Unlimited Time Mod for 1.3

[seboden]

Europa Universalis III Unlimited Time Mod for 1.3

Download here!

For NA versions for different patches made by ladybug look further on through the thread.

This small tool is a patcher for Europa Universalis III, that will allow you to play the game between 51 AD and 50000 AD (instead of 1453 - 1789).
You will however have to make a few other changes to make the game truly playable before or after the original time frame (like changing the average techdates).

To use it just start the EU3_Unlimited_Time_Patch.exe and tell it where to find your eu3game.exe (it is in the EU3 main folder) and click patch.

This tool will create a backup of your original eu3game.exe and name it eu3game.bak.
To play the normal game again just delete the newly created eu3game.exe and rename eu3game.bak back to eu3game.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!

You can find the patcher for Eu3 v1.1 here.

You can find the patcher for Eu3 v1.2.1 here.

[seboden]

This guide will only work with EU3 v1.3

With the help of this guide you can change the first possible start date (at the moment May 30th 1453), the last possible start date (at the moment July 13th 1789) and the last year of the game (currently 1792, which means the game will terminate on January 1st 1793).

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 eu3game.exe
  
• Now you need to open the eu3game.exe with a hex editor
  
• 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 I tell you to, and no others!
  
• Now you need to decide on your desired starting year and date and/or last possible starting year and date 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 1453) and convert it to a hexadecimal number (you can do this with the windows calculator) (in this example 5ad ). Now add a zero to make it 4 digits long ( 05 ad ). Exchange the first two digits with the last two ( ad 05 ). Now you've got your number you need to insert for the year.
  Next you'll have to translate your month and day. To do this write them as a number and subtract 1 (This is because our calendar starts with the first month/day but they are stored starting with zero) (so May would be 04 and the 30th would be 29).
  Now again convert them to hexadecimal numbers (May is 04 and 30th is 1d ).
  Do the same for your last starting date if you want to change it.
  
• To change the first start date:
  Now you need to go to the following position in your hex editor:
  2fff3d and 2fff3e: The digits should be ad 05 (which is 1453). Replace these four digits with the ones you determined for your start year.
  Next go to 2fff49, there should be the digits 04 (for May). Replace these with your number for the month.
  Finally go to 2fff52: This should read 1d (for 30th). Replace it with the code for the day.
  That's it. Save the eu3game.exe and try it out.
  
• To change the last start date:
  Basically works exactly the same:
  year: go to 2fff61 and 2fff62, which should be fd 06 (for 1789).
  month: go to 2fff6d, it should be 06 (for July). Change it.
  day: go to 2fff76, it should be 0d (for 13th). Change it.
  Save the eu3game.exe and try it out.
  
• To change the end date:
  Go to 29971a and 29971b, these bytes determine the year at the end of which you get the end game screen. It should read 00 07 (= 07 00 which is 1792 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.
  
• 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

Well, this should be all, have fun

[Art99]

Thanks for getting this mod out so fast. Gonna try out the 1.3 patch now WOOHOO !

[mauzzer]

sweeeet

[gigau]

Great many thanks for doing that so fast.

By any chance, would you have the positions and values to change in order to have higher populations ?

[maxpublic]

Thanks for putting this up so fast. As far as I'm concerned this is the number one must-have mod for EU3.

Max

[Amtrak]

As has already been said, many thanks for the quick post! Many more thanks from me as well for another hex editing guide.

[seboden]

Thanks for putting this up so fast. As far as I'm concerned this is the number one must-have mod for EU3.

Max

Ooh, thanks a bunch. But it's really not that hard, compared to the amount of effort that goes into mods like Magna Mundi or Imago Dei or most others, really.

And thanks to everybody else, too. If you have any problems or other feedback, please tell me.


I have been asked (by gigau) how to create the patcher. Well, it is really quite easy, if you have already changed your eu3game.exe according to your wishes and the instructions above.

• Go to this website, scroll down till you get to "Patcher" and download it. (It is freeware.)
• Extract the patcher.exe from the archive and start it.
• Tell it: the name that will be displayed at the top (Title),
  where to find the original eu3game.exe (Old path) (This will be the default path for the patch, but can be changed by the user),
  where to find your modified eu3game.exe (New Path)
  and the path where your patch will be created (Patch).
• Put the slider at the bottom all over to the left side (Small) and click "Patch".

You are done. The patch can be found at the path specified under (Patch).

By any chance, would you have the positions and values to change in order to have higher populations ?

I haven't yet looked for it, but I will try if I can find it.

[gigau]

Great many thanks, your explanations made it easy for me to make my patcher....
I hope you'll always be around to tell us which values to edit

I haven't yet looked for it, but I will try if I can find it.

For the populations, you indicated a value of "3f 42 0f 00" with previous patch. I've found this value in the position "21 e7 c9" to "21 e7 cc"... i guess that's the thing to edit, right ?
Is "1f ff ff ff" still the max value i can enter ? IIRC, it meant a maximum of 2 million...

[AS-NEON]

what hex editor program should i use?

And i am having trouble finding the 29971a and 29971b lines.

All i want to do is get rid of the end date.

[seboden]

what hex editor program should i use?

And i am having trouble finding the 29971a and 29971b lines.

All i want to do is get rid of the end date.

You, can really use any. There is a bunch of them out there and my guess is, they can all do what you need to do. Wikipedia has a list of them.
When you have opened the file in a hex editor try to find the "Go to (address)" function of your editor and enter 29971a. (note: the line is 299710 and it consists of 16 bytes. 29971a is the 11th byte (=pair of digits) in that line and 29971b the 12th one.)
To get rid of the end date you should change those bytes to " ff ff " .
Hope that helped.

[AS-NEON]

Well something going wrong with me. I have tried 6 different free editors, and on each search none of the, show up with 29971a or b. When i try and find it manually its not there either.

Any suggestions, and what editor do you use?

[gigau]

Well something going wrong with me. I have tried 6 different free editors, and on each search none of the, show up with 29971a or b. When i try and find it manually its not there either.

Any suggestions, and what editor do you use?

Stupid question (cause i made the mistake at first) : which file do you open with the editor ? eu3.exe or eu3game.exe ?

It's eu3game.exe you should open with the hexaeditor.

I use HDD Free Hex Editor 3.

[Amtrak]

Personally, I use the first hex editor I found and it's been working fine with me. I don't think you're downloading obsolete or broken editors - there's got to be something else wrong.

[Woody Man]

Ahh here it is, Thanks Seboden!

[Cosmo Kramer]

I'm encountering a little problem that seems related to this mod. I have the timeframe working properly, that's not the problem.

What's happening is that when I start a game prior to the normal start date, my monarchs will die and not be replaced. They become endless Regency Councils, so I can't declare wars and do other fun stuff I can when I have the monarch.

For example, I started a game as Castille in 51. I started with no monarch at all, not even Regency, but one was placed on the throne as soon as I clicked unpause. But when he died in about 60, I received Regency and it is now 85. I have looked around the map, and other nations with Regencies are not having new monarchs appointed.

Is there any additional editing that needs to be done to make this aspect of the game functional again, or should I just stick to starting after 1453?

[seboden]

I'm encountering a little problem that seems related to this mod. I have the timeframe working properly, that's not the problem.

What's happening is that when I start a game prior to the normal start date, my monarchs will die and not be replaced. They become endless Regency Councils, so I can't declare wars and do other fun stuff I can when I have the monarch.

For example, I started a game as Castille in 51. I started with no monarch at all, not even Regency, but one was placed on the throne as soon as I clicked unpause. But when he died in about 60, I received Regency and it is now 85. I have looked around the map, and other nations with Regencies are not having new monarchs appointed.

Is there any additional editing that needs to be done to make this aspect of the game functional again, or should I just stick to starting after 1453?

This game behavior is new to me, but I haven't actually played a lot with the mod. I don't really know why that happens and if it would need another change in the exe. But if so I don't really know what to change, there are another seven(?) entries of 1453 (= ad 05 00 00) in the exe, I believe. You could try to change those to 51Ad (= 33 00 00 00), one by one and see if that helps. I can't promise,though. Another idea would be to define staring monarchs for 51 AD in the relevant country history file, perhaps that helps.
But it might also be that there is some date parameter in the monarch/regency death function and then I am afraid you (or me) can't really do anything about it.

[The_Mad_Hatter]

This guide will only work with EU3 v1.3

With the help of this guide you can change the first possible start date (at the moment May 30th 1453), the last possible start date (at the moment July 13th 1789) and the last year of the game (currently 1792, which means the game will terminate on January 1st 1793).

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 eu3game.exe
  
• Now you need to open the eu3game.exe with a hex editor
  
• 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 I tell you to, and no others!
  
• Now you need to decide on your desired starting year and date and/or last possible starting year and date 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 1453) and convert it to a hexadecimal number (you can do this with the windows calculator) (in this example 5ad ). Now add a zero to make it 4 digits long ( 05 ad ). Exchange the first two digits with the last two ( ad 05 ). Now you've got your number you need to insert for the year.
  Next you'll have to translate your month and day. To do this write them as a number and subtract 1 (This is because our calendar starts with the first month/day but they are stored starting with zero) (so May would be 04 and the 30th would be 29).
  Now again convert them to hexadecimal numbers (May is 04 and 30th is 1d ).
  Do the same for your last starting date if you want to change it.
  
• To change the first start date:
  Now you need to go to the following position in your hex editor:
  2fff3d and 2fff3e: The digits should be ad 05 (which is 1453). Replace these four digits with the ones you determined for your start year.
  Next go to 2fff49, there should be the digits 04 (for May). Replace these with your number for the month.
  Finally go to 2fff52: This should read 1d (for 30th). Replace it with the code for the day.
  That's it. Save the eu3game.exe and try it out.
  
• To change the last start date:
  Basically works exactly the same:
  year: go to 2fff61 and 2fff62, which should be fd 06 (for 1789).
  month: go to 2fff6d, it should be 06 (for July). Change it.
  day: go to 2fff76, it should be 0d (for 13th). Change it.
  Save the eu3game.exe and try it out.
  
• To change the end date:
  Go to 29971a and 29971b, these bytes determine the year at the end of which you get the end game screen. It should read 00 07 (= 07 00 which is 1792 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.
  
• 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

Well, this should be all, have fun

My eu3game.exe has different values for the end date.

29971a = 50

29971b = c3

any thoughts?

[seboden]

My eu3game.exe has different values for the end date.

29971a = 50

29971b = c3

any thoughts?

Probably because you used my patcher already?
It changes those values to 50 c3 (=c3 50, which is 50000 in decimal numbers).
The original file should be named eu3game.bak. You can rename it back to eu3game.exe if you want to play with the original version.

[The_Mad_Hatter]

ROFL Thank you very much, funny part was after I put about 2 hours thought into I figured it out

Im just getting slower in my old age

Thanks again