Assets.ini relocked in BCMG?

[Falstaff]

Another dumb question/statement like thing...

Has Assets.ini been re-locked? I used to be able to play with it. Now I can't. It kicks me back to windows every time. Is there a way for me to unprotect it?

Gee. I like these emoticons. Their neat.

[Viaharo]

Yes unfortunately it has been re-locked (At least for Uc). As for unprotecting it that would be up to the Sc. Hopefully some day he will.

[AlephZero]

This post talks about it, I think it's also disabled for BCMG too...something about added security against cheating in multiplayer or something.

It was cool when it was enabled, I remember trying to get a warmonger to have a research engineer and a cloaking system

[light_gemini]

Well,if you want to have fun messing with it install BCMG without the latest patch.You wont play multiplayer but you will mess with it.

[Supreme Cmdr]

I am going to be unprotecting the UC one, once I put in an mp specific variant which can't be tampered with. If I have time, I will do the same for BCM Gold. If I have time. IF being the operative word.

[Falstaff]

Thanks SC. I tried changing the object definitions to change speed/ shots/ etc.. But that was too damaging to the game balance for me. Having a carrier zip about like a fighter just doesn't feel right. The only change I really liked using that technique was to lengthen the range, damage, and lifetime of the mines. Now mines really are a threat.

The reason I would like to be able to change Assets.ini again is that it is much more realistic to imagine altering the composition of the craft. Removing cargo space to widen bays. Upgrading type of craft carried. Stuff like that.

[ToxicFrog]

On a related note... (although this pertains to BCM at the moment; I'm unsure on whether to get BCMG or just wait for the local game stores to get a clue and realize that UC is out)

How are the checksums calculated? It appears to be a standard 32-digit MD5 checksum, but I've spent a while trying to figure out what the 'original' file looks like so that I can recalculate the checksum myself, and have had no luck. It doesn't appear to be the file with the MD5sum removed, nor with that space replaced with spaces, nulls, 0xFFs, dashes, hashes, underscores, or the space-padded phrase "Battlecruiser Millenium". For all I know it's calculated after first replacing all CRs with LFs and vice versa just to foil modding efforts such as my own.

While it is understandable if you don't wish to tell me how to do this, and my assurances that I won't use this power for evil really won't count for much, I would greatly appreciate the ability to play with files other than assets.ini.

I'm also curious as to why this additional layer of security was implemented when a comparison of checksums with the server should (I believe) suffice, but that's a question for another day.

[jamotto]

quote:

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Originally posted by ToxicFrog:

How are the checksums calculated? It appears to be a standard 32-digit MD5 checksum, but I've spent a while trying to figure out what the 'original' file looks like so that I can recalculate the checksum myself, and have had no luck. It doesn't appear to be the file with the MD5sum removed, nor with that space replaced with spaces, nulls, 0xFFs, dashes, hashes, underscores, or the space-padded phrase "Battlecruiser Millenium". For all I know it's calculated after first replacing all CRs with LFs and vice versa just to foil modding efforts such as my own.

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Well in the assets.ini file for UC each line is terminated by a CR and a LF Except for the checksum which is terminated by just a LF (strange?). So my running theory is that each line is hashed minus the LF and CR and all the hashes for each line are added together and the final hash is written to the file.