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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 117
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Changing countries
well aslong as you typed it all and never used my words, then i don't care about credit. Heres another tutorial
there are several things you need to know about countries and so on. especially when dealing with my 4th side stuff.
first lets talk about what we have for countries and what we can and can't do.
first thing is to realise the difference between a side and a country
a country is a literal tech tree, you can have countries with simular tech trees and 1 minor difference like a single unit.
a side is a collection of countries.
this is whats in the YR ini's. there isn't any difference in principle in RA2, just got yuri missing.
; Starts at zero because dialog returns 0 for first listing regardless of name
[Countries]
;Allied
0=Americans
1=Alliance
2=French
3=Germans
4=British
;Soviet
5=Africans
6=Arabs
7=Confederation
8=Russians
;Yuri
9=YuriCountry
;Misc
10=GDI
11=Nod
12=Neutral
13=Special
;keep this order as GDI first and Nod second
[Sides]
GDI=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance
Nod=Russians,Africans,Confederation,Arabs
ThirdSide=YuriCountry
Civilian=Neutral
Mutant=Special
ok, some things to note here. Sides are hardcoded to be GDI, Nod, ThirdSide, Civilian and mutant, and must be kept in that order.
other things to note are in the countries list you must have allieds first, then soviets, then thirds, then anything else. This is very important to remember.
on the sides, GDI is allied, Nod is Soviet and ThirdSide is Yuri. Civilian is neutral, EG, Civilians and houses, and tech structures etc. Mutant is a strange side, i dunno exactly what it is, maybe we can find a use for it.
Also note we have seemingly unused countries GDI and Nod aswell as the Special for the Mutant Side.
I've done some small experimentations on the countries and this is what i found. only countries 0-9 can be selected on the multiplayer and skirmish menus, and here is 1 of the reasons why. slot 0 set here as america uses the american images, thats the american flag and american loading screen with the american descriptions. so, if you change the order of the countries on this list, you change what loading screens and flags the side uses. also if you change the names of the countries, it still works, i changed 1=Alliance to 1=Imaginary and replaced all reference in the rules to Alliance to Imaginary and it worked no problems at all. nothing in the game perspectivly had changed at all, even though we know that the way the game references to korea has actually changed name. but then when i tried to move this side to be CDA my 4th side, it didn't want to work. i don't know what could be causing this my my recomendations would be not to change the names of the countries, and if you are going to swap any around, make sure you only play with 0-9.
heres something else of importance.
listed further down from the lists are the definitions of each country
things to note are
Suffix=
Allied for Allies
Soviet for Soviets AND Yuri
JP for Mutants
CIV for Civilians
Prefix=
G for Allies
B for Soviets AND Yuri
J for Mutants
C for Civilians
Side=
same as under the [Sides] list
this determines which GUI to use ingame aswell as double checking the [Sides] list and determining the number of the AIBuildPlanningSide=
UIName=
a GUI reference name such as "Name:Arabs" which points to the actual name of the country to be displayed ingame on the side selection menu
Name=
a useless name tag which must be present
Color=
default color for this country, it mostly gets used in missions, if the mission was not written to override this entry.
MultiplayPassive=true
Force the country not to be playable in a multiplayer game
SmartAI=yes
should be on every country
Multiplay=yes
should be on every country without multiplayer passive although only 0-9 will be listed on the country selection menu
VeteranInfantry=[InfantryType]
VeteranUnits=[Vehicletype]
VeteranAircraft=[AircraftType]
units specific to a country starting with a single promotion
BuildTimeInfantryMult=
BuildTimeDefensesMult=
CostInfantryMult=
CostUnitsMult=
SpeedUnitsMult=
IncomeMult=
Bonus multipliers specific to a single country (eg 1.2 increase of 20%, 0.8 Decrease of 20%)
as specified above all allied countries must come first, and then all soviet countries, then yuri countries. This isn't quite true. The game doesn't mind to you mix up the order of countries too much, you can make any soviet country allied or yuri without changing the order of anything in the Countries list, and also swapping yuri with soviet or moving allies to soviet. what it doesn't like though is changing an allied side to yuri, or moving yuri to allied. still, its best to follow this tutorial exactly to prevent any crashes. so you need to get creative if you plan to shift an allied country over to yuri. here is what i'd do...
[Countries] ; this is the normal order
0=Americans
1=Alliance ;Koria
2=French
3=Germans
4=British
5=Africans ;Lybia
6=Arabs ;Iraq
7=Confederation ;Cuba
8=Russians
9=YuriCountry
what i would do is swap a few around.
[Countries] ; this is the normal order
0=Americans
1=British
2=French
3=Germans
4=Russians
5=Africans ;Lybia
6=Arabs ;Iraq
7=Confederation ;Cuba
8=Alliance ;Koria
9=YuriCountry
first thing i did was to swap the country i want to move with the last on the list being allied, thats British with alliance, what you now need to do is extract the british artwork rename it to korian artworks name and place it in an expand mix.
next i shifted up the bottom soviet country Russia and placed it between the now last allied and first soviet countries, shifting soviets up 1, you need to extract the Russian's artwork and rename it to be british and replace it in a mix along with the renamed british artwork.
finnaly place alliance in the gap between the now last soviet side and the yuri side. this alliance side now needs new artwork to be created under the name of russia and turning into a yuri side in the rules, first step is to remove alliance from all allied references on buildings and units and add to all yuri buildings and units.
also move it to the thirdside on the sides list as follows
[Sides]
GDI=British,French,Germans,Americans
Nod=Russians,Africans,Confederation,Arabs
ThirdSide=YuriCountry,Alliance
we not quite done yet. last step into turning this side yuri is to change its reference, you need to change the Suffix, Prefix and Side as follows.
Suffix=Soviet
Prefix=B
Side=ThirdSide
there, now koria is yuri. remember, they got black eagle jets as side spacific, you might want to change that, or give them some kind of airfield. and also they are still referenced to as Alliance. if you wish you can change this, but remember what i said.
as far as i can tell you can add numerous countries to the end of the list for use in missions, they work fine except that you can't start with them in a multiplayer game. my advice is that if you make a country for missions only, add it to the end of the countries list. and a 4th side must be set as the same as 1 of the other 3 main sides, just with a different tech tree.
It is possible to add countries for extra sides etc and use them in multiplayer in as a 4th side by replacing them on the countries list so that the sides you want are in slots 0-9. for example, something i might do in our mod is add side CDA to the end of the list, and in places where i want to use CDA in such as in a multiplayer i simply swap Americans for CDA for an example. this would disable america and enable CDA. Remember the other rules, it will be just like when replacing america with your 4th side, you need to keep it in with the allieds and make it an allied country with a different tech tree.
After testing even more i found that when i created another country and shifted it up to replace americans i found that when there is an AI CDA side they don't build any units and then the game creashes after a certain period. maybe this is because there are no references to the CDA side in the AI files. i would need to create a whole batch of AI for the CDA to be able to test it. but if this works 100% on AI then i can do everything hunty asks in an ingame mode, and the menu would only be needed exe hunty wanted me to create would only be needed to sellect the missions.
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