Editing .win.bmd or .xml files?

[Veity]

Hey, im fairly new to modding but state of decay is to good not to mod so i thought i'd give it a try.

Im trying to replace main characters with custom versions.

Ive managed to replace Marcus, Ed and Maya with military variations however i am trying to change their names and starting inventory's.

I noticed that in the folder:

State of Decay\Game\libs\class3\rts

there are loads of files, but specifically at the top are :

- Characters.win.bmd - Encrypted so i cannot modify it
- Characters.xml - Can open in Notepad and edit


In the xml version i found Marcus and can change his fist and last name. However when saved these changes do not take effect in game.

I was wondering if anyone knows what the xml documents are for? (sorry if this is a stupid question, i am a noob modder >.< )

Also is there a way to open/edit the .win.bmd files?

thanks in advance for any assistance!

[_________LuNandor]

Thus far I haven't found anything that can open the .bmd files properly and modifying the XML files seems to produce no effect. For example, I just modified the items XML file to have 0 weight on items and bullet stack sizes with a maximum of 999 - nothing took.

So I guess we can deduce whether the XML files are just like a white paper for the actual engineering of the BMD file once we find out how to open them :)

[Alex]

I guess we do not need to open them, but it would make more sense for the developers to compile bmd files from xml, as xml is extremely inefficient. So we just need to find a way to compile our changed xml files into bmd
Does anyone who worked with ctyengine have any ideas how to do it?

[KryoTronic]

I just ran into the same issue... hmm... Can't find a bmd editor anywhere.

[KryoTronic]

I have noticed however that two mods seem two have editted bmd files...
http://stateofdecaymods.com/mod-home...imits-diy-mod/
and
http://stateofdecaymods.com/mod-home...imits-diy-mod/
So my main concern is how.

[_________LuNandor]

The only thing we've gotten working so far is HexEditors, and those are what people use to make those.

The core idea is that the hex editor doesn't have to operate on a level that we can read and therefore it can scour the file and handle the raw numbers we figure out as the ones that are needed.

I've been working on making meshes/skins work in a fully customized way and haven't worked on the BMD files since around the original post we're talking on, haha.

It's fair to say that if any of us find the solution then we should post a how-to for the community :)

[KryoTronic]

all right cool beans thanks man haha damn hex editors wawawahh