I have tried messing with the balance file for this with no success. I'd like my platoons to be top ranks, so they might actually be worth using. As it stands now, my creature is the ultimate weapon and I send a platoon of 5 to capture towns when the creature has eliminated all threats...

Come on, one of you has to have done or tried to do this? I tried myself before asking for help. I know which file it is but I can't get my changes to take effect, the armies still start with one pip experience....

umm i think you can edit the files

Yeah you can edit GameBalanceArmy.txt and I have but it isn't resulting in any changes...so what's the trick to make em start as 10? Do I need to remove all the other ranks? I figured that would just crash the game. Anyone had any success doing this?

well try what you said BUT back up your balance folder so you dont have to reinstall

Like they all say, make a back up before messing around with the files. This is what I THINK you do (as read from another thread) Program Files > Lionhead Studios > B&W2 > Data > Balance > GameBalanceArmy There you will see aload of mumbo-jumbo... Now I know you need to copy either PLATOON_INFO_GREEK_MELEE_10 3 1.5 24 11.995 0.2 14.995 5 10.05 14.995 0.5 1.57 0 0 1 0.98 0.95 0 0 0.5 0.5 15 30 15 30 22.5 15.5 0 0 0 0.0001 50 100 1 20 20 20 20 20 5 3 30 0.0004 5 5 1 0 3 1 2 0 3 1 105 10 1 1.1 200 0.7 0.01 0.01 0 1 1.35 0.0066 0.04 0 0 70 1 1 1 0.25 2 6 10 5.5 5 15 0.5 1 4 1 33 3 6 1 2.5 200 300 800 0.01 and paste it over PLATOON_INFO_GREEK_MELEE_1 3 1.5 15 7 0.2 10 5 6 10 0.5 1.57 0 0 1 0.55 0.5 0 0 0.5 0.5 15 30 15 30 22.5 20 0 0 0 0.0001 50 100 1 20 20 20 20 20 5 3 30 0.0004 5 5 1 0 3 1 2 0 3 1 5 10 1 1.1 200 0.7 0.01 0.01 0 1 0.9 0.002 0.013 0 0 40 1 1 1 0.25 2 6 10 5.5 5 15 0.5 1 4 1 33 3 6 1 2.5 200 300 800 0.01 If you look closer, that is only for the Melee army's, the archers are just underneath and do the same... Hope that helps, but i'm not guarenteing anything!

I believe i've managed it. Technically they are still only on the first rank, but they have the same stats as the highest. It was simply editing the code to change each of the stats, so each has the same as rank 10. Second look, MitchStone has done the same. Heres the modded text file should you need it: http://www.geocities.com/l_cowen2000/GameBalanceArmy.txt Ergh, geocities....

Yeah Mitch, that's exactly what I have tried so far, I pasted 10 where 1 was and even changed the 10 to a 1 hoping if it had to use a 1 to make the army I vould somehow trick it into making a rank 10...this has not worked. It has not crashed my game, but it isn't changing anything either. Bangs head on desk!!

Hey dude, use L_Cowenn's file... You will have your level 10 Melee Armies but not Archers, so you need to change that if you want Archers... I just had a brainwave... If we was to 'change' those little numbers on there to a high value... Do you think they would be even stronger? Just a thought.

Theoritcally speaking, increasing the values to a higher number would increase the power/speed (whatever) of the army. Though how high the values could be put to, is unknown, its worth a try though!

 Quoting: MitchStone

Hey dude, use L_Cowenn's file... You will have your level 10 Melee Armies but not Archers, so you need to change that if you want Archers... I just had a brainwave... If we was to 'change' those little numbers on there to a high value... Do you think they would be even stronger? Just a thought.

Thanks for the replies. Looking at LCowens file, I'm not seeing exactly what you changed? It still looks like the numbers are going up from 1 to 10 like the original file or am I missing something? Maybe I need to leave the rank #'s the same and just change all the stats to those of the level 10? For both melee and archers. So no matter how many pips it shows they have the level 10 stats. Hope that made sense.

Yeah, in Cowen's file he changed only the values of rank 1-9, all to the same values as 10... But kept them named all the same, so even when your army is "getting better" it's technically on level 10 the whole time.

 Quoting: L_COWEN2000

Theoritcally speaking, increasing the values to a higher number would increase the power/speed (whatever) of the army. Though how high the values could be put to, is unknown, its worth a try though!

Yeah exactly... I wouldn't know which values to change hoping to do what... Knowing me I'd change them all and hope for the best

Ok that makes sense then and should work. Now if we could do these changes and not have to restart the whole game , we might be on to something. Also, I was also thinking of making them more powerful as you suggested Mitch, but wanted to see if this works first lol.

Exactly, even though the game says they soldiers are rank 1 or whatever, they have the stats and effectiveness of a highest rank soldier. So when they increase to the next rank, no actual change is made to their stats, as they are already as powerul as they will get.

Lol yeah, baby steps people! I'm gonna give it a try tomorrow... I'll start a new game (from level 4 though) ... Change the values to higher than they currently are... Send them into battle and see how they do Also, thinking about it... We could also change the enemies army so they are much weaker than ours! But one step at a time yeah? lol

Right, im going to try it now and change the numerical values to a much higher number and see what happens (this isnt going to end well, i can see it already)

Haha all in the name of science my friend! Are you going to carry on an existing game? Or start a new one? Cause either of these could have different effects... I wish you the best of luck and i'm gonna call it a night and go bed (23:17 GMT) got college in the morning ... PM me what you find out, whether it's good or bad, hehe... Ciao

 Quoting: L_COWEN2000

Right, im going to try it now and change the numerical values to a much higher number and see what happens (this isnt going to end well, i can see it already)

ROFL yeah I hear ya bro but its closer to playing a God by doing these things than the way the game came hehehe You reminded of an old Ultima Online comic strip "ImaNewbie" , everytime something bad was about to happen, he would say, "This does not bode well...." and then like 6 pkers would jump out of the woods and pwn his ass. P.S. Night Mitch and keep us posted if you try any of this as will I. Thanks L Cowen as well. Who knows, if we put our heads together, we might get something cool, or worst case scenario, we crash our systems and start over lol.

Right, well im not dead, good point. Seriously, i edited some of the numberical values (the ones which increase with each rank gained), and there was differences. I created an army of 15 swordsmen, and well... The run speed was incredible, and the strength seemed to also be increased, they quickly wiped out the first enemy i came across, but then it got a little strange. I only increased the values, but it seems as though their healthpoints had decreased, just one or two hits (much less than usual) would kill a soldier. So by increasing some values, yes they were a lot faster and stronger, but the healthpoints/defense seems to of dropped. Ill experiment some more and let you know, but i though that was rather odd... Oh before you ask, i only changed the Greek values, so the enemy soldiers would not of done more damage than usual, so it must be something Greek-side which caused the rapid deaths. Has anybody else experimented yet? Any interesting results?

I had the same problem there. (Troops were running about the speed of sound lol) And i actualy got stuck on the platoon tutorial *They just kept twitching around and it wouldnt settle and let me move on through the tutorial* My troops also died rather fast though they were flinging the ones they were fighting all over the place. It seems realy odd that the health would decrease when you increase a stat that increases over the levels though. No idea whats going on with that.

 Quoting: Maegi

You reminded of an old Ultima Online comic strip "ImaNewbie" , everytime something bad was about to happen, he would say, "This does not bode well...." and then like 6 pkers would jump out of the woods and pwn his ass. .

i loved UO!!! best MMO of all time right there.

Shouldn't there be a distinction between a mod and cheat? A mod adds or changes game content, ie positive. A cheat gives an unnatural advantage, ie negative.

ex. then what do you call it when you mod a game file to your advantage. its sorta both:S

Expositus, a mod can't be created without first learning what each value and file does for the game. We are simply experimenting to see what we can get, which could possibly be used for a full game mod later on.

Cowen, can you paste the whole line of what you changed please, did you change every value to a high number, or just change some of them? There are some numbers in that line which are 0's and 0.X's... These might be the damage conceeded by opponents? College was on fire today, got me in the mood to burn things ... Turned out it was only burnt toast