Privateer: how to cheat!!
Robert Barnwell
Greetings, is anyone else out there as frustrated as I am with the
game Privater? Well, I hacked around a bit and came up with a way to
make the game more FAIR... in other words, make the game a bit easier
to play (on the arcade level).
Now, if you don't have a decent hex editor (like the Norton Disk
Editor) then unfortunately, this won't help you out at all. My advice
to you is: GET ONE!!!!! If you'd ever like these instructions re-posted
or would like to contact me, send E-mail to robert....@enest.com
or send private/routed RIME mail to Robert Barnwell (routed to ->8 ) in
the Common conference
enjoy!
Bob Barnwell
Swansea, Mass 11/15/93
------------------------------------------------------------------------
First off, I don't believe in any kind of money cheat for this game.
The whole point is to fly missions and trade goods in order to make money to
upgrade and purchase new ships. I know a few people out there have
dived into their .SAV files and HEX-Edited themselves 2 million
credits!!! Big deal, where's the fun in that?
I just want to actually have a chance at surviving being jumped by 4
retros while flying a Tarsus!!!!!
Here's what we're going to do:
1. reduce the strength of all the weapons carried by enemy ships to
approx. .9 cm (half that of the laser)
2. since no other ships carry the neutron gun, let's make the neutron
gun the most powerful weapon ever to be fired in the Gemini
Sector!!!!!!!
3. Let's reduce the price of the neutron gun to about 10 credits so
when you first start off the game, you'll be able to equip your Tarsus
with two of the super weapons!!!! (at a cost of 20 credits!)
Let's get a grip on how the programming handles armor penetration. The
following values are actually used by the game:
laser=20, mass driver=26, meson blaster=32, neutron gun=62,
particle cannon=43, tachyon cannon=50, ionic pulse cannon=54
plasma gun=72, dumb fire miss=130, heat seekers=160, image rec &
f-foe=175, proton torpedo=200
we're going to make the neutron gun=255 (or 25.5 cm) and all other
weapons=10 (or 1 cm damage) We won't be touching the missiles because
hey! there has to be SOME challenge!!
Fire up the ole disk editor and edit the file: OBJECTS.TRE
let's beef up the neutron gun:
goto offset: 39FA6B The data at this offset should read:
A6 00 00 00 10 00 3E
If you DO NOT see this data, then check that you're at
the right offset (the beginning of the file should be 00000000)
If you STILL can't find this data, it's possible you might have an
updated version of the game... try using the SEARCH function to look
for the data.
The "A6" is the refire delay, "10" is the energy use and "3E" is the
armor penetration.
change this data from: A6 00 00 00 10 00 3E
TO: 40 00 00 00 02 00 FF
This will make the weapon fire a hair faster than the laser, energy
use almost nothing, and armor penetration= 25.5 cm (a real SUPER WEAPON)
here are the changes to make the other weapons' armor penetration =
1.0 cm:
offset: from: to:
39FAA5 20 0A
39FAD9 36 0A
39FB0D 1A 0A
39FB41 2B 0A
39FB75 14 0A
39FBA9 48 0A
39FBDD 32 0A
Save all these changes and edit the file: GAMEFLOW.TRE
offset: from: to:
75E0F 88 13 0A 00
76365 88 13 0A 00
This will reduce the price of the Neutron Gun from $5000 to $10
Save these changes and you're all set! I recommend starting over from
scratch, but if you want to continue with your current saved game, don't
forget to sell whatever weapon you're using and buy Neutron Guns!!!!!!!
With the Neutron Gun, you really don't need missiles anymore, so sell
those off as well as just put a tractor beam in the front of your ship.
Don't waste too much time trading goods between planets, use the mission
computer as often as possible to make money. When you have enough, buy
a jump drive and join the guilds ASAP. Pretty soon you'll be flying
around in a decked-out Orion with level 5 shields and engines...nothing
will touch you... just pray you don't come across another ship with
Neutron Guns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAVE A BLAST!!!!!!!
... "E.T. never phones home." -- E.T.'s Mom
---
ş Blue Wave/QWK v2.12 ş