Unlimited Time Mod for Rome

[seboden]

Europa Universalis: Rome Unlimited Time Patch


NEW! Download Patch for v1.3 here!

Download Patch for v1.2 here!

Download Patch for v1.1 here!


This small tool is a patcher for Europa Universalis: Rome, that will allow you to play the game between 2 AUC and 65536 AUC (instead of 474 - 727).
You will however have to make a few other changes to make the game truly playable before or after the original timeframe (like changing the average techdates).

To use it, just start the Rome_v1.1_Unlimited_Time_Patch.exe and tell it where to find your RomeGame.exe (it is in the Rome main folder) and click patch.

This tool will create a backup of your original RomeGame.exe and name it RomeGame.bak.
To play the normal game again just delete the newly created RomeGame.exe and rename RomeGame.bak back to RomeGame.exe.

No guarantee is given that your game will work correctly when modified.


YOU WILL FORFEIT TECHNICAL SUPPORT WHENEVER YOU RUN INTO PROBLEMS WITH AN ALTERED EXECUTABLE!


If you do encounter any bugs or technical problems while using this patch, verify that they also happen with the official Paradox version before posting in the bug report or tech support forum.

PS:I offer this mod here in the knowledge, that Paradox has so far always allowed the posting of no time limit patches for its games on this forum. If this policy has changed, I apologise (and will delete the patcher from the hosting site I use.)

 

[seboden]

Here I offer a guide about how to change the different start and end dates according to your liking (mainly for modders who want to make a mod in another timeperiod). Everybody else should probably use the patcher in the first post.

If you modify the RomeGame.exe for a mod, YOU CANNOT DISTRIBUTE THAT VERSION WITH YOUR MOD. You can only make a patcher that modifys the RomeGame.exe and distribute that. (See last point in this guide.)

This guide will work with Rome v1.1
For v1.2 see below.

With the help of this guide you can change the first possible start date (at the moment 474), the last possible start date (at the moment 727) and the year the game ends (currently 730, which means the game will terminate on January 1st 731).

As above, you are doing this on your own risk and WILL FORFEIT ALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT ON A CHANGED .EXE.

• Therefore, before you do anything else, make a backup copy of your RomeGame.exe
  
• Now you need to open the RomeGame.exe with any hex editor of your choice
  
• In case you haven't worked with hex editors so far:
  the file is displayed in lines of 16 bytes and each line has a number that you can usually see on the left hand side of the editor. (e.g. 2fff30)
  In addition each of the sixteen positions (which contains 1 Byte consisting of 2 digits) in the line is numbered from 0 to f. (e.g. d)
  The position of this specific byte would then be 2fff3d.
  You will have to go to the correct positions (I will tell you which in a moment) and change exactly those entries and no others!
  
• Now you need to decide on your desired starting year and/or last possible starting year and your game end year. If you have decided on one, you need to convert it to the correct format:
  First take your year (e.g 474) and convert it to a hexadecimal number (you can do this with the windows calculator) (in this example 1da ). Now add a zero at the front to make it 4 digits long ( 01 da ). Exchange the first two digits with the last two ( da 01 ). Now you've got the number you need to insert for the year.
  
• To change the first start date:
  Now you need to go to the following position in your hex editor:
  2e32f9 and 2e32fa: The digits should be da 01 (which is 474). Replace these four digits with the ones you determined for your start year.
  
• To change the last start date:
  Basically works exactly the same:
  go to 2e331b and 2e331c, which should be d7 02 (for 727). Replace these four digits with the ones you determined for your last possible start year.
  
• To change the end date:
  Go to 2251bb and 2251bc, these bytes determine the year at the end of which you get the end game screen. It should read da 02 (= 02 da which is 730 in decimal numbers). Change it to whatever value you want. If you want to get rid of the end date, just set it to ff ff or some other high value.
  
• Save the RomeGame.exe and try it out.
  
• If you want to create a patcher to distribute with your mod, just follow the steps above and create it with the help of the program "patcher" from here

For v1.2 use the following addresses instead (Thanks, jon_toupin):
Start date: 2ec559 and 2ec55a
Last start date: 2ec57b and 2ec57c
End date: 22e2db and 22e2dc

For v1.3 use the following addresses instead:
Start date: 3049c9 and 3049ca
Last start date: 3049eb and 3049ec
End date: 24580b and 24580c

Otherwise it works exactly like for v1.1.


Note: I haven't been able to figure out the dates (month and day) yet. If you do find out how to change them please post in this thread and I will include them.

Well, this should be all, have fun

 

[Hallsten]

Good job!
...and impressively quickly done at that...

 

[delra]

Thanks a lot for posting this! Now I'm going to test if it's save game compatible...

 

[seboden]

Good job!
...and impressively quickly done at that...

It was not that different from EU3, so it only took about two hours to figure out.

Thanks a lot for posting this! Now I'm going to test if it's save game compatible...

Should be. (That is, if you want to continue your game past 730.)

 

[Snall]

Thanks!

 

[unmerged(28025)]

Awesome maestro!

 

[unmerged(12709)]

was this just 1.0? because its not working on my 1.1 from gamersgate.

 

[Secret Master]

Congrats on getting this done within two days! I wondered how long it would take.

Now I'm going to try it out and see if it works for me.

 

[unmerged(61606)]

Wow, that came out quickly, good job.

 

[King]

It is a breach of ELUA to distribute a modified executable file. Please refrain from doing so or you will be banned. This will be no discussion on this.

To clarify I do not want to see anyone post a modified .exe file here.

 

[DaPacemDomine]

It is a breach of ELUA to distribute a modified executable file. Please refrain from doing so or you will be banned. This will be no discussion on this.

To clarify I do not want to see anyone post a modified .exe file here.

There was never an issue raised with the EU3 Unlimited Time Patch, was there?

 

[unmerged(12709)]

tis a good point, but by moddding exes for most other games, its bannable in forums - when you mod exes you unlock stuff the companies did not intend, hence hex (sounds kinda like hax, doesn't it?)

Though yeah confused over the problem myself cause EU, EU3, EU2, CK, and HOI had modded exes out on these forums...

 

[seboden]

tis a good point, but by moddding exes for most other games, its bannable in forums - when you mod exes you unlock stuff the companies did not intend, hence hex (sounds kinda like hax, doesn't it?)

Though yeah confused over the problem myself cause EU, EU3, EU2, CK, and HOI had modded exes out on these forums...

No, they never had the executables themselves out (e.g. eu3game.exe), as this would allow for somebody to get the game without buying it (piracy).
However there were patchers, small programs that only modify the exe, so that you already need to have it.
I think that's still allowed (or King would have just deleted the thread/banned me). He just wanted to warn everybody to not publish the complete RomeGame.exe, modified or not.
I will add this to the second post.

 

[Metacomet]

Great job and so fast... you people amaze me more every day

 

[Snall]

Well, I saw at LEAST a few thousand people d/ling Rome around the internet. :-(

I mean, gah...evil.

 

[Kaelic]

Well, I saw at LEAST a few thousand people d/ling Rome around the internet. :-(

I mean, gah...evil.

I was one of them.

(GG ftw!)

 

[unmerged(9515)]

Ran into a problem playing as Suebi, a few decades in my techs started going crazy and I was getting new ones every month, checked the ledger and there were a couple other civs at 30.

GG upgraded to 1.1

 

[delra]

It is a breach of ELUA to distribute a modified executable file. Please refrain from doing so or you will be banned. This will be no discussion on this.

To clarify I do not want to see anyone post a modified .exe file here.

Posting modified .exe is certainly an evil thing... but what about posting information how to do modify this .exe?

And why don't you export this thing from .exe to a regular file, is it really that important to prevent players from buying themselves a couple more years in their games to mop up before they move on? I don't really get this policy of not having "Continue anyway" button...

 

[seboden]

I just want to mention that if somebody wants to make a mod with a different timeframe (say an Alexander mod), but doesn't feel comfortable with modding the .exe himself, I'll be happy to make a custom patcher for you.


Also, *bump*