MARVEL MODS PRESENTS: THE 36 ROSTER HACK
Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the entire Marvel Mods community, I present to you
"The Holy Grail" that was many years in the making, referred to as the
36 Roster Hack (or "36R" for short). Normally, the game only allows for 27 playable heroes on the roster. But, through years of research, testing, and coding work, we have made it possible to have as many as 36 playable characters on the roster! Now,
ALL of the official characters can be in the game at the same time!
Um... what are you doing? Stop pinching yourself -- you're not dreaming. And yes, your eyes are seeing this correctly.
Though this hack was the work of Nikita488, UltraMegaMagnus and myself, it was the brainchild of many minds here in this forum.
(Its predecessor, the now-discontinued 33 Roster Hack had suffered some problems with the last 5 characters on our herostats. No more! Testing has shown that all of the characters gained XP and can equip items without worry. And saving the game isn't a problem, as a save file was created and loaded back into with no problems.) So, why settle for 27 when you can have 36? Download this awesome hack and see for yourself. And, feel free to give props, criticism, or feedback.
It is best to do a clean install of the game, then the Official Characters Pack before using the 36R. Some things were changed with the 33R or GEC that isn't necessary now.
FEATURES:
-36 heroes are now playable, extending the roster by 9. All can level up and use items with no problems. Saving data is not a problem either, as the game's memory has been increased.
-New character select stage with platform. Menulocations #23 and #42 are no longer facing awkward directions.
-Adds an extraction point to first level.
-Has Bobby Drake's human form model at Sanctum Santorum.
-All characters and extraction points unlocked.
-Green markers under characters are now gone.
-Hard difficulty unlocked.
-New accurately-sized mannequins of Colossus, Luke Cage, and the Thing.
NOTES:
-The 36R does not suffer from the "last 5" issues that its predecessor 33R had. All can gain experience points and use items without any problems. Even the "Level 99 Team" cheat code will not have problems with any of the characters.
-The riser in the team stage isn't wide enough for that many characters. If expanded, I will update.
MINOR GLITCHES:
-Some characters will have all of their outfits locked, including the one they are wearing. Fortunately, the "Unlock All Costumes" cheat code will fix that.
-When not using all official characters, the last two or three characters may not have a blue circle on their first power. Unsure what is causing that. They can still level up fine, though.
(NOTE: If solutions for these glitches are found, it will be updated.)HEROSELECT NOTE:
The 36 Roster Hack will not work with Heroselect, as it still uses the old menu locations and has the max at 27. However, Tony Stark has created and modified his OpenHeroselect program to support the 36R. You can find it here:
http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,10597.0.html
PROJECT CREDITS:
Nikita488: Limit Adjuster plugins
(Special props to him, as he made this all possible by increasing the game's memory.)UltraMegaMagnus: mlm_team_back.igb alteration, green marker removal, improved mannequins
Outsider: team_back.xmlb alteration, herostat set-up, Iceman script change, Doom & Galactus loading screens, game testing
MelloMods: New m_team_stage background
brandonmeek: Extraction point at first level
Krisan Thyme: Character unlock script
RESEARCH CREDITS:
Nikita488 - Discovery of herostat & select screen codes, mlm_team_back file hex-editing
Outsider - 28 Roster Limit Hack modification & research, project testing and analysis
Krisan Thyme - 11-NPC & 39-Character limit discoveries
Teancum - Extensive research of game engine & PY scripts found at Knowledge Base
Tommyboy2002 - NPC>27 project research and game-breaking limit experimentation
NOTABLE MENTIONS:
Maegawa - Stage Select finding (through zoneinfo.engb)
Julio Cabral - Ideas from simulator mission research
(Also, thanks to all members who have contributed their thoughts and support throughout the process.)