What in the hell does "Hardcoded" mean? Also 40unit stacks

[wargod2009]

As the title implies, when it comes to modding, it is said that if something is hardcoded, it can't be modded. What does that mean and why would something be hardcoded in the first place? For example one of the main reasons why I am not getting this game (first TW title I won't purchase) is that CA still sticks with the absurd 20unit recruitable stacks. Yes if a more units in another army are nearby, they will be added in battle to up to 40 units total.

However, Empire and Napoleon have both been modded to allow RECRUITABLE 40 unit armies right from the start. For these ETW and NTW mods that have this feature the AI also successfully builds 40 unit stacks. Thus why the hell does CA not implement this? They have not made any meaningful improvements to the depth of the TW series compared to S2TW. Can the 40 unit stacks be modded in?

Thanks for any reply guys.

[Humble Warrior]

As the title implies, when it comes to modding, it is said that if something is hardcoded, it can't be modded. What does that mean and why would something be hardcoded in the first place? For example one of the main reasons why I am not getting this game (first TW title I won't purchase) is that CA still sticks with the absurd 20unit recruitable stacks. Yes if a more units in another army are nearby, they will be added in battle to up to 40 units total.

However, Empire and Napoleon have both been modded to allow RECRUITABLE 40 unit armies right from the start. For these ETW and NTW mods that have this feature the AI also successfully builds 40 unit stacks. Thus why the hell does CA not implement this? They have not made any meaningful improvements to the depth of the TW series compared to S2TW. Can the 40 unit stacks be modded in?

Thanks for any reply guys.

Often, in Mod terms something that is `hard-coded` is parts of a game that ordinary modders cannot change or fix. They are basically `locked-out`. Sometimes games are accidentally hard-coded or hard-coded on purpose to prevent people from gaining unauthorised access to the game ie, to prevent competitors discovering secrets or to stop modders doing for free what devs could sell for money. Often hard-coded parts of a program need a specialised utility unique to the Dev house and coder- They have the key to change anything.

[crzyrndm]

Hard-coded = Functionality entirely controlled by the code-base. Modders do not have access to the code, and therefore cannot change this functionality.

As for 40 unit armies: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...al-Here-is-how

[chris10]

Hard-coded = Functionality entirely controlled by the code-base. Modders do not have access to the code, and therefore cannot change this functionality.

well, very vague to say at least.
For the matter at hand hardcoded does not refer to the actual "Functions" in the exe as you could/would/should not´change them anyway without breaking the games functionality as a whole but to the input and configuration data loaded directly from the .exe.

The opposite of hardcoded would be open source

No...the opposite of hardcoded is softcoded...that means that input and configuration data is exported into files/tables/databases/spreadsheets outside the exe so that the end user can modify the parameters in order to influence the results or outcome of the Functions working in the .exe.

[Dago Red]

Dude, you wouldn't want 40 unit armies in this anyway. No one can play this without dropping into single digit fps as is....
And the fan-made video CA is circulating showing tens of thousands of units on screen at once was made by a guy using low and med graphics settings (it looks shabby as hell) and even then he was in single digit fps, but used post-editing to speed up his frame rate and then slow it back down again to make it look "normal."

[wargod2009]

Thank you very much for enlightening me on this subject matter friends. crzyrndm my Kiwi friend, your discovery may very well be the reason that I eventually buy this game! Thank you.

[Zenky]

The opposite of hard corded would be open source