How to blow up the .exe

[Kraellin]

ok, here's a warning for all you mod freaks. i'm somewhat adventurous in what i attempt to do at times and i tend to take some rather non-standard routes at times.

for the last two days, on and off, i've been tinkering with making fire bombs for mtw. yeah, fire bombs ;) i thought it would be fun to have some greek fire or something that at least could simulate it.

well, i got it to work, but it actually re-writes the .exe when i do it, so i wont be releasing the details. mind you, i didnt re-write the .exe myself. the mod decided this thing was just too far gone and changed the .exe and even changed the name of the .exe to: 'some-Medieval_TW.exe'. cute, eh? apparently this is some sort of 'safety' feature CA put in here to keep you from using the .exe in mp and cheating or something. not real sure on that point.

so, if i'm not releasing the details, what's the point of this post? well, basically to warn folks that not all modding is safe and that it's best done on a duplicate copy of the game. even swapping my original files back in wouldnt work to restore the game and i ended up having to re-install the game and the patch. works fine now, but you can wreck the bloody thing with something seemingly innocuous. i swear. really i didnt touch the .exe.

oh heck, why not. you guys are bright, right? you wouldnt trip over your own feet or anything or release a mod that others would use to wreck someone else's .exe files, right? well, i believe you wouldnt, but a public posting might give someone else some bad ideas, so i'm not making it public. i'll see if there isnt another way around it and release it then, maybe.

at any rate, be warned. it's no big deal to have to re-install or anything, but, do thoroughly check your mods so that you arent releasing something that can wreck someone else's game.

btw, the firebombs were pretty cool :)

K.

[Alrowan]

ill keep that in mind

[Wellington]

Kraellin,

Any chance you can point us in the right direction. I'm particularly interested in this as it appears to be related to unit modding.

How about telling us what NOT to change (in general terms), as opposed to detailing your specific chamges? In other words "steer clear of amending such-and-such a file"?

[Lion King]

i am just learning some decent programming languages (visual basic and later C#)... how do you hack into EXEs? do you use the Development kit or some other program? hex editing?

[ICantSpellDawg]

i thought naptha was almost the same thing as greek fire?