AIGenerals

Reverse-Engineered Content

The following page/section possibly contradicts several ideas accepted by the community. However, it contains information reverse-engineered from the game's executable code, not observations or theories, and as such should be considered more likely to be correct.

This section, introduced in but commented out in Tiberian Sun rules(md).ini, would theoretically have augmented the game's AI based on five different "Generals". However, the system was never finished and as such lies entirely unused in both Tiberian Sun, Red Alert 2 and their expansion packs.

[AIGenerals] contains a list of COM objects (class identifiers or CLSIDs), each defining a separate "General". Presumably, the AI would have randomly chosen from one of these generals for a match, each general defining a different "personality" or strategy for the AI to act according to. Alternatively, the human player may have been able to choose the General for each AI player, given how each AI General is explicitly named in the game files. Whatever the intention, the CLSIDs are unused and never called upon, although they are still valid and defined in the game executable. Tiberian Sun even retains a function to write the AIGenerals to a random map scenario, with no practical effect.

Below is a list of the five AI Generals and their intented general behavior, as described in the AI.TLB file.

CLSID	General Name	Description
{F706E6E0-86DA-11D1-B706-00A024DDAFD1}	Brain Dead	No defined behaviour.
{9E0F6120-87C1-11D1-B707-00A024DDAFD1}	General Meade	Strong defenses, weak attacks.
{C6004D80-87D1-11D1-B707-00A024DDAFD1}	General Jackson	Strong defenses, strong attacks.
{FBE6D4A0-87D1-11D1-B707-00A024DDAFD1}	General Grant	Weak defenses, frequent attacks.
{FBE6D4A1-87D1-11D1-B707-00A024DDAFD1}	General Hooker	Unpredictable.

Trivia

Four of the five AI Generals is named after a real-life 19th century American general who fought in the American Civil War:

• George Meade (1815 – 1872), Union, Major General
• Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (1824 – 1863), Confederate, Lieutenant General
• Ulysses S. Grant (1822 – 1885), Union, Commanding General and later President of the United States
• Joseph Hooker (1814 – 1879), Union, Major General

Further Reading

• PPM news post
• PPM research thread with more information (login required)