Modding settings.txt OK for stock PBW games?

[Fyron]

capnq said:

If a player turns on "Show Planet Names", the hidden planets' names will reveal their positions.

Pretty sure that this was fixed in one of the later Gold patches.

geoschmo said:
The "mask background objects" setting doesn't make invisible objects visible. They are either visible or invisible depending only on game factors like the obscuration of the nebulae and the players sensor level. What the mask background objects does is when they do become visible due to sensors they will have a funky square around them if they are in a nebulae unless you turn that on.

Yes. Masking refers to transparency masking, not making images invisible.

[Fyron]

This doesn't look good... I was making a list of which settings are safe to change and which are not, but ran into some bizarre problems. I created a multiplayer game in stock SE4 and a test mod where I planned to change various settings to see what causes incompability and what does not do so. No matter what I changed in the test mod, I could always load the savegame. Planet Value settings, Pop Modifier settings, Characteristic Cost settings, etc. I even processed some turns with the stock game data files and could still load the turn in my test mod. When I loaded the savegame in the test mod, the data from Settings.txt was read and used. So, my planet would have 10 times the production it should. When I processed the turn with the stock data files, the resources actually generated were what they should have been, not reflecting the increased value in the test mod.

SE4 does not seem to check anything in Settings.txt when loading the savegame. Can someone please confirm this?

[Aiken]

You're right. It doesn't check for changes in settings.txt file. I changed Mood Jubilant Modifier in adamant mod for the sake of visual obviousness, loaded a pbw game and now my jubiliant planets have +900% production.

[Fyron]

I don't think there are many cheaters out there at all... It is not that bad anyways. The settings data used for the actual game values is from the host mod's data files, not whatever a player would do to their own copy. Unless the host is processing the turn manually (which you can see from the news logs, as there is a different message when the host uploads a turn as opposed to PBW doing it automatically), there is nothing to worry about. A mod with wacky settings would have to be installed on PBW, and the PBW admins are quite willing to hunt down cheaters and such...

[geoschmo]

Yeah, this is a head scratcher. I thought for sure that the game checked for some of these changes. Apparenlty not. But this can't be used to cheat in any way that I can see. I've confirmed what Fyron saw that the settings file used by the host is what controls the actual game results. Could make for some confusing situations though, if the player expects a construction queue to be done at one point and it actually takes till this other time to finish. I don't understand how this happened. I was quite sure it gave you an error. I'm going to have to dig out my old Versions and see if this is something introduced to 1.91 or something.

Geoschmo

[Alneyan]

Is is so for *all* lines? I guess so, since the game probably either fully checks a file, or does not check it at all (I will check that out of idle curiosity)

I am thinking of one specific line which would give a major edge to the player, but I hope the game makes sure this one cannot be changed.

[Fyron]

The host data files are what are used for the actual game data, so it doesn't matter what a player changes. Well, other than characteristic costs, but the host can not load an empire file created with bogus characteristic values anyways, due to point costs and limits.

[Atrocities]

Map editing = time consuming, mind boggelling boring work of epic proportions. We need a better map making system for sure.