Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 4:22 pm Post subject: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
I am working on a Saved Game File Handler for CC3/CoI. What I am looking for are Saved Game Files from Games played, in particular Operations played as Russians, and Files saved from various stages (Maps) in the Operation,
Preferably from the stock Game (so I can view them without having to setup any particular Mods).
Have to be from multiple Map Operations, and must be Files saved manually during the course of the Operation (so from the Game \Game\Save Folder). If possible a variety of saves from the first Map onwards.
They zip up to practically nothing. E-mail them to me at vonb [at] closecombat [dot] ie or post them here, or whatever is convenient for you.
Although I am making good progress, some of the Bytes are tricky to nail down and having action snapshots (via the Saved Game Files) can help a great deal. I have plenty of Saved Game Files played as Germans (my preference), but it's the played as Russians I am short of. Working on the Handler is soaking up pretty much whatever spare time I have, so little time to indulge in playing Ops as Russians at the moment.
Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 2:13 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
I'll see what I can do.
"To you, we are deeply grateful, and release what little hold we might, as Durandal, have had on your soul.
Go."
- Final Terminal Message, Marathon Infinity
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 10:49 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
I have more or less completed the Battle Data Structure, and am now working on the Battle Status Structure, which is a big job.
As I have already mentioned, the purpose is to provide a Handler for integrating CC3/CoI with Strategic Games, but that is some way off as yet.
However, I am open to suggestions as to what anyone might like to see. To start with, it can just be used as a File 'examiner', i.e. to display all the content of the File. In due course, it can be used to create or write Data to a File or even Create a File from scratch, but again, that is some way off yet.
I attach here a very early sample of a 'viewer' I am developing and using to display the contents of the File. It does read the entire Op Data in the File, but it doesn't display very much as yet, and it won't for a while as I have still much work to do on the Operation Status, but what would be useful if anyone wants to give it a spin, is to let me know if the program crashes when opening any file (see below), and then send that file to me so I can use it for my research.
Although I reckon I am 95% complete with regards to itemising all the Fileds in the file, I think there are still some Offsets which are not correct, and having examples of files which do make the program crash can help a lot! And don't panic, if the program crashes, it will not damage the file as it is only opened for reading, but if you are paranoid, just make a copy before you run the program
It should open any of the files in the following CC3/CoI Folders:
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:15 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Nice, do you think that in the future this tool would be able to see (and modify?) the teams?
I remember a thread a long time ago on CSO about how one guy managed to keep the same soldiers for several campaigns, at least the ones who survived, by editing the save game at the start of the campaign with data from a finished campaign. He posted a screen shot of the Operational history of the soldiers and the medals denoting participation in an operation just went on and on like they went around the screen and started coming out from the other side, it was pretty funny.
He said he just copied and pasted the soldiers data into another savegame, the data of the soldiers is easily noticed with an hex editor because you can notice names and other words that make sense, anyway I tried doing this but never succeded, only the commander stayed the same.
Would be nice to keep going like that or to have say a campaign on the eastern front with Real Red mod and then take your veterans to Normandy with Western Front mod for a 'Rest & Refit' on the summer of '44...
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 11:25 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Quote:
Nice, do you think that in the future this tool would be able to see (and modify?) the teams?
The answer is yes. Once I have thoroughly debugged it, then it will be possible to change *any* field in the file.
Like I said, this program does read every Field (of the Op Data) right now, but only displays a few. I could (and probably will in due course) extend the program to display all the Fields, but that is quite a lot of work too, and a bit lower down on my priority list at the moment. Right now, I have to get through the Op Status Data, and then debug until the program is solid, and there is still a lot of work to do to finish the Op Status Data.
You have the Ops_Data. This is the setup when a new Scenario is created. There is no historical 'action' recorded in these.
In ths Folder:
..\Close Combat III\Games\Save
You have a File in 2 parts:
Ops_Data (as above)
Ops_Status
It is the Ops_Status which tracks the results of battles in that Operation, and any Campaign Data (if a Campgin File has been used to start playing).
If you open a 'New' action (Campaign/Operation/Battle/Custom) it asks you for a File Name which is then saved in the ..\Close Combat III\Games\Save Folder, and that will be used to track the Teams and Units etc for the duration. Having finished (subject to thorough debugging) the Ops_Data Structure, I am now working on the Ops_Status Structure. This is the more significant of the Structures in terms of integrating with external Operational Games, or to examine or set values to be used to initiate any custom Battle or Operation. It's also a bit more complex than the Ops_Data, and will take me some time to nail it, and it is still possible that I might not be able to specify *every* detail.
A quick for example:
In the Ops_Data Structure, you will not find your 'Commander' Name, when CC builds the Data. However, if you look in the Ops_Status (available in a Sved Game File only) after you have played a Battle, you will find that your Commander Name has been applied as it a recording of the status and setup of CC when you play Battles.
One proviso; I am 95% sure about these things, but could be wrong in some particulars. If anyone spots such mistakes, then please let me know.
Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:29 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Rev 3 including some Unit Data. Remeber, this is not 'action' Unit Data. That will come when I have completed the Ops_Status Structure, but it gives a taste...
To complete this Viewer, there needs to be up to 4 more 'Battle' Data for those Tabs (in case of a 5 Map Scenario), Some Team Data, and Vehicle Data, and that's about it for the Ops_Data Structure.
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:08 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Rev 4.
All the Units, Vehicles, and Teams Data.
All that's left now are the 4 remaining Maps. The Structures are the same but need individual naming so there's still quite a lot of keyboard pounding to do!
There's a couple of entries which do not ring true and I'll have to dig into that and sort it out, but I reckon it's more or less there.
When this is finished and debugged, we will be in a position to consider developing a Custom Scenario Editor. Ok, CC3/CoI already has a Scenario Editor, so what's the point you may ask? Good question, so I'm fishing for ideas. Please air your views.
However, there are some things that pop into mind:
Custom Map Deployment. There's no restrictions where you can deploy (similar to FDeploy), though that will need testing to see whether it crashes the game or not.
Custom Naming. Change any of the Team/Unit/Soldier Names etc, incluyding Experience, medals, etc etc....
In fact, if you see it on the Screen in this Utility, you will be able to change it. However, not everything can be changed without causing problems, and only a madman would muck around with the indexes!... (and therefore really screw the game!).
I'm a bit behind on the Ops_Status, but I'm hammering that out by and by. For potential integration with an Operationa Game, that is the most important bit.
Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 11:38 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Snapshots...
Remember, this is not an 'Application', just a development viewer, mostly for me to check the results of the coding, but I am hoping that it will encourage some to think about the possibilities, and make some suggestions...
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 10:02 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Here is the final Alpha (0.0.0.5). All the Tab Pages are complete and it (should) read all the Op_Data_Structure from the Scenario Files. It now needs thoroughly checking/debugging. I have already seen a few things which I am sure are not correct, but assuming I can fix those (quietly confident), then I will have completed the first part of this Project. I'll let you know when I have something working for the Op_Status_Structure, but I am still hacking that at the moment. The best part about getting to this stage is that reading the file correctly means it can be written correctly...
...will encourage some to think about the possibilities, and make some suggestions...
I see you have the deployment areas of map one of the senerio using what you doing is there any way of cracking the deployment zones (free deploying) over the subsiquent maps?
Another bug of CC3/COI is the 50 point allocation at the start of a new senerio inthe campaign. Do you see a way to break into that and edit it?
Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 11:22 pm Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
Quote:
I see you have the deployment areas of map one of the senerio using what you doing is there any way of cracking the deployment zones (free deploying) over the subsiquent maps?
Nope, there's no way of doing that for the Operation Data Section as it is hard coded into the binaries (exe or dll). The deployment area is set for the first Map of any multi map Operation (which can be any of the 5 Maps, depending on which is set as the 'Start' Map when creating the Scenario).
However, I do not know yet how the Operation Status Section is Structured, but when I find out, maybe we can get another take on that.
I suspect it's not do'able, because it is impossible to tell which Side is going to be going which way during the course of an Operation. If I am on Map 3 of a 5 Map Op, maybe I will be victorious and advance to the next map, or maybe I will flee to the previous Map. But.... let's see what the Op_Status Structure has to offer, and we can always hack it and see? I mean, we can only make it crash right?
Quote:
Another bug of CC3/COI is the 50 point allocation at the start of a new senerio inthe campaign. Do you see a way to break into that and edit it?
Again, I think this is the way it was programmed. The binaries force this to '0' in the Data File (and presumably convert that to 50 when starting the Game), but we may be able to override that in the Data File and see what happens... (again see 'crash' above... ).
Another little nugget is that the Data file has more 'slots' for VL's and Barrages than the Game uses. Whether this can be translated into anything that works is doubtful, i,e, what would happen if we put in the Data for 10 Barrages? (again see 'crash' above... ).
I am sure there is going to be a bit of fun mucking around with the Data once the Handler is developed to write a Saved Game/Scenario File, and I am sure a lot of crashes as well. But you never know...
Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 2:58 am Post subject: Re: Call for CC3/CoI Saved Game Files
If you can crack this for CoI then you can definitely crack the saved game file for CCMT. If you could do this, then all that is required is a shell to be created that can read the saved game, extract the results, and write a new scenario. At this stage you would have now created a basic MMCC shell for CCMT
*Sending positive thought waves to VonB ~~~~~~~~~~~
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