[Beige]

I got the game at the beginning of last week.

Had a ball with the campaigns, they got a lot of flak but I liked them quite a lot. Had some fun getting creamed by Brutal AI for a while, and then thought to myself, "Hey, I thought the whole tech tree was supposed to be available in Skirmish - where's the carpet bombs?"


The goal!

This led me to deezire.net, the only Generals modding website I currently know of. I remembered that Deezire had made a great mod for RA2, and went on the forums to see what I could find out.

After trying out tons of crappy programs to open the BIG's, I finally found http://xccu.sourceforge.net/, and the XCC Mixer within was reliable and easy to use - more than I could say for some of the others I tried.


The bringer of the Carpet Bomb.

So, now that I could open up BIG's, it was time to get busy. After downloading XCC Mixer, the first thing I did was extract the Generals soundtrack from music.big and burn it


Why wasn't this in skirmish?!

Then I started looking around some of the files that the sticky threads from the top talked about - Science.ini, SpecialPowers, FactionUnit, etc. Although there were a few tantalizing entries such as "POWTruck" and "Tomahawk waypointing," most of it was greek to me.


RTFM? WFM?

More later![/b]

[Beige]

The first thing I did was look for the mission where the carpet bomb was. That ended up being China, mission 5.

I looked into maps.big, and found what I was looking for in Maps\CHI05\map.ini

I copied and pasted the relevant information into my own INI file, which lay dormant on my desktop as knife.ini

Then, to make sure that I had the correct stuff, I renamed the file to map.ini and placed it in C:\Program Files\EA Games\Command and Conquer Generals\Maps\Golden Oasis\map.ini

Started up Generals and loaded a skirmish on Golden Oasis, China vs. GLA



As you can see, it worked like a charm. But the counter on the top left was kind of lame - after all, carpet bombing wasn't really a superweapon.



Gasp! That's the US bomber - we can't have China using that! That's something else to look at.



And, the aftermath.

Well, despite the alarming American bomber appearance, it seemed to go off without a hitch. Now to see if I could enable the carpet bomber for the US.

CommandSet AmericaAirfieldCommandSet
1 = Command_ConstructAmericaJetRaptor
2 = Command_ConstructAmericaVehicleComanche
3 = Command_ConstructAmericaJetAurora
4 = Command_ConstructAmericaJetStealthFighter
7 = Command_UpgradeComancheRocketPods
8 = Command_UpgradeAmericaLaserMissiles
9 = Command_CarpetBomb
11 = Command_SetRallyPoint
12 = Command_Sell
End

From what I had managed to figure out, simply adding that key line -

9 = Command_CarpetBomb

would enable it for any side, or any building - from airfields to barracks - from GLA to USA. I didn't add it to GLA, though - didn't seem like their kind of weapon.

Back to Generals to test...



Success! Now to make sure.






Everything seemed to be in order.



This was just to check and make sure that two airfields didn't pop up two different carpet bombing abilities. Fortunately, they don't - if you use carpet bomb at one airfield, it'll be expended at the other as well.[b]

Here's the full text to the map.ini file I used.

CommandSet AmericaAirfieldCommandSet
1 = Command_ConstructAmericaJetRaptor
2 = Command_ConstructAmericaVehicleComanche
3 = Command_ConstructAmericaJetAurora
4 = Command_ConstructAmericaJetStealthFighter
7 = Command_UpgradeComancheRocketPods
8 = Command_UpgradeAmericaLaserMissiles
9 = Command_CarpetBomb
11 = Command_SetRallyPoint
12 = Command_Sell
End

CommandSet ChinaAirfieldCommandSet
1 = Command_ConstructChinaJetMIG
2 = Command_UpgradeChinaAircraftArmor
9 = Command_CarpetBomb
10 = Command_UpgradeChinaMines
12 = Command_Sell
End

This adds carpet bomb to the US and China airfields.

Object AmericaJetB52
ReplaceModule ModuleTag_03
Body = ActiveBody ModuleTag_03_Override
MaxHealth = 200.0
InitialHealth = 200.0
End
End
VisionRange = 300.0
End

I'm not quite sure what this does yet. I think it modifies the strength of the jet - if that's the case, it might be best to delete this from the file.

Object ChinaAirfield

AddModule
Behavior = OCLSpecialPower ModuleTag_Override01
SpecialPowerTemplate = SuperweaponCarpetBomb
OCL = SUPERWEAPON_CarpetBomb
CreateLocation = CREATE_AT_EDGE_NEAR_SOURCE
End
End

End

Object AmericaAirfield

AddModule
Behavior = OCLSpecialPower ModuleTag_Override01
SpecialPowerTemplate = SuperweaponCarpetBomb
OCL = SUPERWEAPON_CarpetBomb
CreateLocation = CREATE_AT_EDGE_NEAR_SOURCE
End
End

End

Don't know what this does either. It appears to be related to the carpet bomb code, so I didn't mess with it.

Object CINEExplBox
; *** AUDIO Parameters ***
SoundMoveStart = DaisyCutterWeapon

ReplaceModule ModuleTag_BODY
Body = ActiveBody ModuleTag_BODY_Override
MaxHealth = 1000.0
InitialHealth = 1000.0
End
End

AddModule
Behavior = AIUpdateInterface ModuleTag_03
End
End
Locomotor = SET_NORMAL None

; remove the default die
RemoveModule ModuleTag_DIE

AddModule
Behavior = FireWeaponWhenDeadBehavior ModuleTag_05
DeathWeapon = CarpetBombWeapon
StartsActive = Yes
End
End

AddModule
Behavior = HeightDieUpdate ModuleTag_06
TargetHeight = 1.0
TargetHeightIncludesStructures = No
End
End

AddModule
Behavior = SpecialPowerCompletionDie ModuleTag_07
SpecialPowerTemplate = SuperweaponCarpetBomb
End
End

AddModule
Behavior = FXListDie ModuleTag_08
DeathFX = FX_CarpetBomb
End
End

AddModule
Behavior = DestroyDie ModuleTag_09
;nothing
End
End
End


; ********* CINEMATIC SETTING **************

AudioEvent CINE_B52AmbientLoop
Sounds = vb52lo2a vb52lo2b vb52lo2c
Attack = vb52lo1a
Decay = vb52lo3a
Control = loop all random
Volume = 50
Limit = 3
PitchShift = -5 5
Type = world shrouded everyone
End

I have no idea what this does - at first I didn't think it was related, but it had a few key words such as B52 and SuperWeaponCarpetBomb. Didn't mess with it either.

Next, I need to figure out...

a) how to change the China carpet bomber to a Chinese plane
b) how to remove the counter from the upper right
c) make sure that the strength of the bomber isn't being affected by that one piece of code

[Beige]

I think I know how to remove the counter.

In SpecialPowers.ini, there's a line connected to the Carpet Bomb.

SpecialPower SuperweaponCarpetBomb
Enum = SPECIAL_CARPET_BOMB
ReloadTime = 150000 ; in milliseconds
;;;RequiredScience = SCIENCE_CarpetBomb;;; Never ever ever use a required science with a public timer, since the hiddenbyscience never clears
PublicTimer = Yes
SharedSyncedTimer = Yes
ViewObjectDuration = 40000
ViewObjectRange = 250
RadiusCursorRadius = 100
End

The key there is PublicTimer, I think... - I'm going to try to change that to "no", putting it in the map ini.. and see if that gets rid of it.

Also...

SpecialPower SuperweaponCarpetBomb
Enum = SPECIAL_CARPET_BOMB
ReloadTime = 150000 ; in milliseconds
;;;RequiredScience = SCIENCE_CarpetBomb;;; Never ever ever use a required science with a public timer, since the hiddenbyscience never clears
PublicTimer = No
SharedSyncedTimer = Yes
ViewObjectDuration = 40000
ViewObjectRange = 250
RadiusCursorRadius = 100
End

I'll bet you that line has something to do with the reason you can't have more than one carpet bomb at once!

[liger]

Nice work man. Definitely given me an insight to how some of this stuff works. This game is my first mod attempt at anything, so it should be pretty interesting. If you get any more ideas or write up some more tutorials then please post them. I know I'm interested in seeing more.

[Phoib]

Originally Posted by Beige

I'll bet you that line has something to do with the reason you can't have more than one carpet bomb at once!

Altough I think your diary is a bit too basic, this is a pretty keen observation, overlooked it myself when I looked trough the files...

Will update it ASAP, and thanks

[Stone]

why do every (almost) everybody want to play with carpet bombs?

i did too...
i made it come from us airfield and i modded objectcreationlist.ini and this was my code in the objectcreationlist.ini:

ObjectCreationList SUPERWEAPON_CarpetBomb
  DeliverPayload
    Transport = AmericaJetB52
    FormationSize  = 5
    FormationSpacing = 100.0
    StartAtPreferredHeight = Yes
    StartAtMaxSpeed = Yes
    MaxAttempts = 1
    DropOffset = X:0 Y:0 Z:-2
    DropVariance = X:30 Y:40 Z:0
    DropDelay = 300
    Payload = CarpetBomb 10
    DeliveryDistance = 500
    DeliveryDecalRadius = 100
    DeliveryDecal
      Texture           = SCCA10Strike_USA
      Style             = SHADOW_ALPHA_DECAL
      OpacityMin        = 25%
      OpacityMax        = 50%
      OpacityThrobTime  = 500
      Color             = R:255 G:156 B:0 A:255 
      OnlyVisibleToOwningPlayer = Yes
    End
  End
End

now i got real carpet bombing, for balance change i reduced the damage of the bombs aalso

[Phoib]

Originally Posted by Stone

now i got real carpet bombing, for balance change i reduced the damage of the bombs aalso

Not quite, the real B-52H can carry 51 Mk82 bombs, and are usually employed in pairs.

[Black_Eagle]

do u know how i would make it so tht it comes in 2s cos i been trying to figure it out but cant?

[Phoib]

FormationSize = 2

[Black_Eagle]

thanks and where abouts does tht go?