Workflow: Testing plot states with Trilogy Save Editor

During quest development, replaying an entire mission whenever a plot condition changes is slow and unnecessary. Trilogy Save Editor can be used to create targeted test states by changing plot variables in an existing save.

Trilogy Save Editor is available from ME3Tweaks Mod Manager's Tools menu. Launching it there keeps the save-editing step within the same development tool workflow used to build, apply, and test the mod. Trilogy Save Editor remains a separate application; Mod Manager is providing a convenient launcher for it.

Ghost in the Machine provides a convenient example. Looting the existing Luna probe sets the following vanilla plot state:

• Plot bool: 6635
• BioWare label: Debris_1_Found
• Unlooted probe: False
• Looted probe: True
• Transition 5214, Set_Debris_1_Found_True, normally sets the bool after the probe is looted.

A developer can load a save in Trilogy Save Editor, change bool 6635, save the result as a separate test save, and then load it in Mass Effect to exercise either branch of the mod's Kismet logic. This makes it possible to test probe-dependent behavior even when the character originally looted the probe long ago.

Use search to discover existing state

Trilogy Save Editor is useful before any variables are changed. Its plot search provides a quick way to inventory the state that BioWare already associated with a quest, planet, character, or location.

Enter a distinctive fragment rather than requiring an exact label. For example, searching for ghost displays the variables labeled for Ghost in the Machine. Searching for a planet or assignment name can similarly reveal completion flags, discovered objects, conversation states, and other potentially reusable facts.

This is a useful first investigation step:

1. Search for part of the player-facing quest or location name.
2. Review the matching booleans, integers, and other state.
3. Record promising labels and numeric IDs.
4. Trace each candidate through the Plot Editor and relevant packages before depending on it.
5. Toggle a candidate in a copied save to observe what behavior changes.

Save Editor search is a discovery aid, not complete proof of meaning. Results may include cut content, internal terminology, duplicate labels scoped to different plots, and variables whose actual behavior is only clear from their transitions and Kismet usage. The numeric ID and its surrounding plot context must therefore be verified before a mod uses it.

Recommended workflow

1. Make a backup of the original save.
2. In ME3Tweaks Mod Manager, open Tools → Trilogy Save Editor.
3. Open a copy of the save you intend to use for testing.
4. Find plot bool 6635.
5. Set it to the state required by the test:
6. False to represent an unlooted probe.
7. True to represent a looted probe.
8. Save the edited version as a distinct test save.
9. Load it in Mass Effect and verify the corresponding behavior.
10. Keep clearly named saves for useful quest states so they can be reused after later builds.

Use the save editor to reproduce an existing game state, not as proof that the normal gameplay transition works. Test the actual probe interaction separately to confirm that looting it executes transition 5214 and sets bool 6635. The edited saves then provide a fast regression-testing loop.

As Ghost in the Machine adds its own probes and plot variables, document each variable's ID, meaning, and expected values here so the same workflow can be used throughout development.