Special changes on certain missions? Options

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

I've now encountered already on several different missions a special change in the game behaviour and want to know if anyone knows how it was done.

The first is in mission scb11ea /eb: There you have to capture the tech centre so you are able to build the stealth tank. How was it done that the stealth tank has for this mission a different prerequisite?
The second is in mission scb12ea: There you have to capture the normally uncapturable adv. comm. centre.
The third is in mission scg07ea: How does the game remember which building you destroyed in the previous mission, in case you don't destroy the airfield with your commando?
On some other missions they also changed the name of the technology centre to prison.

Are all these special changes hardcoded or is there any way to reproduce them in self-made maps?

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Aug 20 2009, 06:15 PM

[Nyerguds]

It's just odd that not the numbers, but the actual order in the file are what matters.
I think [base] is different though. If you actually switch around 2 of the numbers, the game will switch around their rebuilding order too, even if you don't move their place in the list. [Base] is a lot more controlled, with the extra parameter to check how many buildings are in the list.


As for making that into an ini key, well, I dunno. Covert Ops have a completely different end of mission logic than the normal campaign. But if I could implement that it would give some interesting options.

It probably won't be in that format though. Internally, the data that is stored are just numbers... the campaign number, the mission number, the East/West number, and the sub-mission number (A/B/C/D/L). It would take quite some effort to write a function to get these numbers from a standard "SCX##XX" string. I could just make it load that ini, yes, but then there would be problems with saving and restarting the game since it doesn't store that actual "SCX##XX" string.

Hmm... if I do this I could add the Funpark campaigns in the New Missions list though...
If I add another routine to suppress the score screen, and another side option to configure the radar screen, that would work perfectly. I'll have one item in the GDI and one in the Nod list, so people can choose their side, and make it use EA/EB/EC/ED/EL for the 5 missions
(I already have code to give houses custom colours, so I can make the GDI and Nod grey in these missions)


Note that actually copying the mission 6 exception, so a mission continues to a different one if that Last Destroyed building is a certain value, is a bit harder to do... I'd have to add a key of the type

SpecialTarget=21,SCG23EB

where 21 is the ID of the building to destroy, and SCG23EB the mission to continue to. This stuff will need some seriously different coding for covert ops or campaign though, since campaigns show the mission selection screen, and the original exception just changed the mission number, and not the E/W and A/B/C number, since that was just chosen from the map.

To pull this off I'd have to look into the logic the game uses to read different comma separated values from one ini vlaue though. I've never done that before.


This post has been edited by Nyerguds: Aug 25 2009, 02:06 PM