that?

 

Note: To test, I would modify the EXE, fire up the game, then immediately start a new game on Normal. Having disabled movies and the tutorial, getting into a fresh Drop is pretty quick for testing purposes. This is particularly important since I need "new" troops, vs loading a save game where after creation, a soldiers stats are now stored independently of any template settings.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Beknatok

[Zherlthsh]

Hmmm... what would happen if someone totally nukes that script out of the .EXE? Think the engine is smart enough to then reference one of the existing .INI files?

Did someone actually try this?

Becasue if that does work then it's just a matter of EXE patching once (or once every official patch at least) to make the game reference the loose INIs. And would generally make for even faster and way easier edits. Specially if someone were to make a patcher that wipes these records.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Zherlthsh

[KristmasKthulhu]

Does anyone have experience using the Unreal Development Kit? I get the feeling it's going to be the only way we can change some of the more annoying aspects of this game. I'm trying to open the .upk packages in \CookedPCConsole\ to examine their contents, but am getting errors that are drawing blanks whenever I try to google solutions.

[Beknatok]

Does anyone have experience using the Unreal Development Kit? I get the feeling it's going to be the only way we can change some of the more annoying aspects of this game. I'm trying to open the .upk packages in \CookedPCConsole\ to examine their contents, but am getting errors that are drawing blanks whenever I try to google solutions.

 

I intend to explore the UDK this weekend.

 

As for unpacking upks, I found that extraction methods differed depending on the udk. I used Gildor's tools found here:

 

http://www.gildor.org/downloads

 

On some, I could simply use the Package Extractor. On others, I found that I had to Decompress first, with the -lzo flag, then I could Extract.

 

Hope this helps!

[thenightgaunt]

One thing I wonder, since this is a Steamworks game, can you get banned from Steam for editing your .exe file? If there's call-home function within the .exe to retrieve updated info could it also include an integrity check? Does anyone here have debug-experience and can do a check of the code?

 

Creative Assembly went on to hide some db-files inside their .exe to control DLCs so people wouldn't just edit the files and get all DLC goodies. Could Firaxis be doing the same? Because lots of times modders do make mods that are same or similar to upcoming DLCs and that's a loss of income for them. Perhaps they plan to make the ini-files loose or editable after future DLCs have been released?

 

I think it is worth considering, and if anyone here has any connections as a tester or otherwise to Firaxis/2k perhaps they could ask?

 

That's actually one of my biggest concern about messing around with any of the game files. The last thing I want is for my Steam account to get VAC banned.

[Dino29]

One thing I wonder, since this is a Steamworks game, can you get banned from Steam for editing your .exe file? If there's call-home function within the .exe to retrieve updated info could it also include an integrity check? Does anyone here have debug-experience and can do a check of the code?

 

Creative Assembly went on to hide some db-files inside their .exe to control DLCs so people wouldn't just edit the files and get all DLC goodies. Could Firaxis be doing the same? Because lots of times modders do make mods that are same or similar to upcoming DLCs and that's a loss of income for them. Perhaps they plan to make the ini-files loose or editable after future DLCs have been released?

 

I think it is worth considering, and if anyone here has any connections as a tester or otherwise to Firaxis/2k perhaps they could ask?

 

That's actually one of my biggest concern about messing around with any of the game files. The last thing I want is for my Steam account to get VAC banned.

This cannot happen.

You can only get VAC banned if you do something fishy while running a VAC enabled game. XCOM isn't one.

(Only Valve games and Modern Warfare 2 : https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7849-Radz-6869#vacgames)

Edited October 11, 2012 by Dino29