Cricket Captain 2018 Club Editor

[weetabixharry]

Do you frequent the childlishthings forums at all? The forum itself has been inactive for quite a while due to a lack of dev interaction, but a lot of people there were asking for an editor for various versions, unaware that people were making editors on external forums (or maybe it's just been me). I'd guess there'd be more interest if an editor was advertised for whichever version there.

I posted there a couple of times when I was getting started with this editor and don't recall getting any responses (or maybe just one reply along the lines of "do what you want, I don't think anyone will care").[DOUBLEPOST=1582326728][/DOUBLEPOST]

Hi, just found this after getting back into the game. I am having same issue where it gives error saying only usable in easy even though the save file is easy.
Running Win 10 here

Hopefully I can get access to a Windows 10 machine this weekend and I'll look into this.

 

[weetabixharry]

I am bored and I have nothing better to do so I am trying to track down the values for fielding ability. I just want to recreate Jonty Rhodes in some regen who can average late 30s or 40 with the bat but be the best fielder in the game. I am smart enough to know where to look using the sequence of values search and then going into memory view in artmoney but I don't know what I am looking for exactly. But given the fact that there are two fielding technique options in the coach and physio screen, I am guessing there are at least two fielding values for ability and possibly 4 values if there are potential fielding ability values involved as well. If anyone is interested in figuring this out with me for fun, please PM me, thanks!

I wrote a very simple tool to help with things like this. The tool just allows you to dump a player's data to a file. Then you can load up lots of different players' data dumps (or the same player at different points in time) to search for patterns.

For example, if you didn't know at what offset a player's nationality is stored, then you could load up 20 West Indian player dumps (and tell the tool these are "positive matches"), then load up 30 non-West Indian player dumps (and tell the tool these are "negative matches"). The tool would then find data patterns that were common to all the "positive matches" and none of the "negative matches". In this example, it would show you where the nationality is stored (and what bytes represent "West Indies").

I intended to use the same tool to find all the trainable attributes. The idea was to dump player data for my whole squad, then wait for the message saying "Joe Bloggs' fielding technique has improved" or whatever, then search for what changed. I can't remember if I ran into difficulties or never really tried. I'll have another go this weekend.

 

[Joe91]

I am working on this. I have now written a full editor (but sadly only for Windows) and I want to ensure it can't be used online. I am currently looking at a couple of options:

1) It looks like Easy Mode games can't be used online. I am trying to reverse-engineer that so the editor will only run in easy mode.
2) It looks like the latest update of each Cricket Captain (2018.xx, 2019.yy etc) is required for online play. Usually, all the memory pointers change after every update, so as long as editors are only released for older versions, then there should be no risk.

I would probably suggest that any editor releases should significantly lag the game releases anyway. As we approach 2020, I think it should be fine to release an editor for an old release of Cricket Captain 2018.

Here's a couple of screenshots showing everything I can edit so far. I had to work quite hard to find a way to allow all players to be available for every game (remove injuries, retirements, international commitments, IPL commitments, foreign player quotas). I haven't included potential abilities for batting and bowling yet because the interface is starting to get cluttered and I need to move some things around.

View attachment 226972

Do you still have this? I am unable to find a download link.

 

[weetabixharry]

Do you still have this? I am unable to find a download link.

I'm still working on it from time to time. There never was a download link, as there seemed to be some compatibility issue with Windows 10. I haven't got around to fixing that yet, as I don't have easy access to a computer running Windows 10. Plus, there seems to be very little interest in an editor these days, so I don't have much motivation to release it publicly. It's a lot of work for one person, so a lot of things are still a work in progress.

 

[bazman]

I have attached a heavily stripped down editor, in the hope that anyone who reads this can help to test out the "Easy Mode" detection (so the editor can't be used online).

The editor has now been updated to work with Cricket Captain 2018, version 18.09 (the latest version on Steam). If you don't own CC 2018 yet, you can download the free demo (click "Download Demo" here), which should also work.

The intended behaviour is that in any Easy Mode game, this minimal editor will be available:
View attachment 227096
(User Guide: Only Load/Save Budget from the "Team Details" screen in Cricket Captain. Only Add Coach+Physio from the "Coach & Physio" screen.)

Any attempt to use the editor in a Normal Mode game (eligible for online play), should issue this error message and exit:
View attachment 227097

With all my savegames, this works 100% of the time (i.e. rejects 100% of Normal Mode games and accepts 100% of Easy Mode games).

Please let me know if this works for you. If it does, then I think I can upload the full editor without any risk to online play.

Hi weetabixharry. Thanks heaps for your work on the editor. The basic version of the editor works just fine for me. A bit cheeky, but would you be able to share the editor?

Looking through the various forums regarding an editor it seems lots of people share the same sentiment; i.e. that the developer should just release one and make it incompatible with online play. That way we can have our fun mucking about with player abilities, budgets, coach+physio etc. to enhance our own enjoyment of the game.

The way I see it the game is an awesome concept but falling behind with every year's release due to its relative inflexibility. Hence I can't be bothered to purchase CC19.

I'd love to learn how to build an editor myself although computing is not my strong point! But with all this staying indoors and "working" from home, I figure it's a good time to teach myself some stuff.

Cheers for the hard work on this, again. It's much appreciated.

 

[weetabixharry]

Hi weetabixharry. Thanks heaps for your work on the editor. The basic version of the editor works just fine for me. A bit cheeky, but would you be able to share the editor?

If that minimal editor works for you, then the full editor should work fine too. Could you confirm what operating system you tried it on?

I probably won't have time to upload tonight, but I'll post it soon in a new thread (that way it's easier for people to find it, and for me to track any issues) and I will reply here with a link to that thread.

My other news is that I have also got a very basic "Scout" working (based on the version written by Fe98 over a decade ago), which loads up all the players in the game and, for example, allows you to sort by "Batting Ability":



It's interesting to see that Don Bradman is there at the top of the list (along with a bunch of other all-time greats), even though they're not assigned to any team in my savegame. It should be possible to copy these players into present-day club teams. Obviously, a lot of stuff isn't displaying correctly yet (dates of birth for classic players, non-English club names, plus a load of other columns that I have cropped out of the screenshot). Also "Batting ability" and "Bowling ability" are just one number each and I'm convinced there should be other numbers representing specific skills (like batting aggressively, bowling economically, etc). I'm working on this.

I'd love to learn how to build an editor myself although computing is not my strong point! But with all this staying indoors and "working" from home, I figure it's a good time to teach myself some stuff.

To be honest, the vast majority of the effort is just messing around in CheatEngine or ArtMoney to figure out where various information is stored in memory. Sticking it into an editor is pretty easy after that.

I think what I will do is post yet another thread with a list of memory locations that I suspect are related to specific batting/bowling/fielding attributes, along with step-by-step instructions explaining how to investigate them with CheatEngine. I have assumed no one is interested, but maybe with half the world under lockdown, some help might start to appear.

 

[bazman]

If that minimal editor works for you, then the full editor should work fine too. Could you confirm what operating system you tried it on?

I ran it on Windows 7. I could also try giving it a go on Windows 10 if you need a guinea pig for that?

My other news is that I have also got a very basic "Scout" working (based on the version written by Fe98 over a decade ago), which loads up all the players in the game and, for example, allows you to sort by "Batting Ability":

It's interesting to see that Don Bradman is there at the top of the list (along with a bunch of other all-time greats), even though they're not assigned to any team in my savegame. It should be possible to copy these players into present-day club teams. Obviously, a lot of stuff isn't displaying correctly yet (dates of birth for classic players, non-English club names, plus a load of other columns that I have cropped out of the screenshot). Also "Batting ability" and "Bowling ability" are just one number each and I'm convinced there should be other numbers representing specific skills (like batting aggressively, bowling economically, etc). I'm working on this.

That looks awesome and would be a brilliant addition to the game. From my little bits of digging and limited knowledge I share your thoughts that specific skills are almost certainly represented. Fair play to you and Fe98.

To be honest, the vast majority of the effort is just messing around in CheatEngine or ArtMoney to figure out where various information is stored in memory. Sticking it into an editor is pretty easy after that.

I think what I will do is post yet another thread with a list of memory locations that I suspect are related to specific batting/bowling/fielding attributes, along with step-by-step instructions explaining how to investigate them with CheatEngine. I have assumed no one is interested, but maybe with half the world under lockdown, some help might start to appear.

Yeah, that makes sense to me. I guess that is what puts most people off; the idea of having to dig deep into the memory. But like you say, now there's going to be a surfeit of time for a load of people around the world, perhaps more help will show up.

I'd like to think that if you posted a new thread, as you suggest, you'd get a bit more interest and/or help because I think many people, like me, just need to start getting to grips with the likes of CheatEngine. Once people get the hang of it, the help - hopefully - will be more forthcoming.

Cheers

 

[avatar]

I am working on this. I have now written a full editor (but sadly only for Windows) and I want to ensure it can't be used online. I am currently looking at a couple of options:

1) It looks like Easy Mode games can't be used online. I am trying to reverse-engineer that so the editor will only run in easy mode.
2) It looks like the latest update of each Cricket Captain (2018.xx, 2019.yy etc) is required for online play. Usually, all the memory pointers change after every update, so as long as editors are only released for older versions, then there should be no risk.

I would probably suggest that any editor releases should significantly lag the game releases anyway. As we approach 2020, I think it should be fine to release an editor for an old release of Cricket Captain 2018.

Here's a couple of screenshots showing everything I can edit so far. I had to work quite hard to find a way to allow all players to be available for every game (remove injuries, retirements, international commitments, IPL commitments, foreign player quotas). I haven't included potential abilities for batting and bowling yet because the interface is starting to get cluttered and I need to move some things around.

View attachment 226972

Hi, Can you share the editor please, I am on Win10 with game on easy mode.

Thanks in Advance

 

[weetabixharry]

Okay, I'm a bit short of time, so here is a pre-release of the editor (attached). I will post proper release threads for the Editor and Scout this week. I believe this pre-release will work for Cricket Captain 2018.09 on Windows 7.

Quick tips:

1. Run Cricket Captain 2018.09 first.
2. Run the editor second.
3. Only "Load" or "Apply" the Player Editor while viewing that player in-game.
4. Only "Add Coach + Physio" while viewing the Coaching screen in-game.
5. Only "Load Budget" while viewing the Team Details screen in-game. Confirm your team's name and budget is correctly loaded before editing and hitting "Save Budget".
6. If used correctly, the Editor should be fairly safe, but there is always a chance you could accidentally corrupt something. Back up your savegame if you don't want to lose it.

I could also try giving it a go on Windows 10 if you need a guinea pig for that?

Yes, I do need help with this. Please try it on Windows 10. If it doesn't work, I will have to send you a small program that reads the config of your savegame and hopefully we can figure out what's different in Windows 10.

Hi, Can you share the editor please, I am on Win10 with game on easy mode.

I expect the attached pre-release will not work on Windows 10. I have ordered a new SSD so I can install Windows 10 and get this working soon. It will be even sooner if @bazman and anyone else can help with the testing.

 

[bazman]

@weetabixharry I tried on Windows 10 with no success. Might be due to rickety old PC. @avatar have you managed to test?

Ran on Windows 7 no problem.

 

[weetabixharry]

Hi @bazman,

I have uploaded the first release of the editor in this thread:
https://www.planetcricket.org/forums/threads/editor-for-cricket-captain-2018-release.114601/

I have fixed several bugs since the pre-release I shared with you here, so please download the new release.

It would be a great help if you (and @avatar) could visit that thread and download the Windows 10 helper program linked in the bold red text. If you run that program in Windows 10 and paste the results back here somewhere, then that should allow us to get this running on Windows 10 as quickly as possible.

 

[bazman]

Hi weetabixharry,

Sorry for getting back so late. I've been flat out over the last week and have had no opportunity to give it a whizz. If you need me to test the Windows 10 program, I should be able to get on to this tomorrow.

 

[weetabixharry]

If you need me to test the Windows 10 program, I should be able to get on to this tomorrow.

That would be very useful. I suspect that the initial Windows 10 checker I uploaded might not provide me with enough information, so I will try to improve it and re-upload this evening.

Based on a reply I got over on the cricketweb forums, it looks like some memory addresses are completely different on different systems. Hopefully, this isn't a big problem. It's just a bit annoying when I can't reproduce the problem on my own computer.

 

[weetabixharry]

I will try to improve it and re-upload this evening.

@bazman I have made the necessary changes. Please download and run the updated CricketCaptain2018EditorHelper.exe and copy-paste the results here. I feel pretty confident this is going to work this time.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Dan89]

Hi, any chance you could offer a quick guide for simple idiots like me? Say when editing a batsman, do I adjust the level or the number next to it to improve/reduce a player's skill?