Can I change the difficulty level of a save game in Alpha Centauri?

I have just finished a great game of Alpha Centauri on Thinker level. The randomly generated map was great to play, and I would like to replay it on Transcend level.

I have an early save game; is there any way to change the difficulty level?

I am not looking for a complete save game editor, although that would would be very welcome, just something to change a single byte in the save file (the trick is to know what byte ;-)

Solution 1:

You can change the difficulty level at any point in the game by activating the Scenario Editor. The only problem is that this will make you have a "Cheated" message displayed on your Alpha Centauri Score. On the main menu, go to Scenario -> Activate Scenario Editor. This will enable the menu option Scenario -> Set Difficulty Level. After you are done, once again click on Scenario -> Activate Scenario Editor to deactivate the Scenario Editor and resume regular gameplay.

Solution 2:

As far as I know, there is no way to edit difficulty of a saved game. You can only change difficulty at the start of a new game entirely.