[W.I.P] New Life for EDBTR :)

[Toffi]

I know this game is kinda old, but it is a unique game; I love it
So I decided to do some tests, what may be possible in the future to give
this game a new chance. (Sadly the game developers aren't working anymore
on this game since 2010 or 2011).

A good method imho is to inject a dll (dynamic link library), so
we were able to 'hijack' some of the gamecode and replace it with
improved and/or bugfixed code then. Or we could add some new features.

A first step I made a few days ago was to hijack the "airAttack.6"
function, which is responsible for dogfights (fighter vs. fighter).

I made a short video ... : Aargh, I'm not allowed to post links here
I'll post a screenshot instead :/

It may be also a good idea to add an editor directly to the game.
The old editor (made by Creeper) is good, but outdated and very slow.

See ya next time..

[warshipbuilder]

Anything you can do that will breathe some life in to this game, will be most welcome.

I wish you good luck and keep us informed!

[Toffi]

ORIGINAL: warshipbuilder

Anything you can do that will breathe some life in to this game, will be most welcome.

I wish you good luck and keep us informed!

Thanks warshipbuilder!

Here is a small update.

The last 2 days I spent my time on adding an editor to the game...
Ok, it's not an editor yet, but I made a lot of listviews which shows
all aircraft, airGroups, locations, pilots, devices, leader and all raids.
I added also a sort function for every listview column.

Next step for me is to figure out how I could edit these values in a user-friendly way and finally
write back the changes to the games memory. But this should be not a big deal, I suppose ...

See ya next time,
Toffi

[UnknownGuy]

That's odd...
fyi: I can't login to this forum with my Toffi account anymore,
so whenever you see a post from UnknownGuy... it's just me, Toffi [:D]

[JeffroK]

Must have upset the apple cart!

Keep going, this is a potentially great game.

[cohimbra]

[&o][&o][&o]

[UnknownGuy]

I've made good progress with my project!
Most all of the relevant game data are now available in the editor.

Also I managed to draw directly to the game screen.
That open up the way to use our own gfx routines.
The possibilities are endless e.g. high resolution aircraft images and so on ...

That's all, folks!

[UnknownGuy]

btw, can somebody email me a defect save game file,
which crashes the game if you replay that turn.

I want to check if I'm able to fix these crashes.

Thank you!

edit: ok, I got the file; thanks!

[chemkid]

.

[UnknownGuy]

ORIGINAL: chemkid

seeing your screenshots, looks like hacking the game rather than modding some files -
brings back some memories... i'd love to mod CoH but that damn code isn't going to let me do shit! [:D]

Well, you're right, chem, currently it's a kind of hacking,
but once my dll injection is fully functional, we can start modding the game files.
You know, better graphics etc.

If this game wouldn't have been abandoned by the developers,
then there would be no need for that kind of hacking, imo.
But I would like to see an improved version of this game!

[UnknownGuy]

added aircraft images to the listview.

[UnknownGuy]

added realtime updates in the Message listview.
added button for highlighting airfields with airgroups.
added button to lock the map to prevent map jumping.
(if you want to watch a special location during a bombing run, for example)

[cohimbra]

ORIGINAL: UnknownGuy
added button to lock the map to prevent map jumping.

[X(] [&o]

[mikkey]

Looks excellent, thanks UnknownGuy!

[UnknownGuy]

added a map to the messages listview (now it looks like the tool "message reader"). [:D]
So it's possible to lock the map in the main window on a specific location and simultaneously
you can follow the regular action in the message listview map.
Ok, perhaps not an important feature, but it was fun for me to code this behavior.

Nevertheless, next week I'll work on the editor again.

Have a nice weekend!

[lecrop]

Amazing work! [&o]

[UnknownGuy]

First attempt to get more infos on the messages listview map.
(Only the players own airgroups are shown yet.)

The small black circle above the group name shows the exact position of these raid.
What do you think? Should I draw the circles in different colors to
identify their current missions? Color white for "Returning to airfield", red for "intercept" or
something like that?

[warshipbuilder]

Colour coding would be nice, that way you could tell at a glance what is the disposition of your aircraft.

I appreciate your work [&o]

[cohimbra]

Agree with warshipbuilder; can I suggest the same colour used ingame (green for approach, black for fight, blue for return)?

[AlterEgo]

Hello, it's me, Toffi aka UnknownGuy.

And it happened again!

So I have to say that I'm very sorry about my current username inconsistency here at the forum.
My first matrixforum account "Toffi" was lost after merging my matrix account with my slitherine account (New Unified Login System).
My second account "UnkownGuy" I lost after changing my email address in the control panel.

Both times Matrix told me they have sent an email to me to confirm the changes,
but I never got emails from Matrix (perhaps I spelled the email address wrong, idk).

So I cant login with my old accounts anymore and because it's easier and faster for me
to create a new account instead of discussing my login problems with Matrix, here
I am back again as "AlterEgo".

I hope this new account last longer than the old ones. *Sigh*
Toffi

-------------------

Back to topic

Thank you guys for the kudos and the feedback you gave to me since the beginning of the project!
I am dependent on your advice and suggestions.

I just stumbled over an issue you probably already know if you playing the game in more detail.
You can see that the III./SKG 10 at pos 951,1186 are trying to attack a target at pos 629,229
several hundreds miles away, and alongside said: the target is not an enemy...
This bug is on my bugfix ToDo-list!