Editing Memory (RoTK XI)

[Lezard Valeth]

I've put my hands on SIRE documentation (with addresses and assembly codes for the chinese game), thanks to ryan_knight_12.

After partially translating a bit of it I've being able to correlate some addresses and successfully edit a skill on my translated japanese version (a basic test - made Gladdened Heart recover more Will).

My goal is to make a SIRE lookalike (or something like that with cheat engine) to work with the translated japanese version. The problem is: I don't have time (nor skill), so I'd like to know if there is people interested in helping me on this project (we can make it work with english version too).

WARNING: this thread was created by a horrible, evil, nasty, egomaniac jerk (the kind of person that actually works on this kind of useless pet projects despite the scarce personal free time) who aims to meet others of the same kind (if you don't know whether this thread is for you: 1- check if your avatar is a villain; 2- ask yourself if your posts contain code/programs/translations; if both are positive: you're in). So if you're not going to actively contribute: GTFO (keeping the thread bullshit free helps a lot on itself). Consider yourself advised.

By the way, I won't share anything if I don't get anybody to work on this with me and possibly more than me (which seems most likely to happen — RoTK 13 is coming, I'm evil and so on).

[Zetta]

Hello Lezard,

If my understanding is correct, you want us to collaborate on a ROTKXI "Skills Editor" that would enable the \Koei\RTKXI\Media\scenario\Scenario.S11 file edition ?

If so, you can count me in, although I'm more interested in deciphering code or writing a small program than playing ROTK11 itself, which I find to be a bit boring.

I just want to give you a fair warning: I'm still a Python amateur, and depending on the code/tasks that needs to be done, I'm not entirely sure I can handle everything the way a real programmer does. i.e.: I might not be able to implement every feature due to my lack of knowledge and experience in program writing. I might take a lot of time to create something "simple", but I'll give it my best shot.

[Lezard Valeth]

If my understanding is correct, you want us to collaborate on a ROTKXI "Skills Editor" that would enable the \Koei\RTKXI\Media\scenario\Scenario.S11 file edition ?

I see that my first post makes too many assumptions and fails to put people on the same page as me. So let me elaborate.

There are 2 chinese editors out there: "Van's Editor" and "SIRE". Van is able to edit files, like Scenario.S11, SIRE is able to edit the memory allocated by the game (on your PC RAM).

Many gamers are familiar with gameshark, codebreaker, cheatengine, etc, these are tools that allow one to edit memory. There are different levels of cheat, if you want to find the address that stores the "money" value and change it (considering it's static and that developers haven't attempt any protection), all you have to do is scan the memory a few times, discover the address and change it (and save it to a table for future use), other cheats may be a bit more sophisticated and require some assembly coding.

RoTK XI is easy to cheat, all static and unprotected, but SIRE does use some simple assembly coding in order to make some nice things. For example: make new skills (beyond 100) that are the combination of other skills.

I've talked to rk12 (SIRE developer) and got addresses and assembly codes for chinese version, now I want to adapt some of it to japanese version (and maybe english version). But that's a bit too much work for one person, besides I'm not a pro to make a nice app that does code injection, a trainer like killaz did (but it's not a must — we can just make a cheat table for cheat engine).

Anyway, all I've done up to the moment was connect the dots and prove it's possible by making one small change, there is still plenty to be done/studied. Some tasks include:
- Translate documentation from chinese to english
- Remap the addresses
- Test them
- Adapt assembly codes (basically remapping addresses)
- Create a cheat table, maybe a trainer (app that changes the mem used by the game - friendlier than cheat engine)
- More testing ...

A lot of work you see. Probably killaz is the only guy in the forum with expertise in making a trainer, but I don't know if he's still interested ... it took years for me to appear with the codes you know

If so, you can count me in, although I'm more interested in deciphering code or writing a small program than playing ROTK11 itself, which I find to be a bit boring.

I just want to give you a fair warning: I'm still a Python amateur, and depending on the code/tasks that needs to be done, I'm not entirely sure I can handle everything the way a real programmer does. i.e.: I might not be able to implement every feature due to my lack of knowledge and experience in program writing. I might take a lot of time to create something "simple", but I'll give it my best shot.

Well, I don't know if you're still interested, but you have to be sincere with yourself.

I see you're not excited about actually playing the game and this is a rather small revamp. Only you can tell whether you're interested in learning about assembly, cheating in games, code injection, etc (you're probably not interested in the more dull tasks like translating). If the answer is no, then just pass it, not what you're looking for.

Since we're at it, if you're interested in making a scenario.s11 editor, if it's a project of yours, then what I can do to help is post an updated version of the guide with the addresses of this file (I have a draft in the guide already). You could also have a look at Van's Editor, it works for japanese version despite being all in chinese.

[Zetta]

Many gamers are familiar with gameshark, codebreaker, cheatengine, etc, these are tools that allow one to edit memory. There are different levels of cheat, if you want to find the address that stores the "money" value and change it (considering it's static and that developers haven't attempt any protection), all you have to do is scan the memory a few times, discover the address and change it (and save it to a table for future use), other cheats may be a bit more sophisticated and require some assembly coding.

RoTK XI is easy to cheat, all static and unprotected, but SIRE does use some simple assembly coding in order to make some nice things. For example: make new skills (beyond 100) that are the combination of other skills.

I've talked to rk12 (SIRE developer) and got addresses and assembly codes for chinese version, now I want to adapt some of it to japanese version (and maybe english version). But that's a bit too much work for one person, besides I'm not a pro to make a nice app that does code injection, a trainer like killaz did (but it's not a must — we can just make a cheat table for cheat engine).



Anyway, all I've done up to the moment was connect the dots and prove it's possible by making one small change, there is still plenty to be done/studied. Some tasks include:
- Translate documentation from chinese to english
- Remap the addresses
- Test them
- Adapt assembly codes (basically remapping addresses)
- Create a cheat table, maybe a trainer (app that changes the mem used by the game - friendlier than cheat engine)
- More testing ...

A lot of work you see. Probably killaz is the only guy in the forum with expertise in making a trainer, but I don't know if he's still interested ... it took years for me to appear with the codes you know

Whew... That is unfortunately way over my current abilities. I've never done such hacking before and I don't think that I can provide any help to you on this subject. Sorry, it's a misunderstanding on my side.

I see you're not excited about actually playing the game and this is a rather small revamp. Only you can tell whether you're interested in learning about assembly, cheating in games, code injection, etc (you're probably not interested in the more dull tasks like translating). If the answer is no, then just pass it, not what you're looking for.

Then I guess I'll have to go back on my word and cancel my application to your project . I'm really sorry, but it would be too overwhelming for me, especially considering my lack of interest in ROTK XI lately. And considering my lack of knowledge in this domain.

Since we're at it, if you're interested in making a scenario.s11 editor, if it's a project of yours, then what I can do to help is post an updated version of the guide with the addresses of this file (I have a draft in the guide already). You could also have a look at Van's Editor, it works for japanese version despite being all in chinese.

First I will have to finish my randomizer, which still doesn't support all kinds of scenarios (and has a few bugs lying around). But this information can be interesting if we want to change this file or make a scenario editor. It isn't a priority, but if you end up writing it I'd love to see it.

[Lezard Valeth]

No problem. But I feel things might seem more complicated than they actually are. I'd say to people that may read this thread that having the documentation (even google translated) helps immensely. There's no need to be an expert in assembly or finding addresses with cheat engine because everything was found/created already by ryan_knight_12. The idea here is to adapt it so basic knowledge should suffice, not to say that translating doesn't require any knowledge at all.