There are some methods to increase the number of bots (please check http://battlefieldsingleplayer.com/), but keep in mind, it would seriously drop your framerate. On the other hand there are some indicators that too much bots (even beyond 48) cause instability to the game. So we decide not to support it within our own code.

Why in Campaign mode when you can play it with more than 64 in Coop? 😉 

Here's the modified files i've been uploaded from ModDB:

Download Link

Do take note that this was from vanilla Battlefield 1942, just read the description or from the README file if you want to play more than 64 ai/bots for BattleGroup42 or any BF1942 mods of your choice. And keep it in mind though, the ai/bots will start spinning like crazy when you set the maximum number of players beyond 128 in Create Game menu.

@al13326

How did you get this to work in BG42?  It worked in Vanilla, FHR, BF1941 Civil War and some other mods, but I could never get it to work in BG42 or EoD or BF1918.  At one time I did have 128 bots in BG42 by a happy accident thanks to some other mod or .exe I had installed that affected the earlier version of BG42 as well, but after updating the mod and other unrelated PC issues I lost the ability for 128 bots in coop or campaign and I was unable to remember exactly how I got this.  I forget which .exe I was using etc.  Now I cannot get more than 64 bots in any mode.

I tried the mod on ModDB that you linked and also the step-by-step DIY instructions.  The problem I am having is that BG42 has a different configuration in the Menu.rfa files from the mods that allow more bots and I cannot make the changes that I am supposed to, because the files that need changing are not present.

BG42 is without a doubt the best BF42 mod available, but some of the maps are so huge and vast that they seem deserted and empty with the Vanilla 64 bots.  They cry out for mass combat.  When I did have 128 bots working last year, I did not have a problem with lag unless I was fighting on a very small sized map.  I even have my corpses' time extended to 300 seconds and I was still OK with 128 bots on maps like Down the Danube, Citadel, Prokhorovka, etc.

I only got to have 128 bot BG42 for a couple of weeks before it was lost.  I would be so happy if someone could help me to get it working again.

@PVT_Parts

You don't have to alter the menu.rfa inside Mods/bg42/Archives folder as majority of BF1942 mods except FHR which had a different CreateGameMenuPage1 had lack such file.

And did by any chance you installed FHSW mod? Because it also replace bf1942.exe during the installation process, if so then you have to copy again the .exe and it's already been patched as stated in the README file.

@al13326

I already had FHSW installed before, but it has never worked for me. 

At the time I noticed I was able to play BG42 with 120 bots, I had just installed the latest versions of FHR and Warfront as well.  Then what happened is my son accidentally deleted my DVD drive using Daemon Tools.  My .exe no longer worked for BF42 and I had to use a noCD .exe   Around the same time I updated to the new version of BG42.

Today I uninstalled FHR and Warfront and reinstalled them but no change in BG42.  Also installed the BF42 255 bots mod on Moddb.  Using the .exe from that but I still cannot have any more than 64 bots in BG42, even though the menu in my Coop create game menu indicates I can have up to 250.  When the game begins, there are only 64 bots in play.

From the looks of it, you've forgot to edit the BG42's game.rfa...

=> For other Battlefield 1942 mod/s of your choice, you have to edit the game.rfa (Found in Mods/"modname"/Archives/bf1942 folder) using WinRFA, select AIdefault.con, find "aiSettings.setMaxNBots" and change 64 to 256.

@al13326

No, I have "aiSettings.setMaxNBots" set to 255 in the game. rfa found in the Mods/bg42/Archives/bf1942 folder.    I just went in and double checked it.  When I create a BG42 CoOp game, the Max Players field in the menu screen seems to allow me to have 255 players.  In other words, it shows 255 in the field and it does not reset to 64,  but when the game actually begins there are only 64 bots that spawn.    

I think I see what exactly the problem is.  This section in bold is from the troubleshooting guide for adding bots to mods if the bots do not increase after the steps with the Vanilla game.

• 2. Re-open BF:MDT and click Menu Editor

(a.) With BF:MDT this time we're going to open the Menu Editor. In Menu Editor, at the top, hit 'File' then 'Open' then open the new folder you created on your desktop and then open the 'menu' folder within it (The directory would be 'Desktop\New folder\menu') and finally open 'CreateGameMenuPage1'.

(b.) Press Ctrl+F and a search box will appear. Enter "dice::meme::BfEditNodeInt" (Without the quotes) and click 'Find Next'. Now press F3 ONCE to cycle to the next line with the same name (You may have to cycle through a few times to find the correct line, it may vary).

(c.) Now expand the highlighted field. When expanded you should see "Int32: 64". Click it so its highlighted. Now, at the top of the window you will now see "Int32: 64" to the right of the save button. From there change the '64' to '255'. Then make sure to click 'Update' THEN 'Save'. You can now close the Menu Editor.

So I extracted the BG42 menu.rfa to a folder on my desktop and I was going to edit the 'CreateGameMenuPage1' as instructed with Menu Editor, but... BG42 has no 'CreateGameMenuPage1' in the menu.rfa!

There is a texture folder, and files called CampaignMenu, CreditsMenu, InGame and SkirmishMenu but no CreateGameMenuPage1.  I opened each of the files I could see and investigated them to see if the missing file was hidden in one of them, but I could not find it.

I have no idea what to do next.  I know it is possible to have more than 64 bots in BG42, as I had them myself for a short time (no idea how!) and I have read of others having increased BG42 bots. 

I do appreciate your advice very much!  This is so frustrating!

BG42 does not have a CreateGameMenuPage1 file inside the menu file. What you can try, which is what I tried (unsucessfully) is to pack the menu.rfa using WinRFA with the CreateGameMenuPage1 inside the folder.

I really wish we could manage to get more than 64 bots; just 128 in some maps would mean a huge improvement in terms of gameplay

I guess I can help you out here guys... I successfully increased the number of bots from 64 to 80, because over it on my configuration (which is very good btw) game stutters and lags. So, I will give you few hints and tips and also some files you must have so it can work properly. PLEASE MAKE BACK UP FIRST!

https://ulozto.net/file/3ZGkV3Z9kbc1/80bots-zip

BUT also beside the files in the link you have to put in the right place, you must also increase the limit of maximum bots for each Single Player map.

1) Open map you want to modify with winRFA program

2) Find files inside the map, called "SinglePlayerAllied.con"  and "SinglePlayerAxis.con", inside you will see such line:

game.maxNrofPlayers 64 (or 16)

Simply remove this line in both of mentioned .con files OR add command rem, to make it removed, like this:

rem game.maxNrofPlayers 64

I hope this will help you. Best of luck! 

It worked. If it is not too much of a bother to ask, could you explain what you did there?

Because I had modified the aidefault file and the levels individually and it didn't work...is it the menu_001 file which does the trick?

Nevermind, I managed to make BG42 work with 128 bots. I think most people can't do it because they are not unpacking and packing the RFA, like I did.

@PVT_parts

It is not enough to change the values inside the WinRFA. You have to open the Game.rfa, extract it to a folder in your computer, change the AIDefault.con value from 64 to other value and then in WinRFA pack it up again.

Now this is the tricky part. There is only a correct way of packing it up, otherwise it will crash. Follow these instructions to set it up correctly: http://www.cajunwolf.com/WinRFAtut.html

You know you have packed it up correctly when you open the rfa file in WinRFA and the path is something like "bf1942/game/AIdefault.con" and not just "game/Aidefault" or "bf1942/AIdefault".

You still then have to change the values on the levels aswell.

Thank you very much for these two methods.  I am going to try them out ASAP.  I thought I had packed the Game.rfa correctly as on my CoOp menu it shows 255 bots available and the number shows in the .rfa as 255 when I checked it, but unfortunately only the standard 64 show up in game.  I must have messed up somehow.  I will read that guide you linked carefully.

I am going to try  "new username"s method first as I think it is less work-intensive and also I am not sure if Laufer's method works in CoOp maps, which are what I play most.  If it works, I am also going to try this on EoD and BF1918 as well.

Not sure what it is about my ten-year-old dinosaur PC but I can run 64 - 120 bot matches with extended time for wreckage and corpses in FHR and BF41 mods, and 255 bot matches with extended corpses and normal wrecks in vanilla BF42, Wastelands and GC without substantial lag. 

These videos are with 64 bots before I got 120 bots into my game, but even now at 120 the lag is not bad at all.  I just cut the corpse time down from 5 to 3 minutes and the wreck time from 10 to 5 minutes.

FHR extended wrecks and corpses

BF41 extended wrecks and corpses

BG42 has some intensive explosions and detailed maps, but if I don't extend the corpses too long (Can't figure out how to extend wrecks in BG42, anyway) I am hoping the lag wont hurt too much on the larger maps.

It's very strange, and I guess the improved game engine is responsible, but I can run FH2 for BF2 with 200 bots with almost no lag at all.  (It does crash sometimes, however).

Thanks again and I really appreciate everyone's help!

Whoops.  I didn't read carefully enough.  Actually both methods are about the same as far as labor goes.  I have already correctly packed my AIDefault as it does indeed show .con at the end when I open it in WinRFA.  I notice both methods require modification of all the levels.  That's what I did not do.   Oh well, it won't be as tedious as modifying all the FHR and BF41 vehicles to last longer as wrecks.

Is there any way to add bots to CoOp levels as well?  The singleplayer levels just don't last long enough.  Or maybe I could boost the tickets of the singleplayer maps?

In those SinglePlayerAxis.con and SinglePlayerAllies.con files are two fields that read as shown:

Game.setNumberOfTickets 1 100
Game.setNumberOfTickets 2 100

If I changed them both to 1000 in each file, would that make the tickets equal to a Coop game with the slider set to 1000% in the multiplayer create game menu?  That's what I usually do when I play.