Houses and Sides, research about tags Options

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

Hi

I try to figure out how to enable a third side. I know there are some tuts about this, but they don't explain a lot of what they do and how it works.
So i have some questions.

before i ask some code from rules.ini

CODE

[Houses]
0=GDI
1=Nod
2=Neutral
3=Special

; ******* Side Type List *******
[Sides]
GDI=GDI
Nod=Nod
Civilian=Neutral
Mutant=Special

; ******* Country Statistics *******
[GDI]
Name=GDI
Suffix=GDI
Prefix=G
Color=Gold
Multiplay=yes
Side=GDI

[Nod]
Name=NOD
Suffix=NOD
Prefix=B
Color=DarkRed
Multiplay=yes
Side=GDI
SmartAI=yes

What's the difference between [Houses] and [Sides]? Why does a new side (e.g. Forgotten) needs an entry in [Sides] while it should be enough to add one to Houses and then change in [Sides] "GDI=GDI,Forgotten". Is this only in RA2 possible or in TS too?

Why does in the original rules.ini [Nod] has Side=GDI and actually no side uses Side=Nod? Why however, does in original maps, Nod has Side=Nod? (In every map i saw, the houses are redefined and beside the additional map tags like Credits for the house, the Side= tag is now set to a different side.)
How do Multiplayer maps even work, since they don't have these changes and use the rules.ini settings with Nod having Side=GDI?

So why do new houses (sides as we understand them as seperate factions) work in maps and not as a global new house in rules.ini?

What do actually the owner= tags for units/buildings take? Houses or Sides?

I find this very confusing and hope you can help me bring in some light to this.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Oct 13 2007, 07:45 PM