De-Compiling A Game

[Omni]

I currently play an online game. This game some time ago released a copy of the server files used to run the game as it was going into liquidation. Since then the company has been taken over and put back on its feet and upgraded the game significantly changing many of the main workings of the game.

One thing however i suspect has not been changed is a system to add a certain "statistic" to a weapon.

This is a "luck" statistic and an item is used to do this, basicly you use an item and you have 3 possible outcomes (Luck, No Effect, Curse - worst). Getting higher than luck+1 is quite dificult and can sometimes require alot of this item to do so.

Some people belive that it is purely luck which effects your chances of getting luck, no effect or curse. Others however belive their is some type of "karma" system in the game which has certain variables which are effected by other things in the game.

Some people think it is simply a % chance and the % change of getting luck gets smaller the higher your current luck is e.g.

No luck = 95% chance of luck
Luck+1 = 30% chance of luck
Luck+2 = 20% chance of luck
Luck+3 = 10% chance of luck
Luck+4 = 5% chance of luck
Luck+5 = 2% chance of luck

etc... up untill whatever the game limit is (current highest ever seen is luck+6)

So basicly i would like any tips on how i can get started on decompiling the server files and the version of the client so i can find the command which deals with this specific event (the use of the luck item "benediction oil").

Once i find the exact forumla i can then see if any other variables effect it and take it further to see what effects thos variabls etc...

I have some experiance with this type of thing and once i get home tonight i will be trying one thing would you think this is the right way to go...

Converting the files (client and individual server files) into binary code and then somehow converting that code into readable text? Then simply searching the code for the forumla.

I dont know what it was coded in so im not sure if i should try any specific decompiler.

Any further advice would be great, thanks in advance.
Mike

[Omni]

eeek just noticed this is one of the least viewd forums so im gonna post this in another forum as i know from experiance of using other forums that its doubt full ill get the responce i want from this thread if its in this section.

[indiocolifa]

you can try with IDA Pro dissasembler, it's great, but note that if the binary doesn't have any debugging information, it's harder to hack. Probably it's a 'release' exe so the debug information is stripped, so you'll have a hard time seeking what you want.

But try it and learn...

Good Luck!

Cheers

[indiocolifa]

a free disassembler (also GREAT) is OllyDbg.

IDAPro is commercial, sorry.