Help with editing files

from Sins Forums

I am trying to mod a few things in the game, but I ran into a problem. I downloaded Silent's guide. I went to my game files and tried to open them up in a text file. I tried to open the file Capship_Techbattleship, as per the guide. The first time it opened correctly and displayed properly as per the guide. It looked something like this:

 

TXT
CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP
 BEGIN
 ability:0 "AbilityGaussBlast"
 ability:1 "AbilityFlakBurst"
 ability:2 "AbilityAdaptiveShield"
 ability:3 "AbilityLastStand"
 CanBomb TRUE
 HasBombingLevels FALSE
 BaseDamage 65.000000
 BasePopulationKilled 4.200000
 BombingFreqTime 10.000000
 BaseRange 3000.000000
 BombTransitTime 12.000000
 BombHitEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalPlanetBombing_Hit"
 BombTravelEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalPlanetBombing_Travel"
 BombMuzzleEffectName "Weapon_TechCapitalPlanetBombing_Muzzle"
 NumBombMuzzleSoundIDs 1
 SoundID "WEAPON_TECH_PLANETBOMB_MUZZLE"
 NumBombHitSoundIDs 3
 SoundID "EXPLOSION_SUB4"
 SoundID "EXPLOSION_SUB4_ALT1"
 SoundID "EXPLOSION_SUB4_ALT2"
 CapitalShipType "TECHBATTLESHIP"
 MainViewIcon "MAINVIEWICON_CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP"
 CreationType "FROMFACTORY"
 basePrice
  BEGIN
  credits 12000.000000
  metal 4000.000000
  crystal 2500.000000
  supply 40.000000
  END
 

etc.... 

 

However, and rightfully so, I clicked always open this type of file with "notepad" so I could edit other ones. I did not edit anything, just opened it, then closed it to open something else as I was reading the tutorial guide. When I went to open another file it opened but all coded and weird, not the nice neat text as before. It opens and looks like this:

 

BIN
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×£=š™™>ÍÌL=#   I D S _ C A P I T A L S H I P _ T E C H B A T T L E S H I P _ N A M E *   I D S _ C A P I T A L S H I P _ T E C H B A T T L E S H I P _ D E S C R I P T I O N !   C A P I T A L S H I P P I C T U R E _ T E C H B A T T L E S H I P        I n v a l i d    C a p i t a l S h i p B a t t l e s h i p              C a p i t a l S h i p "   H U D I C O N _ C A P I T A L S H I P _ T E C H B A T T L E S H I P '   H U D I C O N S M A L L _ C A P I T A L S H I P _ T E C H B A T T L E S H I P '   I N F O C A R D I C O N _ C A P I T A L S H I P _ T E C H B A T T L E S H I P    ?      B e a m    C A P I T A L S H I P    A F F E C T S _ S H I E L D S _ A N D _ H U L L    O V E R T I M E    E N E R G Y    B E A M   üB             @œE  `A   €>      €@   B e a m        "   W e a p o n _ T e c h C a p i t a l B e a m H e a v y _ M u z z l e ÍÌÌ=          W e a p o n _ T e c h C a p i t a l B e a m H e a v y _ H i t                  "   W E A P O N _ T E C H C A P I T A L B E A M H E A V Y _ T R A V E L    T e c h C a p i t a l B e a m _ G l o w    T e c h C a p i t a l B e a m _ C o r e   B  €?  €?  €?  €?  €?  €?  €?  €?  @@
   P r o j e c t i l e    C A P I T A L S H I P    A F F E C T S _ S H I E L D S _ A N D _ H U L L
   B A C K L O A D E D    P H Y S I C A L
   A U T O C A N N O N   ØA  FB  FB  ØA @œE  @    €?  zE   
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   P r o j e c t i l e    C A P I T A L S H I P    A F F E C T S _ S H I E L D S _ A N D _ H U L L
   B A C K L O A D E D    E N E R G Y     L A S E R T E C H  €5B             @œE  °@ fff?  úD   
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I don't know why it won't open all nice and neat like before. Does anyone have any advice? Something is not working right, the file isn't opening correctly. I tried opening it with wordpad, the program doesn't understand it, and I can't figure out how to make it open correctly. I tried using the command: open with... and clicked on notepad, but it opens all excrypted or funny. And help would be appreciated!

modding
3,886 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

its encrypted. companies do this with mod riendly games as an intelligance test. if you can figure out how to decrypt it, you probably won't break your game irreparibly. there is a tool called ConvertData that will fix this. i think...

to be honest, I failed the test too. you can get the tool at the downloads tab at the top of the screen.

EDIT:

if you download the mod tools, it comes with all the files decrypted. don't ask me how to re-crypt them though...

they are in the folder "refrence data".

 

good luck!

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

From the research I've been doing, I think that the game files are encrypted in binary code or something to make the game more efficient. It seems that some of the files in other mods I've been downloading to dabble with are also encrypted.

I have the text versions of the "reference data" already. Where is the program or link to that decrypts the files? I think I already found it, bit if so I can't figure out how to use it and so want ot double check to make sure that I have the correct program to begin with.

Thanks for all the help!

Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Download the Forge Tools from the downloads tab. That'll have the latest version of all you need. (Including ConvertData.)

 

:fox:

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

The first is a text file.

The second is a binary file.

Hence TXT and BIN at the start of each.

The binary files execute quicker and thats how the game is shipped.

However, the game is modded using the text files not the binary files. If you download a mod, you will find it mixes binaries with texts, and the text files are the ones that have been changed, and the binaries are the unchanged originals.

As said, if you want to mod the game, then download the modding tools, and use the text version in the reference data directory.