Elite / Frontier BUFFET: New version coming soon.

[whertz]

Hello, I am the author of the BUFFET trainer program for JJFFE. I stumbled upon these forums due to my rekindled interest in FFE. I noticed a few people use my program with JJFFE and I would like to tell you a new version of BUFFET will be released soon, with full compatibility with FFED3D and some bug fixes.

I will announce the new version here, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions or ideas I'll try to implement them.

 

[Steve]

That's great news, especially the prospect of an FFED3D compatible version

IIRC there's an issue with the Federal criminal record not clearing correctly ie. piracy & murder remains after clicking the button in Buffet.

Also I've had intermittent problems with running the program in Vista, with random garbage appearing in most of the fields in Buffet and the .cfg file pointing to explorer.exe instead of the ffe exe.

Can't wait for the new version

 

[whertz]

That's great news, especially the prospect of an FFED3D compatible version

It actually works with a very early version of FFED3D which was released at the time I was creating BUFFET. I've not tried the newer versions of FFED3D, but all that is different is where to look for the offset in memory; FFED3D uses a lot more memory than regular JJFFE, so all that needs to be done is to extend the range of memory to look at.

IIRC there's an issue with the Federal criminal record not clearing correctly ie. piracy & murder remains after clicking the button in Buffet.

Also I've had intermittent problems with running the program in Vista, with random garbage appearing in most of the fields in Buffet and the .cfg file pointing to explorer.exe instead of the ffe exe.

These bugs, plus others I've found will be fixed in the next version.

 

[Anders Lerche]

Great work!
What would really rock my ship would be the ability to move forward in time to a specific date. Sometimes you get to hang around waiting for a specific contract or set date where some plot points happens, so so srt of "time-machine" function would be neat now and then.

 

[Steve]

These bugs, plus others I've found will be fixed in the next version.

Thanks. Can I ask for an explanation of "Freeze" and "Freeze Rate" as well?

 

[whertz]

Thanks. Can I ask for an explanation of "Freeze" and "Freeze Rate" as well?

When 'Freeze' is ticked, that particular value will stay the same, so for example if you freeze hull condition at 50, it will stay at 50. Freeze rate is how fast the cheat is updated.

 

[Spacegamer]

Thats great news that the new version will be FFE3D compatible.
Is there any way that new missions could be abbed to the game or is not tecnetly not possible?.

 

[whertz]

Thats great news that the new version will be FFE3D compatible.
Is there any way that new missions could be abbed to the game or is not tecnetly not possible?.

Lots of cool things are possible by editing FFE's memory area. After I finished BUFFET I was messing around with a lot of stuff and even figured out how to 'teleport' into another ship - well, take over another ship, say a one landed on a planet, in real time. It's just a matter of figuring out where things are and how information is stored.

I've not looked at it for over three years, but I think mission information is generated and stored in this memory area, so I think it is possible to create new missions, but only variations of what we have now such as deliveries, assassinations etc.

Oh, and I had a play with FFED3D and the new version works perfectly now.

 

[Spacegamer]

Lots of cool things are possible by editing FFE's memory area. After I finished BUFFET I was messing around with a lot of stuff and even figured out how to 'teleport' into another ship - well, take over another ship, say a one landed on a planet, in real time. It's just a matter of figuring out where things are and how information is stored.

I've not looked at it for over three years, but I think mission information is generated and stored in this memory area, so I think it is possible to create new missions, but only variations of what we have now such as deliveries, assassinations etc.

Oh, and I had a play with FFED3D and the new version works perfectly now.

Excellent.
Would you be able to change the mission text as well? and could they be saved so other could use them?.
Following on from that is it possible to change the number of objects in the solar systems,ie planets,moons and space stations?.
Have you been in contact with the guys doing FFE3D on the Elite games site,they have an English lang section.Iam sure they would have some good suggestions for you.

http://www.elite-games.ru/conference/viewtopic.php?t=47373

 

[Steve]

Lots of cool things are possible by editing FFE's memory area. After I finished BUFFET I was messing around with a lot of stuff and even figured out how to 'teleport' into another ship - well, take over another ship, say a one landed on a planet, in real time. It's just a matter of figuring out where things are and how information is stored.

Now that sounds like fun

Oh, and I had a play with FFED3D and the new version works perfectly now.

Great news. Hope you can release it soon!

 

[whertz]

Excellent.
Would you be able to change the mission text as well? and could they be saved so other could use them?.
Following on from that is it possible to change the number of objects in the solar systems,ie planets,moons and space stations?.
Have you been in contact with the guys doing FFE3D on the Elite games site,they have an English lang section.Iam sure they would have some good suggestions for you.

http://www.elite-games.ru/conference/viewtopic.php?t=47373

Mission text is hard coded into the exe, so you have to make your own mod from the jjffe source or something.

As for objects such as planets and space stations, there is an object list in memory, but figuring it out and figuring out how to 'inject' new objects into memory is not easy, but I think it is possible.

FFED3D is excellent, but I don't think I'd be much help to them or they to me as I don't know much about that side of things, I'm simply hacking the memory area of the game, that's why my trainer works with every version of JJFFE. The FFED3D people are improving the game a lot, but essentially it is exactly the same game, the game variables cannot change without reprogramming the game itself. But, if anyone has any information on the way things are stored and where they are stored such as ship velocity etc., I would be very grateful.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Not only is this fascinating to hear what could be achieved with FFE, JJFFE & FFE3D. It opens up a whole new range of possibilities for us fans.

When it comes to modding the .exe, remember this forum is owned by the company/people who wrote it in the first place. So, If Frontier has no objections to fans modding the .exe file and other parts and they could point you guys in the right direction to where the info is stored etc. it could make things a bit easier for you when it comes to programming.

Maybe if they don't object, a thread on the subject could be a good idea?

What do you guys think at Frontier?

 

[Spacegamer]

Thanks for the answers Whertz.
Look forward to seeing the new version.
If Frontier decides to release the old games maybe they would consider including some editors for the two frontier games.

 

[whertz]

Great work!
What would really rock my ship would be the ability to move forward in time to a specific date. Sometimes you get to hang around waiting for a specific contract or set date where some plot points happens, so so srt of "time-machine" function would be neat now and then.

I've managed to find the address of the date, so time travel is now possible, thanks for the idea!

 

[Anders Lerche]

I've managed to find the address of the date, so time travel is now possible, thanks for the idea!

Oh, getting the idea was not hard at all. It's been building that darn time machine thats so tricky for me! You seem to talk of some sort of time/space continuum with your date and time, so I take it you managed it easily

Look forward to trying the Buffet .

 

[Callum Rowley]

What do you guys think at Frontier?

Finding out about this I'll let you know once I know!

 

[scowie]

I've been doing some modding of the ffed3d.exe myself, using some ship & equipment modding docs I downloaded ages ago. They were for the original game but I updated them for glFFE, and now for FFED3D. I have uploaded them here.

The spreadsheet versions allow you to change the hex addresses easily for the different executables, i.e. jjffe, glFFE and FFED3D. You will need Open Office installed for those, but there are rtf docs in there that contain the same info for ffed3d.exe.


One little mod people might be interested in is fixing the unarmed pirates. I have included instructions for this in the package.

 

[whertz]

I've been doing some modding of the ffed3d.exe myself, using some ship & equipment modding docs I downloaded ages ago. They were for the original game but I updated them for glFFE, and now for FFED3D. I have uploaded them here.

The spreadsheet versions allow you to change the hex addresses easily for the different executables, i.e. jjffe, glFFE and FFED3D. You will need Open Office installed for those, but there are rtf docs in there that contain the same info for ffed3d.exe.


One little mod people might be interested in is fixing the unarmed pirates. I have included instructions for this in the package.

Nice work, although different from what I'm doing (hacking memory area) it is still useful to know especially about the unarmed pirates. I'll have a look and see if I can fix this issue in memory, it should be easy enough as I know how to get the offsets for ships. Then it would just be a matter of giving the ships some nice weapons, maybe some really nice weapons and shields to make them a challenge to fight!

 

[whertz]

I don't know if this has been discussed here before, but I just found out that commander Jameson dies of old age in the year 3317. If I go to that time and let a day pass, the player just dies. You can time travel past this date, even to the year 30000 if you like and you will be fine, as long as you don't let the day end while you are there!

 

[Geraldine]

One little mod people might be interested in is fixing the unarmed pirates. I have included instructions for this in the package.

That used to drive me mad Scowie, thanks for that. Would it be possible to fix this in Frontier too?

And Whertz, I never knew the Commander could die of old age, just goes to show that the Elite games can still surprise us after all these years. Well done to you! When do you think you will have your new version of Buffet finished? I am really looking forward to it, especially so with all the new features your adding.