I'm hacking

Xin Yu · May 23, 2001, 14:28

Imagine this:

When you open a city window and you have 5 shields towards a settler. You hit Ctrl+B. A window appears asking how many shields you want to buy: 20, 30, or 40 (you have just discovered feudalism so warrior is not on the list). You choose 30 and hit enter -- suddenly you have 30 shields towards the settler

, with appropriate amount of money deducted from your treasury

.

The version will be MGE. I have gathered all necessary information and now I'm writing the program.

Since I have never written a trainer type program I may need help. Please give your opinions and comments here.

Thanks!

SlowwHand · May 23, 2001, 15:14

I was ready to make a smart remark about how I smoke too.

What about buying off advances?
Sure many a time I'd like to hurry along faster that I'm able to.

Blaupanzer · May 23, 2001, 16:10

Sounds great. The AI can apparently do this (incremental buying). Not sure it can do that with beakers too.

Smash · May 23, 2001, 16:41

Very nice..although i won't be able to use it(Mac) but maybe we'll use yours as a kinda template.

This will be excellent for scenarios.And..if it works well,could save oodles of time in MP games.

Xin Yu · May 23, 2001, 17:47

No, Smash, not for multiplayer. Two reasons. First, it is more difficult to hack multiplayer and I'll have less help with it (most websites only have single player hacking tutorials). Secondly, if I release a multiplayer version then it can easily be used for cheating -- somebody can easily change my program and cheat in a multiplayer game (like, give himself a lot of money and buy units for free).

As for Mac, hope that it has similar functions as windows system's 'readfrommemory' and 'writetomemory'.

Scouse Gits · May 24, 2001, 05:54

Sounds great Xin - Please send me your results - and I wouldn't mind your PMing me the urls of those hacking sites ...

drake · May 24, 2001, 09:21

I apologize for asking, but what the hell good would this hack be for?
I'm

Bird · May 24, 2001, 09:53

I assume the hack is intended to implement incremental buying benefits without having to keep changing and rushbuilding more expensive units to get what you want. It will be nice if you can do it.

While you're at it, see if you can make a hack that automatically causes your civ to revolt in a future turn if you tell it to. I'm sick and tired of forgetting to revolt in oedo years. Really I am.

drake · May 24, 2001, 10:00

So basically its just another tool to help lazy people

An Oedo year alert would be nice too

Xin Yu · May 24, 2001, 12:19

Progress: Compiled the C++ program with no error/warning. However the dialogue box wouldn't show when running. Either I did not get the program name right (I used "Civilization II Multiplayer Gold"), or my function call of CreateDialog (a win95 function) was not working properly

. Another problem is with IsKeyPressed function (another win95 function) since I do not know what string should be used for Ctrl-B as I have only seen examples for F1-F10 before

.

It was all caused by using Visual C++ codes which I copied from somewhere on the web. I used them to generate a dialogue box but they failed me. It was too time-consuming to generate a C++ code for the same functions. All other parts of the program was in C++ and I have no problem with them.

Once it works, adding Oedo year warning to the program should be easy

.

SlowThinker · May 25, 2001, 09:33

Xin Yu,
how do you find out the status of the game? and how the program changes shields and gold?

I suppose that your program must save the game, search through a savefile, then modify it and load the game?
Is the savegame format known generally or did you have to find out a placement of gold and shield within the savefile?

Why do I ask you?

Quote:

Originally posted by drake
An Oedo year alert would be nice too

It is not only the problem of Oedo years: you have to remember future plans constantly.
I will start a new thread: I am not hacking yet (a general reminding program)

Xin Yu · May 30, 2001, 16:22

*Bump*

I have tried a lot of things but couldn't get Visual C++ to work for me. Every time I compiled and linked correctly but the **** graphic window never showed (I got several run time errors, was able to get them down to one but that last one sticked to my program and won't leave). So I bought some books and from the attached CDs I found some useful VC++ programs -- at least they work. Now I'll start from those programs and add new functions for game hacking.

Again, any suggestions and comments?

Xin Yu · May 30, 2001, 22:43

Well, guess what, I have successfully modified a program and now whenever civ2 MPE is running the white civ will have 30000 golds reguardless how much it spends. Now I need to refine the interface and add more functions to the program.

The first step toward success!

Bird · May 31, 2001, 14:33

I choose the Romans next time we play, Xin.

Xin Yu · May 31, 2001, 16:08

Now the program will give the current player (regardless which civ it is) 30000 golds if he changes production. I plan to use the 'change production' window to trigger money and shield update since this will prevent people from buying part of the production for unique units in some scenarios.

The money did change, however the change won't appear on the title bar until I change to another city or close the city window and open it again. Similarly, after return to the map screen I have to click on the map to change cursor position or open and close a city window to update the money amount shown on the right side.

Xin Yu · June 5, 2001, 02:31

OK, I have a workable version now. There's a lot more to do but I'd like to have people testing it. If you are interested please respond and give me your e-mail address. It's just a test version so no need to post it for downloading.

I don't have a readme file yet so I'll just post it here:

System Requirement:

Windows version: Win ME (should work under Win95 and Win 98 as well, not sure about NT and 2000).

Civ version: must be MPE (UCC, FW, etc. doesn't work).

Installation:
Unzip LazyCiv.zip, you'll see a file named LazyCiv.exe. Put it anywhere in your hard drive (remember the path). Run the file from windows explorer while civ2 MPE is running (you can either run LazyCiv first or after civ2 is activated).

Run-Time Help:
When you open a city window and change production type, the LazyCiv program will kick in and a window will pop up. It has three buttons: 'About', 'Purchase 10 shields', and 'Finish'.

Each time you click on 'Purchase 10 shields' button, your shield production will increase by 10 while your treasury decreasing by 25. After apropriate number of clicks you click on 'Finish', the LazyCiv window will disappear.

You will NOT see changes immediately. Shield changes will appear after you click on the 'OK' button on the lower-right edge of the 'change production type' window. Money will change after you move to another city or close then re-open the city window. Money on the side bar after you close the city window will change after you right-click on the map to change the cursur position.

There is no limit in money spending -- you can get a negative treasury if you keep on buying. Also you may purchase too much for the current unit. These will be fixed in the next version.

Warning 1: you MUST not change production type (e.g., from city improvement to unit) while purchasing -- you may lose half of your purchased shields! When you need to change type, simply click Finish in LazyCiv, then do the change and click OK. Afterwards you can re-open the change production window to purchase.

Warning 2: you MUST use the 'OK' button to quit the change production window. If you use 'Auto' then cancel or the like you'll lose any purchased shields and you cannot get your money back.

I know a way to fix the above problems but it will need A LOT more searching into the memory and will cause the program to run slower. I can't decide now whether to deal with them in the program or let you take care of them.