Chapter V

Questions, Answers, and Documentation

by mgP <parker@telis.org>


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Introduction

I'm sure that after all that documentation and information, you're still
confused on a few things. Perhaps they weren't answered in any of the other
chapters. Well, they will be answered now. The following is a Question and
Answer section; kinda like an FAQ. Also included are some text files on
videos, songs, and the Built It trigger.

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   Table of Contents 
     1.  Questions and Answers
     2.  You're done!

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ALSO, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING HERE, OR ANYTHING NOT
LISTED HERE, DO NOT EMAIL ME. INSTEAD, ASK THEM AT OUR WEB BOARD AT
http://www.io.org/~isarog/c-c/php.cgi/~isarog/c-c/wwwboard/wwwboard2.html

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Q: How Do I make reinforcements come off the side of the screen? 

A: Well, first edit your .ini file in the MAP section and mess around with
the X and Y values. Put them as 0 or 2... fool around with this until you
can see the border of the side of the map which you want the reinforcements
to come off of. Then, put water tiles all along that border, but leave a
hole (a few squares with no water tiles) that you want the reinforcements to
come through. Edit the .ini file X and Y values back to the way they were
before you changed them (thus hiding the water along the border). All you
have to do now is make the appropriate .ini file entries, and it should
work. This is only really good with APCs and units coming off the side of
the screen, and does not work with getting Chinooks to come in from the
side of the screen at a certain point.

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Q: What triggers are necessary for a mission? 

A: Win, Lose, and Production triggers should be a must. 

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Q: How do you loop actions? 

A: Read the following by cfh.

 * Some of the following has been cut, but it was irrelevant anyway :-)

The "loop" instruction does not cause looping. It prevents it. All teams loop
by nature.

move:a,move:b,move:c,move:d,move:e,attack units,50,0,0 will cause a team to
move through the five waypoints, attack for 50, then do it all over again,
time without end.

move:a,move:b,move:c,move;d,move:e,attack units,50,loop:N,0,0 causes the
first N instructions to be left out of the loop.

loop:0 causes a seamless cycling of all instructions. Loop:99 introduces a
pause (I haven't tried timing this exactly) between repetitions of the cycle.

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Q: How can I make a mission hard for the player? 

A: The easiest way is to put in lots of enemies for him to do battle with.
But that gets old rather quickly. Loop triggers so every once in a while the
computer will create teams and attack him. So Chinooks start to land in his
base, unloading troops. Put Obelisks up narrow canyons, so he can't fit many
units / infantry through to kill them. Create celltrigger traps: cross a
bridge, make a nuke hit. Just have it so he is constantly under attack at
all times. Even small forces attacking at regular intervals will make his
forces crumble. Just think about what would put you on edge if playing this
mission.

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Q: I want to put my mission out on the net. What do I need to do to do that?

A: It takes some preparation to get a mission on the net.

First thing you need to do is make a saved game of your mission. In other
words, load up your mission in C&C, restart it, and just as it restarts,
save it as a saved game. Now, when people get your mission, they can just
load up the saved game to play your mission instead of renaming and replacing
files.

Second thing you should do is create a text file on your mission. It should
include:

   Level Name (include e-mail) 
   Who it was created by (your name) 
   Release date 
   Map information (tile size, theater, modified or original map) 
   Player (Nod or GDI) 
   Difficulty (easy, medium, or hard; your opinion) 
   Filename (.zip filename) 
   File contents (.zip file contents) 
   What version of C&C it was tested on (also include what language) 
   Level replacement (what level it was meant to replace; what mission your
    saved game is on)
   Mission description (mission briefing) 
   Usage (a brief way of how to start playing it) 
   Some mission tips (you don't have to do this) 
   Thanks (to people who helped you make the mission, people who made the
    utilities you used, etc.)

Click here to see an example of a mission text file.

Now .zip up your saved game, your mission text file, your mission briefing,
your mission's .map file, and your mission's .ini file into one file, and
send it away to a site which has lots of missions. Two good sites are the
Temple of the Conqueror or the Command & Conquer Data Downlink.

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Q: I need some reference of .ini files. Where can I get some examples?

A: Well, you could look in Chapter IV. Or, if you want to look, or extract,
or replace the .ini files which make up the original levels in the game
Command & Conquer, get Vladan Bato's MixMan. They should give you some
reference. Otherwise, get some missions off the net and look at their .ini
files. You can get both utilities from the Temple of the Conqueror or the
Command & Conquer Data Downlink.

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Q: What do all the numbers in the teamtype entries mean? 

A: Read the following by cfh.

Teamtype Syntax: Teamtype Name=Teamtype Owner,1st #, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, Units and Quantity, Number of Actions, Actions,
Last Action: 11th, 12th, 13th.

Teamtype Example: attk=BadGuy,1,0,0,1,0,15,1,0,0,2,HTNK:2,RMBO:1,2,Move:7,
Attack Base:90,0,0

Above is a syntax and example of a Teamtype entry. All numbers in bold in
the example are the numbers represented in the syntax and the explanation
below.

The following is a duplicate copy of what was posted at the MS WebBoard.
Spelling and formatting has changed.

The 13th: if "0", no effect.

if "1'', the team will be produced, regardless of any trigger other than
"production". A team autochthonously produced in this way will not carry
out orders and will be repeatedly replaced upon destruction. If the team
was produced by trigger, this "1'" : will produce an inactive backup of the
team.

The 12th: if "0", no effect.

if "1", destroyed members of the team will be replaced.

The 11th: is a time counter or waypoint indicator, unless it follows "loop:",
in which case:

if "0",the actions loop repeatedly.

if other than "0", I'm just not sure. Westwood's usage suggests this loops
action or production in blocks of 100 time units, but I can't get this to
work.

The 10th is known to indicate the number of unit types in the team.

The 9th, 8th, 5th, and 2nd don't seem to have any function at all.

The 7th is the number of teams of this type that will act concurrently (i.e.,
x,x,x,x,x,x,5,x,x,1,e5:3,1,move:2,0,0 will get you 15 : grenadiers at
waypoint 2). When this number is greater than zero, it too, like the 13th,
will cause the team to be produced : regardless of any trigger.

The 6th: I have no idea. Changing it at random has no discernible effects.
But note that in Westwwod's .inis there is a strong correlation between this
number and the team's build/tech level.

The 4th: Enables Autocreate for this teamtype.

The 3rd: I believe to be a toggle for the "ALT" key. 1=on.

The 1st: Seems to act something like the "X" key, But links and unlinks the
team members logically as well as physically. 1=on.

From your study of the files you probably noticed that some of Westwood's
scenario writers don't much believe in the efficacy of these parameters.

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Q: How do I use the Built It trigger?

A: Read the builtit.txt document by WarZone for information on this trigger.

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Q: What are the songs for Command & Conquer? Are there hidden ones?

A: Yes, there are some hidden songs for Command & Conquer. Read the
ccsongs.txt document by Szeming Lau.

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Q: What are the briefings and movies which I can put in my mission?

A: Read the ccmovies.txt document by Hans Nelisse

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2. You're done!

I hope you now have a good idea on how to do a lot of things relating with
your mission. If you have any additional questions, please post them at our
WebBoard. It's at
http://www.io.org/~isarog/c-c/php.cgi/~isarog/c-c/wwwboard/wwwboard2.html.


