Universal Game Editor Module For DAGGERFALL
by David Melanson
Daggerfall...love it or hate it, it's Bethesda's sequel to the
notorious Arena. And if you hate it for a non-technical reason
(i.e. you keep getting killed by just about anything that comes
after you, or you've got your Running skill up to 100 and can't
advance any more levels or something), you've probably wondered
if there was an easier way. So I've developed a module for Jack
Hartman's Universal Game Editor (UGE) that may just be able to
help you out.
For those of you who've never seen one of my modules
before...this is now the twenty-third module I've developed for
Universal Game Editor. Other modules include ones for
Stonekeep, Anvil of Dawn, Menzoberranzen, Ravenloft, Might &
Magic III-V, HOMM, and quite a few more. I charge no
registration fee for any of these modules. However, I do ask
that you register UGE with its creator, Jack Hartman
(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). I repeat, for those of you who have
asked this question before: I did NOT create the base UGE
program, just the modules, so if you have any tech support
questions on UGE itself, write to Jack, not me.
Notes on the Daggerfall save game structure: Unlike its
predecessor, Arena, which had a save game format which was so
thoroughly encoded that only real hex-experts could make heads
or tails of it, Daggerfall stores everything in an editable
format. Unfortunately, while all the RELATIVE positions in the
file (i.e. how far away the character's name is from the
character's hit points) remain the same, the STARTING position
in the file varies from game to game. This gets my official
rating of P.I.T.B. (Pain In The Butt). Now, this same problem
arose earlier with a game called Thunderscape from SSI...at the
time, I gave up. But with Daggerfall, I tried to figure a way
around the problem. And I think I've got one...it's annoying
and tricky, but it works.
And now, the bad news...UGE is really a DOS-based application.
So is MDLGEN, a little utility Jack wrote that is necessary to
get the module to work properly. Unfortunately, Jack no longer
has the time available to write useful little utilities like
that, so I had to develop a third program (Shifter.EXE, also
included in this .ZIP file). Unfortunately, the only language I
have available to write in is Borland's Turbo C++ for Windows,
which...you guessed it, only writes Windows applications. So,
much as I hate to say it, the preferred operating system for
this package would have to be... Windows 95. Oh well.
But, I've included instructions on how to go through the editing
procedure in either a DOS/Win 3.1x or Windows 95 environment
below. [Note: If anybody knows of a way to convert a Borland
Turbo C++ version 3.1 Windows application into a DOS
application, would you PLEASE let me know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.?
Thanks!] Okay, now it's question & answer time...
Q: "Okay, I've unzipped the files. Now what do I do with them?"
A: Make a separate directory for Universal Game Editor. UGE is
a good name for it (i.e. C:UGE) Unzip both UGE10.ZIP and
DF.ZIP into that directory. This positions all the files you
need in the proper place.
Q: "What's the procedure for getting going on this module the
FIRST time?"
A: Okay...here goes. The first thing you want to do in EITHER
operating system is to determine where your save game file is located. The file name
you want is called SAVETREE.DAT. When you save your game in Daggerfall, there are
six available slots, arranged like this:
0 3
1 4
2 5
These correspond to the directories SAVE0, SAVE1, SAVE2, SAVE3,
SAVE4, SAVE5. These directories are all subdirectories of your main
Daggerfall directory, probably called DAGGER. So, if your game is on your C: hard drive, and
the game you want to modify is saved in the top left-hand slot, the location of your
file is as follows:
C:DAGGERSAVE0SAVETREE.DAT
If you wanted to modify the game in the second slot on the
left, the file name would be:
C:DAGGERSAVE1SAVETREE.DAT
Once you have determined the location of that file (make a note
of it), the instructions split:
IF YOU ARE USING DOS & Windows 3.1x:
1.) Start Windows. From the File menu of Program Manager,
choose Run. Click on the Browse button that appears in the dialog box. Go to
the directory where you stored UGE and double click on the file SHIFTER.EXE. The
file name should appear in the dialog box. Do NOT click "OK" yet.
Click at the end of the line (after the .EXE) and type in the location of the save
game file (determined above). So, if you've got Universal Game Editor in the
directory C:UGE and are modifying the game stored in the top left-hand slot (as noted
above), the command line box in your dialog box should read as follows:
C:UGESHIFTER.EXE C:DAGGERSAVE0SAVETREE.DAT
(Sorry, but this is the best I could do for now)
and if you're modifying the game in the second slot on the
left, it should read
C:UGESHIFTER.EXE C:DAGGERSAVE1SAVETREE.DAT
2.) Now, a little window should pop up. If you get this message:
"File Does Not Exist! Program Run Completed."
It means you typed the location of the save game in wrong.
If you don't get that message, you should get the following question:
"Enter Your Character's Name (up to 20 characters)"
Do just that. Input the name of your character in the save
game file. I know the game can take up to 31 characters for a name, but only input
the first 20. So, for example, if your character's name is Hercules The Mighty Hero,
type in Hercules, or Hercules The, or even Hercules The Mighty, but Hercules The
Mighty Hero is too many characters (note: if you try to type in more than 20
characters, the program will still work; it'll just truncate what you type in
to 20 characters).
Note: Case is NOT important. So "Hercules" is equivalent to
"HERCULES" and also to "hercules" and even "HeRcuLES", as far as Shifter is
concerned. When you finish typing, press Enter. The program will search your
saved-game file.
When it is completed, one of two things will happen...
If you get a message that reads "Does Not Exist In Specified
File. Program Run Completed." it means that you spelled the name of your
character wrong and will have to run the program again.
Otherwise, you should wind up with the following message:
"Starting Offset: xxxx Program Run Completed," where xxxx will be replaced with a
number. WRITE THIS NUMBER DOWN! It's VERY important! (What this number is,
in case anyone's wondering, is the location of the start of the
character information in the saved game file, offset from the beginning of the file, in
bytes).
3.) Now exit Windows to DOS and proceed on to the next step
(continued after the Win 95 discussion)
IF YOU ARE USING WINDOWS 95:
1.) Click on Start. Choose Run. Click on the Browse button.
Go to the directory where you have UGE stored. Double Click on the Shifter icon
that is an application (not the document). Do NOT Click on "OK" after
that. Click at the end of the line (after the .exe) and type in the saved game
file name (as listed above in the Windows 3.1/DOS instructions). THEN click OK.
2.) Follow the directions as listed above in the Windows
3.1x/DOS instructions #2.
3.) Close the "Inactive" window, the click on Start. Go to
Programs, and choose MS-DOS Prompt.
Now we're back to unified instructions:
4.) Change directories to the directory where you stored
Universal Game Editor. For example, if you stored the file in a
directory UGE, type CD UGE and hit Enter. Now type the
following:
MDLGEN DFBASE.MDL xxxxx 1
and hit Enter. Subsititue the number you got from running
Shifter for the 'xxxxx' listed above.
So...if your result from running Shifter was as follows:
"Starting Offset: 52951", you'd type the following:
MDLGEN DFBASE.MDL 52951 1
and hit Enter. Then type RUNME and hit Enter. Now type UGE
and hit Enter.
You'll see a registration screen if you haven't registered UGE
yet. Press any key to bypass that for now. Now you should see
a mostly-blue screen. Press the "A" key to Add a module. A
text box should appear. Type in "Daggerfall" and hit enter.
Now you should see a list of files on the right side of the
screen. Highlight the file "df.mdl" from the list and hit
Enter. Now you'll see a directory of your hard drive.
Highlight the directory where your save game file is stored
(same as you determined above...so if the location was
C:DAGGERSAVE0SAVETREE.DAT, use the arrow keys to select first
the directory , then the directory , then the
file "SAVETREE.DAT" and hit Enter. The name "Daggerfall" should
now appear in the list of games on the left. Select it and hit
Enter to begin editing. PHEW!
======================================================================
BUG ALERT!!
Now, some computer processors have a problem with the search
program. Sometimes, the result isn't exact when it finds the name. If
you see a lot of "0's" in the ability score fields, check the first
field (your character's name). There are two possibilities:
1.) If the "name" field is blank, exit UGE (press ESC 2 times)
Add 1 to the number you obtained from the Shifter program. Now exit to
a DOS prompt, go to your UGE directory, and type
MDLGEN DFBASE.MDL xxxxx 1 again, where this time xxxxx is the
new number (number obtained from Shifter+1), hit Enter, then type
RUNME and hit enter. Go back into UGE and see if it's accurate now
(should be, hopefully).
2.) If the "name" field is missing the first letter, exit UGE
(press ESC 2 times). Subtract 1 from the number you obtained from the
Shiter program. Now exit to a DOS prompt, go to your UGE directory,
and type
MDLGEN DFBASE.MDL xxxxx 1 again, where this time xxxxx is the
new number (number obtained from Shifter-1), hit Enter, then type
RUNME and hit enter. Go back into UGE and see if it's accurate now.
======================================================================
When you're done editing, press ESC twice. Another
registration screen will appear. Look at the bottom of the
screen to determine which key you have to press to exit the
program. Now you can start playing Daggerfall (either in DOS or
in Windows 95...type "Exit" at the MS-DOS prompt if you're using
Windows 95 before you start playing Daggerfall), and your
changes should be apparent when you restore the game (provided
you restore the same game you modified).
Q: "Okay, I modified the game, played a while, and saved the
game again in the same slot (position on the Daggerfall save
game screen). When I go back to edit it again, all I get is a
bunch of garbage in the fields. What do I do now?"
A: The garbage is due to what I mentioned before; the start
position of the file has changed. Before you run UGE again, go
back and follow the steps all over again, all the way up to the
paragraph where it was described how to Add a module...skip that
(you should be able to just go into UGE and use the module from
the list of games.)
Q: "So what does this module DO, anyway?"
A: With this module, you can change quite a few things:
You can edit your character's name (up to 20 letters of it,
anyway).
There are two fields for each ability score (Strength,
Intelligence, Willpower, etc). These are the "Current" and
"Base" scores. As certain afflictions and/or enhancements can
change your normal scores, these list your current condition and
your "normal" condition. To make changes permanent, make sure
the "Current" value for each ability score equals the "Base"
value for the same score. So, for example, if you want your
Strength to become 90, make sure you change both the "Strength"
and "Base Strength" values to 90. WARNING: DO NOT SET ALL YOUR
VALUES TO 100!!! When you go up a level, you HAVE to distribute
points; otherwise the game locks up. If all your ability scores
are at 100, you're stuck...
There are THREE fields for Hit Points; Base, Current, and
Maximum. Base is what the computer checks to see what it should
add to when you go up a level. Current is how many hit points
you have now, and Maximum is how many you "normally" have. All
three should be set to the same value. So, if you want your
character to have something ridiculous like 10,000 hit points,
set all three of these values to 10,000.
Character's face...not a big deal, but you can change which of
the available "faces" for your character you had to choose from
at the beginning.
Character Level...this is REALLY helpful when it comes to
spellcasting and such. Put it up to some ridiculously high
level for insanely powerful spells...unfortunately, this also
means you'll probably be going after Ancient Liches on your
first mission...(ARRGH!)
Gold Pieces...Self-explanatory, this is how much money you
have ON YOUR PERSON. Warning: This DOES affect how much you're
carrying, so even if you've got a 100 Strength, you'll wind up way
overloaded if you carry 50,000 gold or so. What I suggest: Go to a
bank, save your game, give yourself a load o'cash, deposit it to get
a letter of credit, save again, repeat the process until you have some
insane amount of money in practically weightless form. Just watch out
for pickpockets...
Character Skills...There are slots here to modify all 35
skills. Note: No skill can go over 100, and no skill is
supposed to go over the value of the Ability score it's based
on. Once you reach 100 in one skill, you stop advancing levels.
Well, that's really about it for this module. If you've got
any comments, or relatively simple questions, you can e-mail me
at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. NO, repeat, NO REQUESTS!! Have fun...
-Dave Melanson
(This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Files : 9, NeW:NONE, oLD:NONE
uL Node : 1, NFo:NONE, D?Z:NONE
