Tesla
10-04-2007, 02:50 PM
For the benefit of newbies, I've decided to give information about random stuff relating to Red Alert. If you have anything to add, then please do so.
Okay, the first thing I will talk about is being able to use the Map Editor that comes with the C&C:TFD version of Red Alert. For those of you who haven't read the ReadMe file in the Support folder in the C&C:TFD directory, or just can't figure out how to get the Map Editor working, this is how you do it: Go into the Red Alert folder and, using the right mouse button, drag and drop EDWIN.exe to a part of the folder. When the menu pops up, click "Create Shortcut(s) here". Rename the shortcut to "Red Alert Terrain Editor"(or whatever). Right click on the shortcut, and select "Properties". Where it says target, type "-CD1"(without the quote marks, of course) outside the quote marks that contain the location of EDWIN.exe. The shortcut can now be used to open Red Alert's map editor, which should then work with no problems.
(A similar method can also be used to open C&C95 from a shortcut without having to open the "The First Decade" launcher. It works because -CD1 tricks the game into thinking that you have the GDI disk in the CD-Rom drive using a nonexistent directory called "1" as the CD, and since all the files necessary for playing the game are in the Command & Conquer folder, the game will run.)
Red Alert Mission making: For the sake of this information, you will need a program called "C&C:RAED"(the best Red Alert 1 Scenario editor around) that is attached at the end of this post. To make good missions obviously takes time and skill, but here are a few "tutorials" on how to do some of the stuff they do in the missions that come with the game.
Poison gas: To make "poison gas" that kills anything that enters the area, but can only be activated by a special unit, this is what you do. Make a unit, owned by a country other than the player's, but allied to the player's country and player controllable (let's say you are making the player's country Greece, and making the "special" unit's country GoodGuy, and the enemy is USSR). Make a trigger called "gas1", and make it owned by GoodGuy. Make the event "Entered by GoodGuy", and make the actions "Drop Zone Flare at Waypoint: 0" and "Global Set...: 1". Go to "Celltriggers" and select "gas1". Place it in an easily recognizable cell. Then go to waypoints, select waypoint 0, and place it on top of the celltrigger "gas1". Now, make another trigger called "psn1". Change it to an "and" type trigger, and make it constant. Make the events "Entered by...: USSR" and "Global is set...: 1", and make the action "Destroy attached building."(Ordinarily this will destroy any building this trigger is attached to, but when used as a celltrigger it will destroy any unit of the specified side that enters the cell."). Go to "Celltriggers" and select "psn1". Place a number of them in a reasonable radius around the celltrigger "gas1".
Now, if the special unit controlled by the player enters the cell at waypoint "0", a flare will come up, showing that the "poison" is activated, and after this, whenever a unit owned by USSR gets near the flare, it will be destroyed/killed.
Making a "two-stage" mission (such as allied mission 10): This is quite simple, really. Click on the "Ini" menu in the first "stage" of the mission, and select "Basic". Change the values of SkipMapSelect and SkipScore to yes. Then make the second "stage" of the mission and call it sc(g/u)(XY)eb, the first "stage" being called sc(g/u)(XY)ea. After the first part of the mission is won, the game will take you directly to the second part of the mission. The way this works is that setting "SkipScore" to yes skips the score screen of the first part of the mission, and SkipMapSelect skips the map select screen, meaning that instead of sc(g/u)(XY)eb being used as an alternate scenario, it will be used as the second part of the mission.
Making a team that consists of units already on the map: The method I have written for doing this copies the method used in allied mission 5 to get the truck to drive to the specified point when the war factory is infiltrated by the spy.
Put a vehicle anywhere on the map, place a waypoint on top of it, and place some more waypoints to indicate where you want the unit ito move. Set the unit's action to "Guard", and set the owner to XYZ (any country, preferably, for the purpose of this tutorial, one that looks like the enemy's side, but not the same one). Create a team (e.g. truk) that consists of the unit on the map and make the starting waypoint the one that is on top of the unit. In the actions for the unit to follow, add "Move to waypoint X+1" (where "X" is the number of the waypoint on top of the unit). Repeat until you have covered all of the waypoints you have placed.
Create a trigger with any event, and make the results of the trigger "Production begins XYZ" (where "XYZ" is the name of the country that owns the unit) and "Create team truk" (where "truk" is the name of the team you have created). Then test the mission
P.S: I will add more to this if I find the time to.
Here is the Red Alert scenario editor:
3079
Okay, the first thing I will talk about is being able to use the Map Editor that comes with the C&C:TFD version of Red Alert. For those of you who haven't read the ReadMe file in the Support folder in the C&C:TFD directory, or just can't figure out how to get the Map Editor working, this is how you do it: Go into the Red Alert folder and, using the right mouse button, drag and drop EDWIN.exe to a part of the folder. When the menu pops up, click "Create Shortcut(s) here". Rename the shortcut to "Red Alert Terrain Editor"(or whatever). Right click on the shortcut, and select "Properties". Where it says target, type "-CD1"(without the quote marks, of course) outside the quote marks that contain the location of EDWIN.exe. The shortcut can now be used to open Red Alert's map editor, which should then work with no problems.
(A similar method can also be used to open C&C95 from a shortcut without having to open the "The First Decade" launcher. It works because -CD1 tricks the game into thinking that you have the GDI disk in the CD-Rom drive using a nonexistent directory called "1" as the CD, and since all the files necessary for playing the game are in the Command & Conquer folder, the game will run.)
Red Alert Mission making: For the sake of this information, you will need a program called "C&C:RAED"(the best Red Alert 1 Scenario editor around) that is attached at the end of this post. To make good missions obviously takes time and skill, but here are a few "tutorials" on how to do some of the stuff they do in the missions that come with the game.
Poison gas: To make "poison gas" that kills anything that enters the area, but can only be activated by a special unit, this is what you do. Make a unit, owned by a country other than the player's, but allied to the player's country and player controllable (let's say you are making the player's country Greece, and making the "special" unit's country GoodGuy, and the enemy is USSR). Make a trigger called "gas1", and make it owned by GoodGuy. Make the event "Entered by GoodGuy", and make the actions "Drop Zone Flare at Waypoint: 0" and "Global Set...: 1". Go to "Celltriggers" and select "gas1". Place it in an easily recognizable cell. Then go to waypoints, select waypoint 0, and place it on top of the celltrigger "gas1". Now, make another trigger called "psn1". Change it to an "and" type trigger, and make it constant. Make the events "Entered by...: USSR" and "Global is set...: 1", and make the action "Destroy attached building."(Ordinarily this will destroy any building this trigger is attached to, but when used as a celltrigger it will destroy any unit of the specified side that enters the cell."). Go to "Celltriggers" and select "psn1". Place a number of them in a reasonable radius around the celltrigger "gas1".
Now, if the special unit controlled by the player enters the cell at waypoint "0", a flare will come up, showing that the "poison" is activated, and after this, whenever a unit owned by USSR gets near the flare, it will be destroyed/killed.
Making a "two-stage" mission (such as allied mission 10): This is quite simple, really. Click on the "Ini" menu in the first "stage" of the mission, and select "Basic". Change the values of SkipMapSelect and SkipScore to yes. Then make the second "stage" of the mission and call it sc(g/u)(XY)eb, the first "stage" being called sc(g/u)(XY)ea. After the first part of the mission is won, the game will take you directly to the second part of the mission. The way this works is that setting "SkipScore" to yes skips the score screen of the first part of the mission, and SkipMapSelect skips the map select screen, meaning that instead of sc(g/u)(XY)eb being used as an alternate scenario, it will be used as the second part of the mission.
Making a team that consists of units already on the map: The method I have written for doing this copies the method used in allied mission 5 to get the truck to drive to the specified point when the war factory is infiltrated by the spy.
Put a vehicle anywhere on the map, place a waypoint on top of it, and place some more waypoints to indicate where you want the unit ito move. Set the unit's action to "Guard", and set the owner to XYZ (any country, preferably, for the purpose of this tutorial, one that looks like the enemy's side, but not the same one). Create a team (e.g. truk) that consists of the unit on the map and make the starting waypoint the one that is on top of the unit. In the actions for the unit to follow, add "Move to waypoint X+1" (where "X" is the number of the waypoint on top of the unit). Repeat until you have covered all of the waypoints you have placed.
Create a trigger with any event, and make the results of the trigger "Production begins XYZ" (where "XYZ" is the name of the country that owns the unit) and "Create team truk" (where "truk" is the name of the team you have created). Then test the mission
P.S: I will add more to this if I find the time to.
Here is the Red Alert scenario editor:
3079