Chartbusters 1/CHARTB01.BIN/303.GEN_MIX.NFO

Text File | 1995-11-12 | 15KB | 411 lines

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GENERAL.MIX: SOME BASIC EDITING INFORMATION
Revision 3                                            12 Nov, 1995.
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This paper deals with editing the file 'general.mix' so that you
can edit the mission scenarios and maps that come with Command
and Conquer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Preliminary general.mix editing notes:  ([e-mail])

All these abbreviations were found in the game.dat file. I didn't work
out each one by trial and error :)

Available Unit Abbreviations (entered as vehicles in general.mix)
----------------------------
VICE  viceroid
FTNK  flame tank
STNK  stealth tank
LTNK  light tank
MTNK  medium tank
HTNK  mammoth tank
MHQ   mobile HQ (*1)
LST   hovercraft (*2)
MLRS  Nod SSM
ARTY  mobile artillery
HARV  harvester
MCV   MCV (*3)
JEEP  Humm-Vee
BGGY  Nod buggy
BIKE  recon bike
MSAM  rocket launcher
APC   APC
BOAT  gunboat (*4)
TRIC  triceratops (*5)
TREX  tyrannosaurus rex (*5)
RAPT  velociraptor (*5)
STEG  stegosaurus (*5)

*1 This is a unit I haven't seen before. Has a little radar thing on
   the top (no effect), but has no weapon. Does nothing that is apparent.
   [NEW: just received word that you get this when playing capture the
   flag and specify vehicles only]

*2 Can't control these. It moves south after a while.

*3 Changing a vehicle to an MCV allows you to build a base in missions
   where you normally aren't allowed to.

*4 Haven't tried putting this in. Wonder if you can control it or if it
   can move over land.
   [NEW: you can't control where it goes; it just moves to the left until
   it leaves the screen, then moves right. You can control where it shoots.
   It takes no account of what it passes over (can pass over units, hills,
   buildings, everything without doing anything [doesn't squash infantry]).

*5 Dinosaurs. No apparent graphics except for their death animations.
   [NEW: there are some multiplayer maps with the theme: Untamed Land
   that have dinosaurs in them. Haven't played MP C&C yet, so don't know
   if we can play these maps.]
   [NEW: can't play these missions]


There are 4 'houses': GDI, NOD, CIV and JP. These are represented by:
GoodGuy, BadGuy, Neutral and Special.

NEW:
You can set vehicles to be of house Special or Civilian, and if you are
not allies with them (in the Allies field), your troops will attack them,
and they will attack you.
So, it may be possible to have 3 different computer opponents on the
same map (ally them all, or not) and try that. A bit later I'll try and
set up a Special base with a weapons factory and see if it does anything.

NEW:
If you set player=Special, instead of the gdi/nod symbol that you would
see in the upper right corner, you get a dinosaur's head. Playing as
Special allows you to build (from what I've seen) both nod and gdi
equipment.
Setting player=Neutral will probably give you a different logo graphic,
and should allow you to control any civilians on the map.

Available Infantry Abbreviations (in the [Infantry] section of general.mix)
--------------------------------
E1    minigunner infantry
E2    grenade infantry
E3    rocket infantry
E4    flamethrower infantry
E5    chem warrior
E6    engineer
RMBO  commando (*1)
C1    }
C2    }
C3    }
C4    }
C5    } (*2)
C6    }
C7    }
C8    }
C9    }
C10   }

Special Infantry
----------------
Moebius }
Delphi  } (*3)
Chan    }

*1 RMBO is obviously short for Rambo and represents the commando, although
   I haven't tried this out.
   [NEW: yes it is for the commando]

*2 These would have to be the civilians (there are 10 different types?).
   Again, haven't tried these.
   [NEW: yep, these are the civilians.]
   If you have player=neutral, if you sell a building, you get technicians,
   not minigunners. So, some of these entries may be for the technicians.

*3 The important people encountered (to kill/save) in C&C.

All these abbreviations were found in the game.dat file. I haven't tested
them all out (naturally), mainly focussing on the vehicles. The MLRS is
the nod SSM (what a slow reload time!) which is a bit strange as in the
manual I have, the rocket launcher is caled the MLRS.

Available Building Abbreviations (in the [STRUCTURES] section)
--------------------------------
TMPL  Temple of Nod (*1)
EYE   Advanced Communication Centre (*2)
WEAP  Weapons Factory
GTWR  Guard Tower
ATWR  Advanced Guard Tower
OBLI  Obelisk of Light
GUN   Gun Turret
FACT  Construction Site
PROC  Refinery
SILO  Silo
HPAD  Helipad (*3)
HQ    Communication Centre
SAM   SAM site
AFLD  Airfield
NUKE  Power plant
NUK2  Advanced Power plant
HOSP  Hospital (*4)
BIO   Biotechnology Laboratory (*4)
PYLE  Barracks
HAND  Hand of Nod
ARCO  Civilian Building (*5)
FIX   Repair Bay
V01   }
 :    } (*6)
V37   }
MISS  Technology Centre (*4)

*1 You can't get the nuclear missle just by building this. There is
   obviously a check to see whether you can use the nuke.

*2 You can use the Ion Cannon by giving yourself this building. It
   does seem to matter at which level you give it to yourself. More
   than likely you can only play around with it in the last few levels.

*3 Don't know if this comes with a helicopter or not if you start with
   it.

*4 The special buildings that you encounter throughout C&C. They do
   nothing for you.

*5 Just gives the title 'Civilian Building' when the cursor is over it.
   Looks like no other civilian building however.

*6 These are almost certainly the civilian buildings (they are in the
   correct place for them).

Sometimes just changing a building to a construction yard doesn't let
you build things in that mission. Give yourself an MCV instead - that
always works. There is obviously another entry somewhere associated
with this.

Available Fence Abbreviations (in the [OVERLAY] section)
-----------------------------
SBAG  Sandbag
CYCL  Chainlink (cyclone fence)
BRIK  Concrete (brick wall)
BARB  Barbed wire
WOOD  Wooden fence

Another one may be CONC. Maybe a concrete wall? (if so, what's the difference
to the brik walls?)

Other Overlay Abbreviations (in the [OVERLAY] section)
---------------------------
TI1 - TI12   tiberium
WCRATE       a wooden crate (*1)
SCRATE       a steel crate (*1)

*1 There has to be some other item that controls what goes in these
   crates.


Other Parts of the File
-----------------------
All this information is stored as text, which makes it a bit easier to
read and guess at what it does.

The beginning of each section is marked by a title in [..]'s. Some are
[BASIC], [MAP], [UNITS] etc. [BASIC] seems to come first - there is certain
to be a definite order in which it is decoded.

Stuff in [BASIC]:
CarryOverCap    no idea, always seems to be -1
CarryOverMoney  the percentage of the money from the previous mission you
                get to keep?
Intro           the video that gets played as an introduction to the mission
BuildLevel      just an internal representation for the level number (I think)
Theme           only for multiplayer maps
Percent         no idea
Lose            the video that gets played if you lose the mission
Player          which side you are (GoodGuy, BadGuy, Neutral or Special)
Brief           the briefing video that gets played
Action          the video that gets played right before the mission (such as
                the parachute drop or hovercraft landing)
Win             the video played when you win

Stuff in [MAP]:
TacticalPos
Height          definitely the height of the map - will probably screw up if
                changed without editing the map
Width           as above, but for the width
Theatre         which graphics file to use - desert, temperate or winter.
Y, X            ???

Then comes [GoodGuys], [BadGuys], [Neutral] and [Special]
They contain:
FlagHome       for multiplayer games?
FlagLocation   for multiplayer games?
MaxBuildings   max. number of buildings that can exist for that side at the
               same time?
Allies         the people who you don't attack - explains why GDI sometimes
               attack the civilians in some missions.
MaxUnits       max. number of units that can exit for that side at the same
               time?
Quota          no idea at all.
Credits        amount of money you start with (multiply by 100 to get amount)
               Maximum amount of money you can have is 1,000,000.
Edge           no idea? where you start? maybe edge of the country map to
               click to play this scenario?

Other entries include: [UNITS], [STUCTURES], [TERRAIN], [WAYPOINTS]
and many others.

[STRUCTURES] contains the information about the vehicles that are already
in the game.
They have a number of fields:
  A number to specify the building, then
  Name, then
  Type, then
  Hit points (256 gives them max hit points, anything lower means
    they are damaged), then
  Location
  Then another few fields which I don't know about.
  The final field is whether a trigger is set for this structure. Usually it
  is set to 'None', but things like SAM sites usually have triggers for
  them. It is the given name of the trigger in [TRIGGERS]

Working out the location value
------------------------------
Location is stored as a single value, not as (x,y) coordinates. Use the
Width and Height fields to work out roughly where it will turn up. The
numbering starts in the upper left hand corner.
To work out where (x,y) it will appear:
y = abs[(location)]
        ----------
         (height)
x = location - (y * width)

Where abs is the absolute (integer) value of the division
(eg. 3.XXX is 3, 28.899 is 28).

[UNITS] is stored in the following manner:
  A number to specify the unit,
  Which side they belong to,
  Type,
  Hit points,
  Location,
  Heading information,
  Current action (guard, hunt etc),
  The final field is the trigger name associated with this unit. Usually
  there is a 'None' there, but occasionally it has a trigger.

[OVERLAY] contains information like what type of fences are there. See
"Available Fence Abbreviations" for the available types.
It just contains the location (see above to find where it will appear),
then the type of overlay it is.
Also contains the location of crates. Crate types that work so far are
WCRATE and SCRATE. I don't know if they have set contents or not.

[TERRAIN]
These are the terrain abbreviations that I've seen:
T01 - T18
SPLIT2, SPLIT3
TC01 - TC05
ROCK1 - ROCK 7

Actions (for unit and infantry information)
-------
These are what I think are the available abbreviations (I haven't tested
these, they come straight out of game.dat: (note that some have '.'s at
the end)
None
Attack Base
Attack Units
Attack Civil.
Rampage
Defend Base
Move
Move to Cell
Retreat
Guard
Loop
Attack Tarcom       no idea what this is for.
Unload

[TRIGGERS]
starts with the name given to that trigger (such as airs, los1). Then
is has what the trigger is, and what the action of the trigger will be.
Then there are some other entries which I haven't worked out.

Triggers
--------
Again, these are what I think are the triggers that are available. I
Haven't tested them: (note that some have '.'s at the end)
None
Player Enters      you start the mission???
Discovered         unit or structure is discovered
Attacked           unit or structure is attacked
Destroyed          unit or structure is destroyed
Any
House Discov.      the base is discovered
Units Destr.
Bldgs Destr.
All Destr.         opponent wiped out
Credits
Time               set to some time interval
# Bldgs Dstr.
# Units Dstr.
No Factories
Civ. Evac.         the civilians have been evacuated (used in a GDI mission)
Build It           you have to build a certain structure (such as a SAM
                   site for that early NOD mission)


Trigger Actions
---------------
Again, I haven't tested out changing these, they are just out of the
game.dat file, and from what I can see from the general.mix file.
I have no idea what most of these are about.
None
Win                 you win the mission
Lose                you lose the mission
Production
Create Team         used to create an attack team (I think)
Dstry Teams
All to Hunt
Reinforce           sends in some reinforcements (in [REINFORCEMENT] section)
DZ at 'Z'           sends a helicopter to the drop zone???
Airstrike           gives you airstrike capabilities for the rest of the mission
Nuclear Missile     gives you the nuke????
Ion Cannon          gives you the ion cannon???
Dstry Trig 'XXXX'
Dstry Trig 'YYYY'
Dstry Trig 'ZZZZ'
Autocreate
Cap=Win/Des=Lose    probably for the buildings that you have to capture in
                    some missions (such as prison).
Allow Win


[CellTriggers] associates a trigger with a square on the map. The format is
simply a square location (see formula above) = the trigger name.


How to get early airstrikes
---------------------------
Whan you play as GDI, it is usually only towards the end that you get to
use airstrikes as you have to get rid of the SAM sites.
Here is a way to make it so that you can get them earlier. (one way of
many, just a little easier than some others as it doesn't change any
offsets).
For that level, edit the triggers for the SAM sites so they read 'None'.
They should be set to a trigger such as 'airs' (have a look at the
triggers to see what name was given to the airstrike).
This means that you no longer have to destroy the SAM sites to get the
airstrikes.
HOWEVER, you now have to put the trigger onto another item. Put this
onto a vehicle (or infantry) that is easy to kill. Change the 'None'
trigger to 'airs' (or whatever was in the SAM trigger), and when you
have killed that unit, you get airstrikes.
To get them really early, put the trigger on one of your own units and
then kill that unit at the very start.


After this information comes the map. The maximum map size is 64x64
squares (4096 cells). Each cell is represented by 2 bytes. It is a
simple 2 dimensional array.
Note that is the map being played on is usually smaller than this,
with the rest of the entries being normal land entries.
A value of 0x00ff means that that cell is just a simple land square.
There is a 1 cell buffer around the edge (meaning that the maximum
playable map width and height is actually 62).
Information in the map includes: water squares, land squares, river
crossings (both bridges and fjords), cliff faces ... [add some more]