Comparing 2 startpos files

**leonardusius** · January 16, 2021, 01:48 PM

Many mods modify startpos file but often authors don't tell the modifications obtained by this...too many times I encountered the ''....and much more'' the only descriptions of the mod. So, I want to compare the new startpos with the vanilla one to know what's the heck this ''much more' are about. Is there any tool to help us for this, pals ?

**Jake Armitage** · January 17, 2021, 04:00 AM

there are tons of data inside a startpos (.esf) file
you can easily open them with normal pfm but compare them... that's a looong work
campaigns > "campaign name" > startpos.esf

**Gyrosmeister** · January 28, 2021, 04:49 PM

as Jake Armitage said, comparing startpos by opening that with pfm will be a pain in the ass, so don't really bother with that. Unless you want to waste a lot of time searching for changes of course.

**Daruwind** · January 29, 2021, 03:18 PM

There is always option to unpack esf into xml tables (there is a script for that) but then you will need some script to compare files according to their content. File by file and trust me, that would be a lot files to cover. Plus there are some random numbers. Inner IDs will be different...well tl dr; it is not easy task but if you know exactly what table were modified, it would be doable. However it would be full time job...