Playing With Seven Headquarters (in Vanilla X3AP)

[palm911]

that save is missing the hub!!

I thought about adding it as well, but Hub is unfortunately broken without accompanying mission scripts.

and some 50 5stars marines (Terran)

Wouldn't that be ***cheating***?

hehe. not for someone who is already in the end game, and wishes to restart hahaha ..

ROFL.

[kurush]

@kurush: can you make a start which you pilot a UFO. Much rarer than 7 HQ's

I sure can. This is a goner start without ***modified*** and with the following legend:
After a three day space weed party Sakurako Kalvin found himself in space riding a saucepan. His trusted Ranger nowhere to be seen, what shall he do now?
HQ is also added to some shipyards, no UFO base this time, unless the goner temple itself counts.
For the sake of argument I'll claim that both saves were created via several yet unpublished exploits

[Morkonan]

...For the sake of argument I'll claim that both saves were created via several yet unpublished exploits

Just a cautionary question - Is it likely this vulnerability can or will be patched out? If so, is it also likely that any games built upon these saves will become broken if updated to a new patch?

If so, it may be a good thing to note in the distribution of these "altered" save-games, so players don't end up wasting a lot of hours building upon them, only to have them broken on patch-day. (Knowledgeable players would probably understand this, but plenty of players might not.)

[kurush]

Just a cautionary question - Is it likely this vulnerability can or will be patched out? If so, is it also likely that any games built upon these saves will become broken if updated to a new patch?

The first doesn't lead to the second. I don't expect any saves to expire because of any new patches. They don't add any scripts or modified content, just the objects that already exist in the game. Egosoft will have to go extremely evil to break these saves, for example by explicitly checking somewhere in their code that you own a UFO object and disabling your save. I would love to see that happening
Not that you can't get hit by a spontaneous modified tag though, this could happen to anyone. Pay attention to your stats and make backups.
I'm do not plan revealing this vulnerability, so chances are pretty high it will never get patched. The original CLS exploit existed since X2 I think, at least somebody claimed that they saw it there.

[Morkonan]

Understood. That's good to know. (And a little telling, as well.. )

[Bothersome]

I wonder if I'll get any apologies from all that was sure and posted comments to the nature that I was lying about not using memory hacks or other outside programs... When the bug is finally revealed.

Anyone care to put their money where their mouth is??? $100 dollars says the bug is real. I'll give my paypal account for your deposit if you wish to show a set.

It would be very advantageous to Egosoft to pony up two copies of X-Rebirth (when it's released) to my Steam account for the exact exploit. It would be so easy to patch and so very difficult to find... without a clue.

In other news... My brother has the credits now but is just starting the missions for Argon... So it will be tomorrow before I can upload the game with the HQs for placement.

[ThommoHawk]

^ Thanks for the savegame, I am currently appreciating all of its features and am enjoying seeing the CAGs working. (The HQ's are nice too, naturally), and I am training up a Sirokos fully loaded with marines for the XenonI boarding adventure. My regards to Mr X3 Master Pro. (I would never personally try to bribe egosoft over such a discovery though. But there is nothing wrong with dropping a hint that such a guesture would be welcome I suppose).

[kurush]

It would be very advantageous to Egosoft to pony up two copies of X-Rebirth (when it's released) to my Steam account for the exact exploit. It would be so easy to patch and so very difficult to find... without a clue.

This is just getting hillarious. I'm not revealing my exploit unless I'm getting a share of ES equity, Meanwhile, ideas of useful starts are accepted. How about resurrecting the Kha'ak start?

[palm911]

hahaha....


EVIL Kurush..

xenon Start... with top rank with xenon and lowest rank with all the races ?

[kurush]

xenon Start... with top rank with xenon and lowest rank with all the races ?

I'll probably keep this idea until their exploit gets patched to reveal that mine is still intact and keep blackmailing Egosoft But the idea is definitely worth a consideration, not sure where you would sell stuff for credits though. O, pirate bases! They are accessible regardless of your reputation.

[Morkonan]

...It would be very advantageous to Egosoft to pony up two copies of X-Rebirth (when it's released) to my Steam account for the exact exploit. It would be so easy to patch and so very difficult to find... without a clue...

Uh.. You are aware that you're not the first person to have found a bug or exploit in the X3 series, right? And, it's certain that most of the script modders would be intimately familiar with the exploit that has been used, since they must often delve deep into the engine in order to keep everything working as intended.

Lastly, while it's fun to theorize about and play at game-forensics, it's really not that big of a deal.

However, though I haven't downloaded your save and certainly couldn't use it if I did, thanks ARE in order for that, on general principles. Thanks.

[Namethis]

...It would be very advantageous to Egosoft to pony up two copies of X-Rebirth (when it's released) to my Steam account for the exact exploit. It would be so easy to patch and so very difficult to find... without a clue...

Uh.. You are aware that you're not the first person to have found a bug or exploit in the X3 series, right? And, it's certain that most of the script modders would be intimately familiar with the exploit that has been used, since they must often delve deep into the engine in order to keep everything working as intended.

Lastly, while it's fun to theorize about and play at game-forensics, it's really not that big of a deal.

However, though I haven't downloaded your save and certainly couldn't use it if I did, thanks ARE in order for that, on general principles. Thanks.

.... have fun much?

[Morkonan]

.... have fun much?

Not really, no. I've run out of puppies to curbstomp and haven't been able to light anything on fire in at least 24 hours... I'm getting sort of antsy, does it show?

[Bothersome]

Let's keep in mind here that anybody can get a memory editor and search for changed addresses as you modify things in the game.

The easyest way is to simply find the memory variable that says the game is modified and simply change it back to normal once you get done making all your modifications. Like adding PHQs to Terran ship yards and whatnot.

But, this means that everybody that wants to play your special game must play your game. They can't start a new game and work the things they want from there. Right now we only offered the save games with the HQs. But once the bug is revealed, everybody can start a new game and work their own magic.

Not only that, the games we upped have not been contaminated with unknown programs and procedures. What has been done in the games that I've posted is purely done inside the game as played.

Seems to me, Egosoft could put a couple of guys on the bug hunt and spend a few days trying to find it. Even if it only took 4 man hours to find it (extreamly lucky find without a clue as to where to start looking), Egosoft would have already spend more money then simply giving two copies of X-Rebirth (one for me and one for my brother) for the saving of labor they would be out of. Besided, they're not giving any money, just Steam activation codes. Seems like a good deal to me. If I were CEO, I'd jump on that deal. And a promise from Egosoft would be good enough for me to point them right to where the problem is. And, might I add, there is more at stake with this bug than just multiple PHQs. It could render their entire uploaded statistics useless. That would make all the labor they put into programming the keeping of statistics a waste.

But the shallow minds just want to poke fun at the whole idea. And lets not forget, that if the modders or anyone reading this thread knew of this bug, then they could post a message or private message to me explaining how to exploit it. Either they're not interested, or they don't know it. So far, no one has come forth with the how-to.

And just to re-iterate... I personally am not interested in hacked games. The point of the thread is to discuss the exploits in the game. Anyone can hack, but finding a bug left by Egosoft is the real treasure hunt. And this should be a compliment to Egosoft's work... If the game was full of bugs (which it is not) then finding an exploit/bug would be nothing to brag about. But because they did such an outstanding job, finding a new bug exploit is like finding something special that you don't just run across very much.

[dillpickle]

And lets not forget, that if the modders or anyone reading this thread knew of this bug, then they could post a message or private message to me explaining how to exploit it. Either they're not interested, or they don't know it.

Those that use scripts and mods aren't in the slightest bit bothered by the *** Modified *** tag, and as there's probably dozens of easier ways to get hold of as many PHQ's as you want there is little point in wasting time trying to find an exploit to get them.

[n00biwan]

Lol...

Really? really really?

[werewolves?]

This thread has got

[Jumee]

This thread has got

exactly, Kurush will demand the position of CEO of Egosoft (you know you want to Kurush ) and Bothersome will have all the Rebirth copies and then resell them to other people

P.S: why do all the people fear/avoid modified tag so much???

edit:

Or they could just not bother about it

my thoughts exactly

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Besided, they're not giving any money, just Steam activation codes. Seems like a good deal to me. If I were CEO, I'd jump on that deal.

Or they could just not bother about it. It's not as if you've discovered something that affects any normal gamer so it's not something that requires any immediate attention.

Sure, it could be used to skew the stats lists. But if someone was intent on doing that then there's nothing stopping them already. As you said yourself, it's dead easy to download one of the freely available memory editors and use that. Far, far easier than trying to figure out some exploit.

[ConCorDian]

id be disappointed if they did start to reward people for finding exploits. its good when people stumble upon them, give othrs something new to fiddle with... BUT if they started rewarding people for finding them it would encourage people to sit down and deliberatly find them.. why would they want that to heppen? just join the beta testing group