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Although others - see the end have already explained all this I had to sift through a lot of posts to piece it altogether. I've just done this to make it easier for others!

1. Install the ms-sqlserver to have access to the editing features
2. Run the Editor in SS2 and select New
3. Give it a name like MyMod or whatever
4. It should then create a new copy of the original game data for you to modify and not worry about losing the original data!

5. Quit the editor
6. In XP goto start->controlpanel->computermanagment->Data-Sources (ODBC)
7. Add->SQL Server->FINISH
8. Give it a name - anything!
9. Give it a description - anything!
10. Choose local for the server to connect to.
11. NEXT
12. Windows NT authentication
13. NEXT
14. Change the default database to:
A5GAMEMOD_MyMod (MyMod being the name your created when you created a new mod.

15. NEXT
16. FINISH
17. Download (recommended) Blueshell data guy from www.blueshell.com
18. Install and run it.
19. Click:
File->New->OLE DB Connection
20. In "Provider" choose "Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers"
21. NEXT
22. Choose "Use data source name" select the name you gave your data source in step 8.
23. Item 3. "Enter the initial catalogue to use" choose A5GAMEMOD_MyMod
24. CLICK OK

DONE

You should now be able to edit anything you want in the game parameters. For example you could edit the Panzerkleins armour value down from say 180 (the default) to 120.
How to:
Select A5GAMEMOD_MyMod
Select Panzerkleins
You should see a table appear
To the right you should see armor ID which will be 22.
Now close that table and open:
RPGMaterials table
You should see that armour ID 22 is PKArmor currently set to 180
Change it to whatever you like - 120 for example.
Don't worry about saving the table the database should be updated once you close the table.

NOW---->

Goto your "tools" folder in the SS2 game folder.
For best results - Create this batch file then you won't have to keep doing it every time you test your new mod:

dataimport full-mod.db -dbserver 127.0.0.1 -database a5gamemod_MyMod
dataimport game.db -diff full-mod.db original.db
@echo finish
pause

That should have done two things:
1. A file called full-mod.db will have been created which is a total mod for the game and therefore HUGE (35mb ish) containing all the data modified or not.
2. A very small file called game.db which is ONLY the modified data - USE THIS.

Create a folder called "MyMod" or whatever.
Copy or move the game.db file to there.
Make a text document called "description.txt" and put a fairly short description of what your Mod does - In this case you could type in "Weaker PKs" save and close.

FINALLY
Run the game up and use custom mods & choose your mod and start a game!
Alternatively you could always add the mod to an existing save game to test it using:
S2AddMod

Notes:
Don't use MS Access - you get all sorts of weird issue like "Write Conflict" & stuff!
MSSQL desktop version is on the first CD of the game.

Thanks and acknowledgments goto:

Darth Vallium, Biggles and others.[/b]

yeah, thanks, did come in handy
i think sticky one!

Nice first post, Dragon!
Just for additional info:

as an alternative to running the dataimport command, you could just hit "Build" in the editor (this is a little more useful for those of us who spend most of our time in there anyways ).

That's a great post!
All information in one place! Thanks, man!
Comes in handy. As you said, the information is scattered all around the forum.

(Bumpity bump)

Little side question for you guys. Is there some way I can extract/open the game.db file?

Specifically, I just want to open up the HeadshotShouldKill mod that came with 1.1 (I think) and alter it, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to go backwards without the original dbase file used to compile it.

Am I just missing something insanely obvious here?

- Z

edit: nevermind

Great brief you made there, many thanks.

Sorry I missed this earlier. Now stickied.

(ohh and if people see a post that should be stickied... don't be afraid to PM me, I'll check it out)

Thanks very much for the "compiled instructions" for newbies like us, Dragon. U surely helped a lot of people, specially when there are some instructions for starters, but the general rule for them it's to be "thrown in the wind" casually.... like "that thing, click on it, then voilá, it's done! Easy, huh?"

Lotekk, you said we could use the "build" button of the editor. I've noticed that, but I'm in doubt: the build button also creates two files, like "full-mod.db" and "game.db"? I mean, it creates one file with all the data of game, and another with just the modiffications?