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Frontier: First Encounters Hack by Gid



This page is no longer supported by Gid, so please don't send me any mail about it. I've decided that FFE is really not worth playing, and so do what you can with this information. 
Hope you're not too miffed... Byeee! 


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Now available: Black Space Hack by Ben Jury




ForceCol.exe - TSR that forces Space to be Black in Frontier.
             - By B.Jury (bj2@ukc.ac.uk)
(Program (C) iNTEGRAL SoFTWoRKS 1995 - All Rights Reserved.)




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This page details a method for altering the basic characteristics of ships on Frontier: First Encounters. To change these characteristics, a hand-patch needs to be performed. This is done by altering individual bytes using a hexadecimal editor such as Norton Diskedit (from Norton Utilities). The characteristics I have found in the executable include: 

Price: in Kilocredits Mass: external mass in tonnes. This affects acceleration, fuel usage, hyperspace exit point, and a few other things. Bears no relation to internal capacity. For anideal ship, mass = 1 tonne. Capacity: internal capacity (no drive). This is the storage capability of the ship. A ship with a mass of 1 tonne can hold up to 32767 tonnes of cargo and equipment, while still only having 1 tonne of external mass. These ships are obviously fitted with inertial dampers. Note: hull strength is determined by the difference in hull mass and cargo capacity. It's best to fit shields anyway. Gun mounts: number of gun mounts. In order: Front, Rear, Top Turret, Bottom Turret. Missile Pylons Crew required Drive: There are ten types of drive: 


	Drive number		Drive Name

		00		None
		01		Interplanetary
		02		Class 1
		03		Class 2 
		04		Class 3
		05		Class 4
		06		Class 5
		07		Class 6
		08		Class 7
		09		Class 8 
		0A		Class 1 Mil
		0B		Class 2 Mil
		0C		Class 3 Mil
		0D		Class 4 Mil
		0E		Unknown (Thargoid?)



Forward Acceleration: maximum 60.6G Reverse Acceleration: maximum -60.6G (stored as a negative number) 

This is not an exhaustive list. I have hacked fuel scoop mountings and other characteristics, as they are all grouped together. 

How to perform the hack



1.First you must load firstenc.exe from the British CD-version patch 1.05 (I don't know if this will work for other patches) and go to the offset position of the ship you want to change (see table below). All the hack bytes are relative to this offset. 2.Next, step from the current position to the offset you wish to change: 


	Offset (hex)	Characteristic		Number of Bytes		Range
	   0		Forward Accel.		2			0000-7FFF
	   2		Reverse Accel.		2			FFFF-8000
	   4		Gun Mounts		1			00-04
	   5		Fuel Scoops (?)		1			?
	   6		External Mass		2			0001-7FFF		
	   8		Internal Capacity	2			0001-7FFF
	   A		Price (kilocredits)	2			0001-7FFF
	  10		Crew			1			00-0C
	  12		Missile Pylons		1			00-0A
	  14		Drive			1			00-0E



3.Check that you have the correct position by seeing if the values already there match the previous value of the characteristic you wish to change. 4.Enter in the new value. If the value is two bytes, reverse the bytes. Thus, 7FFF becomes 'FF 7F'. 5.Make the rest of your changes. 6.Save the changes. 7.Exit the editor. 8.Run the game, and test the ship. 



Notes



Make sure you make the ship cheap enough so that you can buy it. There's no point in changing the Griffin if you can't afford it. If you are using a save-game, match the new ship's crew number to your current crew. Firing crew ruins your reputation. Different ships attract different attackers. Viper II's are nice craft, but they attract pirates, although that might be a good thing. Make sure you protect a weak hull (small difference or negative difference between mass and capacity) with many shields. A 1 tonne ship with a class 8 drive can make it quite far across the galaxy with one 4 tonne jump. IMPORTANT: Opponent ships (ie. computer driven) use the same definition. So, if you're armed with a Lanner with an incredible spec, so will the pirates. Pirates never choose interplanetary shuttles, however. 



Hack lookup table

I haven't had time to look up all of the ships. If you feel adventurous, try to find new ships yourself. I do a search through the executable for the mass and capacity (quite distinctive). The 'offset' is six bytes behind this. Make sure that you have got the ship though. There are other identical sequences entirely unrelated.

Feel free to experiment, and if you find any, please mail me!





	Ship Name      Price    Mass  Capacity  Offset
	----------------------------------------------
	Int.Shuttle 	 14 	  8 	  4 	 893AA
	Lifter 		 16	 10 	  7 	 89A16
	Eagle III 	 43	 40 	 22 	 8A854
	Osprey 		 45 	 15 	 11 	 96494
	Krait 		 50 	 35 	 27 	 8AF20
	Gecko 		 66  	 45 	 34 	 8B2A2
	Adder 		 73 	 55 	 40 	 8B656
	Viper		 87 	 65 	 50 	 8B9BA
	Viper II 	 89 	 67 	 52 	 8CC1A
	Cobra I 	 97 	 75 	 60 	 8D72C
	Cobra III 	124 	100 	 80 	 8DF0C
	Asp 		187 	150 	120 	 8E6BE
	Transporter 	241 	200 	160 	 91E4C
	Lanner 		284 	245 	198 	 8E984
	Lion 		348 	300 	235 	 923E8
	I.Courier 	611 	480 	350 	 92A3C
	I.Trader 	954 	700 	525 	 92EDC
	Anaconda       1060 	800 	650 	 9323C
	Puma 	       1265    1000 	825 	 937C4
	I.Explorer     2966    1996    1785 	 94AEA
	Griffin        3403    2425    2184	 961D0





Other hack ideas

I have tried to hack other parts of the game, but have been less successful than with the ship definitions. 

Hyperspace Departure Distance: how far from the planets you leap out of hyperspace. I thought I found this, but it was a red herring. Starting point, balance and ship type: Starting ship would be a great hack, as you could pick the extra ships which you can't usually buy (like the Thargoid ship). For extra information, the source code which was left in the CD-version of the game (EDPMI.SWP before the patch) seems to contain this part. I haven't managed to match this source completely to the executable - there aren't enough magic numbers to match. Starting rank, rating, title and medals: Defeats the whole idea of the game, but then again so do the rest of the hacks. Accelerated time factors: Probably more difficult, but would be very handy. The savegame format: To give extra credits, to change ship type, and to nullify criminal records, etc. Very handy. 



Other FFE Info



FFE Home Page (incl. v.1.05CD patch) 


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<Afbeelding: inferno>Copyright  1995, Tom Gidden
email: gid@cs.bris.ac.uk

