Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:30 am
Check here for instructions on using the save game editor
Some of you out there are probably having as much trouble with this program as I was. Keep in mind though that I didnt write this program and I only found out how to make it work through trial and error, as it didnt come with a Readme.
Anywho I know nothing about modding or coding or anything like that and this is sort of a simplistic approach to using the editor so if the author or anyone else out there has a better approach or accurate instructions then by all means post them.
Ok heres how I was finally able to change one of my savegames.
I made a copy of the savegame i was gonna change and moved it to totally seperate folder. *note* Your savegames are in your My Documents folder labeled My Games.
Before anything else make sure you have at least 2 or 3 savegames you can mess around with and dont care about. Make sure you back them all up. Cut and paste one of them from your FL savegame folder to some other folder or wherever is easiest for you to get to. Leave it alone for now cause we'll use him later.
Open the editor
Hit decode and find the savegame you wanna modify. Now sometimes when you hit open to make it into a text file nothing shows up. What I did is I repeated the process again only I checked the "read only" box in the corner. (so like you have to hit decode twice in a row) A bunch of code and script should appear in the box on the editor. Be sure to save the text file someplace clutter free and easy to get to.
You have three fields you can enter values in and a bunch of code you can manually work with. So far all ive fooled around with is the money and rank value. But truth be told I dont know what will happen in the game (especially if your still working on the story) if you make your rank value really high.
Ok what I did is I changed my rank and money value both in the fields and in the big block of code. Your rank is easy to find. Its like 5 or six lines down and says rank = As for your money value its toward the bottom of all that script that says house = so just scroll down a little bit and its tucked away in there.
Now after thats all said and done hit the save button in the editor thats off to the side. To be honest I dont know if it actually works or not or what its really supposed to save. But I assume it saves your work.
Now if you were to close the editor and go check wherever you put your text file version of the savegame you should be able to open it and read it like any normal document and you should be able to see the changes youve made.
Ok so weve made our changes and we have this text version of our game floating around. Heres where it gets tricky and had me stumped for a while. You would assume that if you hit encode it would take your text version savegame and turn it back into a .fl file or overwrite the old one or something like that. But it doesnt. Lets say your modifed save game is named Save5309.No matter how many times you hit encode, or start over, or try and send a newly modified .fl file somewhere it doesnt work. You wont find a modified Save5309 anywhere. And if you think it might of overwritten the original version it didnt. If you load FL itll still be the same values as when you started.
Ok so hit encode and itll ask for your modified text file you made. Find it and hit open. Now its gonna ask you to save it somewhere and its gonna ask you to save it in the original file name. Heres where that other save game we put off to the side comes into play. Click on that one instead and save that one with your modified work.
So I guess when it all boils down you just rename the final file to something different then when you started out. The only reason I recomend using another savegame to overwrite is that FL seems to assign random numeric and letter values to its savegame files so I dunno what would happen if you went changing those numbers.
If you move the new savegame into your FL savegame folder and load it up you should see the same savegame in there but with your changes.
Out
Anywho I know nothing about modding or coding or anything like that and this is sort of a simplistic approach to using the editor so if the author or anyone else out there has a better approach or accurate instructions then by all means post them.
Ok heres how I was finally able to change one of my savegames.
I made a copy of the savegame i was gonna change and moved it to totally seperate folder. *note* Your savegames are in your My Documents folder labeled My Games.
Before anything else make sure you have at least 2 or 3 savegames you can mess around with and dont care about. Make sure you back them all up. Cut and paste one of them from your FL savegame folder to some other folder or wherever is easiest for you to get to. Leave it alone for now cause we'll use him later.
Open the editor
Hit decode and find the savegame you wanna modify. Now sometimes when you hit open to make it into a text file nothing shows up. What I did is I repeated the process again only I checked the "read only" box in the corner. (so like you have to hit decode twice in a row) A bunch of code and script should appear in the box on the editor. Be sure to save the text file someplace clutter free and easy to get to.
You have three fields you can enter values in and a bunch of code you can manually work with. So far all ive fooled around with is the money and rank value. But truth be told I dont know what will happen in the game (especially if your still working on the story) if you make your rank value really high.
Ok what I did is I changed my rank and money value both in the fields and in the big block of code. Your rank is easy to find. Its like 5 or six lines down and says rank = As for your money value its toward the bottom of all that script that says house = so just scroll down a little bit and its tucked away in there.
Now after thats all said and done hit the save button in the editor thats off to the side. To be honest I dont know if it actually works or not or what its really supposed to save. But I assume it saves your work.
Now if you were to close the editor and go check wherever you put your text file version of the savegame you should be able to open it and read it like any normal document and you should be able to see the changes youve made.
Ok so weve made our changes and we have this text version of our game floating around. Heres where it gets tricky and had me stumped for a while. You would assume that if you hit encode it would take your text version savegame and turn it back into a .fl file or overwrite the old one or something like that. But it doesnt. Lets say your modifed save game is named Save5309.No matter how many times you hit encode, or start over, or try and send a newly modified .fl file somewhere it doesnt work. You wont find a modified Save5309 anywhere. And if you think it might of overwritten the original version it didnt. If you load FL itll still be the same values as when you started.
Ok so hit encode and itll ask for your modified text file you made. Find it and hit open. Now its gonna ask you to save it somewhere and its gonna ask you to save it in the original file name. Heres where that other save game we put off to the side comes into play. Click on that one instead and save that one with your modified work.
So I guess when it all boils down you just rename the final file to something different then when you started out. The only reason I recomend using another savegame to overwrite is that FL seems to assign random numeric and letter values to its savegame files so I dunno what would happen if you went changing those numbers.
If you move the new savegame into your FL savegame folder and load it up you should see the same savegame in there but with your changes.
Out