Maps/Section: Waypoints

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This entry was copied from DeeZire's Red Alert 2 and Yuris Revenge INI Editing Guide for the sake of completeness. As it is not our intention to rip off DeeZire's work, this article is subject to a re-write and update with the latest community knowledge. For further information, please read Inclusion of The Guide.

Each map in Red Alert 2 is placed into a 'grid'. This grid is then divided into cells, in order that any point on the grid (map) can be referred to by its location in the grid. This is rather like a modern game of Battleships - by specifying a grid reference (a cell), you can do something there. In Red Alert 2 however, as with Tiberian Sun, it is not a straightforward system using X and Y co-ordinates as you have to imagine that grid being turned on its side by 45 degrees.This is because the game engine refers to the grid this way in order to generate its pseudo 3D isometric view, thus ensure it can calculate where exactly objects are on the map, and also where they are relative to other objects. Hence, to reference this type of grid, you have to visualize the X co-ordinate as being measured with '0' on the top left corner of the map and the Y co-ordinate being measured with '0' on the top-right corner, thus;-

[Missing:Image illustrating waypoint-grid]

From the grid representation then, you can 'calculate' any location on the map by referring to the grid and working out the X co-ordinate and Y co-ordinate. These co-ordinates, when paired, form the Waypoint=, that is a location (of a cell) on the map. Waypoints are used to define specific places (cells) on the map - the simplest example of their use is to define where on the map players start the game.

The [Waypoints] section lists all of these grid references that you want to make use of on the map. There are several specific ones which must be defined (see below) and it is important to note that waypoints should be numbered starting at '0'. A typical entry from the list looks like this;-

5=113122

All that means is that Waypoint= number 5 has been set to 'grid reference' (cell number) 113122 on this map. You cannot define multiple instances of the same number for waypoints as each one must be unique and only used once, but you do not have to keep the numbering in any kind of order. You could for example use waypoints numbered 0, 1, 2, 30, 35, 40 and 90, and there would be no problems.

There are two conventions for the numbering and specifying of a waypoint. Firstly there is the numbered convention, for example 113122. What this means is X co-ordinate #122 and Y co-ordinate #113 (the convention is Y,X rather than X,Y due to the grid being at a 45 degree angle to give the impression of an isometric perspective). NOTE: sometimes there may only be 5 digits rather than 6. In this case, the first two digits are the Y co-ordinate - the last 3 digits are always the X co-ordinate (if your X co-ordinate was less than 100 then you precede it with '0' so that '69' would become '069'). When defining waypoints in the list here, you should use this numbering convention.

Secondly there is the lettered convention. When referring to a Waypoint= through an Action= , you should use this convention. For some unknown reason, each waypoint is converted to a letter using a 'base 26' notation. So, waypoint number '0' is letter 'A' and waypoint number 25 would be 'Z'. Waypoint number 26 would be 'AA', number 27 would be 'AB', number 52 would be 'BA' and so on.

A Waypoint= then is simply a cell that has been identified as having some significance, and that has been given a number for the purposes of identification. You can use waypoints for many purposes in the game, although you should note that several of them are 'reserved' for use in the game engine itself and as such could cause problems if you try to use them for any other purpose. These are;-

- Numbers 0 - 7 are reserved for the (possible) 8 starting points on the map in multiplayer games
- Number 98 is generally used as the default AltHomeCell= in Red Alert 2
- Number 99 is generally used as the default HomeCell= in Red Alert 2
- Number 699 is generally used as the default AltHomeCell= in Yuri's Revenge
- Number 700 is generally used as the default HomeCell= in Yuri's Revenge