Trying to enable the debugger / cheats console...

[Plawerth]

Whelp I've owned the game for about a week, and I'm getting bored with it.

Time to figure out how to get access to the Unreal Engine 4 debug/cheat console and some of these fun hidden key bindings...

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ActionMappings=(ActionName="QuickSelectModifier",Key=LeftShift,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="InteractModifier",Key=LeftAlt,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)

ActionMappings=(ActionName="FOVDown",Key=PageDown,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="FOVUp",Key=PageUp,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="TeleportToCursor",Key=Insert,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="ToggleDebugMenu",Key=End,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)
ActionMappings=(ActionName="SetUIFocus",Key=LeftControl,bShift=False,bCtrl=False,bAlt=False,bCmd=False)

I expect there is probably some sort of hidden command line option to get access to the console, or as in past games like this, I may need to add some parameter like "sv_cheats 1" to an engine INI file somewhere.

I expect the gold nugget I am seeking, is probably lurking somewhere in this mess....  hmmm....

Um, yeah.... this poking around might take a while...

 

[Plawerth]

Unrelated, but interesting. Why is this disabled? WHY?

• If this is set to 1, save files may be duplicated from the game menu. If set to 0, the option will be hidden completely.  Astro.Menu.AllowSaveFileDuplication

Hmm....

• Console commands were used which are disallowed in netplay.  You must restart the game to create a match.
• Activating outro cinematic via cheat
• Can't find section 'CheatScript.%s' in DefaultGame.ini
• CheatManagerBindComponentDelegates
• EnableCheats
• You feel ethereal
• TotalPhysical
• God mode 
• God Mode off
• bCheatFlying
• ClientCheatFly
• ClientCheatGhost
• ClientCheatWalk

 

[Plawerth]

Well, no console access yet, but getting further along playing around in the game's egg salad.

Let's try setting this to True and run the game.

.... yep, that works.

And if we set "DisplayExperimentalWatermark" to be true...

 

Some of these physics engine settings can be fun to play with, too. You don't need fly if you can shoot off the ground just by jumping.

MaxSpeed= 1200000000

Or a negative drag coefficient, or a negative MinSpeed.

"Why can't I stand still? Why won't my hands stop shaking?" ... there are drugs for that.

 

Still looking for the direct console access, though.

[epicdude312]

Where's the file location of DefaultGame.ini? It seems like it would be fun to play around with

[Plawerth]

Heh, I'm not sure how much I should actually say about what I'm doing. No forum moderator has yelled at me yet, or locked this thread.

Possibly the details of how the game works under the hood are intended to stay somewhat confidential. But it also seems pretty clear the game developers do not read these forums at all except to collect user complaints, and these forums might as well just not exist as far as directly communicating with the developers is concerned.

So it may be okay to talk about this openly? I don't know. 🤐

I'm flirting with the topic, but also trying to not suddenly get a really strong stare from a game dev reading this thread.. 😠

[Kitebeans]

I'm pretty sure if you could just flip a console setting to enable dev build stuff and debug info and cheats, everybody would be doing it by now. =P

Worst you can really do by changing basic game constants is cheating, in the broader scheme of things, which isn't a big deal if that's how you want to play the game.😮

We have a discord too? Just don't share leaks early if you can help it.

Edited April 16, 2019 by Kitebeans

[Plawerth]

Okay, well, I decided I wanted to poke around inside the game assets to see if I could figure out how to obtain console access.

Step 1: MAKE A COPY of the game program folder and put it somewhere else, ZIP it, whatever. All of the following will get borked when Steam finds that an update is available.

The game assets are here:  \Steam\SteamApps\common\ASTRONEER\Astro\Content\Paks\Astro-WindowsNoEditor.pak

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This needs to be extracted, basically decompressed, but it is a weird file format custom to Unreal Engine 4. There is no common everyday decompression tool for this. Have to use l33t h4ck3r t00l, called QuickBMS.... http://quickbms.com

Additionally you need to find a script file for QuickBMS that tells it how to decompress UE4 pak files. The script file is named unreal_tournament_4.bms

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QuickBMS shows a bunch of weird stuff while extracting.

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Once you have extracted the PAK, it gives you two directories named "Astro" and "Engine".

Merge the "Astro" folder with "\ASTRONEER\Astro"

Merge the "Engine" folder with "\ASTRONEER\Engine"

Remove the PAK file from "\ASTRONEER\Astro\Content\Paks"

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You now have access to all the raw game files. Make a second copy of this "\ASTRONEER" folder and store it somewhere safe.

If a new update is released, Steam will scan through your hacked game directory and muck it up, and then says "hmm there is no PAK file" and redownloads it again.. hence the need to keep a copy of your extraction work somewhere else.

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Also it seems the game is doing something weird to prevent me from running the modified game outside of the Steam install location. If I take the "SteamApps\common\ASTRONEER" folder, rename it to "SteamApps\Common\ASTRODERP" and then try to run ASTRO.EXE inside, Steam will pop up a warning that it could not find the game directory, and may attempt to redownload it again.

So fine, the hacked version has to be the main game install directory. This makes things more difficult, but whatever.

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Here is a Pastebin listing of the directories inside the PAK..

https://pastebin.com/wy6E61WL

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\Engine\Confg\

\Astro\Config\

I know all the achievements, including the hidden ones I haven't completed..

 

[epicdude312]

Okay, I think this might've gone too far since you're decompiling the PAK file. Unsurprisingly this is against the EULA as it allows cracked versions of the game  -- this is also why there isn't a modding community as you could definitely mod the game with a decompiled PAK.

I'm not a dev or a moderator but I just wanted to let you know that this might not be the best idea without permission from the moderators or devs.

[Plawerth]

I'm at the point of opening the first core of the first planet, and ... the user interface on the vehicle mining drill is SO laughably terrible and difficult to control, especially for underground mining, that I want to take my keyboard and beat my monitor into a pile of scrap. No first person driver seat view, the game saves when I don't want it to, there is only one game save slot...

I've already violated the EULA multiple times by figuring out ways to hack it so I can quit without saving (posted it here, even), or by overriding their one-save-game-file policy (posted that, too).

If SystemEra wants to revoke my ASTRONEER / Steam game license because I'm now also poking around under the hood like this, by merely running what basically amounts to an UNZIP tool, fine. This game's user interface and play experience just sucks in so many irritating ways, I won't really miss it if the game license were revoked. I will provide my steam account name to a forum moderator on request.

But I can't do anything about what has been posted. This forum does not allowing editing or deletion of your own posts or threads. It's up to a moderator to do that.