Hi team,

I have noticed that when I learn to mod games, even after I have gained a lot of experience modding, that certain people always seem to to be very far ahead of me with their knowledge. There is a relationship where I am always the one asking the questions and someone else is always the one answering them - unless the question is coming from an absolute beginner.

I suspect that the reason my modding ability never improves beyond a certain point is I lack a general technical knowledge of how games work. I was wondering:

1. Is there something/software/code that I should learn more about to help me understand more about how games work in general.
2. Is there a way to determine how mod files/code connects relates to each other. For example, if we take the game “Call to Arms” as an example, if I want to figure out how to change the price of a squad, I might go to a file called “squad” and change a value called “cost = 200". Later on I learn through trial and error that there is another folder called “soldier” which I also have to edit the cost of each soldier in the squad. But in the meantime I have spent hours in the squad folder trying to make the squad free without success. Is there some fast way that someone with a game dev background would know to use that would allow him/her to see that the “squad” file and “soldier” file are related when it comes to decreasing the cost of the squad?

Thanks for your help.

Modding is a quite difficult topic because it highly depends on the game you want to change and the behavior. I know some games support mods by design. Then you should start learning how their modding SDKs work. A game I remember for example is The Fall, which could be modded by adding LUA scripts to a folder or The Elder Scrolls, which has an own modding tool and some sort of script.

Then there are games like Minecraft, which you need to change compiled source code to allow mods. Those games are quie difficult because you need to know how you can modify the assembly. To stay on Minecraft, it is quite easy compared to a game which was written in C++. You also have to take high caution on games which are protected by a DRM program like steam or denuvo. Those scan the hash value of the executable and break if that changed so adding a jump marker to your mod code is likely to break the game forever.

A third technique I have seen to mod a game is embedding the mods into an own launcher. This way you are able to scan the game's memory and modify some addresses to point to your own functions rather than the OS or game ones. Windows for example allows to change the byte-code behind a function at runtime which can be used from both, the game to protect against cheating/mods or a cheat engine/mod to change the behavior of the game itself.

TL;DR there isn't a standard way to mod a game and you should know how the game works and how to edit it. Learn the basics, OS APIs are your friends and it is never wrong to know how CPUs and memory work

Thanks, can said “learn the basics” - what are the basics?

What is OS APIs? I googled the this and it seems to relate to finding locations?

AmateurModder said:
What is OS APIs

Operation System APIs, like everything in WINAPI on Windows or the Linux Kernel Interfaces. This is what the OS is build upon, from the low-level Kernel and System Driver code up to more advanced systems which are for example DirectX