few questions about RAED mission editor

[bask185]

I am currtently making my own mission I am almost ready, but I ran into a few problems.

 

The first issue I have is concerning reinforcements. Half way the map when I blow up a sam site, a helicopter with 5 rifles soldiers arrive. When one of those soldiers die, a new helicopter arrives and this never stops. The trigger gets triggered upon the destruction of a the sam site and the existance thing is 'temporary' instead of 'constant'. For now I let this trigger destroys itself so only one helicopter arrives. But this is inconvenient as I sometimes want more things to happen on one trigger and I can do only one action if I also have to destroy the same trigger.

 

Why do the helicopters keep comming and are there alternate ways to get rid of it?

 

The 2nd issue is about teams. My mission start at a beach landing with pre-placed boats. These boats have to move alongside the island to provide crucial support. I do can let the boats sail in as reinforcements and than I can let them go from waypoint to waypoint with certain guard times. But now I am trying to put all my boats in a team, using a trigger and the 'create team' option. The team I will create has the exact same ammount of boats I pre-placed in the map. The idea is that the existing boats become a team and than perform their team actions

 

What I would like to know is what exactly the 'create team' option does? Does such a trigger let AI produce the units, group them into a team and let them do what I programmed them to do?? I'd like that my pre-placed boats move out after a minute or 2 and proceed to the next waypoints as a team.

 

I also have a question about the evacuation of special units. In my mission there are 3 crash sites, and on these sites there is a harmless agent delphi, agent chan and a General. Next to these units there are soviet guards and when I kill one of those I get a trigger which summons an empty transport helicopter. The only thing this chopper has to do is to move to a waypoint. Whenever one of the specials enter the helicopter, it flies away like intented. But I do not know why. How does the helicopter knows that he must fly away when a special unit enters it? it doesnt fly away if a tanya or rifle soldier enters.

 

Also when the last special leaves the map I want to win the mission. To do that the special unit must be in a team, because that is a trigger condition. There is the same problem with the boats. With the trigger I try to put the general in a team of 1 general. And when team general leaves, I must win. This does not work and I win instantly when I do 'create team' general. Apparantly that teams gets like created outside of the map which triggers the win condition. How can I solve this?

 

And can somebody refer me to a manual with detailed explanations of every option. I followed the youtube tutorial but that does not cover everything. I can let units do more stuff than I know what all the stuff is. For instance when I put some unit in rescue mode, what did I do? What is the unit going to do? And move and move????

 

[Nyerguds]

Not an expert at RA1, but I can answer one thing from C&C1 experience:

 

"Create Team" does not cause the AI to produce units. Teams don't refers to the units, but to the group they form. When you create a team, you are grouping units together to make them perform actions.

 

I know in C&C1, the teamtypes themselves do have an option that causes the AI to make sure (by producing units) that there are enough units on the map to create the team from, though. So indirectly, as teams are sent out to the player and are destroyed, it does cause unit production.

 

Also from C&C1: production doesn't happen until it's enabled by a trigger. Before that, the AI is completely unable to build units or structures. This is done so the player doesn't get flooded by enemy attacks from the start if the mission starts with some other objectives they have to accomplish before they get to setting up their base.

 

[Chad1233]

I can't really answer your problems but here's a very informative guide about Red Alert 1 mission making https://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/196962-command-and-conquer-red-alert/faqs/1701 it explains just about everything but a few things.

[bask185]

a tnx for the guide, I now know that agent delhpi, chan and the general count as civilian units and transport helicopters will take off when a civilian is loaded by default.

 

Much more to learn I have

[bask185]

I have read through the tutorial and it explains most but not everything. But today I learned a lot, mostly with trial and error.

 

The reason why the pre-placed ships were not moving, was because their status was 'sticky'. I changed it into 'guard' and now as soon as I create the team, all the boats will now follow their long path and destroy all but one last target (the destroyer was one cell outta range  ).

 

The problem was the same for the special infantry, in this case agent delphi, his status was 'harmless' as he was guarded by enemies. I noticed he would move to the waypoint when I selected him and have him a move order to any cell. Now I changed his status into 'guard' and I made him part of a country which is both allied to the enemies as well as my own troops while he is under my command so he doesn't get killed.

 

I think I also know why sometimes unlimited helicopters would arrive. If you are working in the TeamTypes, there is in the top right section a white box for a trigger. In this box you can force an other trigger. But you do not need to fill in anything here. I think that I forced the trigger as soon when I made my reinforcements team <-- and that was an endless loop. Trigger made new reinforcements, the reinforcements forced the same trigger over n over again.

 

So for short, every TeamType has the ability to force an other trigger when the TeamType gets created, like that you can daisy chain several triggers (for instance you can let 4 new TeamTypes Reinforce you or your enemy). Or you can trigger a text message.

 

For victory condition I wanted a succesfull evac of a unit or in this case a TeamType. I started with agend delphi, but every time when I gave him any order after his TeamType got created and he moved to this waypoint, I would get an insta victory. That was kinda strange and I think that is an actual glitch. Than I simply linked the TeamType-leave-victory condition to the helicopter instead and that seems to work. As soon as I load delphi into the chopper, the chopper flies away and I hear mission accomplished when it left the area. I will use this with 'allow win' so all 3 pilots need to be evacuated in order to win the mission.

 

There is one important thing for this in the TeamType it is important that you add: 'Do this.....Rescue' for the helicopter (or any unit who needs to be evacuated), otherwise the victory condition does not get triggered. And this was lacking in the tutorial, there was no description of the rescue status and I just happened to have found this out.

 

The only thing I still cannot do, is letting units or TeamTypes enter the transport helicopters automatically. There is the order 'load onto transport' but nothing is happening. I also tried 'Do this.... Enter' but also no effect. I first let the unit first guard an area for a short ammount a time so the chopper has time to fly in and land next to him... but than nothing. 'Load onto transport' just does not work for me. Is this solveable? Is it a bug, or am I doing something wrong (again)

 

I think I now know just about everything of the mission editor (atleast that what I need to know). It took me a lot of trial and error to figure everthing out. But now I think I can finally make me more missions much more smoothly

[Messiah]

Loading units into a helicopter doesn't work, as I know. But it should be possible to load someone onto a LST.

 

The evacuation of GNRL and other units on the helicopter is hardcoded and can be turned off in multiplayer missions only for now.

Iran was doing some hardcode hacks for RA, maybe he is able to fix that for singleplayer too. You could write him a message.

 

 

I'll have a further look on your others issues later, until then you should have a look on this awesome mapping tutorial video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVHDVnE6X6s

[bask185]

Tnx, I have already seen that youtube vid

 

I finished my first mission yesterday and it works almost flawlessly. Sometimes the helicopters do not fly of the map so you have to re-enter the special unit, but other than that the mission is quite nice. Both parties receive their reinforcements and I win when all 3 pilots are flown out.

 

Today I build me a 2nd mission from scratch and it is already almost done. I only need to tweak the timings here and there but ~95% of all triggers and reinforcements worked at the first time. As long as you have inspiration it's quite a fun thing to do.

 

And you encounter a lot of funny things, like submarines and ships and 30 mammoth tanks being unloaded out of an LST  XD The only drawback RAED has is that you can let one trigger just perform 2 actions. So when you want 3 different LST with units and 2 transport helicopter at the same time, you need to make atleast 3 triggers. So it can be a little micromanaging sometimes.

 

I was thinking to make an entire campaign and for that I need to familiarize myself with the .MIX files. I found this website: http://xhp.xwis.net/utilities/  Could anybody tell me which of the links I should download for this? There are quite a lot of them

 

[Salvation]

Since this topic contains discussion about RAED mission editor, im going to ask my question here:

 

How to edit unit names in RAED editor? For example: Renaming Medium Tank -> Mammoth Tank? I already tried to edit raed.exe with Notepad++ but it didn't work. The whole exe file went useless after editing it. I already studied raed mix files, but i didn't find anything useful there.

 

So what should i do? Any ideas?

[bask185]

You should be able to do it in rules.ini it is a .txt file somewhere in one of the .MIX files but you can download the rules.ini from the internet and place it in your red alert directory, there it overrules the default rules.ini.If you google red alert rules.ini you will find it.

 

In rules.ini you'll see that you can mod every single unit in the game to whatever you like. For instance you can give the gunboat the gun of the artillery unit so the gunboat actually becomes usefull, or you can give your hinds passengers, nerf the cruiser's range, give tanks machine guns etc etc.

 

I've seen that you can also acces the rules.ini in RAED self. It shouldn't be too difficult

[TaxOwlbear]

Give every infantry the Tesla Tank's zap attack.

[bask185]

Not an expert at RA1, but I can answer one thing from C&C1 experience:

 

"Create Team" does not cause the AI to produce units. Teams don't refers to the units, but to the group they form. When you create a team, you are grouping units together to make them perform actions.

 

I know in C&C1, the teamtypes themselves do have an option that causes the AI to make sure (by producing units) that there are enough units on the map to create the team from, though. So indirectly, as teams are sent out to the player and are destroyed, it does cause unit production.

 

Also from C&C1: production doesn't happen until it's enabled by a trigger. Before that, the AI is completely unable to build units or structures. This is done so the player doesn't get flooded by enemy attacks from the start if the mission starts with some other objectives they have to accomplish before they get to setting up their base.

 

Are you sure that AI cannot actually produce the teams? The despcription of the create teamtype of the maunal is as follows:

"4    Create team

-----------------

    When activated, the country owning the specified teamtype will attempt

  to make the specified teamtype.  If it does not have the required

  buildings (war factory/barracks) or the requisite units on the map,

  this construction will fail.  The computer player is not required to have

  the prerequisite buildings that the human player must have (i.e. it can

  build mammoth tanks without having a service depot), nor is it limited to

  what that country would normally be able to build.  The USSR could build

  light tanks and mobile gap generators if the teamtype called for it, as

  England could produce mammoth tanks.

    When creating a team, the computer country will first look around

  the map to see if there is currently a unit on the map of the specified

  type that is not currently in a teamtype and not engaged in a non-

  recruitable activity.  If there is such a unit, it will be used as part of

  the team being created.

    The computer will always build additional units after it has created

  the teamtype. 

    Note that computer players with high IQ levels will automatically

  create units for themselves that are not specified in teamtypes, nor

  which are called to be produced by Create Team commands.

    The first parameter takes the number of the teamtype that is to be

  created."

 

Are you 100% sure that this cannot be done?

 

I still have it not working and AFAIk I tried everything. The AI badguy has a war factory, he has credits and he has techlevel 15. Badguy gets triggered after 2 minutes than he needs to create the team which consists of a single heavy tank.

 

I tried both IQ levels 0, 4 and 5. I trigger 'Prodcution begins  badguy' at the very beginning. I boxed and unboxed the options in the teamtype menu. But whatever I do or try there are just no units comming out of his warfactory and I dont know why. I also tried to let the greek AI try to produce a demo truck after 2 minuts as the greek AI is pumping out units all the time but he also does not want to build a demo truck for me now I am unsure about everything

 

On another note, I also seem to be unable to load teams on LST automatically, just like with helicopter it just doesn't bloody work. But than again I am not sure if either the transport or the teamtype need to have a special order like resque or something. When I give such an order to the LST it starts to move so it is all kinda vague for me

[Nyerguds]

I never said the AI can't produce teams. I'm saying that "create team" does not equal "produce units". Unit production is a side effect of creating teams, as the AI replenishes available units, either in order to have enough to create the team, or after sending out the team.

 

As I specifically mentioned in my post, my knowledge is from C&C1, and in C&C1, producing units is an option on a teamtype which can be disabled, which makes sure the AI doesn't try to produce teams of units if you specifically want it to take those on the map. I'd be very surprised if RA doesn't have that option too. In fact, if your unit production isn't working, you might want to take a closer look into the teamtype options.

[bask185]

I learned another thing today, a while ago I experienced an issue that the game would win if I gave an order to a certain to be evacuated unit. I now know why that is.

 

The victory condition was set to win if a teamtype of choise left the map. I learned that if you order a unit arround which belongs to a one man team at the moment that he is still performing a team order, it will terminate the team. And when the team is 'destroyed' the computer thinks it left the the map and lets you win.

 

I found out today in a new mission where a tanya would appear as reinforcements, and she had to be evacuated after doing some stuffs. The first thing team "Tanya" had to do was to move to a waypoint 3 cells further of her spawn. Everytime I gave Tanya an order before she reached that waypoint, I would destroy the teamtype and thus trigger an insta win.  (how to cheat right?  )

[Salvation]

You should be able to do it in rules.ini it is a .txt file somewhere in one of the .MIX files but you can download the rules.ini from the internet and place it in your red alert directory, there it overrules the default rules.ini.If you google red alert rules.ini you will find it.

 

In rules.ini you'll see that you can mod every single unit in the game to whatever you like. For instance you can give the gunboat the gun of the artillery unit so the gunboat actually becomes usefull, or you can give your hinds passengers, nerf the cruiser's range, give tanks machine guns etc etc.

 

I've seen that you can also acces the rules.ini in RAED self. It shouldn't be too difficult

 

 

If i have understand correctly, the Rules.INI edits only things that appear on game, not RAED. So whatever i ever do with the rules.ini does not change anything on RAED editor. I'm currently making a mod on RA1 so i think it would be a easier for custom content creators, if unit names in RAED are same as what they are in mod.

[bask185]

yeah that is about correct.

 

I have not yet worked with MIX files and stuff but I suspect you can give every mission a separate rules.ini I think that is how some missions like 'Nuclear escalation,' where parabombs are replaced by a nuclear bomb, are modded. But I don't know for sure

[Nyerguds]

yeah, but you can copy stuff from rules.ini into your mission file to make changes to unit stats for just that mission

[bask185]

I got me 3 more questions, this time simple questions   (I hope )

 

- it seems LSTs do not leave the map, they got stuck at the edge is this fix-able? Do I need to make the cells outside the yellow line water?

 

- I gave an enemy AI a nuclear missile silo, on a given moment he launches it, but nothing happens. The bomb never lands. So far the only ways to trigger a nuclear explosion is to place a demo truck somewhere or add some code that parabombs become nukes like in the mission 'Nuclear Escalation' like comrade nyerguds just explained. Can I do something with Nuclear missiles?

 

- I made a mission where I need to fight with a strike force through a map, but whenever I attack the first base all enemy units are comming for me. I put the IQ level on 0 and I put the enemy units in guard mode and ambush mode. I could put them in sticky mode but than no unit would attack me. Why does all of AI attack me and which mode would work best? Im thinking of 'Area Guard' at the moment.

[Nyerguds]

-Yes, "leaving the map" equals "getting stuck in the border just outside the map", so for that to happen for boats, they need passable area there. Same thing applies to reinforcing stuff from the edge of the map, anyway.

 

-No idea, really. I once tried very hard to get the AI to nuke me in the single player campaign, and it simply never worked.

 

-Sticky mode, in C&C1 at least, makes units not respond until attacked twice. No idea why. It's like "sleep" but they wake up.

[TaxOwlbear]

Are nukes really AI-proof? I could have sworn that the Soviets nuked me once in the last Allied mission. Or is that scripted?

[bask185]

I have encountered a minor glitch I think. Sometimes the Greek AI tends to build soviet structures and vehicles. It doesnt do it every time though. I also had a USSR AI building light tanks and APCs once. It is not a big issue or something but does any know what causes it or/and it is fix-able??

[Salvation]

Im having a question about Global -value which appears on RAED? I mean, what the hell does it mean? I've read the map making manual but still it does not open / i don't fully understand. This thing appears almost every mission created by Westwood, but not user created ones...

 

Let's having an example:

 

Name:      inva

Owner:    Spain

Existence: constant (any linked event -> switch)

Type:      simple (event1 => action1 [+ action2])

 

Event 1:  Global is set... 9

 

 

Action 1:  Create Team... inva

Action 2:  Create Team... invb

 

 

 

-----> So, when Global is set to 9, two teams will be created. But i just don't get it.... What is Global and what does it do?

[bask185]

Imo RAED has 2 issues. And I am leaving all the bugs out of the question. The first issues are that there are things which simply just do not. Like the trigger 'thiefed by'. According to the tutorial this one does not seem to work and there more things just like that which simply do not work.

 

The 2nd issue is just like the one you describe. There are a bucketload of things which are unexplained in the youtube tutorial and unexplained in the written tutorial and of which nobody seems to know. For instance some of the unit modes are not explained. Why would I want to put a unit on 'rescue' mode? No tutorial says and nobody seems to know. Just like the 'global' thing we just do not know.

 

My best guess is that perhaps it has something to do with the off-screen game timer, it is the only thing I can think of really. But most likely it is one of those redundant 'features' which do not work.

 

 

[Messiah]

@bask: IQ5-AI in single-player will build both allied and soviet units sometimes. It also ignores Prerequisite and TechLevel limitations.

 

there is a lot of stuff in RA scripting you don't really need and something is obsolete stuff abandoned by westwood (like thieved by...). I don't even know if "rescue" does anything.

 

Im having a question about Global -value which appears on RAED? I mean, what the hell does it mean? I've read the map making manual but still it does not open / i don't fully understand. This thing appears almost every mission created by Westwood, but not user created ones...

...

-----> So, when Global is set to 9, two teams will be created. But i just don't get it.... What is Global and what does it do?

you have to make another trigger with the action "set global... 9". when this trigger is fired, all triggers with "global is set... 9" in event will fire.

that allows more complex scripting. so you can practically add more than just 2 actions to a trigger. example:

set global... 9 when the hostile harvester is under fire.

make triggers for global is set 9, like production and autocreate begins, reinforcement teams, drop a nuke over players base... with virtually just 1 event.

[bask185]

drop a nuke over players base

 

Is this even possible???

[Messiah]

there are actually two ways to to that:

 

if you add a trigger with action ...add superweapon and the AI house has an iq of 4 or 5, there will be a computer-controlled attack. just placing a nuke silo is not enough.

 

If you use version 303p, you can fire a nuke to a specified waypoint. This is not supported by RAED, you have to do it by hand: create a trigger in RAED, open the map file, search for the trigger in the map in the [trigs] section, and change the last 4 comma sections into 59,X,0,0 with X for the waypoint the nuke is fired to.