Request to CA to publish savegame structure

[RedKnight]

Here's a humble request to Creative Assembly to release the details of the savegame structure. Or a utility that lets one read, or read/write the savegame.

This would be after your well-deserved vacation, and any critical bug fixes.

The savegame for RTW (and MTW) uses some sort of native/compressed format that can't be figured out from afar.

Making the savegame available to your community will let us make many add-ons and utilities that will enhance the pleasure for the players. You would be leveraging the strength of us all, with only a quite modest investment on your part. As an example, I'd like to write a util that shows city incomes as a sorted list, and attempts to figure which leaders would best match which cities, to achieve various imperial goals. But it would require accessing many minor details of the savegame.

Please consider this request, as soon as convenient. If anyone else would like to show their support for this idea, please append your sig.

Thanks once again for this great game - and your other ones too, CA!!!

[Beelzebub]

Yeah I'd like to delete or move my large fleet that got stuck on a buggy map tile in my scipii campaign.

[Trousermonkey]

I agree completely. I sketched out a rudimentary campaign MP mod for MTW that depended on understanding the format for savegame files.

MP battles could be setup based on activities done on a communal campaign map. After the results of the MP battle was known we could then tweak a savegame from the campaign to reflect these results. The whole thing could be done through email at it's simplest or could be organized with a website and some clever scripting. I started reverse engineering the savegame format but got distracted before I made much headway.

Clarifying some of the file structures used would go a long way towards helping modders extend the life of the game. Perhaps an even more unreasonable a request would be to provide a SDK we could use to modify how aspects of the game flow, interface, HUD, or map work.

[Colovion]

Yeah that would be cool - and tack on a "allow campaign battles be replayed"

[hoof]

The problem might be if they're using an algorithmically generated data stream to the savegame. What I'm talking about is that they mihgt have a whole bunch of class instances (to use C++ terminology) that each know how to save and restore themselves. The game then takes all the items (armies, city information, faction data), outputs them in some order, and each item knows how to save/restore itself in the data stream.

The reason this is a problem is that in order to describe the savegame structure, they'd almost literally have to give you the source code to the game. The reason is because each item knows how to save itself, but does not require anything outside of itself to do the save. The advantage of this approach is that you can change how that item saves/restores itself without it affecting the save process. You can even use version information to allow newer incarnations of the item read in older savegame data. The disadvantage is that only code written with the game engine can read this file in.

It's kind of like having a group of 100 people, who each write their own notes in a book. Each would wait in line for their turn, and each would use their own handwriting and language. Each knows how to decipher their own section of the book, but not the other sections of the book. To generate an overall "format" for this book would require 100 subsections, describing how each person writes, what language they use, what information they wanted to write about, etc.

Hopefully this will give you an idea of why CA might not give us a savegame structure document anytime soon. I could be wrong in the case of RTW however, but in the projects I've worked on, this is one of the most common ways to save a whole bunch of complex data to one file.

[RedKnight]

Right Beezlebub, it could let us fix a few things ourself, either cuz they're broke or we just want to do it different. Either way, it adds to the game.

And that's right Trouser - it could let people set up entire MP (or solo) campaigns for "what if" or very particular scenarios. If Modders could mod not only the front side (game setup) but also the back (savegames), they could probably do even more powerful things!

The possibilities are many, and *IF* CA could release the structure somehow, they could leverage a whole lot of player power. It could really enhance the game, perhaps with minimal expense on their part.

You could be right, Hoof, it might be a lot to ask. But by the same token, it might not be - and it can't hurt to ask.

Most strategy savegames I've hacked (which is only a half dozen in the past couple of years) were fairly straightforward. Many use XML or some other text form these days. (I'm only talking about strategy games, not FPS.) In the early PC days, everything was practically bitpacked. I was surprised to see CA using 'native' forms - I can only imagine we're seeing a lot of long words and what have you, which would be tons and tons of work to try to figure out. It's not impossible, but I don't want to make a life's mission out of one savegame.

If you're right, then providing a utility might be easier than trying to explain (or of course, give code).

Anyway, anyone who'd like to know the savegame (if possible, of course), please say a word here.