Arcanum universal level cap remover v0.0.1
Copyright (C) 2003  Alqualos (alqualos@yandex.ru)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
--

  English  isn't  my  native  language  so be patient if there any mistakes
below... :-)

---
  I have used information from
http://www.terra-arcanum.com/council/articles/hackmod/arcanum_level_cap.txt
  to write this patch so many thanks to author of this article!
---

  Well, let's begin...

  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...

  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 levelcap is 100.
Please enter new levelcap (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.
