Game Files

Just like any other game, Battle Nations needs files to support itself. It can happen visually or in the backstage. This article explores the Mac versions of Battle Nations.

Warning: Do not attempt to modify any of the files found in the remoteData folder. Battle Nations will detect the change and result in a ban.

Battle Nations Wiki admins Bobmath and Drullkus created a tool called Animation Grabber for accessing the units and the buildings found in the game files. ''More information on Animation Grabber can be found here.

Locations
There are two locations to find Battle Nation's assets.

BattleNations.app
This is the app. There are two folders of importance in the .app.

The resources folder holds all of the files for the client, mainly the GUI images.

The bundle folder within the resources folder houses the game's assets, the units, buildings, and such.

On Windows, these files can be found in the directory C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\BattleNations\assets

Warning: Do not attempt to modify any of the files found in this folder. Battle Nations will detect the change and result in a ban.

Game file cache
This is where the Battle Nations client downloads the new game files from Z2's servers.

Directory (Mac): /users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.z2live.battlenations-mac/data/Library/Caches/jujulib/remoteData

Directory (Windows): C:\Users\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Z2\Battle Nations\cache\remoteData

Warning: Do not attempt to modify any of the files found in the remoteData folder. Battle Nations will detect the change and result in a ban.

Image cache
This is where the game stores promotional splash graphics and other images. The files are stored in the fsCachedData subdirectory, but have randomly generated filenames. The Cache.db file contains the URLs they were fetched from; it is in format.

Directory (Mac): /users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.z2live.battlenations-mac/Data/Library/Caches/com.z2live.battlenations-mac (This directory name has been brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.)

.json
files are written in a somewhat human-readable text format. They hold much of the game information such as unit stats, battle formations, and mission scripts. Some of these files are quite large, and they can be tricky to interpret correctly. Information on some of the .json contents is available on this wiki.

.png
This image file format can be universally read by most major operating systems.

.z2raw
A proprietary format designed by Z2live to hold bitmap data for textures of Battle Nations units.

.bin
A proprietary format designed by Z2live to hold the and animation information that brings the .z2raw images to life.

.mp3
Music files.

.caf
 files are used for sound effects.

.pvr
 files store texture maps, mainly used for ground tile patterns.

.nib
 files store GUI elements that appear in the game.