Mission Map : Weathering the Storm (Soviet mission)

[Concolor1]

Mission map for anyone running Red Alert2 , you will need the Soviet mission Disc. The Zip holds the sov01t.map file and the ra2.csf string file. Place these two files in the Westwood Red Alert2 folder. Then launch the game and select the Allied Mission. There is also a read me file and mini map included in the zip.

Once your finished playing this mission simply remove both these files and the Red Alert Game will be restored.

Name: Weathering the Storm
Size: 70x90
Players: 1
Theatre: Temperate

To play this mission: RA2 Soviet mission disc required. Extract the contents of the winzip
file into your Red Alert2 Directory. Launch the game,select new campaign for the Soviets.
The game will then launch.

Info: Commander once again Russia calls on your expertise. Superior soviet intelligence 
has discovered the exact location of one of the very first prototype weather control devices. 
Although great mother Russia already has several of these devices, it's capture has been ordered 
by the Soviet Science Division (SSD).
The SSD reports that this prototype device differs from it's successors. It is the hope of our 
science division that the subsequent capture and examination of the device will yield valuable 
information which would further the Soviet cause leading to our inevitable victory and global 
domination.
The device has been located deep in the rainforests of the Amazon. We suspect it's position may 
also be the source of it's power. The SSD also believes that the device draws in and even intensifies
the already prevalent weather conditions in the rainforest.
Your mission is to establish a soviet presence in the area and facilitate the capture of the weather
control device. The Allies as anticipated have constructed their own base around the device. You are 
expected to eliminate all opposition. Let nothing stand in your way. Do not fail your country!
 

 Objective 1: Capture the Weather Control Device.
 
 Objective 2: Crush all Allied opposition.
 
 

Ok so there u have it,
A RA2.CFS file has been added. This will overwrite any other CSF.file which you may of installed in your 
RA2 Folder from previous downloaded missions.The file contains text which been altered in order to fit 
with the maps theme!
Explanation: The Sov01t.map file when placed in your RA2 folder preceeds the standard Soviet game disc missions.
This means that the first mission played when the game is launched will be this mission. To restore your games
original first mission simply remove the SOV01T.map file from your RA2 folder.
The RA2.csf file contains the text for this mission, it also preceeds your game disc csf file. As above once you have
finished playing this mission remove the csf.file. This also causes your game to revert to reading from the mission 
disc as opposed to reading data from the RA2 folder.
 

weathering_the_storm.zip

weathering_the_storm.zip

Edited August 15, 2020 by Concolor1

[Concolor1]

Whoops , deleated download zip while editing and adding screenshots. Ive re-uploaded it further down the page. 

[McPwny]

i played the map and it was pretty good for being a vanilla ra2 campaign map. 

 i noticed that all of the enemies come from reinforcement triggers, and looking at the map, i see that there is an intricate system of triggers and local variables that bring in enemy units. the map would be a lot more engaging if the AI itself attacked the player, and it would probably be easier to script, too.

[Concolor1]

McPwny, appreciate you looking at it. I was written some years ago. Do you think the AI would do a good job? It only seems to build certain team types, and then sends them directly at the player in my experience. Although AI auto production is enabled, often the AI does little to nothing. So Ive never trusted it to do what Its supposed to do. Wouldn't that make me lazy if I relied on it? Where as scripted teams and triggers Ive found to be far more devious, sneaking Nighthawks in, sending Seals on covert missions whilst other diversions go on across the map. Then of course the unexpected ambushes. Its just my view, its not gospel, and I can be swayed.

The current mission Ive been writing appears to have all kinds of anomalies going on with the triggers. For a start, the AI builds bugger all, despite having the resources to do so. It simply can't see a threat. The Lightning strikes, hit the same waypoint '0', despite having been through the triggers and viewed the thing in wordpad Im stumped as to why, or even whats firing it.

Oh and not to mention the so called 'Allied', slave that whacks the Virus on the back of the head with a shovel every time she walks past it. Yes the house is allied, the Houses are spelt correctly and the ',' are in the right place. Its a mystery. Right now only the Lightning strike concerns me, its never been told to hit waypoint '0', yet thats where it strikes. --- mystery!

[McPwny]

first turn 'ignoreglobalaitriggers' to 'yes' under basic in your map, this will make it build nothing but a few miners for units. then under [General] in rulesmd.ini you will find MinimumAIDefensiveTeams= and MaximumAIDefensiveTeams=. these need to be met or the ai will trip out and do nothing. just tick the basedefense on a few of your teamtypes AND their AI triggers and you will be all set. the AI will make the teams you tell it to with AI triggers now no problem.

the last thing you need to do, if it is a campaign map, is tell the AI it can build. do this with a trigger using actions 13 and 74. add action 38 if you want but you dont need it.

and just like that the AI will do exactly what you tell it to through AI triggers. take a look at this for more details about teams and scripts if you want

[Concolor1]

Well this is certainly something Ive never persued. I'll have a look into all of this as Im now interested on how it would play out. Im busy decorating at present, but when I get time to sit down I'll follow through and do something as you've suggested. Ive already got a map made on another system, for later in the year so I'll use it on that and see how it goes. Looking forward to it.

All suggestions and advice are gratefully recieved, as Ive realised lots of information could be lost if its not available.

Im still confused about this lighting strike at waypoint trigger, as it keeps hitting '0'. Despite the trigger instructing it to hit another waypoint. (Im going to have to disable the whole lot and go through it one by one.)  Its just a thought but the lightning at waypoint would still work on waypoints above 100 wouldn't it? in the FA2 YR editor, as im now wondering as ive used 200+ waypoints and I know I should be able to use 700.

[McPwny]

i tested it and can confirm that trigger action 90 fires at waypoint 0 if the trigger tells it to fire at a waypoint over 100. i dont know what causes it since ra2 is supposed to support up to 704 waypoints.. maby some arcane leftover code from TS, i know they hacked trigger action 90 so that firing it at waypoint 0 would disable the EVA voice 

EDIT what you say `` For a start, the AI builds bugger all, despite having the resources to do so. It simply can't see a threat. ``, do you mean it wont build a base?

Edited August 26, 2020 by McPwny

[Concolor1]

Well that solves the Lightning Strikes at waypoint issue then. Guess its gone un-noticed all this time as so few ppl ever messed with Mission maps with waypoints over 100. Thankyou for confirming this. I'll simply have to shift a few waypoints around and alter a few scripts until the numbers work.

Ok back to the AI doing bugger all. What I maen to say is. The AI has the buildings, but aside form producing a single Harvester it appears to do nothing else. It doesn't produce Infantry, (The example Im using is one Im messing with at the moment and Yuri V Soviet set-up). I was wondering if thats because the player has but one single unit to start with and captures structures as they play. So because the AI doesn't see an obvious threat it does nothing.

Now if I think back to 'Wipe Out!', ( A Allied V Russia map in RA2), one I put together earlier this year, I clearly recall the War Factory spitting out tanks and the Barracks creating  Infantry, with simply the Auto Production begins trigger being fired. There is however a clear threat in this one as the player has the Full Tech 10 structure tree, and has a Construction Yard.

[McPwny]

by default the AI builds harvesters so no matter what it will build those and you cant stop it (except by ini modding) leaving the globalai on 'enabled', the ai will sort of kind of act like a skirmish AI, but its not meant for campaign maps and the AI will usually just die after a few tanks. if you have teams set in the AI triggers, and the AI triggers you made are 'enabled', the aitrigger house and side are set right (set multi-side and leave house at <all>) the AI has the money and prerequisites to build the units, the AI has enough 'basedefense teams'(it will always build these teams first and if it cant it will do nothing), and the AI is enabled through trigger action 13 and 74, then it will start building your teams as the events on your AI trigger tell it to. (regardless of declaring an enemy)

if all else fails just sent me a picture of your ai trigger, its team, its taskforce, and the ai triggers house, or the map itself, and i will look

[Concolor1]

Well for a start having gone in at looked at my triggers my Auto AI for Russia was actually set up for Cuba. No idea why, maybe because I swapped player Control halfway through making the map. Or maybe because I wanted to disable Russia, Ive not a clue, but Ive resolved that now.

Ok so im roughly following what you say. Ive picked a Taskforce of say 4 Conscripts. Ive added a Script, Ive created a team, and ticked base defense and prebuild.

Ive then written a trigger that enables the Ai to begin auto production. What have I missed? Russia has a Barracks along with power and a harvesters.

Should I be going for a create team trigger, or am I stupid enough to think the AI is going to do all this for me?

I looked at General in the rulesmd. It reads MinimumAIDefensiveTeams=1,1,1    ; (by difficulty level, from hardest to easiest)
MaximumAIDefensiveTeams=2,2,2      

This means nothing to me....lol (Im guessing Ive missed out an entire obvious tutorial here. Ive got the strangest feeling I should be looking at the Auto Ai prebuilds list somewhere.

Just swapped my lightning strike triggers around off to play test and see what happens.

Oh this just gets better and better! Regarding the Lightning Strikes. Ive altered the waypoints, makes no difference. So by way of a control Ive gone to another mission called Robot Revolution. Now This has over 100 waypoints, but I know that the lighning strikes several waypoints across the map, and Waypoint 60 is a certainty. So I opened up said map in the YR Editor, whats it read? They all read they hit waypoint '0'. So I looked at it in wordpad, that reads '0' as well. Yet when you play the map it works. When I last looked at this map I never altered what the lightning strike triggers did. Strangely enough both versions the original 2003 release and the 2020 redux read '0' in wordpad, how strange.

Im now concluding, (could be wrong), that something has altered what the editor reads, when they added the last patch. If I can see the waypoints on my laptop which has the old editor version on I think, then I'll have discovered the cause.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Concolor1

[McPwny]

prebuild does nothing since TS. i am not sure about the lightning strike thing. i am pretty sure that waypoints use a different system in the text editor than they do in the fa2 editor, so if there is a number, and not two letters, in the waypoint entry of the text file something has gone wrong. but its been a long time since i have looked into that i dunno

at any rate i have made this demonstration map that shows how the AI works. you will see that it builds miners, then it builds a number of 'basedefense' teams, then after that, it builds units and attacks you with them.  this AI also recruits units from defending teams to attacking teams
one last thing i want to say is that pre-placed units will jam the AI, so its good to use a house with no pre placed units as an AI house

sov01umd.map

[Concolor1]

Ok thanks Ive downloaded this to look at. Really appreciate the expertise on this. As for the Lightning strikes, looks like I may of installed that patch on the other system too. Only way I can sort this is to go through it step by step. Ive a third system I can install the editor on. This could also be a theatre issue, as I was writing it on a desert map. Either way I'll look at the AI.

BTW you say pre-placed units will jam things up. Are you saying I can't set up patrols, or have any units on the map that are on area guard ect?

[McPwny]

its better if you dont. what happens is the AI thinks it can make the teams but cant actually recruit the units into the teams, it gets confused and doesnt work right. of course you could manually force the AI recruit the units into teams if you wanted, but giving the spawned/preplaced units and the AI players separate house will save you the headache. lots of people have had this problem so i wanted to quick mention it just incase

[Concolor1]

Ive tried the AI , trouble Is Ive written too much on the current map, Ive units standing around that belong to said house ect, its all very complicated. What I shall do now is incorporate it into the next one and start with simply that before I add anything else. That way I can keep checking it.

Ok I know you don't want to hear it, but Back to the 90 Lightning strike at waypoint.

Heres and example of Weathering the Storm. - This works.

01000032=2,90,0,35,0,0,0,0,AJ,54,2,01000032,0,0,0,0,A
01000034=2,90,0,36,0,0,0,0,AK,54,2,01000034,0,0,0,0,A
01000036=2,90,0,37,0,0,0,0,AL,54,2,01000036,0,0,0,0,A
01000038=2,90,0,38,0,0,0,0,AM,54,2,01000038,0,0,0,0,A
01000040=2,90,0,0,0,0,0,0,AN,54,2,01000040,0,0,0,0,A

Here's an example of Robot Revolution - This also works, (However the waypoints don't appear now, or can be seen in the editor, but they do strike multiple points across the map, just played it).

01000285=2,90,0,0,0,0,0,0,BN,54,2,01000285,0,0,0,0,A
01000287=2,90,0,0,0,0,0,0,BE,54,2,01000287,0,0,0,0,A
01000289=2,90,0,0,0,0,0,0,BF,54,2,01000289,0,0,0,0,A
01000291=2,90,0,0,0,0,0,0,BZ,54,2,01000291,0,0,0,0,A
01000293=2,90,0,0,0,0,0,0,DW,54,2,01000293,0,0,0,0,A

Now here's my current map. The lightning strikes did once hit other points, but now all hit Waypoint '0'. Note the waypoints are seen here, in the text oddly enough. However the two letter code is absent.

01000223=2,90,0,89,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000223,0,0,0,0,A
01000225=2,90,0,13,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000225,0,0,0,0,A
01000227=2,90,0,21,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000227,0,0,0,0,A
01000229=2,90,0,64,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000229,0,0,0,0,A
01000231=2,90,0,14,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000231,0,0,0,0,A
01000233=2,90,0,15,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000233,0,0,0,0,A
01000235=2,90,0,19,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000235,0,0,0,0,A
01000237=2,90,0,18,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000237,0,0,0,0,A
01000239=2,90,0,14,0,0,0,0,A,54,2,01000239,0,0,0,0,A

How would I find the waypoint 2 letter code? As it appears that could be the key to it not firing.

Think I may have a solution is Waypoint A = 0 and Waypoint 25=Z waypoint 13 would be N, 14=0 15=P ect I'll try it.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Concolor1

[Concolor1]

Might as well not read the above, Ive solved it. For some reason it now reads only letters. No idea why, first time Ive ever had to do this. But Ive tested it and it works.

[McPwny]

i found that i could make the lightning strike at waypoints over 100 by going into the ini editor of the fa2 interface and changing only the letter-integer to the waypoint i want, and it then ignores what i tell it to do via the trigger editor... for example this lightning strikes at waypoint 136 though it says 0 in the trigger

there are other gliches in the fa2 trigger/script writing. for example action 89 doesnt work unless you fix it manually, action 88 displays the particles list and not the particlesystems list, etc. my favorite is that action 42 fires a weapon, not a warhead, at the waypoint. there isnt even a weapons list in rules.ini! (though i had one generated and attached it to the ppmforum post i linked earlier). at any rate , now we know.

[Concolor1]

Oh Im well pleased with that, thanks for sticking with it. It gives a number of solutions for getting this action to now work. Despite some odd iterations that have cropped up on previous maps. Now I can move on finish this project and then look into the AI building on the next project, thanks McPwny.

Ok not related and not an issue at the moment ,Ive found a problem with Siege Choppers not following scripts actions, deploying, self destructing ect. Is this known about?

[McPwny]

my pleasure 
it is known about. in my experience siege choppers are full of bugs probably because they use really hacky logic. i figure thats why the AI doesnt use them for much

[Ezer_2000]

@McPwny I found few bugs too. But I suppose you know more. Make a list of bugs with descriptions, that would be good for everyone.

[McPwny]

i update the ppmforum post i made on mapping with every known bug in fa2 
https://ppmforums.com/topic-47332/the-complete-and-definitive-mapping-index/ 
it also has the correct indexes for animations, buildings, crate types, radar events, weapon types, and that sort of thing in it.

[Concolor1]

Just reading it now, amazing stuff, never knew how the action 104 Flash Team should work, having tried and failed with it before, after reading this I have you to thank for the solution.

[McPwny]

np im glad it is useful

[Concolor1]

Just been going over this amazing cataloging of pretty much everything, , are there tutorials on 'Weighting', or is this something you just knock 100 off and experiment with yourself. Also it says Weight: sets the weight of the team at the start of the map. should always be less than max and more than min , yet the set-up always displays the same weight as the WeightMax, as seen in the example (shouldn't it just under this if Im reading it right?).

 Noticed this tiny typo. 124.... should refer to undoes trigger action 123. Never the less an impressive summery of everything

123) Mind control base of...   all buildings owned by the house specified will change house to the owner of the trigger   
124) Restore mind controlled base to... undoes trigger action 124 and restores "mind controlled" buildings

 

[McPwny]

oh sure enough. maby i should have phrased it 'weight shouldnt be more than max or less than min' but oh well. its a pretty self explanatory system where all weights of all teams are combined, and then the individual weights of individual teams are used when the AI picks a team to make... 

like if you have a only 2 teams, a weight 400 team and a weight 100 team, theres would be a 400/500 chance for the 400 weight team and a 100/500 chance for the weight 100 team.
if you take the time to add 'success' actions to your team's scripts and set min/max weights then you can add an extra layer of complexity to your AI, but to be honest you probably wouldnt notice unless it was a really badass AI.. the feature saw a lot more use in TS than it did in ra2 because tiberian sun actually had by far a more complex AI in terms of sheer AI trigger numbers. in my opinion max= on the team is easier to regulate the ai's team production

[[CC] RaVaGe]

The weight system is quite broken in RA2/YR. The Ai prefers certain units over others without considering weight.

Edited September 12, 2020 by RaVaGe