Savegame or Scenario Editor for FTM?

[JP]

Hey Guys, im playing this game for about 80 hrs now, and a did want to ask some of you if theres something like a savegame editor that makes it possible to give provinces to countries and edit the cores etc. I have been looking for it on the internet for a while now and i did found one, but it was incompatible with the FTM version of the Game.

Does anyone know how to get something like that for this game?

[Dromok]

I've ggot from memory 120 hours and I've been looking this up too to no avail.

[Giles]

Hey,

I am not aware of the existence of any 'savegame modifier', neither do I practically believe it is really feasible for such an editor to exist.

HoI savegames are thousands of lines of text, which stores every single detail about every single unit and country in the game. Naturally that is why I find it difficult to think that a 'universal' editor can exist as there are simply endless possibilities that the editor would have to provide for. In many ways, for an editor to significantly change a particular savegame, pretty much the whole file would have to be re-written and re-assembled.

You can, however, edit the savegame, to a limited extent, yourself and use some helpful tricks and tips to bypass the need to edit the savegame.

Editing saves:

If you want to make a minor change to any nation (Such as removing a puppet tag), and are adamant that it cannot be done by any other means, then you may want to experiment with altering the save. ALWAYS REMEMBER TO BACK IT UP THOUGH, since you might break it ;) ...

Step One:

Locate your save-game folder:

TFH: documents/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron III/save games
FTM: computer/programme files/Paradox Interactive/Hearts of Iron 3/save games

Step Two

Locate the save you want to open:

e.g. Italy1938_0_3_24_00

(It helps if you save it as something recognisable (Like EDIT THIS))

Step Three:

Open with Notepad (and then panic haha)

Use the control+F search function to locate what you are looking for, in this instance where 'Vassal' relationships are defined.

Locate the country tag you wish to remove from puppet status, e.g. ETH.

And then delete this section, and only this section, of the code.

 vassal=
	{
		first="ITA"
		second="ETH"
		start_date="1936.3.10.0"
	}

That would remove Ethiopia from being a puppet of Italy, but retain their alliance.

The key is too know what you are looking for, and to use the search function to locate this. Attempting to edit too much of the file will almost certainly result in breaking the savegame.


Bypassing editing:

In many circumstances it isn't necessary to edit the save game at all.

By using cheats carefully you can pretty much manipulate the whole game as to the way you would like it to play out.


1.) Using the 'TAG' command.

The TAG cheat is a god-send...

By entering 'TAG' and any nation code (e.g. GER) into the command console the player can switch nations without even having to exit and restart the game.

It allows you to alter production, forge alliances, force wargoals (You can set a 'puppet' instead of a 'conquer' wargoal for Germany's conquest of France for example) and change the whole game to the way you like it.

You can force other nations to liberate countries or make puppets, or even give yourself expeditionary forces.

But the important thing about the TAG command is that should be used with foresight... You cannot use TAG to change the past, you must instead 'pre-empt' or 'force the AI's hand through the TAG command to make the outcome you want.

But remember... Keep the game paused, otherwise your nation will switch over to AI control immediately and screw up everything...


2.) Using changecontroller and changeowner

Changecontroller and changeowner enable the player to cede territory to themselves, or to other nations, to create ahistorical borders or realistic peace settlements.

I love this cheat... Whenever I get a quasi-Cold War situation I 'clean up' the map to what I would believe would be a more realistic border between the western allies and Soviet Union.

But you could also theoretically unite China or create Grossdeutchland with this cheat.

Using changecontoller/changeowner:

We should initially note the difference between the two, the first changes territory to 'occupied' status, and the second to 'annexed' status. (Sometimes both need to be used in combination to get the 2nd outcome)

Step one:

Use the cheat 'tdbg' (FTM 3.06 or newer only) to show province ID's, this is crucial.

Step two:

changecontroller + TAG
changeowner + TAG

TAG = the three letter nation code for the nation you want to RECIEVE the territory

(E.g. ENG for the UK)

Step three:

changecontroller + TAG + provid
changeowner + TAG + provid

Provid = Province ID, using the 'tdbg' cheat you should 'see' these IDs on the map, therefore making it very easy for these to enter.

Then you are done... You should be able to change borders to whatever you desire now.


I hope that helps you 'edit' your games in the future and to give you the flexibility you so desire in HoI....

Please remember though, that these are CHEATS, and using them excessively is undoubtedly going to upset the balance of the game...

I wish you all the luck, please ask any further questions if you need.

Thanks,
MrGiles

[JP]

hey man as first, thak you for tons of information, i think that a will try ti edit the savegames manually because there seems to be no savegame editor for this game :/. but the problem is that this could take w while to do for each rpovince i want to annex xD

[Giles]

lol... What do you want to annex ? Surely it would be easier just to conquer it than to spend hours entering province ID's ?

But unfortunately yes, you are correct, there is no non-labour intensive way of modifying save games...

[JP]

Its just about to create own scenarios, with countries like the DFR, scenarios that you cant probably get in a normal game.

Ther are a lot of savegame editing programms for other games like civilization, but i would habe loved to see one for this game because HOI offers alot of scopes.

[Giles]

Hmm... I think you may, sadly, be a little confused... Savegame modifying can only change things within the scope of the Vanilla game. It cannot 'add' new content into the game, and for that reason you cannot create your own scenarios or countries...

That would come under 'modification', and open a whole new world of trouble... I have made some very basics mods in my time, but even the most simple change can take hours, and a whole tonne of research outside of the game.

You can find some basic tips and guides for modification on the 'modification' forum (http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?434-HoI3-User-Modifications) and maybe a mod which actually offers what you are looking for.

I hope this is not too disapointing for you to learn, and I wish you luck if you decide to continue.

Thanks,
MrGiles

[JP]

The DFR Is a part of the agme , but since FTM you are no longer able to create it not as the USA nor as the USSR, and there are a lot of other countries in this game that cant be palyed with because there no scenario for it. I really only want to edit the savegames, not to create new content.

[Giles]

The DFR may be present in the localisation files, and the game may register it as existing in certain circumstances, but as you say there is no existing 'scenario' in which the DFR does exist. Therefore, a savegame modifier would not alter anything as such a modifier would be limited to altering what already exists in certain savegames and scenarios, and would not be able to 'create' a nation from scratch which isn't actually included in that scenario.

Savegame modification can only change what already exists in that particular savegame, adding 'new' content, even if the game recognises that content in some situations, into that particular situation would still be modification.

There is some possibility that you might be able to 'give' the DFR its provinces though if you use the changecontroller/owner cheat... Iv'e never tried...

I hope that clarifies things.

MrGiles

[JP]

Well thanks for answear, i already tried it with giving a province from controller/owner "GER" to "DFR" and it probably worket, but it would be insane work to do that with a whole country :/

[Bonks]

I've had sessions where I decided I want the map to be WW1'ified, and I've spent countless hours converting territory to countries to get the correct look.

[JP]

yeah i know right? i figured it would be much faster to edit the "regions" file and then create events the swap territorial regions between countries. whenever i want the ww1 scenario, i simply go to 1936, open the console and fire the event.

[Lutz]

There are some cheat codes you can use to annex specific provinces or even whole nations.

[JP]

Originally posted by Reichsmarschall Abbott:

There are some cheat codes you can use to annex specific provinces or even whole nations.

that takes waaaaay too long

[Lutz]

Originally posted by JPO:

Originally posted by Reichsmarschall Abbott:

There are some cheat codes you can use to annex specific provinces or even whole nations.

that takes waaaaay too long

Haha, indeed.