How to Increase Party Size (with mods)

This guide will show you how to edit the game files in order to increase your active party from 12 soldiers to a maximum of 18 soldiers.


Credit to /u/--oleg on the /r/BattleBrothers subreddit for first explaining this technique.


EDIT: Sorry guys, it appears this mod broke with the 1.1 patch. I'll keep you posted if I find out how to change it again. I'm not a tech wizard, and I didn't invent the mod myself, so I can't guarentee 100% that there will ever be a way to field 18 people again, but I'll do my best.

EDIT 2: Thanks to sAiNtgOtEn in the comments, we now know a workaround that will allow the mod to work again. Details will be in the guide.

EDIT 3: This guide is now outdated. There are several mods on Nexus Mods and other modding websites that accomplishes the same goals. No need to modify the game files yourselves anymore.

Also, give the Legends Mod a shot. Adds a whole bunch of new content not in the base game or DLC, plus that mod increases the party size to a maximum of 27 (in some modes)!

Introduction

First a fair warning.

This game was balanced by the developers with a limit of 12 soldiers in mind. This game was designed to be played this way, and the difficulty is balanced with that in mind. By increasing your active party size, you will be making this game a lot easier for yourself. Yes, you will still lose some men, but overall, your gains will be significantly higher when playing with this mod on.

With that said, I believe in player choice, and if you chose to play with a higher party size, either because you find the game too hard normally, or if you just want to see how powerful you can make your soldiers, I think you should have the right as players to do what you want with no fear of judgement or "Get Gud".

And besides, you can use this guide to make the game harder for yourself, just decrease your active party size instead. That should be interesting for you!

Alright, enough of me, let's get to the point.

The Guide

Step One

Go to your local files for Battle Brothers and find a file called "data_001".

(your Steam files should be similar to this: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Battle Brothers\data")

Make sure to create a backup of this file, and put it somewhere on your desktop, just in case something goes wrong, so you can conveniently fix any potential problems.













Step Two

Once a backup of the file is made, open the file using WinRAR or 7zip. It should look something like this:

















Now that you've sucessfully opened the file, open the folders within in this order.

ui\screens\character\modules\character_screen_brothers_list\

Once you're there, it should look something like this:












Step Three:

At this point, you will want to export the JavaScript file called "character_screen_brothers_list_module". You won't be able to edit the file from within WinRAR (not sure about 7zip) so it's better to export that one file.

Once the file is exported, open it up using a text editing software like Notepad. When you've done this, it should look something like this:













This is basically a part of the code that makes the game function as it should. Don't mess around too much in here, it wouldn't be good to break the game unintentionally.

Now, you'll need to find a particular line of code that controls the active party size limit. To do this, press CTRL+F, and find the line "this.mNumActiveMax". This line is the ONLY line you have to edit for this to work. By default, the number is 12, but you can change it to any number you want up to 18. Like so:







Alright! Almost done. Save the file, and exit.



Step Four:

Now the last, but most important step. Drag the JavaScript file you just edited BACK into the WinRAR file that it came from originally. A popup will show, giving you a bunch of options, but just press OK. The edited file will replace the original file by itself. It might stutter a little bit as it loads, but after a few seconds, it should be all good, and the game should be sucessfully modded.


Congrats! That should be it. Open the game up to make sure everything is still working. If you did it sucessfully, it should look a little like this:














On your character/inventory screen, the number should have changed to a max of 18 soldiers active at once. The only reason you can't do a full 20 (even though you can have a max of 20 soldiers total, including the guys on the reserves) is because the way the game is made with two rows of 9, plus another row of 9 for the reserves. 18 is the maximum number of soldiers you can have active using this modding method, but you can do any number below that.


Now to reiterate. While the game can support ridiculous numbers on the field at once, the game isn't balanced for you to have over 12 soldiers at once, and having allies on the field is pretty rare. So enjoy having a bit more freedom, even if it's a bit easier now.

1.1 Patch Extra Steps

Due to the 1.1 patch that was recently released, the original method no longer works. However, you can fix this issue by replacing a single file in the /data001 file with the same file from the 1.0.0.5 patch.

To do this you need to get a copy of the 1.0.0.5 version of the game (however you can). Once you've done this, on both the 1.1 version and the 1.0.0.5 version of the game, find this file:

data001\scripts\entity\tactical\tactical_entity_manager.cnut

What you want to do is drag this file from the 1.0.0.5 version of the game into the same directory in the 1.1 version of the game. You don't want any other files, just this one.

If you do this, on top of what I said on the rest of the guide, the mod should now work, and all of the benefits of the 1.1 patch should still be there.

[Adam]

Updated 18-bros mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/battlebrothers/mods/41

[yzcatt]

@Zeros Yeah unfortunately it seems like it :/, though I heard someone was working on reintroducing the mod, hopefully it can go out again.

[Zeros]

@Silentsniper Yes, it's outdated.

[yzcatt]

Hey all, I have been trying this recently and it does not seem to work anymore... After I complete all the steps, I can launch my game and see that i can put up to 18 brothers into the line, but now whenever i start battles the game crashes to a fatal error. Has this become outdated again?? I am not really sure what is going on.

[Personal Jesus]

yeah i would love to have an updated file as well

[Marius]

Can someone upload the file needed from 1.0.0.5? Have searched the internet everywhere and can't find it. The link in this threat doesn't work.

[the dark wizard]

It that betrays@
Vanilly has a mod that worked better then this one, and he is currently updating it. You can find the link under guides.
_

I have a sneaking suspicion that editing the cnut files also messed with some of the lindwurm update's content.

[IT THAT BETRAYS]

New patch method yet?

[❤Von]

Hi, can update for the new patch? Many thanks <3

[Zeros]

Battle preparation mod is out !!! Please check it here -> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1437471704