Lightning Hunter

Thanks Allen, I think the bug cannot be fixed. You may be right about it being some sort of techlevel bug. I don't think the game wants to show an icon no matter what, even if I revert the MCV to the default. Btw, I am not sure if you have been following the other threads or not, but maybe you can help with another bug. In a lot of custom campaigns, the ants are replaced with new units. However, the death animation and death sound is still the ant death. For example, when a flame tank replacing [Ant1] is killed in-game, it shows the Ant death animation. I noticed there is a file called "antdie.shp" and "antdie.aud" in Expand2.mix, but I am not sure if it's possible to replace these files only for specific missions. Is there any way to hack the .exe to stop this bug from happening? My Mega compilation is using it's own exe file called RA95_sp.exe, so it does not conflict with online play. ra95_SP.zip

Does anyone know how to change the build icon for the fake construction yard? In a mission I am converting using Funky's mission converter, it uses the C&C1 MCV instead of the RA1 MCV, and the fake construction yard icon is not appearing. I tried many different combinations, but no matter what I do - the icon is still blank. Here is what I have in the mission file: [FACF] Image=FACT Owner=allies TechLevel=-1 Strength=30 Cost=50 Sight=4 Power=-2 Points=15 Bib=yes Capturable=true BaseNormal=no I then placed the official "facticon.shp" file in the folder (fact.shp is already in there), but with no luck. I also tried changing image=facf instead, and placed a file called facf.shp and facficon.shp to the folder, but this did not work either. No matter what I seem to do, the build icon for the fake const. yard is blank. I attached the campaign in question to this post. Mission #2: Glacial Mountains allows you to build a fake const. yard if anyone wants to test it (you have to drive the MCV past the flame tower in order to start a base in that mission). sc-682-fline.zip

I have resolved just about every other bug with the Mega Compilation, but this one still remains. I recently took a lot of time to convert "In the Line of Fire", a big C&C-style mod that I had to do a lot of work with. This pack is all original content (no ripped maps), and the game play is actually really good. However, it has this stupid Ant death animation bug... I wonder if anyone out there knows how to fix this? I have attached the Ra95_SP.exe file the mega compilation uses, in case anyone wants to take a look at it and resolve this bug (I don't know if it actually is related to the .exe or not). The compilation uses its own .exe file, so modifying it will not cause any conflicts for people who play online. ra95_SP.zip

Thinking about it some more, I might not use sc-missions.mix, just so people don't get a prompt asking them to overwrite files. They might think there will be a compatibility issue doing this. Maybe I will name the file sc-megac.mix or something. Do you have the updated flame dancers set 1 files? I don't know how the file priority works, but maybe if I include the updated stuff in "megac.mix" it will successfully take priority over sc-flamedancers.mix? That way, there are no prompts to overwrite files. I won't include a new rules.ini. What I might attempt to do is revert some of the new sounds to official sounds, since having C&C1 sounds are not exactly mandatory.

Hey Funky, I am almost done with the Mega Compilation, and am now deciding the best method of packaging it. Currently, I have over 100 sc-xxx.mix files in my Red Alert folder containing each mission and/or campaign, but I feel this makes the compilation look too "crowded" when it has over a hundred files in the ZIP archive (that might turn a few people away). I think it would be best to put all those mix files within a single mix file to make things more neat. I noticed that the "Deadly War" campaign is packaged in the file 'sc-missions.mix'. Would it cause any conflicts or problems if I placed all the new missions in this mix file? This would update/overwrite the one that comes with the RA1Installer of course. Also, can I update the sc-flamedancers.mix file? If I am correct, there is a problem with one of the missions not carrying units over that I can fix with the mega compilation. Finally, there are a few heavily modded campaigns I am considering including with this compilation, but they have new sound files. I have confirmed that the sound files don't have to overwrite other files if I add new sound effects to rules.ini (in the [SoundEffects] category). Would this cause any conflicts if I overwrite rules.ini that comes with the RA1Installer? If so, then I will not include these campaigns or a rules.ini (so far there isn't one).

If all the attachments are gone, I hope someone downloaded all these missions before they were lost (Chimas?).

Like Nyerguds stated though, the problem is not with people using Skirmish maps as a base to build missions; the problem is people making no mention of doing so. Also, I am quite disappointed to find just how many maps are converted Skirmish maps. I was thinking that maybe 1 out of 10 maps were converted maps. I did not expect 5 out of 10 (or more) to be converted maps. Although I have never created missions for Red Alert, I did create plenty of Skirmish maps way back in the day. Even my most detailed mega maps took only 1-2 hours to create. I just don't understand why so many people chose to rip all of their maps for large campaigns (we are talking 20+ maps here in some cases). Couldn't they have bothered to make just a few maps from scratch? I hate having to go through these campaigns to determine which ones are ripped content and which ones are unique content. If these authors practiced some decency and made mention of converting Skirmish maps in the readme, I wouldn't have started this thread.

That's just it - none of the packs I mentioned above credit Westwood for the maps used as a base for missions. The closest I found to any mention of official maps is in the "sesb&rr_fixed.zip" campaign readme. However, even this readme file still makes an invalid claim. It states that all missions were built by Aaro Ruohonen, while the maps were made by Riku Paakkunainen, and that only some of the maps were made by Westwood. I looked through almost every map in the pack and didn't see any non-official maps - which begs the question - what exactly did Riku Paakkunainen do in this campaign? If he made any maps from scratch, I certainly haven't found any (I looked at about 75% of the maps, and they were all skirmish conversions from Aftermath and Counterstrike, or just official mission maps). I understand that the difficult part of mission-making is setting up the triggers and all - but if someone is going to do all that work, why not spend the extra hour making a new map from scratch? Don't get me wrong, I can see why some people might think it would be a fun idea to create missions out of Skirmish maps, but common sense would tell you to MENTION this in the readme. Otherwise, it rubs people the wrong way. I guess I am also just disappointed to discover just how many of these packs are nothing new or unique when it comes to the map itself. Anyway, after having all day today to clear my mind and give this some thought, I have decided to go ahead and include these packs in the mega compilation anyway. I will simply make a note of which campaigns are completely new content, and which ones are official content converted to missions. I did take a closer look at more of the campaigns, and found that I just got incredibly unlucky last night when I picked maps at random in various campaigns. In reality, it is about 50/50 (not as extreme as I thought). That is, about half of the missions out there are made from scratch, while the rest are based on official maps. Oh, and I made a mistake when I listed Desperation as one of the campaigns that ripped official content. It was actually a "Downfall" map I was looking at.

I was adding more missions to my Mega Compilation, when I made a sickening discovery. I recognized some of the maps I was converting, when I realized they were more rip-offs of official content - and now I am wondering: did any of the mission creators out there actually build their own maps from scratch, or did they ALL just rip them straight from official maps or worse - skirmish maps made by other people? I didn't really pay much attention before while I was going through and converting these maps, but tonight I started thinking about it and poked around to see exactly how many campaigns ripped official content. I only searched for like 15 minutes and have already discovered multiple packs that have ripped content: RA Reloaded (just posted on these forums last year). A New Era Desperation Soviet Empire Strikes Back & Russian Resistance (sesb&rr_fixed.zip) Nazi Wargames (nazi.zip) The Downfall The Mega Campaign (campaign.zip) Beginning of a new technology (also posted just last year on these forums). And that is just the tip of the iceberg, I'm sure. After making this discovery, I almost want to just scrap this whole project. These mission makers are losers, bottom feeders, and thieves as far as I'm concerned. They rip maps from all over the place, add/modify the units/placement, and claim the work as their own. I am really pissed off right now.

Ah, I totally missed the fact that they all had different file extensions... Thanks!

Speaking of missions carrying over, I decided to change the names of missions with multiple parts using this format: cmu100ea cmu100p2 cmu100p3 I chose this method instead of using "ea", "eb", and "ec" - because I noticed that one such mission with "ec" randomly appeared on the custom missions list at the very bottom. The campaign in question is Crimson. This is the only campaign I have found so far that has 3 missions in a row that carry over (mission 8, 8b, and 9). In this case, the file was named cmu533ec, and it appeared in the list.

What do I name a MIX file in the Red Alert folder to have the highest priority? I want to replace the gold/gems with some custom Tiberium graphics, but I noticed this does not work with the new tilesets. This is likely because they are named stuff like "Desert.mix", "Jungle.mix", etc, - while the tiberium file is named "sc-tib.mix". What makes it higher priority?

That does fix it, but now I noticed the flame tank still has the ant death animation (the tank turns in to the Ant when it is destroyed). Why is this? Looks like I am removing it then, unless someone who knows a lot about mission-making would like to step in to fix some of these errors. I would rather put all my time and effort in to getting a solid compilation instead. I wonder if Messiah would be interested in solving some of these invalid triggers?

Yeah, I get it. But also, if it were the aftermath version, it would not be labeled "Stealth Tank" as the name in rules.ini. Also, I can tell because the animations are completely jacked up in-game if it's not supposed to be the APC.

cc_stnk is definitely the correct file for the Flame Dancers set 2 missions. It replaces the Mobile Radar Jammer, and is renamed "Stealth Tank". If I use stnk.shp, the graphic is really messed up, so obviously this is not correct. The Cocaine missions also have a messed up graphic while using stnk.shp, so I need to correct that one as well. I will go through and make sure there are no other campaigns that use the incorrect Stealth Tank shp file. Thanks guys!

Why is stnk.shp that comes with spawn1.mix an APC rather than a stealth tank? I noticed that all of the custom missions that use the Stealth Tank have a completely messed up APC graphic instead of a C&C1 stealth tank like it should be. An example is Flame Dancers Set 2 Mission 13, in the enemy base to the left right at the start. The Stealth tanks appear as APCs that have a very buggy animation... Is something wrong with my spawn1.mix?

I don't know anything about coding, so I have no clue what is easy to track down and what isn't. I was just bringing up the bug. If you can't fix it, then you can't fix it. Case closed.

Ehm, the same problem still occurs while trying to convert ratd.zip. This is how the mission file looks for the flame tank (which replaces the Ant): [ANT1] Image=609-ant1 Name=Flame Tank This is how it looks in rules.ini with the original archive: [ANT1] Image=FTN1 Name=Flame Tank So the Image should be 609-ftn1, NOT 609-ant1. Also, I get all the same errors of the missing stuff in the screenshot above when converting the mission, so I don't know if this problem is happening because of manually copying over these files (like ant1.shp, ant2.shp, etc.). I am using version 1.5 of the mission converter. Also, is there nobody that has 1-2 minutes of free time to spare? I just need someone to extract the file attached to this post to the RedAlert folder, launch the mission from the custom missions menu, and see if the mission crashes during the first 15 seconds (you don't even have to play the mission; just let the screen sit). I really need to know if this is a problem only on my end or not.

I know you might not fulfill requests at this time - but I just wanted to bring up the Orca bug again. It is one of the biggest annoyances when half of your Orcas don't respond to a command to attack a building... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQv9fqBP5aA It's especially annoying when Orcas can't even destroy an Advanced Power Plant.

Sorry for triple post, but there is a problem with the mission converter setting the correct images to the correct units. For example, in the Tiberian Dawn campaign, the Flame Tank at the start of mission 2 has the ant graphic. I assume this is because the RA1Converter told me this graphic was missing, so I had to get it from another MIX file. I then noticed there were unidentified .shp files that were supposed to replace the ant graphic (one of them being a flame tank). I think the converter simply doesn't recognize when a graphic is supposed to replace all the graphics shown in this screenshot: I actually get that error almost every time when converting campaigns with custom units...

Can someone download the file in my last post and quickly test the very beginning of the mission please? It would only take 2 minutes or less to see if the mission crashes... I need to know if it is something on my end only, or a problem with everyone. If everyone gets the same crash, then I need to remove the mission from the compilation. If it is on my end only, then I need to find out what is going on with my computer!

Yeah, I was thinking about that too. The campaign I was trying to convert, "In The Line of Fire", seems to be far too complex anyway, so I think I'll leave it out. On an unrelated topic, does the attached mission crash about 10-20 seconds after starting the first mission for anyone else? I am getting one of those "instruction at xxxxxx referenced memory at xxxxx the memory could not be written" errors. I tested using both the ra95.exe from the RA1Installer and the modded .exe. Both crash every time at the start with this error.

I just noticed that Discovert Operations has new sound effects. There is a section in Rules.ini with the following: ; *** New SoundEffects ** ; This is a list of the various types of new Sound Effects available in the game ; The sound must be .aud format and pack into a .mix file. One the sound is packed ; into a .mix file and listed below you can use the sound in a Report= for a weapon. [soundEffects] 0=SON1 1=SSMFire 2=AWP 3=CAVEMONO 4=ILASATTA 5=OBELRAY1 However, despite creating such a list in my own rules.ini and adding "cncmachs" to the list, it did not work... I have the .aud file in a mix file and everything.

Is it possible to use custom sounds that are set in rules.ini? I tried, but the sound won't play in-game. For example, I have this in rules.ini: ; rapid fire machine gun [Vulcan] Damage=40 ROF=40 Range=5 Projectile=Invisible Speed=100 Warhead=SA Report=cncmachs Anim=MINIGUN I then placed "cncmachs.aud" in sc-600-flinev10.mix (the campaign I'm working on), but nothing plays in-game. Does the .exe only recognize official sounds or something?

I don't think this works. I tried putting the theater mix files together with "sc-40-discovert", which is what I named your campaign file - and the new tiles don't work. Your missions had missing tiles. I don't think the game knows how to use tiles for only specific missions. It either gives priority to one file or another, depending on the location of the file. I think it is the same with .aud files. The only files I know of that can work with specific missions are .shp files.