Mod-idea: Icognito-mindworms. Would that be doable with a reasonable effort?

[Eadee]

Hi, I haven't done any smac-modding so far so I have no idea how things work in this game.
However there is a feature I'd really like to have in smac/x and I'm even thinking about start modding myself if there is a chance to do this with a reasonable amount of work.

So, here's the idea. Mindworms (and other native life), even captured ones are shown to every player in the color red without information to which faction they belong, except for the faction that comtrols them, this faction alone sees the affiliation and can move them as usual.

Its some kinda the way privateers work in sid meiers colonization (this is where my inspiration came from).

So, as a question to all you modders out there, is that a feature that would be possible in a game like smac/x?

[Buster's Uncle]

I can only say that that makes a lot of sense in the world of the game.  Interesting notion.

[Dio]

Hi, I haven't done any smac-modding so far so I have no idea how things work in this game.
However there is a feature I'd really like to have in smac/x and I'm even thinking about start modding myself if there is a chance to do this with a reasonable amount of work.

So, here's the idea. Mindworms (and other native life), even captured ones are shown to every player in the color red without information to which faction they belong, except for the faction that comtrols them, this faction alone sees the affiliation and can move them as usual.

Its some kinda the way privateers work in sid meiers colonization (this is where my inspiration came from).

So, as a question to all you modders out there, is that a feature that would be possible in a game like smac/x?

I do not know. I know a few potential challenges with this change involve the fact that the game associates the owner of a unit with the colored flag of the faction. The alien units remain under the control of the "Alien" faction. The disapperance of the faction flag with probe teams simply occurs as the game checks the owner of the unit against the other players and skips the flag display section unless the current owner views the unit.

[Eadee]

I do not know. I know a few potential challenges with this change involve the fact that the game associates the owner of a unit with the colored flag of the faction. The alien units remain under the control of the "Alien" faction. The disapperance of the faction flag with probe teams simply occurs as the game checks the owner of the unit against the other players and skips the flag display section unless the current owner views the unit.

So if one would disable the Flags like it is with probe teams on all alien units, and change the graphics of native lifeforms to already contain a red Flag of the correct type one would get a red flag visible for everyone and the owner gets his own flag shown as overlay?

[Yitzi]

Hi, I haven't done any smac-modding so far so I have no idea how things work in this game.
However there is a feature I'd really like to have in smac/x and I'm even thinking about start modding myself if there is a chance to do this with a reasonable amount of work.

So, here's the idea. Mindworms (and other native life), even captured ones are shown to every player in the color red without information to which faction they belong, except for the faction that comtrols them, this faction alone sees the affiliation and can move them as usual.

Its some kinda the way privateers work in sid meiers colonization (this is where my inspiration came from).

So, as a question to all you modders out there, is that a feature that would be possible in a game like smac/x?

Should be.

[Eadee]

Okay, I skimmed through the txt files and tried to decompile the .exe when I was sure I can't do anything like that with the txt-files.
Had no success with decompiling either and found no hints on the web how to do it properly.

Can anyone help me out how to start? Which tools to use?

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

[Yitzi]

Okay, I skimmed through the txt files and tried to decompile the .exe when I was sure I can't do anything like that with the txt-files.
Had no success with decompiling either and found no hints on the web how to do it properly.

Can anyone help me out how to start? Which tools to use?

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

The program is too big to decompile (except as a long process by hand); instead, the way to do it is to get ollydbg (a disassembler/debugger) and use that to figure out what is done where (mainly using plaintext things like alphax.txt to get a "handle" through knowledge of what certain variables and functions do, and using those to get more, etc...I've built up a fairly significant list by this point, with some help from Dio.)

[Eadee]

Thanks for the hint Yitzi!

Sounds like a lot of effort. I'm afraid I won't get far atm since I'm quite busy with family stuff right now. No idea how long it'll take until I have more time to spare. However I'm going to look at ollydbg when the opportunity arises asap I'm just curious about how it works.

[Dio]

Thanks for the hint Yitzi!

Sounds like a lot of effort. I'm afraid I won't get far atm since I'm quite busy with family stuff right now. No idea how long it'll take until I have more time to spare. However I'm going to look at ollydbg when the opportunity arises asap I'm just curious about how it works.

If you have questions about the variables in the memory addresses, than send me a Private Message and I can more than likely provide information on the question.