[Patch] Arcanum Universal Level Cap Remover 0.0.1 by Alqualos 2023-09-26

Text copied from the readme:

1. What is this?

This is program which removes (changes, to be correct) level cap in Arcanum game. It should work fine with any version of Arcanum. Currently it has been tested on the next versions:

1.0.6.4 www.cdboom.com release.

1.0.7.4 official release.

This patch won't work on Arcanum versions with packed arcanum.exe (like XEN)!!! To use this patch you will have to unpack it first... if you can, of course... Packed arcanum.exe can be recognized by its size - about 1 MB, while size of the unpacked file is usually about 1.8 MB.

2. How it possible?

In short, because exe-files of different Arcanum versions has similar structure, it was quite easy to write this program. It simply searches for the specific patterns of bytes and changes them as neccessary. But this means that on some "strange" versions it may not work or may work incorrectly. The only way to know will it work on your game version or not is to test it.

3. How to use it?

Very easy. Place file arcanum50patch.exe in the Arcanum directory and run it. If you will see on the screen this:

Yeah! It looks like everything is allright!
Current level cap is 100.
Please enter new level cap (value between 1 and 127):


Then all is ok. Enter desired value and get it! Please note that on version 1.0.7.4 (and maybe some earlier, but later than 1.0.6.4) of Arcanum you will see 51 level cap by default instead of 50. It is okay, just a trick used in that version to give your character ability to level up his followers when level cap is reached. Beware that you'll need to set level cap to "something"+1 to get real level cap at level "something" in such Arcanum versions. If you see something else, then this patch won't work on your version. Mail me, I'll try to solve the problem. But don't forget to send your arcanum.exe with mail - or else you'll get nothing from me...

Note: if you got message "can't open arcanum.exe for writing" then make sure that you aren't trying to patch running game and that arcanum.exe hasn't attribute "read only" set (see windows properties dialog). When patching is done first time a backup of arcanum.exe will be made in file arcanum.50. If such file already exists it won't be overwritten so it should always contain totally unpatched version of your arcanum.exe. But remember that it is always safer to do backup manually! Moreover, this patch is not all that you'll need to get your character on the level higher than 50th. The second thing you'll need to do it is file xp_level.mes. Here some links where you can get it: http://www.terra-arcanum.com/station/downloads/arcanum_uptolevel127_1074.zip
http://www.terra-arcanum.com/council/articles/hackmod/xp_level_expanded.mes First link will give you archive with patched exe (for official version) and xp_level.mes for 127 levels of experience. The second link will give you file only for 100 levels, but that file requires less experience for some reason. You may want to download this file and add additional levels manually or even write your own file from scratch. It has very simple format - just look into it and you'll realize this! Additionally, you may use file that goes with this patch. It is file that I got from the second link above, but you never know - there might be some updates since I downloaded it... File xp_level.mes must be named exactly so and must be placed into directory <Arcanum>\data\rules\. Here <Arcanum> means directory where you have Arcanum installed. Don't be afraid if you won't find such directory (in most cases it will be so) - just create it manually and everything will be allright! Without xp_level.mes file you can only decrease maximum level, but what reason this can be done for?! Only for testing maybe...

4. What are other files within this archive?

Well, let me explain...

arcanum50patch.exe - as I've already said, it is patch itself.
xp_level.mes - expanded XP chart for 100 levels.

readme.rus.txt - readme in russian.

readme.en.txt - that file you are currently reading, aren't you? ;-)

arcanum50patch.c - source code. Please don't tell me that it is very badly written - I know it. I just didn't want to write some super readable and flexible - all I did want is working patch and I've got it!

COPYING - license agreement. GNU GPL license.

5. Where I may get latest version of this patch?

http://brededor.narod.ru/progs/arcanum50patch.htm

Half of this page is written in russian, but there is nothing interesting at all.