Blood Omen 2 Software Manipulation: Cheats and Hacking Guide - CONTENTS
1.1 Introduction
2.1 The game.erg file - The Cheater's Best Mate
3.1 Basic Tutorial A
3.2 Basic Tutorial B
4.1 Advanced Tutorial
5.1 Acknowledgements
1.1 Introduction
Those of you who have seen my hacking work with Soul Reaver 2 know that I've written tutorials on editing the Save-Game files. This allowed the players to cheat, and to do things that you are not normally permitted to do (summon cut-out characters, use Metal Reaver, explore Janos's Retreat, etc):
Soul Reaver 2 Software Manipulation Guide
I've tried with BO2, and I haven't had much luck. I'm going to still try, but the save files are much smaller than SR2s, and don't contain much stuff to edit.
Fortunately, I have discovered an alternate, and much much easier way of cheating in BO2. Unfortunately, I do not know how to transit similar effects over to the PS2 or X-Box versions of the game.
2.1 The game.erg file - The Cheater's Best Mate
Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes Software have kindly put a file in the Blood Omen 2 / data folder called game.erg which is an easily modified Registry of the cheats and debug options. It is a text file in which each line contains an option, followed by an equals (=) sign, and then a number (0 or 1). 1 means YES, and 0 means NO. Changing these numbers, and even adding new entries, lets the player use debug modes, like walk in water, or disable the Blood Vials. The file is present in the patched 1.01 version of the game, I do not know if it is still present after the 1.02 patch.
Before doing ANYTHING, from tutorials to your own experiments, make a copy of the Blood Omen 2/data/game.erg file. If you mess up, this is your backup for restoration. Just copy and paste it.
3.1 Basic Tutorial A
Using Notepad, or the text-editor of your choice, open the game.erg file in your Blood Omen 2/data folder.
The third line will look like this:
"Debug Common\Draw UI"=1
Change the 1 to a 0 and save the file. Load up Blood Omen 2 and start a new game, or load a save file (it doesn't matter really). You can now play the game without the UI (ie - The Blood Vials in the corner). Although a pretty pointless modification, it allows you to grab screenshots without the GUI getting in the way. Handy for screengrabs.
3.2 Basic Tutorial B
Using Notepad, or the text-editor of your choice, open the game.erg file in your Blood Omen 2/data folder.
The 20th line will look like this:
"-BO2 Kain Debug Flags\kain's invulnerable"=1
The hyphen (-) disables this cheat, so delete the hypen only. The line should now look like:
"BO2 Kain Debug Flags\kain's invulnerable"=1
Save the file and load the game. Congratulations, Kain is now indestructable, no enemy can cause you harm. Nifty for bosses this one.
Try modifying the others, or removing the hypens. See what happens!
4.1 Advanced Tutorial
More complex this. Using a hex editor, or a text editor, open the BO2.exe file present in your Blood Omen 2 folder. In here are more commands that can be added to the game.erg file, to manipulate the game. Scroll past the symbols and numbers till you come to words and text. You will find the following:
Each of these from BO2.exe can be added to the erg file, some with admittedly limited success, some with no effect, and some with drastic effects on the game.
Go into game.erg and highlight and copy this line:
"-BO2 Kain Debug Flags\kain's invulnerable"=1
Now, paste it beneath, so that you have two identical lines. Remove the hypen of the one you just made, and replace kain's invulnerable with the following taken from the BO2.exe extract:
ignore water for Kain
So, your newly created line should look like this:
"BO2 Kain Debug Flags\ignore water for Kain"=1
Save the file, boot up BO2, and well done! Kain is now immune to water's touch. He can't swim mind, but he can walk on the beds of lakes and rivers.
Try creating more entries like above, and looking through the games system files for more codes!
5.1 Comments
This FAQ is in early stages, I only discovered how to do this 2 hours ago. I hope to make a list of things to put in the game.erg file, and what cheats they enable. Perhaps eventually allow people to download custom made game.erg files, since they are small files. I'm also hoping to discover how to enable the Dark Gifts from the game beginning, which should be quite easily possible. Not that I want to do something nasty, like Immolate Umah during training. Oh no. No.
If anyone can contribute new entries and codes please do. As I say, I haven't had much time to experiment yet. Hope to discover more soon.
5.2 Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank myself for discovering and typing this all out. I'd also like to thank Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes Software for making BO2 much easier to hack than SR2. Can we have a game.erg file in SR3? Thanks.
Divine Shadow, 19th April 2002, Version 1.0
1.1 Introduction
2.1 The game.erg file - The Cheater's Best Mate
3.1 Basic Tutorial A
3.2 Basic Tutorial B
4.1 Advanced Tutorial
5.1 Acknowledgements
1.1 Introduction
Those of you who have seen my hacking work with Soul Reaver 2 know that I've written tutorials on editing the Save-Game files. This allowed the players to cheat, and to do things that you are not normally permitted to do (summon cut-out characters, use Metal Reaver, explore Janos's Retreat, etc):
Soul Reaver 2 Software Manipulation Guide
I've tried with BO2, and I haven't had much luck. I'm going to still try, but the save files are much smaller than SR2s, and don't contain much stuff to edit.
Fortunately, I have discovered an alternate, and much much easier way of cheating in BO2. Unfortunately, I do not know how to transit similar effects over to the PS2 or X-Box versions of the game.
2.1 The game.erg file - The Cheater's Best Mate
Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes Software have kindly put a file in the Blood Omen 2 / data folder called game.erg which is an easily modified Registry of the cheats and debug options. It is a text file in which each line contains an option, followed by an equals (=) sign, and then a number (0 or 1). 1 means YES, and 0 means NO. Changing these numbers, and even adding new entries, lets the player use debug modes, like walk in water, or disable the Blood Vials. The file is present in the patched 1.01 version of the game, I do not know if it is still present after the 1.02 patch.
Before doing ANYTHING, from tutorials to your own experiments, make a copy of the Blood Omen 2/data/game.erg file. If you mess up, this is your backup for restoration. Just copy and paste it.
3.1 Basic Tutorial A
Using Notepad, or the text-editor of your choice, open the game.erg file in your Blood Omen 2/data folder.
The third line will look like this:
"Debug Common\Draw UI"=1
Change the 1 to a 0 and save the file. Load up Blood Omen 2 and start a new game, or load a save file (it doesn't matter really). You can now play the game without the UI (ie - The Blood Vials in the corner). Although a pretty pointless modification, it allows you to grab screenshots without the GUI getting in the way. Handy for screengrabs.
3.2 Basic Tutorial B
Using Notepad, or the text-editor of your choice, open the game.erg file in your Blood Omen 2/data folder.
The 20th line will look like this:
"-BO2 Kain Debug Flags\kain's invulnerable"=1
The hyphen (-) disables this cheat, so delete the hypen only. The line should now look like:
"BO2 Kain Debug Flags\kain's invulnerable"=1
Save the file and load the game. Congratulations, Kain is now indestructable, no enemy can cause you harm. Nifty for bosses this one.
Try modifying the others, or removing the hypens. See what happens!
4.1 Advanced Tutorial
More complex this. Using a hex editor, or a text editor, open the BO2.exe file present in your Blood Omen 2 folder. In here are more commands that can be added to the game.erg file, to manipulate the game. Scroll past the symbols and numbers till you come to words and text. You will find the following:
| show Kain's blocking preference show checkpoint info ignore water for Kain Dark gifts always available show kain clip changes display ladder and edge grab probes show elapsed player time show Kain's charge move points hide Kain during dark gift targeting kain's invulnerable don't use debug health show Kain's hit points show Kain's lore show Kain's select aiming show Kain's facing show Kain's animations show Kain's platform info show Kain's velocity debug Kain's grab attacks show Kain's position show Kain's behaviors draw Kain's enemy SENSE stuff show weapon animations print weapon states Dell's secret flag show detector debug stuff draw wardgate detection fields debug rumble effects draw path from Kain to charm victim debug trajectories draw pushable grids show ladder pivot points disable kains headtracking show analog controller show weapon hitpoints weapons are not breakable allow abort from cinematics show superjump debug stuff dont show monster prints show captions show camera Z lag display rendered font test |
Each of these from BO2.exe can be added to the erg file, some with admittedly limited success, some with no effect, and some with drastic effects on the game.
Go into game.erg and highlight and copy this line:
"-BO2 Kain Debug Flags\kain's invulnerable"=1
Now, paste it beneath, so that you have two identical lines. Remove the hypen of the one you just made, and replace kain's invulnerable with the following taken from the BO2.exe extract:
ignore water for Kain
So, your newly created line should look like this:
"BO2 Kain Debug Flags\ignore water for Kain"=1
Save the file, boot up BO2, and well done! Kain is now immune to water's touch. He can't swim mind, but he can walk on the beds of lakes and rivers.
Try creating more entries like above, and looking through the games system files for more codes!
5.1 Comments
This FAQ is in early stages, I only discovered how to do this 2 hours ago. I hope to make a list of things to put in the game.erg file, and what cheats they enable. Perhaps eventually allow people to download custom made game.erg files, since they are small files. I'm also hoping to discover how to enable the Dark Gifts from the game beginning, which should be quite easily possible. Not that I want to do something nasty, like Immolate Umah during training. Oh no. No.
If anyone can contribute new entries and codes please do. As I say, I haven't had much time to experiment yet. Hope to discover more soon.
5.2 Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank myself for discovering and typing this all out. I'd also like to thank Crystal Dynamics and Nixxes Software for making BO2 much easier to hack than SR2. Can we have a game.erg file in SR3? Thanks.
Divine Shadow, 19th April 2002, Version 1.0
I used Kain as a D&D character one time and I had him use a scythe instead of a sword. I got excited when I seen the guy with the scythe but really pissed when I could not take it.
