From:  Lt. Colonel David "Xerxes" Rouleau
RE:  High shields through HEX editing


All right, fellow pilots, here it is....  Shield editing!
Follow there instructions and you'll have shields that are
nearly impenetrable.

First of all, you're going to need to get your hands on a
utility program that allows for hexadecimal editing, like
Norton Utilities (a great program to have for many reasons).
The rest of these instructions will be tailored towards
using Norton, since it's probably the best tool for the
job.  But it's possible to accomplish the same thing using
other programs.

The basic process involves finding the shield hex for each
of the ships in the main game file, then replacing the first
four codes with one of three sets of four codes provided
here, depending on how high you want your shields to be.

The first step:  get Norton to find the code you want to
change.  To do this, use the Disk Editor.  Select the main
game file as the "Item" (WC.EXE if you are playing Wing
Commander or Secret Missions 1; SM2.EXE if you are playing
Secret Missions 2), then use the "Search item/disk for data"
option.  Select "Text to search for", and TAB down to
"Hexidecimal format", and enter one of the codes below,
depending on what ship you want to modify.

              Hornet:       28 00 28 00 2D
              Rapier:       50 00 4B 00 3C
              Scimitar:     3C 00 32 00 55
              Raptor:       46 00 46 00 64
              Tiger's Claw: 96 00 96 00 6E
              Venture:      96 00 96 00 6E
              Drayman:      78 00 78 00 50
              Exeter:       F0 00 f0 00 DC

Those are ZEROS, in the codes not the letter "O".

The following codes will allow you to customize your shields
to give you just a tiny edge or an impenetrable barrier,
depending on what you want.  Replace the FIRST FOUR hex
codes with one of the following:

               FF 7F FF 7F    (Shield value = 32,767)
               FF 0F FF 0F    (Shield value =  4,085)
               FF 0x FF 0x    ("x" is a varible, meaning
                               that you have to supply a
                               number for it.  Your shield
                               value will dwpwnd on the
                               number that you put in,
                               according to the formula:

                Shield value = 256x + 255

Thus entering FF 03 FF 03 will give you shields of 256(3)+255=1023.

This means your ship can have shields ranging from 255 to
32,767, depending on the level of challenge you desire.


SEVERAL SUGGESTIONS:

--Save your original WC.EXE or SM2.EXE under a different
name in case you screw up.
--Afterburning into an asteroid will kill you no matter how
high your shields are.
--In a few missions in SM1 and SM2, you have to fight
Rapiers and an Exeter-class destroyer, and if you've
modified the ships to have high shields, you'll never kill
them.  Go back and change them.

Good luck with the editing, and Happy Hunting!
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