[Request] Hollywood Animal

[ZySoua]

Adding + to thread won't add to usefulness. Besides this game seems to be very buggy right now. Using "fast upgrade/fast build/fast compete" type of cheat can hard break your game. Save often before you cheat in this game. People EXP is 4 bytes, easy to find when it changes with CE. Unfortunately no idea how to break professional lvls locks except from fulfilling the Studio Policy challenges and getting Experimental Training

[nhockpo321]

cant change money value, it keep change back previous value after edit

[VampTY]

Updated a bit, for the version i've downloaded, before removing the game!Finding them is easy, playing is hard, for me!It takes a lot of patience, i don't have that with this game, sorry!

See if it works.

viewtopic.php?p=402336#p402336

[ZySoua]

Updated a bit, for the version i've downloaded, before removing the game!Finding them is easy, playing is hard, for me!It takes a lot of patience, i don't have that with this game, sorry!

See if it works.

viewtopic.php?p=402336#p402336

This made my game crash unfortunately. Right after I tried to use the XP script

[The Mogician]

Adding + to thread won't add to usefulness. Besides this game seems to be very buggy right now. Using "fast upgrade/fast build/fast compete" type of cheat can hard break your game. Save often before you cheat in this game. People EXP is 4 bytes, easy to find when it changes with CE. Unfortunately no idea how to break professional lvls locks except from fulfilling the Studio Policy challenges and getting Experimental Training

Yeah, they should probably add a bump function without people having to post. Otherwise, the front page is filled with "+" bumps and the more useful things have to be put on the back pages where it is harder to find.

[jstnlw]

Not a table, but the game configs are exposed as json in *\Steam\steamapps\common\Hollywood Animal\Holly_Data\StreamingAssets\Data\Configs\ and can easily be manipulated. For example;

- CharactersXP.json - I can change how much XP the employees can get on every movie completion/release under EXP_RELEASE_FINISHED and can easily max their level. I don't know where the skill limit config tho. Just don't change the "Lieu*" values, cos I think they're department heads, and hardlocks the game when their upgrades are maxed.

- NegotiationOffers.json - under INITIAL_FEE and SALARY, I can change the "unit" to 1.0 and pay my hires peanuts.

These are simple changes. if you're comfortable with a notepad or an editor, go ahead and tweak the others. If you break anything, can always verify integrity from steam to restore the files.

[The Mogician]

Not a table, but the game configs are exposed as json in *\Steam\steamapps\common\Hollywood Animal\Holly_Data\StreamingAssets\Data\Configs\ and can easily be manipulated. For example;

- CharactersXP.json - I can change how much XP the employees can get on every movie completion/release under EXP_RELEASE_FINISHED and can easily max their level. I don't know where the skill limit config tho. Just don't change the "Lieu*" values, cos I think they're department heads, and hardlocks the game when their upgrades are maxed.

- NegotiationOffers.json - under INITIAL_FEE and SALARY, I can change the "unit" to 1.0 and pay my hires peanuts.

These are simple changes. if you're comfortable with a notepad or an editor, go ahead and tweak the others. If you break anything, can always verify integrity from steam to restore the files.

Does that affect your rival studios and their actors?

[jstnlw]

Not a table, but the game configs are exposed as json in *\Steam\steamapps\common\Hollywood Animal\Holly_Data\StreamingAssets\Data\Configs\ and can easily be manipulated. For example;

- CharactersXP.json - I can change how much XP the employees can get on every movie completion/release under EXP_RELEASE_FINISHED and can easily max their level. I don't know where the skill limit config tho. Just don't change the "Lieu*" values, cos I think they're department heads, and hardlocks the game when their upgrades are maxed.

- NegotiationOffers.json - under INITIAL_FEE and SALARY, I can change the "unit" to 1.0 and pay my hires peanuts.

These are simple changes. if you're comfortable with a notepad or an editor, go ahead and tweak the others. If you break anything, can always verify integrity from steam to restore the files.

Does that affect your rival studios and their actors?

possibly, I'm not sure. Game is in EA anyways and I just wanna mess around w/o giving much thought..
edit: the competitor actors in my late save are mostly at limit. so i started a new game, and some of them are already at limit. so i can't tell lol.

[ZySoua]

I found some stuff while reading the Steam community forums. You can edit the save file manually that is located at users/YOURNAME/appdata/locallow/weappy/holly/saves/profiles/0 and the save name with any text editor like Notepad++
There is interesting stuff there. Like all the levels of the people, their lvl locks and etc and etc. You just need to search for the profession name and search for numbers that look like their happiness/ loyalty (they will be if 50 happiness = 0.50 and professional lvl is 0.8 if someone is 8 stars)
But there is so much data that it needs hours or days to read through

[ZySoua]

Not a table, but the game configs are exposed as json in *\Steam\steamapps\common\Hollywood Animal\Holly_Data\StreamingAssets\Data\Configs\ and can easily be manipulated. For example;

- CharactersXP.json - I can change how much XP the employees can get on every movie completion/release under EXP_RELEASE_FINISHED and can easily max their level. I don't know where the skill limit config tho. Just don't change the "Lieu*" values, cos I think they're department heads, and hardlocks the game when their upgrades are maxed.

- NegotiationOffers.json - under INITIAL_FEE and SALARY, I can change the "unit" to 1.0 and pay my hires peanuts.

These are simple changes. if you're comfortable with a notepad or an editor, go ahead and tweak the others. If you break anything, can always verify integrity from steam to restore the files.

I think there is a chance to edit CharacterGeneratorSettings file maybe to generate a better staff. Or look through GameVariables - there is a lot of things to change there like suicide chances, random theme research chances and this here character_generator_skill_curve, character_generator_starter_personnel_skill_curve, character_generator_starter_skill_curve and character_generator_personnel_skill_curve I am not sure what they do, but probably they change the probability of certain skill lvl staff appearing.

Unfortunately there is SO MUCH variables in that file that I just am too lazy to browse them all until the end. They seem to end with WW2 variables.

[Mirek_Burczyn]

But there is so much data that it needs hours or days to read through

Unfortunately there is SO MUCH variables in that file that I just am too lazy to browse them all until the end. They seem to end with WW2 variables.

If this is of any help: this game has right now ENORMOUS redundancies. It's like it was scripted by AI - every single data is repeated ad nauseam. Example: if you go into how all the elements work in script-writing, each and every single damn of them has the exact same list of other elements with their matching values. So you don't have it organised like a sane person that a drama movie goes best with unrequited love and adultery and that the best resolution is character commiting suicide, no no, you have a list for drama movie that incorporates every possible element, then you have the exact same list in the exact same style for unrequited love, then another one for adultery and then for suicide of the protagonist. It's fuck-huge piles of text that are pure redundancy.

And the same thing is done with save files, where you just have a string of the same data copied 20 times.

I get it, .json file weights nothing and is easily adjuustable, but this game is scirpted by someone who apparently never worked on any gaming project prior.

Fun game, but horribly scripted, tedious to analyse and I honestly doubt it will ever change.

EDIT
I actually did bother to sieve through save file and once you get into them, it's pretty simple stuff to change various important things, which should help with both save-editing and potentially searching for the right variables with CE

PERKS - save editing

Also known as RESEARCH in-game. There are two things to consider in the save file:
1) "openedPerks": line in the save
It governs the perks you already have unlocked. The sane thing is to just type down there the stuff, rather than bother with any kind of research and unlocking.
2) "perksOpeningProgress": line in the save
It governs the current research, per researched thing, per department, listing progress
- if you are masochistic, you can speedball the progress of current research
- if you are super-masochistic, you can note that the time needed to finish research follows the formula of:
Planned duration (number of days you've get after applying all research time reductions) / Number of days already passed = Float value to serch for, tracking it to the 8th decimal point.
Using this formula, you can then search each and every value by hand like some kind of a foraging animal, e-calculating every day and wasting an enormous amount of time on something that can be save-edited in seconds
Example:
"plannedDuration":240,"progress":0.13333337,"daysSpent":32
Next day it's going to be 33/240, so the value you are looking for it 0,1375.
Next day it's going to be 34/240, so 0,14583333
And so on and forth.
tl;dr don't bother, just save-edit it, either with your current research or just add the perks you need/want.
Perk names can be found in Hollywood Animal\Holly_Data\StreamingAssets\Data\Configs, with whole set of useful data. If you struggle with going through local .json files, then simply switch your ongoing progress value to 0.9999 and daysSpent to be equal to plannedDuration - 1, so the next day the research will wrap up.
Unless someone writes a script for just turning current research into one-day affair, manual search with CE is horrendous waste of time

STAFF - save editing

You are looking for "professions":{"INSERT PROFESSION NAME HERE" and then simply check if this is the right guy/gal you are editing. Skills are also in decimal, so 1 means a 10 star skill in-game, while 0.5 is 5 stars.
Example:
"professions":{"Composer":0.23},"limit":0.3,"mood":0.78,"attitude":0.972407341,"selfEsteem":-0.262481123,"xp":700,"contract":{"contractType":0,"amount":8,"startAmount":8,"is5050":false,"payed5050":false,"initialFee":0.0,"monthlySalary":12840.0,"weightToSalary":1.0,"raiseIgn":false,"raiseCool":0,"raiseBonus":0,"ultimatumCool":0,"leaveCool":0,"offers":[],"extension":null,"dateOfSigning":"1928-05-14T00:00:00"
This is one of your starting composers. It shows that the guy has currently 2.3 stars, his skill limit is 3 stars, his current happyness and his self-esteem, then the exp he gained so far, then the details regarding his contract: current paygrade, did he get a raise, when and if he was negotiating and when did he sign on (before the game start).
I didn't bother to cover other data here, but we can switch around traits (like the fact this particular gentleman is a xenophobe), marriage history and so on, but also such useless data as what was his last script like, even if he can't write any as a composer (like I've said, redundancies in the script are enormous)
Just like with perks, don't bother with manual search with CE, especially given how slow and low the gains are and how you don't know the base exp (at least not in game) the specific character has.

PRODUCTION - CE search

This is probably the only one, where using CE for manual search makes any sense. You are yet again searching for Days Already Passed/Days Planned For The Stage. Due to the time needed to reload this messy game, you are going to find faster your decimal float value than find the right line in the save for your specific movie and alter it, then load the new save.
So all it takes is divide number of days that already passed for given stage by number of planned days, let a day pass, and repeat the process with recalculation
Example:
2nd day of pre-production of 35 planned, so you need to search for 0,05714285
Then 3/35, so 0,08571428
Then 4/35, so 0,11428571
Repeat for each production, and once you get the range from which the value is taken, you can narrow it down with just the 2nd search.

CONSTRUCTION - CE search

Works the same as above, so go figure.

.

If someone else needs any other kind of data from saves, shoot, but people, this game is a fucking mess script-wise - not just regular mess, it's a fucking mess. And given how this is EA, there are two options: either they will gradually streamline all the stuff, making it pointless to make any kind of CE scripts now OR they won't streamline anything, and it's gonna work like ass once all the features are included (it currently needs 8 GB RAM to run at all, despite by all means it could be possible to write it as a 1 GB 32-bit game)

tl;dr have fun save-editing and Happy Easter

PS
Saves are in %\AppData\LocalLow\Weappy\Holly\Saves\Profiles\0

PPS
Some rule of thumb tips:
1) Do not increase skill of your executives
Those are the various characters with "Lieut in their profession name. All you will get in return is demand for a raise, since all those people handle is shorter research time (which you will avoid entirely by save-editing) and the game will freeze once they max out their skill, since by design you should never be able to lvl up that high. Keep them underskilled, even decrease exp gains for them in CharactersXP.json (your script exec is going to level up like crazy)
2) You want your script writers to be at least 7, but only one of them should be 10 and rest should be 7-8 range
Due to bunch of game mechanics, you need "good enough" script writers, and 7 is the sweet spot where they are very useful and reliably deliver new ideas, but don't become picky and don't go prima donna on you. Meaning you shouldn't push skill limit of undercooked script writers beyond 7, while getting everyone to 9 and especially 10 is couter-productive
3) You can artificially tank salaries AND prevent asking for a raise
Toy around with both salary itself (don't go below 1001, however, that triggers automatic asking for a raise) and weightToSalary values. People only can ask for a raise after they've gained a new level (actors get additional checks when they raise in fame, but it's your technical staff that's the actual money drain). So by editing their skill higher and further altering their salary weight, you will prevent them from ever asking for a raise. VERY handy
For those reasons I aslo think that any CE script that allows characters to instantly raise their skill (unless by simply granting them 30k exp at once) would be actually very bad thing to have, since your expenses due to the demand for raise would kill your studio if it would happen too early.
4) Purely gaming tip
3rd sound stage is the best one - already good enough, but not as expensive to build and maintain as the final tier. Your studio is the in-universe Republic Pictures, you are making cheap schlock and film serials. Cheating or not, the goal of the game is not to be the 2nd Universal, and you will consistently fail if trying to aim for that

[ZySoua]

I actually did bother to sieve through save file and once you get into them, it's pretty simple stuff to change various important

Wow, this is so much. Right now I actually wouldn't bother with any editing because of daily patches. Developers are really serious about keeping the game up-to-date and their roadmap stretches out into the second half of 2025. But thanks for doing the research anyway.

[Mirek_Burczyn]

I don't really think they are going to change how progress is calculated. Other things are likely to change, but not that one.
Besides, I've tried save-editing between game versions and it worked just fine, with the caveat that I had to follow the official instruction from the devs how to use your old saves when applying new patch. But it applied to un-edited saves. What's pointless to constantly re-edit are the data files governing basics of gameplay, since you would have to literally re-work them on daily basis. But saves are perfectly fine.

UPDATE for post-April builds
They've slightly reworked how saves are made (less bloat), so it's actually easier to save-edit now.
And due to some re-balances of filming process, remember to set the slowest work settings possible, since you gonna cheat that anyway, while using even default settings is a great way for whole lot of negative events and shitty mood of the entire production crew. It's actually faster this way, than trying to then fix the fallout of tanked loyalty/mood.

[raki_can]

The instant upgrade trick still works, but there's the problem that the resources used in the initial search continue to be consumed at 100% of their original value.
Does anyone know how to get around this?
As far as I've researched, no matter which resource you use you end up with 3 addresses, 2 of which are common to both resource variations, but setting 2 of the addresses to "1" has no effect, and the resource addresses only have an effect if you combine them.

Also, does anyone know how to speed up HQ upgrades?
Under the normal game system, these are only accelerated by the HQ manager's years of service.

[raki_can]

Oops, I didn't look at page 2.

I see that quite a lot of things can be changed by editing the json files, but I couldn't find anything related to upgrades.
Does anyone know which file defines the upgrades?