Save game password

[hagamablabla_slith]

Hi Vic, loving the game so far. I just have two quick questions about the save games.

1. What is the password?

2. Why a password in the first place?

[eddieballgame]

Per multiplayer games, you just need to create one. (none for single player)
I managed to screw this up in a game, but resolved it after realizing my goof.

[hagamablabla_slith]

I don't mean the PBEM password. When you open up a save file with an archive tool, the content is locked with a password. I want that password so that I can edit my save file.

[eddieballgame]

I see; I suspect that is a 'dev' secret for now.
If, in fact, knowing the 'password' when trying to extract these files even works; then I suspect 'Vic' will let us know when he is willing to give us access to modding these files.
You can open them with a text editor (notepad++ for example), but not much to see unless you can decipher any codes.

[zgrssd]

All we can read without the password, is see the folder structure. This is to 95% just a renamed .zip container and those do not protect that part. Not the ZipArchive classs (as it does not support encryption), but there are plenty of older options around.
It is one of those "you can not even make a modern word processor without it" things.

Once vic wants us to mod, he could just not put in a password anymore. Or give us the full, uncompressed folder structure hiding in those .zip files.
If he uses AES encryption, there is going to be no easy breaking.

I can think of one particular weakness, but I am to lazy to do it and really do not want to sabotage Vic like that.

[Noldofinwe]

The password to the savegame is pretty easy to find. The temp.txt file is however binary and you need source code/tools to deserialize to an workable object.

[hagamablabla_slith]

Ah well, that's unfortunate. I guess I'll have to wait until real tools come out to cheat then.

[chuck666]

and where is the password to find? resp. what is it?

[BlueTemplar]

Be careful discussing this, this has the potential to screw up multiplayer games by giving players access to information they shouldn't have.

[Nexira]

i mean its been posted on the subreddit and is actually not hard to find for anyone who knows the basics. And you can just use cheat engine to cheat my mate, anything in the shqs stock is 4byte, colonists and recruits are counted as 1 for every hundred, most city and pp shit can be cheated, and so can things like leader stats, it just takes some doing. Opening certain things (most notably the stat card screen) changes the assigned number, so for things like pp you gotta use the 'call govenor' or decision pp cost in order to raise them. Some things, like fate points are more complicated to cheat, as you can only cheat them up to a digit riser, ex 9,99,999 before you need to do something and find them again. Because of the opening strat cards resets, its more complicated to cheat that but still not a big deal if you string search "fatecardpoints" or some such, i dont remember, i only really cheat myself colonists after ive won a planet and try to rebuild the planet to a functioning civilization so im not that skilled with cheats, only figured it out when i was messing around to learn exactly how the mechanics work, important thresholds and the like.

[BlueTemplar]

Then Vic should change (and perhaps harden ?) it.

I doubt cheat engine can help in MP, won't your game just "desynchronize" ?

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Then Vic should change (and perhaps harden ?) it.

I doubt cheat engine can help in MP, won't your game just "desynchronize" ?

Turnbased games usually send the whole savegame over. Ther is no sychronisation issues.

Realtime games use some form of Determinsitic Lockstep to avoid having to send the whole savegame 60 timse/real life second. They can desync.

[BlueTemplar]

Right, I was thinking of Sword of the Stars, but I think you can only *get* desyncs there in the real-time combat portion ? (Though IIRC the warning will stay after during the turn-based portion ?)

Hmm, this sucks, and Shadow Empire doesn't have a mode where orders are given on client computers and moves are executed on a server (like also in Space Empires MP, which uses this mode, while in SP you can have either this mode or the regular one : give order, unit moves immediately),

so this means that Shadow Empire MP is potentially vulnerable to hacking ?

[zgrssd]

ORIGINAL: BlueTemplar

Right, I was thinking of Sword of the Stars, but I think you can only *get* desyncs there in the real-time combat portion ? (Though IIRC the warning will stay after during the turn-based portion ?)

Hmm, this sucks, and Shadow Empire doesn't have a mode where orders are given on client computers and moves are executed on a server (like also in Space Empires MP, which uses this mode, while in SP you can have either this mode or the regular one : give order, unit moves immediately),

so this means that Shadow Empire MP is potentially vulnerable to hacking ?

Yes, the current model is just open roads for cheating.

The PBEM+ design that Slitherine uses in other series still seems capable of avoiding cheating:
1. File is downloaded from server
2. File is kept open for the entire play
3. File is uploaded to server
4. If there is any issue uploading or playing, you have to restart at 1
5. The RNG seed is preserved in the savegame, avoiding most retry issues.

That design makes simple savegame editing near impossible.