Tiberian Dawn - The Huge Collection (single player)

[Chimas]

This recent one I grouped by author and then in chronological order, most of them.

[Chimas]

Sorry for the mess, the site got a general update. I'll wait some days, before updating the lists.

 

And by the way, I need ACCESS to edit ALL OF THEM ...

Edited April 15, 2017 by Chimas

[Nyerguds]

You don't know the half of it... I'm supposed to be moderator and I can't even upvote posts at the moment -_-

[Lightning Hunter]

In that case, if you

8 minutes ago, Chimas said:

Yes, it will take some time to reach 400 in both sides.

When I test any mission I rename it above 950 (like SCG 951EA and such) then when the gameplay is done, I take it off.

In that case, if you reach 400, maybe you can just skip the numbers that darkstar uses (if he picks 400-xxx).

In the mega compilation I just did for RA, I left certain mission numbers wide open for people to use.

Edited May 8, 2017 by Lightning Hunter

[Nyerguds]

Note that to optimally use the slots for minicampaigns, it's best to use the 100-899 range for single missions.  Due to the name ID system of C&C being kind of crappy, minicampaigns don't work for all numbers, and basically needs to be restricted to numbers below 100 and above 899.

[Chimas]

Ok, I finished the Cover and edited a few GDI lists to check how the new forum works.

It's not definitive, but it's way simpler to edit.

[Lightning Hunter]

On 5/11/2017 at 7:03 AM, Nyerguds said:

Note that to optimally use the slots for minicampaigns, it's best to use the 100-899 range for single missions.  Due to the name ID system of C&C being kind of crappy, minicampaigns don't work for all numbers, and basically needs to be restricted to numbers below 100 and above 899.

By the way Nyer, I meant to ask you about this.  When you say mini-campaigns, are you strictly referring to maps that continue without taking you back to the menu?  If so, then it seems to me that Darkstar's Extended Operations all behave as individual missions (as far as I can tell, they each take you back to the menu after completing) - so they should be fine occupying any slot, right?

[Darkstar387]

Thats correct. My missions are stand-alone and can be used in any slot between  and 100-999. I forget which slots work best for mini-campaigns.

[fir3w0rx]

On 11/05/2017 at 11:03 PM, Nyerguds said:

Note that to optimally use the slots for minicampaigns, it's best to use the 100-899 range for single missions.  Due to the name ID system of C&C being kind of crappy, minicampaigns don't work for all numbers, and basically needs to be restricted to numbers below 100 and above 899.

16 hours ago, Darkstar387 said:

Thats correct. My missions are stand-alone and can be used in any slot between  and 100-999. I forget which slots work best for mini-campaigns.

Not that it really matters, but out of curiosity; is it 899 or 999? And I'm sure the Westwood programmers back in the 90's had a good reason, but what a weird numbering system.

[Darkstar387]

Any custom mission can use numbers 899-999, but Nyer has stated that its good practice to use the numbers past 899 for mini-campaigns.

[Chimas]

While making this collection, I and Nyerguds came to discuss and discover that if you try to set up a campaign after the 100, it will get back to the New Missions Menu after the 3rd mission. I think it's a problem with the MIX files, don't remember. So the idea of mini-campaign "was born".

I don't remember also, if you can put a mini-campaign below 900, I think so. But then I opted to reserve the 900 slot for the mini-campaigns. Nyerguds has more accurate and reliable info on this matter.

[Nyerguds]

On 2017-5-26 at 3:48 PM, fir3w0rx said:

Not that it really matters, but out of curiosity; is it 899 or 999? And I'm sure the Westwood programmers back in the 90's had a good reason, but what a weird numbering system.

Uhhh... I invented the concept of minicampaigns, and the original missions list only went up to 99

The reason why 100 to 899 is best used for single missions has nothing to do with these numbers being better for single missions; it's because those numbers can't be used for minicampaigns. See, when testing out the minicampaign suffixes (EA, EB, EC, ED, EF, WA, WB, WC, WD, WE, WF, XA, XB, XC, XD, XE, XF) a problem appeared: the names in mix files get encoded to a 4-byte ID, like a CRC value taken from the original name... but that algorithm is not very good, and with these suffixes, and the added numerical range above 99, collisions started happening; multiple file names ended up with the same ID.

So I started experimenting, and made a tool to check these collisions.

And it turned out that all the missions in the range 100 to 899 have "EC" suffixes conflicting with other numbers' "EA" suffix, which means it would be impossible to make even a 2-mission minicampaigns on these numbers without conflicts; the "EC" missions in the minicampaign would actually show up in the new missions menu as if they were EA ones, and if that other mission actually exists you risk the minicampaign continuing to that real "EA" mission.

The only real fix for this would be changing the game's ID generation algorithm, but that obviously can't be done, since it  would not only make all existing C&C1 mix files unreadable, but would also mean the existing tools for making C&C1 mix files would no longer use a correct ID calculation algorithm.

Here you see the original 0-99 range. As you see it only makes "B" prefix missions (Badguy) conflict with "C" prefix missions (Civilian side), which don't exist anyway.

 

Incidentally, this problem is explained in the manual

Quote

Warning: Because of the way file names are saved in the game's .mix archives, the system that reads these files has problems with names that are only 2 letters different from each other. This problem has caused the addon campaign missions beyond the EA one to show up on the real list as different number, as if they are EA missions. Because of this, it is strongly advised to only use numbers below 100 and above 899.

[fir3w0rx]

@Nyerguds I've read your reply (directly above this one) about 899 frikn times and I still don't get it  . And worst, it actually created more questions for me, which I'm not going to bother asking because I'm still stuck on my first question .

What I do understand though (or think I do) is that

• Westwood only allowed for 100 mission/campaign numbers (0-99) which have possible conflicts, but only with the non-existing 'Civilian' side, so it does not matter.

• the game has problems differentiating between mission names that are only 2 letters different from each other. For instance::
  

  • SCG199EA

  • SCG299EB

  • SCG399EC

  
  could be seen (from the games point of view) as the same mission because they only have 2 letters that are different from each other? Is that right?
  

• you modified the game to be able to read an additional 900 numbers/missions (100-999) to resolve this issue.
  
  

But that's cool, I've made my peace with it. I've come to the conclusion that these mission files are much like my penis - I don't really need to know it's inner workings, I only need to know where to put it in:

• 0-99 => for mini-campaigns
• 100-899 => for single missions
• 900-999 => also for mini-campaigns
  

Is this correct?

[Lightning Hunter]

These questions are exactly why I decided to make all the Red Alert missions in my Mega Compilation appear in the menu individually.  With the exception of missions that carry units over (there are fewer than 10 of them), each individual mission from a campaign appears in the selection menu in case there are ever problems with one mission and people can't continue. I figure the chances are too high that someone will get halfway through a campaign, and can't beat a particular mission due to some bug...

I do admire all the work Chimas is putting in to making sure the campaigns in the huge collection work. It's a lot of effort to do so!  I haven't had time to play even a fraction of the missions contained in the Mega Compilation.

Edited June 2, 2017 by Lightning Hunter

[Chimas]

2 hours ago, fir3w0rx said:

• 0-99 => for mini-campaigns
• 100-899 => for single missions
• 900-999 => also for mini-campaigns

Is this correct?

YOPE ... 0-99 for campaigns as a convention and for mini-campaigns as a consequence, yes it's possible.

[Chimas]

Only today I realized that I never mentioned that SCG915 (Since july 2016) is out and that finishes all the mini-campaigns I have in the collection (so far):

:::  GDI915 - List - Link1  -  Link2

Now, I'll focus in the remaining campaigns.

Will need German translators again, btw ...

[Lightning Hunter]

Fantastic job, Chimas!  You sure do put a lot of work in to all the documentation.  I for one am very thankful.

[Nyerguds]

On 2017-6-2 at 4:57 PM, fir3w0rx said:

you modified the game to be able to read an additional 900 numbers/missions (100-999) to resolve this issue.

uhh... no. Originally there was no issue, except, as you mentioned, with the Neutral side, which has no missions anyway.

What caused the problem was access to those filenames you mentioned, which is something that only became possible by a combination of 2 things: me allowing the 100-999 numbers range, and me allowing access to these extra suffixes, with the minicampaigns system.

So I'm not sure why you say anything I hacked in the exe would be to resolve the issue.... me adding these two things is what caused it. (Or rather, what revealed the issue. I didn't cause WW to write a crappy names algorithm )

Minicampaigns, internally, are not actually limited to the numbers below 100 and above 899. I should do that, I guess, but right now, that restriction does not exist. Which is why instead I advise people not to use that 100-899 range for minicampaigns, to avoid these collision problems.

[Lightning Hunter]

Hey Chimas, how is everything going? It's been a while since I've seen an update from you.  I hope the new forum hasn't scared you away from working on this project at all. I know a lot of the formatting you did was lost when the forums changed.

I personally think you can ditch all the documentation on this forum, and just stick with the documentation that comes with the zip archive instead. If this forum ever changes again or disappears, people will still have your archive to refer to, and you won't have to consistently redo the format.

In reality, what I am most interested in seeing is all the new maps added to the compilation before they are completely lost. If this forum shuts down or something else happens, nobody will have their hands on all these maps released in the last 5 years or so. You could also argue that these are the best maps released to date! It would be a shame if links were lost and nobody had them...

[Chimas]

On 21/11/2017 at 1:39 AM, Lightning Hunter said:

Hey Chimas, how is everything going? It's been a while ...  would be a shame if links were lost and nobody had them...

Hi Lightning,

Thanks for your concern, but let's recap some details:

- some time ago I started to focus in the GENERAL ZIP file, that's why it's the first one the player has access to. That's THE one I keep most updated. All the rest are statistics and aesthetics;

- In the link provided for the folders (where it's written "JUMPSHARE" and "MEGA"), you have access to all files, both released and unreleased, so anyone can have everything. When I "publish" a file it's actually a standardization, because all files are already published, for safety reasons. If you want to make a copy of your own, go ahead, it's there;

- My next "window of opportunity" might take place in february 18 (Sorry, really busy). I didn't care for "anything" in 2017, but I'm recovering. Usually, I do a lot of things in December and January, but after a decade or so, I'll travel for vacation.

Thanks again, I'll keep in touch and I'm always here, reading mostly.

Greetings!

[Darkstar387]

Yooooo, anybody still out there?

I'm looking to pack all of my missions into a mix file for easier storage, How would I go about doing this?

[Lightning Hunter]

6 hours ago, Darkstar387 said:

Yooooo, anybody still out there?

I'm looking to pack all of my missions into a mix file for easier storage, How would I go about doing this?

I used "XCC Mix Editor" found in the XCC Utility pack for my Red Alert compilation:

http://xhp.xwis.net/

 

By the way, real life got in the way of me ever playing any C&C missions.  Hopefully soon.      

[Darkstar387]

Ehh... I have to go through and update my download link. I caught some bugs that needed a fixin' but I haven't gotten around to posting the updated mission pack yet. The single player community has been inactive for about 3 months now so  didn't feel a sense of urgency.

[Lightning Hunter]

Hey Darkstar, can you send me the updated pack? I am finally ready to play through some missions, and I can give you some bug reports.  I just don't want to mention bugs you have already fixed, however.

[Darkstar387]

Does anybody still come around anymore? Have we al lmoved to another forum?