Elite / Frontier BUFFET: New version coming soon.

[whertz]

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.

I was going to just fix some bugs and release v1.1, but I want to add some more cheats and release a v2.0 which will blow you away! Okay, I've found out some really interesting things, I just need to do a bit more experimenting to see if what I have in mind is possible.

I'm working hard on getting 2.0 finished, I've added an extra page for cheats, and a nice new gadget to warp to any date. I'm currently working on the object manipulator, so I'll keep you informed of the progress I make.

As a last note, I'm looking for ideas for new cheats or hacks, if anyone has any suggestions, post them here!

 

[Steve]

As a last note, I'm looking for ideas for new cheats or hacks, if anyone has any suggestions, post them here!

The only thing that springs to mind at the moment is whether the locations ie. coordinates of the starports on the planets can be adjusted. I imagine that sort of thing is hard coded into the ffe exe but I thought I'd raise it anyway, especially as you mentioned an "object manipulator".

 

[whertz]

The only thing that springs to mind at the moment is whether the locations ie. coordinates of the starports on the planets can be adjusted. I imagine that sort of thing is hard coded into the ffe exe but I thought I'd raise it anyway, especially as you mentioned an "object manipulator".

I'll have a look and see if they can be changed.

 

[Geraldine]

Hi Whertz
Thanks for the info! Sounds like it is shaping up really well.
As for ideas, would it be possible with an "object manipulator" to vary the scale of the ships in the game, for example have a mini Boa Freighter with proper mass adjustment so that it would handle like a viper. Sort of like a pocket battleship?

 

[whertz]

Hi Whertz
Thanks for the info! Sounds like it is shaping up really well.
As for ideas, would it be possible with an "object manipulator" to vary the scale of the ships in the game, for example have a mini Boa Freighter with proper mass adjustment so that it would handle like a viper. Sort of like a pocket battleship?

No, that is not possible I'm afraid. The size of objects cannot be changed, and neither can the fully-laden mass (unless you hack the exe or compile your own version).

Other, more interesting things are possible though. I'm thinking of making an "extended" mode of FFE. One idea I had was to make things a bit harder, such as making super police, when the police ships are generated, I can intercept this on the fly and change them to another ship type, give them better weapons, a few shield units etc. Same goes for pirates, I could upgrade their ships too. What do you guys think of this?

 

[Steve]

Other, more interesting things are possible though. I'm thinking of making an "extended" mode of FFE. One idea I had was to make things a bit harder, such as making super police, when the police ships are generated, I can intercept this on the fly and change them to another ship type, give them better weapons, a few shield units etc. Same goes for pirates, I could upgrade their ships too. What do you guys think of this?

Sounds intriguing, especially the souped-up police. Not that I have any reason to fear them, you understand but as the game seems to generate a lot of them at once, it's probably best not to make them too strong

 

[Geraldine]

One idea I had was to make things a bit harder, such as making super police

Yea!!! Bring em on! No energy bombs though!

 

[scowie]

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

Probably. I guess you would just need to find the hex addresses for the ship records. You can do this by searching for the first few bytes of a ship's data fields, e.g. an Osprey begins "7B 39 F8 EE 01 00 0F 00" so try searching for that.

Hi Whertz
Thanks for the info! Sounds like it is shaping up really well.
As for ideas, would it be possible with an "object manipulator" to vary the scale of the ships in the game, for example have a mini Boa Freighter with proper mass adjustment so that it would handle like a viper. Sort of like a pocket battleship?

There is a zoom field in the ship records, which I believe controls the size that ship models are displayed at, although this may only refer to how they are displayed when you view ships for sale in a shipyard, I'm not sure. And I dont know whether this is still used in FFED3D with it's replacement models.

You can certainly change a ship's mass by hex-editing the .exe

 

[Geraldine]

Thanks Scowie. The reason I asked about Frontier was despite FFE3D being around, I still like to go back to my Amiga version running through Amiga Forever. Unarmed pirates were really annoying. Hawk Airfighters being the worse culprits. It didn't feel right shooting them, often I would just let them follow me until they either crashed into their fellow pirates or myself if I had a big enough ship. I will dig out my hex editor.

 

[potsmoke66]

would it be possible to move ship thrusters or pos-lights positions, to fit them to a new shape (ffed3d), i asked the russians about it for "tris.ini" but didn't get a helpful answer. i remember there's a color byte in frontier (not for all ships), is it possible to revive that, setting the color of some ships? or use it to load different skins would be great.

 

[whertz]

would it be possible to move ship thrusters or pos-lights positions, to fit them to a new shape (ffed3d), i asked the russians about it for "tris.ini" but didn't get a helpful answer. i remember there's a color byte in frontier (not for all ships), is it possible to revive that, setting the color of some ships? or use it to load different skins would be great.

I only change stuff in FFE's memory area, so what you mention here would only be possible by hacking FFED3D itself.

 

[potsmoke66]

as i remember color is stored in memory (and savegame of course) the apropriate bit (for 8 basic colors/skins) could be set in the shipyards list and in a save game in ships spec
refer to this Frontier Objects.txt by Theunis de Jong, it's for FE2 of course but maybe it helps, look under "Material Parameters" (maybe you already know this file).
sorry i forgot where i downloadet it originally from.

 

[potsmoke66]

play colonial conqest!

 

[whertz]

as i remember color is stored in memory (and savegame of course) the apropriate bit (for 8 basic colors/skins) could be set in the shipyards list and in a save game in ships spec
refer to this Frontier Objects.txt by Theunis de Jong, it's for FE2 of course but maybe it helps, look under "Material Parameters" (maybe you already know this file).
sorry i forgot where i downloadet it originally from.

Are you sure colour is stored in memory? Two of the same ship cannot be different colours. The objects file you mention here is referring to data stored in the executable file. This is similar, but different to what is stored in ram. Let me give you an example. If you were to hex edit the executable file and give your ship a faster forward thrust, bigger cargo capicity etc., EVERY ship of that type in the game will have the new spec. Same if you change the colour and appearance somehow. If you were to save the file after changing the colour, it would not save that information, so if you loaded the save file into an unhacked FFE, it would look as though it hadn't been changed.

Now, when an object such as a ship is 'spawned' in FFE, it has it's own set of variables, including forward thrust. It doesn't have any variables in ram to say how the ship should be displayed or what colour it should be, this information is hardcoded, unless of course you change the exe.

 

[DraQ]

Different ships of the same type can and have different skins in both FE2 and FFE.

 

[whertz]

Different ships of the same type can and have different skins in both FE2 and FFE.

Can you give an example of this? Which ships have more than one skin?

EDIT: Nevermind, I found out. You know, I never really knew there were different textures for the ships. I take what I said about the colour variable back, it is stored in ram. That means I can add a new cheat to change the texture of the ship.

 

[potsmoke66]

thanks

 

[Steve]

That means I can add a new cheat to change the texture of the ship.

Sounds like Buffet v2 is going to be something special.

Soon, please!

 

[whertz]

Sounds like Buffet v2 is going to be something special.

Soon, please!

Don't get too excited about the texture thing, I mean I can change the texture of the ship, but only what is already in the game, not loading your own texture or anything like that!

Yes, BUFFET2 is coming along nice, I've not been working on it as much lately, but I'm getting back into it. I need some more cheat or hack ideas. I've pretty much found most things, but like the texture cheat, there are still some left.

I've made a second screen of cheats to the program, and it's looking a bit bare at the moment. One cheat I was thinking of is on my object viewer, being able to select a ship that is nearby and taking it over! hahaha, you could teleport into a pirate's ship and attack the other pirates it is with. What do you think of this? Should I implement this or something else?

 

[Steve]

I've made a second screen of cheats to the program, and it's looking a bit bare at the moment. One cheat I was thinking of is on my object viewer, being able to select a ship that is nearby and taking it over! hahaha, you could teleport into a pirate's ship and attack the other pirates it is with. What do you think of this? Should I implement this or something else?

I see no reason not to implement it. Players can decide for themselves whether they want to use the cheat or not.

As for further ideas, it's difficult to know what to suggest without knowing what's possible. Earlier in this thread I asked whether it was possible to adjust the coordinates of the spaceports on the planets' surfaces, mainly to avoid the problem of landing pads in mid-air or on "water". Without knowing exactly how Buffet works, beyond the fact that it changes what's being held in memory, I don't know how realistic that request is