Unlocking Medieval II total war kingdoms Hardcoded Limits

**Lusitanio** · May 09, 2018, 02:07 PM

Hi guys!

I have been looking at the rome total realism 8 forum and I saw that they have had great improvements in unlocking RomeTW Hardcoded limits. The link can be found here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Memory-Editing

I think it would be amazing if the EBII could talk with the RTR8 team and cooperate with them in order to unlock the limitations. It will be the hardest work ever but the most regarding one!
I know the have given up the project but the idea is still alive if there are enough people with C++ experience

**Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ** · May 09, 2018, 02:24 PM

Yes, unlocking those would do wonders, you could even have more factions and regions if I'm not mistaken. There's just one problem though, doing so would be illegal.

**Morrowgan** · May 09, 2018, 02:29 PM

Not with memory editing, that attempt has died though

**Ἀπολλόδοτος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ** · May 09, 2018, 02:38 PM

Did it die because it was illegal, or was it impossible to do?

**BHL 20** · May 09, 2018, 04:11 PM

From that thread: "In order to unlock features in RomeTW, we first launch RomeTW-ALX/BI.exe and then inject our custom GameEngine.dll into the process. This means all the modifications are done during run-time, when RomeTW is launched. Once the game is closed, all the changes will be lost and the executable itself is never modified. This is also the only legal way to do something like this and luckily we received express permission from both TWC and CA to do what we must."

**Lusitanio** · May 09, 2018, 04:42 PM

Its not illegal because its memory editing, like what BHL 20 posted. They didn't went ahead with the whole idea but they had sucess with some things, like:

Unit size limit increased to 300 (planned to unlock 1200 next)
Regions limit raised from 200 to 1000

**Battlefield** · May 09, 2018, 05:01 PM

This project and a similar project for Medieval 2 were never completed and even the somewhat successful part was never released. This is probably because this is way too diffcult to achieve to have any significant impact on game and the projects were abandoned.

**Lusitanio** · May 09, 2018, 05:24 PM

I'm just saying that if the team could talk with them and understand what they did, they could raise the limit of some things that would have a significant impact on the game. Imagine having the 200 instead of 100 regions, we could represent better some factions, regions on the map, etc...

**Slaytaninc** · May 10, 2018, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by Lusitanio

I'm just saying that if the team could talk with them and understand what they did, they could raise the limit of some things that would have a significant impact on the game. Imagine having the 200 instead of 100 regions, we could represent better some factions, regions on the map, etc...

Doing so would take away effort from the mod, it really needs a team dedicated to it, and with a 10 year old game there's just not a lot of people interested in helping it.

It would be more productive to find a way to make the campaign maps from Empire on to ToB editable. I have a lot of ideas on what I would do if the campaigns weren't so inaccessible to modders but it's such a momumental undertaking as well.

**VektorT** · May 10, 2018, 03:30 AM

This is basically the Holy Grail of MTW modding: some say it's mythical, some say it can be achieved. Also, makes me wonder, did anyone ever considered doing a Kickstart for it? Like a campaign to make funds for Europa Barbarorum development and MTW engine improvements? It could speed things up, gather the resources to unlock the hardcoded limits and put the mod and modding capabilities of MTW in new highs. I mean, it sounds really weird to kickstart a mod but, hell, I would thrown my money at the screen if it would lift the hardcoded limits of TWM and help to improve and speed up EB2 development.

**QuintusSertorius** · May 12, 2018, 05:36 AM

Originally Posted by VektorT

This is basically the Holy Grail of MTW modding: some say it's mythical, some say it can be achieved. Also, makes me wonder, did anyone ever considered doing a Kickstart for it? Like a campaign to make funds for Europa Barbarorum development and MTW engine improvements? It could speed things up, gather the resources to unlock the hardcoded limits and put the mod and modding capabilities of MTW in new highs. I mean, it sounds really weird to kickstart a mod but, hell, I would thrown my money at the screen if it would lift the hardcoded limits of TWM and help to improve and speed up EB2 development.

The short answer on anything financial is no. While we are grateful for specific contributions towards costs from time to time (primarily hosting), this is not a commercial endeavour. One of the many reasons we don't want to do that is because it moves us into completely different territory legally. We're out of the realm of fair use and into the realms of infringing on CA's copyright and IPR in a way their legal team would feel obliged to respond. Even with a game as old as M2TW.

That's leaving aside the issues Kickstarter itself has.

**Roma_Victrix** · May 12, 2018, 06:48 AM

Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius

The short answer on anything financial is no. While we are grateful for specific contributions towards costs from time to time (primarily hosting), this is not a commercial endeavour. One of the many reasons we don't want to do that is because it moves us into completely different territory legally. We're out of the realm of fair use and into the realms of infringing on CA's copyright and IPR in a way their legal team would feel obliged to respond. Even with a game as old as M2TW.

SEGA/Creative Assembly should release the game into the public domain then, as an act of good faith to the TWC community that has supported them all these years.

**QuintusSertorius** · May 12, 2018, 07:56 AM

Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix

SEGA/Creative Assembly should release the game into the public domain then, as an act of good faith to the TWC community that has supported them all these years.

While we could certainly debate the merits of it, I'm doubtful than any big corporate would give away "their stuff". Even if it's old stuff.

**_Tartaros_** · May 12, 2018, 02:17 PM

i heard that the sourcecode was lost in space in australia via EA (Electronic Arts)

**Slaytaninc** · May 13, 2018, 11:34 AM

I suspect that even if the M2TW source code was available, we'd soon realize exactly why the limits were set the way they were.

**HarkonRules** · May 14, 2018, 11:15 AM

Originally Posted by Slaytaninc

I suspect that even if the M2TW source code was available, we'd soon realize exactly why the limits were set the way they were.

Hardware back then was far weaker than what we have these days. It's likely that pretty much all of us playing EB2 have computers that are quite overkill for what it demands. I couldn't see it being a huge deal to stretch some limits within reason.

**Slaytaninc** · May 14, 2018, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by HarkonRules

Hardware back then was far weaker than what we have these days. It's likely that pretty much all of us playing EB2 have computers that are quite overkill for what it demands. I couldn't see it being a huge deal to stretch some limits within reason.

I'm more referring to the game's architecture than system stats.