Few cheats and strategies:
Save location:
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\LocalLow\GambitGamesStudio\AircraftCarrierSurvival\Saves
Save editor:
[Link]
[
saveeditonline(dot)
com]
Resource Pointers:
data > IntermissionData > CommandPoints 13
<-
Command points you have to get more crew, planes and escort ships.
data > IntermissionData > UpgradePoints 14
<-
Upgrade points you have to upgrade stuff.
These are actually also ridiculously easy to find with CE, since they are plain 4 Bytes values.
Admiral stats:
data > AdmiralAirLevel 7
data > AdmiralNavyLevel 7
data > MissionRewards > AdmiralRenownLevel 12
<- This is the admiral level that unlocks better maneuver effects.
data > MissionRewards > AdmiralUnlockedOrders 5240902
<- This unlocks the carrier orders that needs officers to use. The number correlates decimal form of binary code where every "1" is a flag for certain order and every bit is not in use. To add more orders, simply add the decimal number of the wanted order into the current number, for example "70" is the number to get all three starting orders, which comes from 2 (DC Reinforcement) + 4 (Enhanced Radar) + 64 (Defensive Positioning) = 2+4+64=70.
Here are all the decimal converted binary flags for the orders:
(Simply calculate the end value by adding values from wanted traits. No apparent limit, but might cause problems if you get mission reward and there isn't rewards left to get)
- -
2 DC Reinforcement
4 Enhanced Radar
-
-
-
64 Defensive Positioning
-
-
512 Fire Control
-
2048 Section Repair
4096 AA Support
8192 Evasive Maneuvers
16384 Tactical Mission Focus
32768 Surprise Attack
65536 Counter Attack
131072 Decisive Blow
262144 Plane Fuel Management
524288 Deck Control
1048576 Night Shift
2097152 Quicker Repairs
4194304 Code Breakers
Code Breakers and Plane Fuel Management are the most useful. Next the three beginner ones (70), Tactical Mission Focus, Counter Attack, AA Support, Evasive Maneuvers, Surprise Attack and Deck Control and the rest are more or less useless or too situational to be useful. "5240902" Gives you pretty much all the useful orders and few of the situational ones.
Officer stats:
data > MissionRewards > OfficersUpgrades > 0 > ManeuverLevel 3
<- Level 1 enables officer maneuver card, level 3 is gold level.
data > MissionRewards > OfficersUpgrades > 0 > UpgradedAirPoints 2
data > MissionRewards > OfficersUpgrades > 0 > UpgradedNavyPoints 2
<- Besides admiral, officer has just one or the other and increasing both makes the trait seem higher on Pearl Harbor view, but in the mission is the absolute value in the given stat.
data > MissionRewards > OfficersUpgrades > 0 > Medals 6
<- This is how many medals the officer has gotten. They get either maneuver upgrade OR one point to their officer stat from 1, 3 and 6 medals.
data > MissionRewards > OfficersUpgrades > 0 > MissionsPlayed 4
<- Just a number how many missions the officer has been on. No apparent effect.
Crew stats:
data > MissionRewards > CrewsUpgrades > 0 > Medals 3
<- Number of medals the crew member has gotten. Gives specialization on levels 1 and 2, after which they seem to have no effect.
data > MissionRewards > CrewsUpgrades > 0 > CrewDataIndex 0
<- Crew-member picture. Number between 0-18 on game version v17.4. Going above 18 gives problems with UI.
data > MissionRewards > CrewsUpgrades > 0 > Cost 1
<- The cost for purchase, only having effect on the crew members still on market and it seems to be "0" with the members that are with you from the start for free. No apparent need to touch, unless you want to buy free crew-members without editing CP and UP numbers (why?).
data > MissionRewards > CrewsUpgrades > 0 > Specialties 514
<- This is the number that is the decimal representation of binary flag for the crew member's specialities (512 Generalist + 2 Damage Control on above example). Do NOT give crew member more than two specialities or the UI and possibly something else breaks. It also helps to give the crew with two specializations also two medals, so that the engine doesn't screw this up when the crew member next time gets a medal, as you are forced to use every medal you get and always two of them goes to crew and two to officers. Having more than two medals doesn't matter, but having less forces you to have third specialization, which makes you need to edit the third trait away to avoid problems.
List of the decimal numbers for crew specialty traits:
(Again add the numbers and no more than two!)
- 0 Novice
1 Not in use (causes problems).
2 Damage Control
4 Air Dept.
8 Medical
16 Engineering
32 Navigation
64 Anti-Air
128 Lone Wolf +10 When alone in department
256 Team Player +10 when all department positions full.
512 Generalist +7 in any department.
My personal preferences here are:
5x 260 = Team Player+Air Dept=+20 to air operation efficiency, since they won't move from their positions pretty much EVER and if they do, the move to position where is then full crew to get +10 efficiency there.
2x 576 = Generalist+Anti-Air=+17 Anti-air operations efficiency and +7 others. My two AA-specialists (second one mostly in Navi).
3x 514 = Generalist+Damage Control=+17 DC and +7 other positions. My one constant DC-guy and two runaround (mostly Navigation) dregs.
1x 528 = Generalist+Engineering=+17 Engineering and +7 other positions. My solo-Engineering guy. Could also be 144 to swap Generalist to Lone Wolf, since he rarely moves from Engineering and is there solo, but had Generalist instead of LW just in case I need to move second to Engineering or move him to AA or DC.
1x 520 = Generalist+Medical=+17 Medical and +7 other. This one is usually on navigation or DC until needed for healing.
I don't need guys with Navigation specialty, since map upgrades are hardly worth more efficiency, since they update every time you get more radar range or recon/identify -mission gets into target. Thus you only need guys to fill the positions to enable the carrier speed controls, but can give them other specialties when they are needed elsewhere during incoming attacks.
I don't really like Lone Wolf since it is useless if anybody else moves to same department, so generalist beats it pretty much in every case for flexibility. Same goes for Team Player since it needs full department to be effective, except in air deck crew, since they won't move from their position unless wounded or everything goes to shit and you are needing full crew on DC/Engi.
data > MissionInProgress > Supplies > Supplies 11595
<- This one is the current supply level. Not really needed, since you can last until night with full speed with any supply-giving escort ship and there is plenty of time to resupply during night hours, when enemies can't attack and you can't either.
data > IntermissionMissionData > UpgradePoints 7
data > IntermissionMissionData > CommandsPoints 6
<- Mission rewards. Kinda pointless, since you can already directly edit your current numbers of UP and CP.
data > IntermissionMissionData > EnemyBlocksDestroyed 10
data > IntermissionMissionData > SquadronsToLose 3
data > IntermissionMissionData > HoursToFinishMission 76
<- Mission requirements to get medals. You shouldn't need to touch these if you do everything right or cheat enough, but worth mentioning.
Everything else is more or less useless since you can get everything else with cheating UP and CP, but feel free to mess around if you feel like it. Just always take into notepad the original numbers if the Save Editor Online has forgotten your last save from browser memory.
Strategies and bug-cheat:
My personal favorite escort combo is Chika-pee T3 support with Independence T2 CVL. Chika actually divides the remaining cooldown of Independence by three, from 14 hours to 4 hours 40 minutes, so instead of one free 3 plane mission per day you can now spam 3-4 in one day’s time playing legit.
Even better, there is actually a bug in the escort ship abilities that if you pause the game and do identify missions before, you can spam every single three or less mission with one use of Free mission and using the Reduce Cooldown, you can clear every single escort ability on cooldown immediately (up to the point there is only the active-time left), except the Chika’s own. Great way to send kamikaze identify missions on far-away targets, free CAPs and multiple three plane kamikaze-attacks simultaneously without using your own planes. With right configuration and orders, you can send 5-6 three plane attacks on one go, which can pretty much kill up to three targets (fleets or bases) with one use of Independence's Free mission-ability without using any of your own planes and thus no need to worry about losses or recovering the planes.
Also if you use the captain’s Enhanced Radar Order AND Scout Planes AND Sims Mk2 Radar Improvement AND Sub Mk1 Radar Boost simultaneously while parking in the middle-section of the map, you can clear half-monitor’s worth of area with single sweep and it is usually enough to find the positions of initial enemy fleets from start. Combined with Code Breakers order and you rarely if ever need the Recon Missions again, which is a huge reduction in need to launch and recover dive bombers during a missions. Also it is worth using simultaneously prior Free Mission-spam, since you can clear these cooldowns at the same time with Chikapee's Reduce Cooldown-ability as the Free Mission cd by simply pausing the game before using the abilities.
Golden Wingmen maneuver from Haldeman R.A. is the best maneuver you can have, since it boost ridiculously much all the other fighter maneuvers. Thus it is not uncommon in late game to send mostly fighters on missions with few torpedo bombers or rarely dive bombers with them. I mostly use dive bombers only for anti-sub missions, since there isn't other choice and on those missions where some target-ship trait or few is messing with my attack options. Everything else is fighters and 1-3 torps.
Have fun you cheating bastards!
