Beach Life Virtual Resort: Spring Break - Opening and Editing The .BLE Game Files

images taken from the game and from the game manual

I have an itch to play Beach Life every now and then. The last time it happened, I found a band-aid solution to guests complaining about high prices. I wanted to make more changes if I could but I couldn't find a way to open and read some of the script files.

There are some files in the game that are readable on notepad (GameParameters.pis and the other .pis files on each scenario and sandscenario folder) but when you try to open up the .ble files, you only see random symbols.

I've tried tools that I've seen recommended online (Game Extractor, Ghidra, Offzip to name a few). Admittedly, I did just glaze over them because I know nothing about reverse engineering a game and didn't know what to do. I have an inkling to play it again recently, and I decided to try an idea that has been looming over my head but have been avoiding....

The GameParameters.pis file had a header containing the file name, and I noticed the repeating symbols on the .ble files is likely a header with the file name as well, so armed with those clues I decided to just decode the symbols manually. Surprisingly, it worked!!

To make your own changes:

First make a backup copy of the file you want to edit, and then make at least another two copies that you will be editing (place them in a different folder then just rename and place one file back in the folder when you want to test it out).

Second, download a hex editor (I use HxD)

Below is the file containing the symbols and the corresponding letters/numbers. Just use CTRL R (on HxD) to replace all the symbols with a letter/number (please ensure 'search direction all' and 'case sensitive' are ticked).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1petGksIhPG6R6WiBHBwpYZqY1kXVhdjV/view?usp=sharing

It may seem a little tedious but it doesn't take a lot of time (probably ten minutes tops). I know there are probably easier ways to just change all the symbols in one go but I like that it turns red on HxD when you change something because the text stands out (as opposed to it just being all black text). Trust! It's so much easier to read it that way. Please note when you save the changes, all the text turns black and you CAN'T UNDO so I recommend opening up at least two copies of the file you are wanting to edit (one where you just replace the symbols with letters and numbers for reference and one file where you actually save the file and make the changes).

So, after replacing the symbols on the first copy of the file, just read and find out which values you'd like to change. Take note of the Offset (kind of like the line number). Go over to your other file, and make changes on the line you'd like to edit. 

FOR EXAMPLE

You want to change the hotel guest capacity. The current max is 100. Take note of the offset, which is 0001EDE0. Go to the other copy of the file and go to the same offset. 

A little note: making changes can make the game crash; I've previously tried to make the guest capacity 999 but it crashed once I created a new sandbox game. I've then tried another smaller number and it works ok so far. Creating backups is very important!

Getting back to it, to change the value from 100 to 300, edit ÎÏÏ into ÌÏÏ (from the ble_lettersnumbers.txt, 0 is Ï, 1 is Î, 3 is Ì etc.). After replacing the edited BuildingList.ble file on the game folder, the changes should be there the next time you open up the game.

Also, please note I haven't really made a lot of changes myself and haven't done a lot of in depth testing in game yet as I have just literally did this a few days ago but I wanted to make a post 

So far, the changes I've tried on the BuildingList.ble file

- hotel guestcapacity (crashed upon startup on 999, 300 working ok so far)

- fail age for all buildings (the default is 2, I changed it into 9. I'll be trying a higher number next after testing this out more in game); you could also edit the fail percent - average was 5-10% and 0 percent for some buildings like the hotel. I haven't done a lengthy gameplay yet to see a difference

- maxstaff for all staff houses (I tried 20,  even though it displays in game that you can hire up to 20 it prompts you that you can't hire more than 11)

changes I've tried on the SandboxE_guests.ble file

- surname, femalename and malename (just for fun)

- beautytol (for all guest types), I haven't changed this because the default for the SandboxE_guests was on a range of 9.000000-33.000000 which is is already low but if you've read my other post where I replaced the sandbox guests ble file with the guests08.ble file, I was going crazy because the guests08 people were more loose with their money but had high scenery requirements - and no wonder because upon looking at the file their beautytol ranges (depending on the guest type) it was around 80.0000-118.00090!

- pricetol (for all guest types) , the default for this file was approximately 0.900000-1.400000 while the guests08 people had an average of 1.10000-2.100000

I haven't found a way to make the cheats often referenced online (allbuildings, costa del dosh and quick quick quick!) work, but changing the buildtime value on each building can make structures build faster.

I mainly focused on opening the buildinglist.ble and sandboxe_guests.ble file because I only wanted to make a few changes, I did take a quick look at the other files (except the .biz files on the scenario folders, because the file size was large and it was taking me ages and there were far more characters in use that I haven't decoded) and here is a quick description from what I've seen:

- ble files inside the scenario folders mainly loads the guests and staff scripts starter buildings, weather and hazards schedule

- guest and staff files inside the object folder mainly contain animation scripts