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The tweaker is up again. Make sure to read the instructions at the bottom of the post too. http://www.gamefront...bf3+tweaker.exe
I have not written most my statement in Mordor. It's being edited by mods all over the place. These are not my words. But the words here are.
Due to the heavy focus on the client in bf3 compared to bf2, modifying weapon damage among other things actually increases the damage dealt in multiplayer games (compared to bf2 where it does exactly nothing at all; make sure you understand this, modifying damage on your client is NOT meant to have any effect in online play in any game with decent netcode). bf3 (like bc2) also does not check for modified content making it possible to join ranked games with pb enabled. I have decided to reupload the tool as it is simply a mod tool after all (a very limited one to be honest). As far as I understand there are even people out there using injectors to play around with their graphics which is exactly how hacks work. I wouldn't touch one when playing online. The worst thing I can see happening when using modified files is a kick the moment you join a game (that is how it was handled in bf2). On the other hand as far as I know injectors might get you banned instantly, though I am fairly ignorant when it comes to hacks. I'd like to add, I had modified some files for bc2 three months ago and played a bit online. The account is still not banned so I would not trust others when they speak of bans for modified content.
The intent of this tool was to allow people to play around with settings in singleplayer and enjoy the engine (also so the folks at symthic can do controlled tests; as well as filmmakers and machinima). I am not going to deprive the community of this option. Anything else is not intended and I am not willing to take blame for it. Clientside netcode is simply not acceptable when bf2 did everything right. Also, the option to do these mods has been there all along, although without GUI. Here's a cascat of mine from 2011 (I think m16 ammo count or something like that; can't be bothered, it's not even worth trying it as the Update folder most likely overwrites the setting by now anyway): http://www.gamefront...3744/cascat_rar It has been on denkirson all along though I never even thought of testing it online; it was only after I realized that bc2 does not check for modified content either that I even dreamed of testing mods online in bf3.
This program is based heavily on my Python script here: http://www.bfeditor....opic=15531&st=0 The only difference is that the script discards the offset of the bytes for each entry instantly (unless you uncomment the line with the @) whereas this tool keeps track of the absolute offset for every field allowing users to change things directly.
I suspect the game will add a check for valid content very soon™ which is something I welcome. Some servers with attentive admins already check for the existence of modded cas archives and may issue a kick. This being said, of course you are not meant to play with modified content on ranked servers.
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Here is the tool: http://www.gamefront...bf3+tweaker.exe Might post it again some time. I honestly posted this first and then made tests second. The only thing I had tested before releasing was playing around with the zoom levels. That was possible in bc2 too so I didn't give it much thought. I wouldn't have expected the game to go that far with clientside hitreg. It's not even the client telling the server that he has hit someone with a certain projectile. It's the client telling the server that he has dealt any amount of damage to any player. The DICE way of suppressing mod tools. Make it so that the tool can be abused as a cheating device.
Requires .NET 4.5.
Instructions:
1) Either create a new cat or open the existing cas.cat. Note that the cat in the Update folder overwrites most of the original entries so it is highly recommended to look there first. Also note that DLC uses sbtoc archives and is affected only peripherally (it might be not affected at all).
2) Modify any value written in bold.
3) Save and activate the cat.
The tool will not write into the original assets (the cas archives) but instead create new cas archives in the range 50-99. It will make a copy of the original file to be tweaked in the new cas archive and apply changes there. The game uses a cat file containing the file hash, offset, size and archive number for each entry. I just tell the cat that the asset to look for (via hash) is not in archive 1-10 but instead in archive 50 so the cat file has to be overwritten to make any changes. However, the tool will make a backup of the cat. Also, the information contained is purely redundant as the cas archives themself have all the information to create a cat file from scratch (the tool is capable of that too if you delete all cats).
To unmod the game just select the appropriate "Restore Cat". You can add a new cat in case you don't want to lose all changes when reverting to the unmodded game. Also, if you directly change cas.cat, change a few things so a new cas archive is created and then restore the cat, that cas archive has just become useless. If you keep doing that you might end up with lots of cas archives that are not used anymore so you will probably want to manually delete them. I recommend making a new cat instead of tweaking cas.cat. Basically you alter the new cat when making tweaks and when you press "Activate" the new cat will be copied to cas.cat.
DLC expansions use sb and toc files instead of cas and cat so changes are not guaranteed to work there. And yes, the game does not do checks for modified content. Just like in bc2 you can do stuff like 4x zoom iron sights, though it was probably more useful in bc2 with the scope taking up a slot on its own. On the other hand it might come in handy for snipers.
This post has been edited by Frankelstner: 06 February 2013 - 09:02 PM
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