Alright, so this is an old thread but i figured i'd make a post for anybody else who is trying to get pick hack working.
For those who don't know what it is, it's basically a simple little program that lets you cheat by modifying how much certain selections cost on the custom race page. By default you have 10 points to spend with various options, such as creative which allows you to unlock all research per tier in 1 go, rather than needing to unlock everything (like shield AND guns) separately. By using pickhack, you can make this selection cost 0 and therefore be able to basically build your race however you want.
Now first things first, in case the forum link above goes down, here's the program:
s000 (dot) tinyupload (dot) com/index.php?file_id=24347436799189559780
That's an .rar containing a single .exe
mega (dot) co (dot) nz/#!lUFngTBa!Xk7304-env0NghthGQMSp7aBqhe_HvIpAl5DanIEVhs
That's the raw .exe
Now to get it working, you need to do these steps:
Download it and extract it, go into the folder and copy 'PickHack.exe'
Now you need to find the MOO2 install location, and depending on where and how you installed it this can be easy or simple. I've noticed that if you use galaxy, the icon it puts on the desktop is one of those useless ones that redirect to the microsoft games folder, so if in doubt just do it the hard way and navigate to your C drive (computer, first icon on top left) and find GoG, GoG Games or similar in either that directory, a games directory or in program files. For me with galaxy, this path is just C:\GOG Games\Master of Orion 2.
Now you want to make sure this is the right folder, scroll down and try to find 'RACESTUF.lbx', this is what the program modifies.
Once you've found it, simply paste pickhack into this folder.
Now before you run it, copy+paste racestuf to the desktop or wherever else as a backup in case something goes wrong.
Right click on pickhack.exe and select run as administrator or you can click properties, compatibility and select it there
Now the program should have opened and complained about not being able to find a readme.txt, don't worry about this as the readme is built in to the program and can be found with the tab at the top.
To modify the actual race picks, you now click the 'Read LBX' button on the bottom right, which should fill in all the options with values from -6 to 10.
Now's the fun bit, modify whatever you want. Note that the game won't let you select any more than -10, so you can't just do it the easy way and make a single value -99 so you can select everything, you'll have to manually go through and choose what you want to make cheaper.
Once you're done, click 'Modify LBX' and assuming everything has gone correctly it won't pop up or change any of the values shown. Close the program, open MOO2 and see if the changes have worked.
If there's any other problems, check to make sure you're in the correct folder (should have tons of .LBX) and that you're running as administrator. If you can't get it working for some other reason you might need to get someone else to modify their racestuf.lbx and send it over to you.
Post edited May 21, 2015 by MattVRX
