An idea I had for how this could be used in a level: Give the player a choice of more reinforcements at the start or taking only lighter forces to begin with and then benefit from a later advantageous landing zone in some inaccessible to provide an alternate approach on a heavily defended objective.
That would be so cool. Using the leftover credits from the previous mission, let me load up a dropship and then call in those reinforcements at various points during the mission. Refund the credits for any undeployed units, rinse and repeat for a pretty dynamic campaign experience, imo.
Yeah, I was surprised to discover that. I was always told that the cursor was missing because the feature was incomplete but it's purely down to the order the art assets are loaded in.
I can't remember exactly but I think when the dropship loadout screen is first loaded the code is looking for mouse.shp in the wrong mix file. There used to be a hex hack to fix it to make it look in the correct place or you could just put mouse.shp in the mix file it looks in first.
dude this is awesome! thank you. when i saw your video i briefly went looking for it but didn't find one already set up and didn't know how to do it myself. this is sweet Thanks man!
No problem. I was surprised that there weren't any video guides out there on how to do it. And even when I found an explanation it looked as if it had not been tested as I found a number of things out myself relating to its implementation which I included in the video.
XCC Mixer is the only software I know of that can open MIX files and is part of the XCC Utilities. Olaf van der Spek made it, I think. Minor nitpick: it's better to chk both the InfantryTypes and VehicleTypes lists instead of digging through the INI for the units the way you did in the video. Also, you know the IDs of the units? Nice! I've been modding RA2YR for a while now and aside from a few units I still don't know their IDs without looking them up!
Thank you, good to know. And I only half remember the IDs like yourself. In my first recording I was using E6 for Engineers (their ID in TD/RA). And I always mess up SMECH, MMCH and HMEC. Those really bother me.
@@SvenVanDerPlank Oh, not saying that the original gameplay is bad at all. I just love the setting and the style and design so much I'd like to see it in more contexts! But that's why I've been writing a ttRPG campaign for TibSun lol
I wonder if it works in demo, there is one mission that constantly gives you reinforcements on a loop, I wonder if one could change what units are inside?
Awesome video. I don't think I've seen this documented on youtube before. So what determines the credits seen on the dropship loadout screen? Is it just the same as your starting credits? Because in that case, an obvious bug there is that the money you start with isn't actually decreased; you're just allowed to get the same amount of money _a second time,_ only this time in units. Also, what do you use to confirm the dropship loadout? Did you just press escape?
Spacebar. Sorry, that's not obvious and I only very quickly mentioned it when the menu first loaded. And you're correct on the starting credits. Don't think they can be defined independently. Is there perhaps a trigger you could use for adding more after the level begins? I'm not sure about map making.
@@SvenVanDerPlank No idea about adding funds. My scripting expertise only goes as far as C&C1, and the only way to do that there was some weird trick with C17 plane reinforcements to a player without an airstrip; the game would count that as cancelled construction and would promptly refund whatever it carried :p
Can you make the dropship triggers yourself in a custom level or does it have to be hardwired by the game like how hovercraft in TD could only spawn in the southern edge of the map?
Yes, you can add triggers to custom maps. In theory you can use a waypoint that exists in the vanilla campaigns for an unintended purpose if one suits.
Hmm. So, level idea. You have a base that has no factory or conyard, but it has a dropship bay and repair bay and you instead get a load of pre-designated by you reinforcements every 10 minutes so long as the dropship bay remains intact. Can you set up the triggers to "cycle" between each of the three dropships so it's indefinite?
You can do that normally with triggers if the reinforcements are predetermined but with the player choice from the Dropship Loadout I don't know, I doubt it.
Well, technically the unit limits can be made to work as intended, you just need to put them one higher than your actual limit. Since not sending in the unit is obviously not something anybody would want, they will be limited by the amount that is enough to just not grey out the unit, which is the max-1
by any chance will you do a playthrough on dawn of the tiberium age it has multiple missions and campaigns and even one with multiple choices and endings
Yes, I've looked at that and a couple of other popular mods. However I wanted to finish the base games first (up to Kane's Wrath anyway) and I'm probably not going to be finishing that up until the end of the year so mods are still quite a ways off.
@@SvenVanDerPlank so you can order units only on missions that have dropships at the start? So its completely scripted So much cool content cut Im sure its because ea put alot of pressure on westwood to release the game quickly
They don't have to arrive at the start. The menu will override whatever is set to spawn from the first three DropShips that enter the map. You can tweak the mission files to add more waypoints for DropShips but at that point you might as well skip the menu altogether.
In theory yes, but the only Nod level where you have Dropships is the final mission on their Firestorm campaign. I guess the next question is does it have to be Dropships or just any vehicle making use of the reinforcements trigger, ie Orca Transports or Sub APCs. I don't know the answer to that one.
Today I learned... this feature is great and I hope it makes it into a remaster...
Clap, clap, clap..great guide, i wish i'd known this way before, i don't even remember how much hours i sinked in this game, thank you dude
An idea I had for how this could be used in a level: Give the player a choice of more reinforcements at the start or taking only lighter forces to begin with and then benefit from a later advantageous landing zone in some inaccessible to provide an alternate approach on a heavily defended objective.
That would be so cool. Using the leftover credits from the previous mission, let me load up a dropship and then call in those reinforcements at various points during the mission. Refund the credits for any undeployed units, rinse and repeat for a pretty dynamic campaign experience, imo.
We can make it into a superweapon, just like the Ion Cannon or Chem Missile, but only clickable for once.
@@sojournerinexile525it would be cool to save up 8000 credits and start a level with 10 titans lol.
Very useful, especially how restarting the map allows a visible cursor!
Yeah, I was surprised to discover that. I was always told that the cursor was missing because the feature was incomplete but it's purely down to the order the art assets are loaded in.
Iirc mouse is not shown because at this time cursors palette isn’t loaded yet. Probably can be fixed by editing mouse sprite
I can't remember exactly but I think when the dropship loadout screen is first loaded the code is looking for mouse.shp in the wrong mix file. There used to be a hex hack to fix it to make it look in the correct place or you could just put mouse.shp in the mix file it looks in first.
Really cool to actually see a feature I've heard about since the game was in development.
dude this is awesome! thank you. when i saw your video i briefly went looking for it but didn't find one already set up and didn't know how to do it myself. this is sweet Thanks man!
No problem. I was surprised that there weren't any video guides out there on how to do it. And even when I found an explanation it looked as if it had not been tested as I found a number of things out myself relating to its implementation which I included in the video.
XCC Mixer is the only software I know of that can open MIX files and is part of the XCC Utilities.
Olaf van der Spek made it, I think.
Minor nitpick: it's better to chk both the InfantryTypes and VehicleTypes lists instead of digging through the INI for the units the way you did in the video.
Also, you know the IDs of the units? Nice! I've been modding RA2YR for a while now and aside from a few units I still don't know their IDs without looking them up!
Thank you, good to know. And I only half remember the IDs like yourself. In my first recording I was using E6 for Engineers (their ID in TD/RA). And I always mess up SMECH, MMCH and HMEC. Those really bother me.
This does make me wonder what a more tactical C&C would feel like. With a play style closer to MechCommander 2
I would love a C&C mod for a game like Men of War. Not that I don't love the gameplay in the original games.
@@SvenVanDerPlank Oh, not saying that the original gameplay is bad at all. I just love the setting and the style and design so much I'd like to see it in more contexts! But that's why I've been writing a ttRPG campaign for TibSun lol
I wonder if it works in demo, there is one mission that constantly gives you reinforcements on a loop, I wonder if one could change what units are inside?
Can you make a tutorial how to add Spotlight tower + alarm?
Loved your video
so many features that a remaster should include... gdi is already op, but it wouldnt hurt if they had drop station order in reinforcements :D
Awesome video. I don't think I've seen this documented on youtube before.
So what determines the credits seen on the dropship loadout screen? Is it just the same as your starting credits? Because in that case, an obvious bug there is that the money you start with isn't actually decreased; you're just allowed to get the same amount of money _a second time,_ only this time in units.
Also, what do you use to confirm the dropship loadout? Did you just press escape?
Spacebar. Sorry, that's not obvious and I only very quickly mentioned it when the menu first loaded. And you're correct on the starting credits. Don't think they can be defined independently. Is there perhaps a trigger you could use for adding more after the level begins? I'm not sure about map making.
@@SvenVanDerPlank No idea about adding funds. My scripting expertise only goes as far as C&C1, and the only way to do that there was some weird trick with C17 plane reinforcements to a player without an airstrip; the game would count that as cancelled construction and would promptly refund whatever it carried :p
Can you make the dropship triggers yourself in a custom level or does it have to be hardwired by the game like how hovercraft in TD could only spawn in the southern edge of the map?
Yes, you can add triggers to custom maps. In theory you can use a waypoint that exists in the vanilla campaigns for an unintended purpose if one suits.
Hmm. So, level idea. You have a base that has no factory or conyard, but it has a dropship bay and repair bay and you instead get a load of pre-designated by you reinforcements every 10 minutes so long as the dropship bay remains intact.
Can you set up the triggers to "cycle" between each of the three dropships so it's indefinite?
You can do that normally with triggers if the reinforcements are predetermined but with the player choice from the Dropship Loadout I don't know, I doubt it.
Well, technically the unit limits can be made to work as intended, you just need to put them one higher than your actual limit. Since not sending in the unit is obviously not something anybody would want, they will be limited by the amount that is enough to just not grey out the unit, which is the max-1
OOOH the old good times of editing rules.ini, prompting a crash if you even misspell a character.
cursor appears in the tiberian sun retro modit fixes it.
is it possible if you can make a video about a feature in Tiberian Sun called "World Domination Tour." I have never seen a video on youtube about it.
by any chance will you do a playthrough on dawn of the tiberium age it has multiple missions and campaigns and even one with multiple choices and endings
Yes, I've looked at that and a couple of other popular mods. However I wanted to finish the base games first (up to Kane's Wrath anyway) and I'm probably not going to be finishing that up until the end of the year so mods are still quite a ways off.
Is this only available in the mission 1 of GDi?
You can enable it in any mission, even ones without DropShips, though for obvious reasons it won't do anything.
@@SvenVanDerPlank so you can order units only on missions that have dropships at the start?
So its completely scripted
So much cool content cut
Im sure its because ea put alot of pressure on westwood to release the game quickly
They don't have to arrive at the start. The menu will override whatever is set to spawn from the first three DropShips that enter the map. You can tweak the mission files to add more waypoints for DropShips but at that point you might as well skip the menu altogether.
Is it possible to make this feature to nod?
In theory yes, but the only Nod level where you have Dropships is the final mission on their Firestorm campaign. I guess the next question is does it have to be Dropships or just any vehicle making use of the reinforcements trigger, ie Orca Transports or Sub APCs. I don't know the answer to that one.
@@SvenVanDerPlank If we made subterr drop drills that work as dropships (they just have different appearance in game and textures (in theory))
That could be quite a smart potential workaround actually, good thinking.
Please do some Red Alert 2 cut content videos :)
Nice :)
I bet the fact that units that reach their limit will not spawn at all is used to allow the scripting of dropships with less than 5 units.
That could be one way to do it, but they can more directly code the exact drops when they have access to the full code behind the scenes.
Long live KANE