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Author Topic: String table haxoring  (Read 1402 times)

Jeoshua

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String table haxoring
« on: March 23, 2011, 09:26:20 pm »
Before I waste my time, I have a crazy idea.  Is it possible to hack the string table to change the messages you get when different events happen?

"Urist McLiason is dissapoint" when a diplomat leaves unhappy.
"Dumas McNotagoodswimmer has died" when they drown.

Like actually those phrases, not the real names XD
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Quote from: Encased in burning magma on March 27, 2011, 02:11:50 am
I like fortresses because they are still underground.

Aramco

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2011, 09:49:01 pm »
...


...


I hope so.
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Andux

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2011, 10:58:01 pm »
Quote from: Jeoshua on March 23, 2011, 09:26:20 pm
"Urist McLiason is dissapoint" when a diplomat leaves unhappy.

Easy enough; that string is stored outside the executable. Drop this in your <DF install>\data\announcements folder.

No idea why all the all the announcement/dipscript strings are stored as compressed binaries ??? but whatever.

Quote from: Jeoshua on March 23, 2011, 09:26:20 pm
"Dumas McNotagoodswimmer has died" when they drown.

I think that one is hardcoded; it could be replaced, but only with some heavy-duty memory-hacking code-injection voodoo.
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Jeoshua

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2011, 11:07:57 pm »
Wait so they're in external files but compressed? Can I run these through unzip or something to crack them open?
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Quote from: Encased in burning magma on March 27, 2011, 02:11:50 am
I like fortresses because they are still underground.

Andux

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2011, 11:38:34 pm »
The compression seems to be the same as what 40d used for saves (zlib-compressed blocks), so my old .dat tools should work.

http://meepo.dnsalias.org/files/DwF_dat-tools.zip

... I should probably think about folding those in with the rest of my save tools on DFFD. {edit: Done.}

Uncompressed struct looks like:
Code: [Select]
LineCount: int32
Line: array[1..LineCount] of struct:
LineLen32: int32 (same as LineLen)
LineLen: int16
Text: array[1..LineLen] of char
« Last Edit: March 26, 2011, 02:48:46 am by Andux »
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Jeoshua

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2011, 12:20:33 am »
Slick.  Thanks muchly.
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Quote from: Encased in burning magma on March 27, 2011, 02:11:50 am
I like fortresses because they are still underground.

0x517A5D

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2011, 08:52:36 pm »
Quote from: Andux on March 23, 2011, 10:58:01 pm
Quote from: Jeoshua on March 23, 2011, 09:26:20 pm
"Dumas McNotagoodswimmer has died" when they drown.

I think that one is hardcoded; it could be replaced, but only with some heavy-duty memory-hacking code-injection voodoo.

Data injection, really.  You use a weird API call to allocate a chunk of memory in the DF process, put your new string in there, find the reference to the old string in the DF code segment, and patch that to point to the new string.

I've played with this a little bit, a few versions ago, and can contribute sample source code and some technical help if someone wants to try.  Reply to this thread or PM me.
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RenoFox

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #7 on: July 11, 2011, 06:58:38 pm »
Is the DwF_dat-tools.zip still available somewhere? The old links dont work.
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Andux

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2011, 12:14:55 am »
Quote from: RenoFox on July 11, 2011, 06:58:38 pm
Is the DwF_dat-tools.zip still available somewhere? The old links dont work.

Undat2 and redat2 can now do the same thing with the -x switch; also, there's WTFTools for dealing with string table type stuff.
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RenoFox

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Re: String table haxoring
« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2011, 06:33:05 am »
Thanks, although after unpacking and repacking fortressintro file, it gives an error if even a single character was changed in the file. Unpacking and repacking the file without changes doesn't seem to affect it though.
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