Save files, hex editors, help from CA?

The next step in my MP campaign is to include battles. To do this I need to read some info from (but not edit) the .sav files. I'm not great with Hex, but I've had a look anyway.

What I need to do is lookup the name of a general, and read off the details of his army. I've found the section in the save file which deals with armies (simply by finding that the unit names and portrait file locations are text strings).

I know that some work on the sav files has been done before, does anyone know the format of this part of the sav file? For example, which bits refer to number of men, experience etc...

This is where CA could give me a hand, just a bit of info on the layout of sav files.

Heres a slightly more advanced question (again possibly for CA), when you save a game just before a battle, if you then load that save, the battle screen is still open and you have to play the battle. How does this work, is it just a section which says that this general has engaged another, or does it store details of the battle seperately or what? Could I have a hand here too.

I hope this isn't too much to ask.

Many many thanks, :bow:

I think i remember someone having made a save file editor but im not really sure.

Yeah there is, there is a download link floating around the Org somewere

yes, I believe it edits very simple stuff like options, but I'm going to try to get in touch with whoever developped it

Unfortunately the Rome savegames are just a binary data stream which is read and dispatched by the game - easy to code and maintain, but kinda tough to document :san_lipsrsealed: There will be a data chunk of that sort somewhere in the stream, and it will be seperate and relate to the Battle code object. Hopefully that is of some use...

Eww that's ugly.
I'd do it just like that :san_rolleyes:
Guess you'll have to try around with data types and offsets... I guess it's little endian, though, to save you some trouble :san_wink: