If you've got any comments or questions, please send them to NuclearWessels at hotmail.com,

thanks, and enjoy! dave

• Getting started
• General walkthrough (db cleaning and editing)
• Editing a DB
• Map edits
• Tension (politics/alliances) edits
• Campaign edits (mission list, race list, turn length, etc)
• Shipyard edits (which ships are for sale)
• Player edits (player accounts)
• Ship edits (player's ships)

GETTING STARTED

Where to get it: the current version is located here http://www3.telus.net/NuclearWessels/sfc/downloads/EDDBEDIT.exe

Two big things before you fire it up:

1. Make a backup of the current db files before you let the editor screw with things (the db files include these four: Sfc2Spd.sds, camp.info, db.info, version.info)

2. To make sure copies of the current shiplist and fighter list are in the same directory as the editor itself (I know I know, that's sloppy, but lots about this thing is !

When you fire the beastie up, it will ask you which file contains the db -- usually Sfc2Spd.sds unless you've been playing with filenames

It will then give you one of three options:

• C - to clean the DB
• E - to edit the DB
• R - to generate a text report about the DB

Whichever option you pick, it will ask for the name of the output file. If it's a report, call it WHATEVERYOULIKE.txt otherwise call it WHATEVERYOULIKE.sds (the new cleaned or edited db)

WALKTHROUGH:

(1) Create an editing folder

(2) Copy EDDBEDIT, shiplist.txt, ftrlist.txt, Sfc2Spd.sds, camp.info, db.info, version.info to that folder

(3) Create a backup folder

(4) Copy Sfc2Spd.sds, camp.info, db.info, version.info to that folder, just in case the editor blows something up

Now I make three passes through the editor:

(5) First pass, cleaning


(a) Double-click the editor
(b) Specify Sfc2Spd.sds as the input file name
(c) Answer Y or N to the two questions about single-player and OP/not
(d) Select C for clean
(e) Enter tmp.sds as the name of the new, cleaned DB

(6) Second pass, editing (if any)


(a) Double-click the editor
(b) Specify tmp.sds as the input file name
(c) Answer Y or N to the two questions about single-player and OP/not
(d) Select E for edit
(e) Enter Sfc2Spd.sds as the name of the new, cleaned DB
(f) Make any editing changes desired (see guidelines below)

If you don't need to do any edits, then skip step 6 and just rename tmp.sds to Sfc2Spd.sds.

(7) Third pass, reporting

(a) Double-click the editor (b) Specify Sfc2Spd.sds as the input file name (c) Answer Y or N to the two questions about single-player and OP/not (d) Select R for report (e) Enter report.txt as the name of the text report file

(8 ) Copy Sfc2Spd.sds back to the appropriate db/saves file to replace the old one

(9) Fire up the game/server and cross your fingers

EDITING THE DB

OK, so you've put the shiplist/ftrlist in place, backed up the current .sds file, fired up EDDBEDIT, and selected the Edit option.

NOTE: one thing I have noticed, is that bugs are more likely to crop up if you do lots of different changes in a single pass. You're probably better off to do the map changes in one run, the player changes in a second run, etc etc.

You'll see a short blurb of stuff scroll past as it reads through the database:

finished reading prelim data
finished reading campaign data
finished reading initial map data
finished reading political data
xxxxx object specified
Getting objects:
finished with input file

After that, you'll see a short disclaimer telling you not to trust this thing, there is no undo facility if you do something unintentional etc, and reminding you to MAKE BACKUPS BEFORE YOU MESS WITH YOUR DB

===============================================
DISCLAIMER:  blah blah blah blah
===============================================

Finally, you'll get to the main edit menu, where you get to pick what kind of mayhem you intend to perform.

Enter Q to quit
   or P to edit a player's statistics or ship
   or T to edit the political tensions
   or M to edit the map
   or C to edit other campaign data
   or S to edit a ship in the shipyards

Whichever action you pick (except quit), you'll come back to this menu once you've finished it.

I'll go through each of the five editing categories seperately

MAP EDITS

OK, so you'd like to edit the map, so you chose the 'M' option above.

You should get a menu looking something like this:

Enter A to modify ALL hexes simultaneously
   or R to modify a rectangular block of hexes
   or I to modify hexes individually
   or Q to quit

• (A) provides you with a fixed set of actions you can perform to modify every single hex on the map.

• (R) provides similar options, but allows you to specify a range of rows/columns on the map, and changes will only be applied to hexes within that block.

• (S) provides you with the opportunity to substitute one feature type for another throughout the map, e.g. change all base stations to battle stations, or change all klingon hexes to federation, or change all DV 10 hexes to DV 20, etc.

• (I) provides you with a more extensive set of modification options, but you can only apply them one hex at a time.

• (Q) takes you back to the main edit menu

If you select A, the (hopefully self-explanatory) options you get are:

Enter R to reset all current hex DVs to fifty percent of their maximum
   or M to set all Econ values to match the hex DV values
   or D to add a fixed amount to all hexes maximum DVs
   or d to add a fixed amount to all hexes current DVs
   or E to add a fixed amount to all hexes maximum Econ
   or e to add a fixed amount to all hexes current Econ
   or I to initialize all DV and Econ values to EDpresents
   (HW:100, Core:50, SB:40, BATS:25, Colony:20, BS:15, Empire:10, Neutral:5)
   or anything else to quit

If you select R, you will be prompted to enter the x and y (column and row) coordinates for the upper left and lower right corners of the map region you would like to modify.

Once you have entered those, the (hopefully self-explanatory) options you are presented with are:

Enter D to set a specific DV value
   or d to change DVs by a set amount
   or E to change Econ by a set amount
   or H to reset all DVs to half of their maximums
   or R to set a specific empire type
   or C to set a specific cartel type
   or T to set a specific terrain type
   or anything else to quit

If you select S, the substitution options you are given are:

Enter B for bases
   or P for planets
   or T for terrain
   or D for max DV
   or E for econ
   or R for race (empire)
   or C for cartel
   or Q to quit

Enter R to set the owning race and cartel (will show the current ones)
   or B to set the type of base (will show the current type)
   or P to set the type of planet (will show the current type)
   or T to set the type of terrain (will show the current type)
   or D to set the maximum DV value (will show the current max)
   or d to set the current DV value (will show the current dv)
   or E to set the maximum economic value (will show the current max)
   or e to set the current economic value (will show the current value)
   or C to cancel

Whichever option you pick, you'll be asked to pick from a set of available choices (e.g. 1 for LP, 2 for Defsat, etc) You'll then be given a choice to either continue editing hexes, or dropping back to the main edit menu.

TENSION EDITS

OK, you want to change the alliances in the campaign, so from the edit choices you chose 'T' to edit the political tensions.

You are now given four choices:

Pick what you want to do:
   P - to edit the tensions between a pair of races
   S - to have a race switch sides 
   T - to change the tension level at which races are treated as allies/neutral/enemies
or Q to quit

Each race has an attitude towards each other race, represented as a value in the range 0 (allies) to 1000 (enemies).

If you selected 'P', to edit relationships between a pair of races:

First you'll be asked which race's attitude you wish to change, then you'll be asked which race they're going to feel differently about. The lists will be presented as a set of numbered choices, e.g.

Enter the race whose attitude you wish to change
Enter the race whose tension you wish to modify:
Enter 0 for Federation
     or 1 for Klingon
     .....etc... (you'll see a full list of the races and cartels)

That's for the first race, then you'll get a similar choice for the second race, e.g.

Now enter the other race
Enter the race whose tension you wish to modify:
Enter 0 for Federation
     or 1 for Klingon
     .....etc...

If you selected 'T' to change the neutral/ally/enemy boundaries:

You'll be asked to specify what percent threshold defines a race as allies, e.g. if you want tension levels of 350 and below to represent allies, then use 35.

Once you've done that, you'll be asked to specify what percent threshold indicates the upper limit on neutrality, e.g. if you want tension levels above 650 to be enemies then use 65. (Technically that's an oversimplification, but it's close.)

If you selected "s" to have a race switch sides:

You'll be asked to select which race

Enter 0 for Federation
   or 1 for Klingon
...
etc

This will automatically reverse the tensions between this race and all others (e.g. 0 becomes 1000 and vice versa, 100 becomes 900 and vice versa, etc.)

CAMPAIGN EDITS

The Campaign Edits ('C' under the main edit menu) handle things such as the mission list, era dates, number of accounts, etc.

Quite a number of misc. items are handled here, but testing of some of them has been rather spotty.

The options you're given should look something like:

Enter D to modify the difficulty level
   or Y to modify the number of turns per year
   or L to modify the length of a turn
   or E to modify the start dates for eras
   or A to modify the maximum number of accounts
   or P to modify the maximum number of people playing
   or C to modify the campaign name and description
   or V to modify the save game version
   or S to modify the single-player captain name
   or T to modify the single-player trigger mission/prestige
   or R to modify the playable race list
   or M to modify the mission list
   or Q to quit

IIRC, there have been bugs noted in removing missions from the mission list (though adding/changing seems ok), and you can get some funky behaviour if you play with the time (turns) settings too much.

Otherwise, hopefully, the fields are mostly self-explanatory

SHIPYARD EDITS

So you chose 'S' to edit ships currently in the shipyards ...

You are asked to enter the ID number for the specific shipyard vessel you wish to edit.

What ID number you ask? Well, to get it, you'll need to run the report option on the database, then go search through the resulting file. Descriptions of shipyard vessels will begin with (surpise) "Shipyard vessel ", followed by a number that is their ID.

Make sure you enter an integer value, or this will crap out on you for sure, and if it finds a vessel with that ID it will give you a chance to perform all sorts of modifications on it (see the notes below on modifying player ships -- the options will be the same).

PLAYER EDITS

OK, you want to edit either a player's account or their current ship(s), so you chose 'P' on the main edit menu.

First, you need the EXACT name of the player whose account you want to modify (correct spelling, capitalization, etc etc).

Note that the database report option produces a list of all players near the start of the report, giving their correct name on the server.

Once you've gotten the name right, you'll be presented with a set of options:

Enter H to modify the hex the character isin
   or R to modify their race
   or G to modify their glicko
   or P to modify their current prestige
   or L to modify their lifetime prestige
   or E to modify their email address
   or N to modify their name
   or K to modify their rank
   or W to modify the hex to treat as their homeworld location
   or S to end this segment and move to to the player's ships

Hopefully most of those are self-explanatory, with additional choices provided in the followup to your selection of course.

Once you're done with the modifications listed, OR if you want to move straight along to modifying the player's ship(s), select the S option.

You'll get a prompt double-checking whether or not you want to edit their ships (sorry, I know the interface really needs cleaning up), e.g.

Ending character modification, moving on to ship modification

Do you wish to edit the player's ship(s)? (Y or N)

SHIP EDITS

OK, you wanted to edit a player's ship(s), so you've gone through all the song and dance in the player edit section above.

Here you're finally presented with a somewhat length menu of choices:

Enter T to assign a new ship type from the shiplist

   or R to repair all ship systems
   or S to supply full load of parts, marines, t-bombs, drones, and fighters
   or F to modify the ship fighters

   or E to edit ship (non-weapon) systems
   or D to edit existing ship drone systems

   or W to edit existing ship weapon (non-drone) systems

   or B to edit ship BPV
   or C to edit ship EPV (economic bpv)
   or H to modify ship hull class
   or N to modify ship name
   or P to change the player race for the ship
   or Q to quit editing this ship

If you select T then you'll be prompted to enter the new ship type (e.g. R-BH) and all the appropriate ship data will be rewritten based on whatever the shiplist says that ship type should have.

If you select E, D, or W then you'll be asked to make changes to individual ship systems (e.g. the ship currently has 7 boxes of right warp engine, what would you like to change it to?)

Hopefully most of the alterations are, again, reasonably self-explanatory.

If the player has more than one ship, you'll be taken through this menu once for each ship