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[XBLA] Sonic Adventure Chao Stat Modding!

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QuothTheRaven

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After a few minutes of messing around with translating numbers to hex, and searching for things in HxD, I've finally figured out how to mod a Chao's stats.

Updated this guide, made it abit easier to read, fixed some general errors I made (such as not hex editing my Chao's skill points to match his skill LVLs)


What you'll need
- XBOX 360 Hash Block Calculator (Download here)
- HxD Hex Editor
- Your Sonic Adventure "Chao Garden" savegame


To make things easier, grab whatever Chao you are going to stat-mod, take it to the rename thing and rename it to "GOLDY". You'll see why, once you see the image of my HxD screen. Obviously, once you're done modding stats, you can rename your Chao back to whatever you want.

Step 1: Finding Values
Alright, this is the easy part. Pick up the Chao that you're gonna stat-mod. Write down his stats. Let's use my chao, GOLDY, as an example:
Code:
[b]Swim:[/b] LVL 05 (Skill points: 0080)
[b]Fly:[/b] LVL 04 (Skill points: 0086)
[b]Run:[/b] LVL 05 (Skill points: 0097)
[b]Power:[/b] LVL 01 (Skill points: 0017)
[b]Stamina:[/b] LVL 02 (Skill points: 0045)
Now, we need to convert his stats from Decimal to Hex.

1. Here's a perfect website for all your number-to-hex conversion needs. Simply find your Chao's level in the "#" section, and then look in the column beside it, labelled "Hex" for your Chao's level in Hex.

2. Use this tool to convert your Chaos skill points to Hex values. Use the "Decimal to Hex" area, not the "Hex to Decimal". As well, if you convert "0080" to Hex, this converter says "50". Add 2 zeroes before the 50, so you get "00 50".

PROTIP: If you do set your Chao's skills all up to LVL 99, don't forget to change your Chao's skill points as well. Refer to the picture below if you don't know which values are the "skill points". If you don't raise a Chao's skill points up to match his Skill LVLs, he will be greatly underpowered.


Step 2: Hex Editing your Chao
This can be tricky. If you want to make this really easy, change your Chao's name to "GOLDY". As you will see in the image below, HxD displays the Chao's name as "OLDY". All you have to do to find his stats is hit CTRL+F, and search for "OLDY" under "Text String".

This image contains everything you need to know about hex editing your Chao.

Want your Chao to have all 5 skills at level 99, with maxed out stat points? Hex edit your Chao's values and follow this picture to make your Chao have all LVL 99 Skills with 9999 Skill Points for each skill!

CAUTION: Do not give a Chao 9999 Skill Points if he's only got like, LVL 3 Skills. I fed my Chao and he went to level up and because of the abnormally high amount of skill points he had for LVL 3, my game froze.

Once you've changed all your Chao's stats, hit CTRL+F again, and find the next instance of your Chao's name. You have to change your Chao's stats twice. Every Chao's stats appear twice in the savegame for some reason, SO DON'T FORGET TO SEARCH YOUR CHAO'S NAME TO FIND BOTH OF THE STAT SECTIONS.

Once you've changed both copies of your Chao's stats over, save your savegame and exit HxD.

Step 3: Hash Block Calculating
Finally, the incredibly easy part. Load up the XBOX 360 Hash Block Calculator. Load your ChaoGarden save up into the Hash Block Calculator.

Click "Tools" at the top, then click "Calculate Hash Blocks". Once the calculator is finished, simply exit it, and rehash & resign your save (I don't think you have to, but I do it everytime. It's become a habit now).

Load up your save, go grab your Chao, and enjoy having a Chao with all Skill Levels at 99!


But wait, there's more!
As you will no doubt notice while looking at the screenshot I took of my HxD window, there are other values that can be changed. I don't know what they do, but I have a pretty good idea of what they might do.

I believe those other Hex values that are bunched together with the Skill level Hex values could control any of the following aspects of your Chao:
- What kind of hat your Chao has
- Ribbons (maybe?)
- What type of Chao your Chao is (which means if I can locate this specific hex value that controls Chao type, I can hack in an actual Tails chao!)

I've been reading this Sonic Adventure DX: PC hacking guide over at SonicRetro.org, to kind of give me a general idea of what I'm looking for in the Hex values, to control some of the things I listed above. However, as the guide is for the PC, I doubt it will be of any use to me. I need essentially the guide on SonicRetro.org, but for the XBLA version of SA:biggrin:X.

ENJOY MODDING YOUR CHAO! HOPEFULLY I CAN FIGURE OUT WHICH HEX VALUES CONTROL WHAT TYPE OF CHAO YOUR CHAO IS/WHAT HAT HE'S WEARING/ETC!
 
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QuothTheRaven

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I just found some neat info via Googling:

chao_tables.png


As for the Hex values you need to put in; http://info.sonicretro.org/SCHG:Sonic_Adventure_DX:_PC/RAM_Editing

EDIT: I kept buggering my Chao garden save up because I was trying to mod one of my normal Chao into a Tails Chao, as well as it's color. I was using values from the SonicRetro page (11 for the texture or color, and 23 for Tails Chao). I didn't realize why my save was buggering up until now. I forgot to translate 11 and 23 into Hex.

So keep in mind, any values from the SonicRetro page need to be translated to Hex for this stuff to work.


It's pretty self explanatory. I'm messing around with my Chao's color, hat, and (hopefully) toggling his feet off.
 
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Bit of a small update here:

I was messing around with my Chao Garden save, and I went to change the color & texture of my Gold Chao, GOLDY. I believe I forgot to change the values from the SonicRetro page (I added info about changing values to the post above this one), and because of that, the game wiped out all my Chao.

So I'm starting over fresh, and I named one of my Chao "GOLDY" again. Loaded the save up into HxD and did a Text String search for "OLDY", just like before. Couldn't find anything. I'm puzzled by this, but I'm trying to figure it out.

What I believe you should do now, as opposed to a Text-String search, is raise your Chao's stats up a fair abit before modding it.

Record it's Skill Lv's (levels), and as well, the amount of points it has in each skill.

Convert all values to Hex with the chart, then do a Hex search of either:

<Skill 1 Hex><Skill 2 Hex><Skill 3 Hex><Skill 4 Hex><Skill 5 Hex> (so for example, if a Chao has skill Lv's of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9, you'd do a search for "0103050709".

If your Chao's skill points are 0005, 0006, 0007, 0008, 0009, you'd search for "00050006000700080009" in Hex.

I believe doing the search this way, especially after raising your Chao's stats normally for abit, will make finding your Chao easy.

Finally, you'll notice in the guide above I said to search for your Chao because it'll have 2 sets of Stats. I believe I was wrong on that one. In my Chao Garden, before it got wiped, I think maybe I had 2 Chao named GOLDY in my garden (actually, I'm 99% sure I did). So don't worry about searching for your Chao twice.
 
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QuothTheRaven

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Nice tut looks nice and easy to follow +rep :biggrin:

I just registered over at FreeWebs (www.webs.com).

I'm gonna be making a Sonic Adventure DX modding site. As of the time of this post, I went and downloaded a site theme from some "free site theme" website, and I'm working on getting the main page set up.

Once that's done, I'm gonna see if I can't somehow make or obtain a web-based Decimal-to-Hex converter, (like on this website; click here to view it).

I want to have 2 versions though. One converter will have an entry-field limit of 2 characters (for the Chao's Skill Lv's), and the other will have an entry-field limit of 4 characters (for the Skill points). And for the Skill Points converter, I want to add "00" to the beginning of whatever results need them.

For example, when I use the Dec-to-hex converter on http://www.parkenet.com/apl/HexDecConverter.html, I'll punch in...let's say "0204". When I convert it to Hex, the result just says "CC". That can be confusing to some people. So I want to modify it so when I convert 0204, the result says "00CC", because as you can see in the images in my main post, the Skill Point fields have 4 characters.

Once the website is done, I guess I'll throw up a quick thread in this section to not only advertise the site, but to hopefully get people to start passing the site link around to anyone they know who has SADX on their 360 and wants to mod their Chao.
 
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AppliedDwarf

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I just registered over at FreeWebs (www.webs.com).

I'm gonna be making a Sonic Adventure DX modding site. As of the time of this post, I went and downloaded a site theme from some "free site theme" website, and I'm working on getting the main page set up.

Once that's done, I'm gonna see if I can't somehow make or obtain a web-based Decimal-to-Hex converter, (like on this website; click here to view it).

I want to have 2 versions though. One converter will have an entry-field limit of 2 characters (for the Chao's Skill Lv's), and the other will have an entry-field limit of 4 characters (for the Skill points). And for the Skill Points converter, I want to add "00" to the beginning of whatever results need them.

For example, when I use the Dec-to-hex converter on http://www.parkenet.com/apl/HexDecConverter.html, I'll punch in...let's say "0204". When I convert it to Hex, the result just says "CC". That can be confusing to some people. So I want to modify it so when I convert 0204, the result says "00CC", because as you can see in the images in my main post, the Skill Point fields have 4 characters.

Once the website is done, I guess I'll throw up a quick thread in this section to not only advertise the site, but to hopefully get people to start passing the site link around to anyone they know who has SADX on their 360 and wants to mod their Chao.

Sounds good message me when its up or if you need anything I'll be willing to help
 
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EDIT: I found a not-so-elegant solution to my sites CSS problem. I just set predetermined locations for things using "top: #px;", "left: #px;", "right: #px;", and "position: absolute;"

It's not pretty, but it'll have to do.
 
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QuothTheRaven

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(Sorry for double post)

UPDATE
Website is coming along nicely. I'm using Sonic Adventure DX (PC version) to get pictures of various things for the website. Since Webs.com only gives free sites 100MB of bandwidth, I'm not gonna post any links until I've finished the site.

I actually went and found a better CSS/XHTML layout and ditched the old one.

PC version has showed me that there's alot more to color/texture modding than I first thought. As well, there's more to mod when it comes to Chao, than what my image above shows. Website will have an updated version of that guide, with some kind of interactivity to it (I might recreate that image using HTML tables and links)
 
Riku

Riku

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Thanks for the tutorial, probably gonna try this later on in the week
 
Invudontseeme

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Definitely gonna try this out (: but i got a couple of questions
1) can you mod the chao's stats and still get the emblems and achievements for the races?
2) is this perfectly safe to do while online?
 
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Definitely gonna try this out (: but i got a couple of questions
1) can you mod the chao's stats and still get the emblems and achievements for the races?
2) is this perfectly safe to do while online?

yes, you can still get the emblems and achievements :smile:

And yes it is perfectly safe online:smile: Just modded a golden tails chao ! :smile:
 
Thug Aim

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Ah man, I miss these little guys. I should probably pick this game up from the Marketplace and mod a bit, VERY nice tutorial.
 
leonexodio

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I just found some neat info via Googling:

chao_tables.png


As for the Hex values you need to put in; http://info.sonicretro.org/SCHG:Sonic_Adventure_DX:_PC/RAM_Editing

EDIT: I kept buggering my Chao garden save up because I was trying to mod one of my normal Chao into a Tails Chao, as well as it's color. I was using values from the SonicRetro page (11 for the texture or color, and 23 for Tails Chao). I didn't realize why my save was buggering up until now. I forgot to translate 11 and 23 into Hex.

So keep in mind, any values from the SonicRetro page need to be translated to Hex for this stuff to work.


It's pretty self explanatory. I'm messing around with my Chao's color, hat, and (hopefully) toggling his feet off.

hey i read ur stuff and i found a lot of color mods and skin mods for the chao add me on xbox to talk to me more i also found how to mod the robot chao from the second game in sadx on xbox
 
Commander_XD

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Good Tut! Just thought everyone who reads this should know that if you want to take off animal parts, you have to go down and there should be some numbers there. From there, near the bottom, change those values and your chao will no longer have animal parts. Enjoy!
 
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