what a bad luck i tried several times to change them but failed after reading this i will now not try again

Well, this is exactly what I've been trying to find out. So, in order to get the game system to incorporate house rules that significantly alter the mechanics, I have to use the Editor. That's rather annoying. I really needed to alter the strength bonuses to attack values (to be more like 2nd Ed), an altered skill system (which seems now to be an impossibility, sigh), and change the armor dex bonus system (mine works on percentages rather than just a number).

My options, therefore, are to create the entire system from scratch with the skeleton files, OR use the editor and have to keep loading things all the friggin' time? I don't see how this is any more useful than just doing a whole program myself. Yet another industry product that has promised the ability to edit "everything" and fails to live up to it. Still, that said, this is probably the best thing out there so far that I've seen, and I'll be using it for the interim.

You can modify any data file, you just have to create a copy of it in a new folder. I have the authoring kit and it appears to come with the full source files for 4th Ed and for Savage Worlds, the latter being the reason I bought it. . .

I was going to try and make a custom d20 but I guess that is impossible. OK, not impossible but I cannot just edit the base d20 files to suit my needs. I guess I will not purchase the Authoring kit after all.

Provos you can make a copy of the d20 game to add different content to it, but as Mathias stated you can not rewrite the d20 files to say make a true 20 system or a 2.o skills and power system.

If your just creating a D20 varient then you are okay.

Is it possible to create a game system from scratch and add in things? I was considering attempted to create AD&D 2e in the authoring kit.

That's the intent of the Authoring Kit. There's a pretty steep learning curve, but you've got the complete source files available to you for the Savage Worlds and D&D 4E game systems, so those should be extremely helpful. In addition, the walk-through outlines how the Savage Worlds files were originally created, which should also be a huge help. The Savage Worlds files have diverged a bit from when they were first written as new capabilities were added, but they are mostly the same, so there will be some differences you'll encounter in the walk-throughs. However, they should be minor and not detract from the value of the walk-throughs.

Hope this helps...

As the savage worlds data file updates come out is the source in the AK kept up to date as well? I'm starting to add some options for my Savage Worlds setting but I'd like to keep up to date with the the latest version as well.

The source listings in the wiki articles is not kept up to date, as the changes that occur are relatively minor and don't invalidate the usefulness of the wiki as an example of how to do things. However, the complete source files provided in the "source" directory beneath where the Savage Worlds files are installed *is* fully up to date. So if you are using that source code as your reference, you'll have all the latest code.

Hope this helps...

I bought a copy of the Savage World / Authoring Kit data, but can't figure out how to get to the authoring kit itself. Any guidance would be appreciated.