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No Mega Compilation?


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It's a shame there is no mega compilation like the "Huge Collection" by Chimas for Tiberian Dawn:

http://cnc-comm.com/community/index.php?topic=1786.0

 

There are so many missions and campaigns laying around, but I don't know how to get them working in the new Red Alert version 303.  It's a shame they can't all appear in the new custom missions menu.  I would maybe be willing to start a compilation myself, but wouldn't even know where to begin.

 

There are tons of missions and campaigns found at ra.afraid:

http://ra.afraid.org/html/downloads/missions.html

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For mission to be listed in the custom missions menu the need to be named CMU##EA.ini. I think the game can read CMU01EA.ini to CMU999EA.ini but I have never tested past CMU99EA.ini my self.

 

Some version of RA1 that use custom missions will have already used some of the numbers. What number are free I don't know. You can load any of the custom missions and check the at the "Pause" menu and it should be listed above the Briefing button. This should ive you some idea what are free but it may not be up to date.

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I read through the thread and I understand how the tool works, but I have no clue what you and Nyerguds were talking about.  Is it something I should be concerned about, or should I just start using the tool to convert some missions?

 

Oh, and the link for the missions that one guy uploaded is dead...

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Hight light all and use copy and it will be dump to the place in the 2nd window.

 

That works, but now none of the dumped files have the .shp extension, which means they will not be read by RA1MissionConverter.exe.  I still have to extract the files one at a time to get the .shp extension...

 

I did some testing on this campaign found here:

http://ra.afraid.org/download.php/campaigns/ANewEraV20.zip

 

I successfully got the missions to appear in the custom missions list, but on the very first mission (I chose 150), the units were invisible.  I believe the invisible units are add-on units. RA1MissionConverter created a bunch of files like "150-a10.shp" that I moved to the Red Alert folder, but it did not work.  What am I doing wrong?

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shp files must be in a .mix file, else the game cannot read them

 

my tool creates a empty .mix file you can use to place everything into, this way you can have the whole campaign in one file

 

the tool was mainly made for missions, not for mods with custom game files

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shp files must be in a .mix file, else the game cannot read them

 

my tool creates a empty .mix file you can use to place everything into, this way you can have the whole campaign in one file

 

the tool was mainly made for missions, not for mods with custom game files

 

Ok.  I am just getting the hang of things, so I can possibly start a compilation on this forum. 

 

Can you explain what tutorial.ini is, and why only the first mission in each campaign gets one named after it?

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tutorial.ini contains the text messages which are shown during the game play

 

When you click "Convert All" and you have all missions in the folder then it converts all of them and raises the number after each, you can also convert them one by one manually but then you have to take care of raising the number on your own. Each mission needs its own unique number to make sure the mission won't override each other

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Hi Lightning,

 

When I started the Huge Collection, it was awful. I literally didn't know enough about what I was doing, you might find Nyerguds and I talking somewhere in the forum, in another thread outside my main thread. In the beginning, it was a bit lone task, but soon, some map packs started to emerge and the guys here monitored to see if I was getting things right. RA should be more accessible in this sense (I guess).

 

The mistake I did that you should avoid is the so many medias I've adopted. The players in general just want a zip file with the missions fully functional. Half of the time I spent with the forum formats, so you should avoid that. Make a general zip and put the link on your signature and adopt a thread to tell when there is a new version online and that's it - spend more time refining or fixing the broken missions.

 

After you have enough missions, like 200, make a small guide with the top 20 fan made missions. That will make ppl play more your collection, because they will know where to start. I haven't done that for my collection yet. Also, after some hundred fixes, feel free to edit medium level missions that seems easy. See them as 90% finished, so it's a mapmaking opportunity. Sometimes, with 2 or 3 reinforcements, you can totally change the pace of the game. But keep the original with you.

 

That's what I can say to make your life easier. But I don't know anything about RA.

Good luck!

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There are tons of missions and campaigns found at ra.afraid:

http://ra.afraid.org/html/downloads/missions.html

The 'RA Jokes' section was so bad it was actually funny :D

 

Ok.  I am just getting the hang of things, so I can possibly start a compilation on this forum. 

Yeah if you can compile a collection for RA 3.03, it would be really awesome. I've enjoyed and continue to enjoy Chimas' TD collection from time to time.

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After you have enough missions, like 200, make a small guide with the top 20 fan made missions. That will make ppl play more your collection, because they will know where to start. I haven't done that for my collection yet.

 

I'd say this is the main problem with the "huge collection" because there are some real gems in there, but it's a little daunting like finding the needle in the haystack.  And now it's gotten so huge, that it seems quite an undertaking to separate the good/great from the rest.  I had started making a list of the good ones, but I think I lost it when I reformatted my computer :0

 

I'd definitely separate the good ones first and then save editing/fixing others till a later date.  Just my opinion ;)

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I thought that the Custom Tutorial set up was changed so that the text was now loaded from placing the text in the map or has it been changed back to a custom tutorial.ini being load by name?

 

Yes, that was changed. The converter puts it into the map and also creates the tutorial.ini to keep it compatible to both versions of the patch

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What is the easiest and quickest way to open up mission files for viewing?  Is there a program that can give me a preview pic?  At this point, I do not have time to play each and every mission to test the quality, so I'm going to have to judge the maps based on how they look for now.  The low-detail maps will be put on hold, while the high-quality maps will be used.  I'll start with converting all the maps that appear high-quality, then slowly go through and play them later (which could take a long time).  I may release a beta version in the future with converted maps that have not yet been fully tested.

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you dont have our game versions installed?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by your game versions.  If you are talking about version 303p, then yes, I have it.

 

I figured it out.  raed.exe was not showing the custom missions, because they do not appear unless they have a prefix of "scu".  The new custom missions prefix of "CMU" does not appear in the raed.exe window.

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Yes RAED can't read the prefix of CMU. Best to keep them as SCG01EA.ini or SCU01EA.ini and set them as the first mission for testing for the Allied or Soviet. Thane when done change the prefix back.

 

It can read SCA (Ant Mission), SCG (Allied Missions), SCU (Soviet Missions), SCM (Multiplayer) and I think some others that start with SCM that where added for CounterStrike and Aftermath multiplayer.

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actually you should be able to view them via cncnet, just create a "Missions" folder inside of the "Maps" folder, start cncnet, select Missions category and browse through the maps

 

Right click map preview to open the map in raed quickly, double click to view a high res picture of it

 

I think I filtered out single player missions, so you might need to rename them

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

So yes, I know it has been a long time since I started this thread - but I am finally working on a Mega compilation.  I have added about 55 missions so far and counting.  However, there is one thing that bothers me...  There are quite a few levels out there that have new units with SHP files that aren't recognized by XCC Mixer (they have random 8-digit IDs rather than proper names).  Because of this, these missions cannot be converted, which means that ANY mission or pack that contains custom units cannot currently be included in the compilation.  This is a big stumbling block, because some of the great campaigns have custom units. 

 

As a very simple test, I have been trying to convert this single mission here that only contains a few new units:

http://ra.afraid.org/download.php/missions/latomega.zip

 

The problem is that I don't have a system in place to identify the new unit files.  It seems impossible to figure out what is what.  Can someone help me out here?

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