changing starting ships

[Qatu]

 Hey, i've been trying to find a map that has planets in somewhat close proximity for me and my 2 friends with the bonus ships we'd like but with most of the XP enabled 10 minutes didn't make it happen.

 Anyway, i tried saving a game at 0:00 uncompressed and it is somewhat readable, but i don't know what number i would change to modify what bonus ship each of us has. Anyone know?

[Toranth]

For a named player, find the section that starts with "04".  Note:  There is no space, colon, comma or anything between this 04 and the later numbers.
aka, find "|04".  The numbers after that are the IDs of the ship types.
"|04239" is ship 239, the Lightning Frigate.
"|04239:230" is two ships, 239 - Lightning Frigate, and 230 - Spire Corvette.

Just keep adding ":ID" to the list.

For example, here's the important line from a recent game of mine:

22|003:0:12345:2:Toranth:-8888888:1|0123,2:123,2:123,2:123,2|04239:228:242:92|08888888880:80808:888888880|090:101:40:0:0|11False:False:0:0|120: <....>

The highlighted section is the part I'm referring to, that indicates which ships you have unlocked.  Replacing ":92" with ":23" would drop Zenith Mirrors and add Parasites to my list of unlocked ships.

Here's a list of the ships and their ID numbers:

Code: [Select]

003 - Raider
008 - Space Tank
013 - Laser Gatling
016 - Sniper
020 - Armor
021 - Anti-Armor
022 - MLRS
023 - Parasite
024 - Raptor
027 - Space Plane
028 - ShieldBearer
030 - Vorticular Cutlass
031 - Attractor Drone
033 - Infiltrator
034 - SpiderBot
035 - Autocannon Minipod
036 - Teleport Raider
037 - Teleport Battlestation
038 - Bulletproof Fighter
039 - Electric Shuttle
045 - Tachyon MicroFighter
047 - Vampire Claw
048 - EyeBot
049 - Munitions Booster

080 - Zenith Bombard
081 - Zenith AutoBomb
082 - Grenade Launcher
089 - Zenith Electric Bomber
090 - Zenith Sentinel Frigate
092 - Zenith Mirror
093 - Zenith Paralyzer
094 - Armor Booster
095 - Zenith Beam Frigate
096 - Zenith Chameleon
097 - Zenith Polarizer
098 - Zenith Viral Shredder
099 - Impulse Reaction Emitter
100 - Acid Sprayer

130 - Neinzul Youngling Commando
131 - Neinzul Youngling Tiger
134 - Neinzul Youngling Vulture
135 - Neinzul Youngling Weasel
139 - Neinzul Youngling Nanoswarm

157 - Spire Armor Rotter
158 - Spire Blade Spawner
160 - Spire Gravity Drain
161 - Spire Gravity Ripper
162 - Spire Maw
163 - Spire MiniRam
164 - Spire Stealth Battleship
165 - Spire Teleporting Leech
166 - Spire Tractor Platform

204 - Zenith Medic Frigate
205 - Tackle Drone Launcher
210 - Neinzul Scapegoat
211 - Spire Railcluster
217 - Zenith Siege Engine
218 - Zenith Reprocessor
228 - Neinzul Youngling Firefly
229 - Saboteur
230 - Spire Corvette

239 - Lightning Frigate
240 - Zenith Devastator
241 - Neinzul Railpod
242 - Zenith Hydra
244 - Protector Starship
246 - Neinzul Youngling Shrike


245 - Neinzul Combat Carrier
250 - Powerslaver
251 - Lightning Starship
252 - Translocator Starship

Note:  Adding ships doesn't remove them from the potential of an ARS trying to unlock it later, as that's stored in the planet data later in the save file.  No idea what would happen in that case.

[JohntheUrsidae]

":ID" looks too much like an emoticon for me to not say something.

:{D         :ID          :=D        :(D

mustaches!

[Qatu]

THIS WORKS!

 Thanks dude, rolling a fun and interesting map is easy, but getting the ships we want for whatever gimmick was one of the reasons my old gamer group left this game (we never got to play with what we wanted).

 Gonna be setting up some awesome games with my new gamer group now that I got most of them to buy this game. Is there a way to put this information on the wiki for all to see and so it doesnt disappear?

[Kahuna]

changing starting ships should be a feature in the game.

[Arc-3N-4B]

Hm. Science is to be done.

...

What's the ID for Hunter/Killers?

[Qatu]

 Well i've played quite a lot with the possibilities this enabled tonight, and i'll straight out say this is the most fun i've had with ai war in 2 years. Thanks duder!

Examples:
- start with 3 neinzul, unlock mobile shipyard
- spire frigate+medic
- infiltrator+eyebot
- bombard+blade launcher+sentinel

 I can't stop having fun....

[PokerChen]

Is there a way to put this information on the wiki for all to see and so it doesnt disappear?

Discreetly added an addendum w/ link to this thread at the end of the cheats page. You can PM tigersfan for permission to add to the wiki.

[Draco18s]

Wiki editing works again?  Yay!

[chemical_art]

Reminds me of the days where I would slice mods from a prequel of a game to discover that mod still worked.

Glad that finally, one way or another, AI War can finally have a sliver of modding, including without a doubt removing the unnecessary forcing of choosing a map and starter ship rather then now at least choosing your ships(s) with a map you like. It's tedious, unnecessary, and only wastes time.

[Cyborg]

This should have always been a feature. There was some illegitimate reason as to why it wasn't, but I forget. As this game ages, I think we will see this feature added.

[Bognor]

It's something Chris has thought about a great deal.  He explains the logic behind map randomization in detail here.

[chemical_art]

It's something Chris has thought about a great deal.  He explains the logic behind map randomization in detail here.

This may have been true during the early, early phases but this game is so mature with thousands of potential game options (and that is before the millions of map seeds) That I think what not having the feature, which acts purely a time sink, is not fun.

In any case, this will be an example of the pros knowing how to override this bug "feature" while the casuals will be left in the cold. Which is counter-intuitive to the reasons of not being able to choose to begin with, since it is the pros that would abuse it while the casuals wouldn't as much.

At least I won't have to deal with one of the few blights of AI War any more. I've actually had potential game sessions die because I gave up trying to find a half-decent map with the unique combination of three ships I wanted.

[LintMan]

I agree with chemical_art.  I play multi-homeworld and when I start a new game, I usually have some subset of ships in mind to start with (such as pick 3 or 4 of the new ships from the latest expansion), and also an acceptable map arrangement.  Trying to get a map arrangement I like along with a well-positioned set of the bonus ships I want can be quite frustrating.

While you could say "This forces players to make interesting choices", it essentially is just forcing me to hit "new random seed" over and over.  (Or hack the save file, now).

I you won't change this, at the very least could you make the entire map selectable instead of just a subset?  That would at least open up the choices.  As it is, sometimes NONE of the planets are in a part of the map I want to play (ie: they're all at the edge of a concentric map and I want to start in the center, or vice-versa.)

[Cyborg]

For a game that prides itself on customizable difficulty, not having selectable bonuses just seems like stubbornness more than good game design or what is good for the community. We have long been able to decide what's fun for us on an individual level. In this particular scenario, all of the hard-core folks will hack the save file, and everyone else will just put up with it. The multiplayer groups are who really suffer, here.