Adding A Unit

Adding a New Unit to RA2 (By Killerkidd & Kane 148)

Tools Needed: rules(md).ini, Wordpad, RA2StrEdit

With this tutorial, you will learn the basics of adding a new unit to Red Alert 2. The example for this tutorial will be adding a new infantry unit named Killerkidd.

Step One:

Open rules(md).ini from where-ever you have it saved in (example: C:\Westwood\RA2\Rules.ini). When you open Rules.ini, it will open a little box that says "File too large to open with Notepad, Open it with Microsoft Word?". Click "YES". NOTE: This will not happen in Windows XP.

Step Two:

Strike the Ctrl+F keys at the same time. It should bring you to the Find option. Once there, where it says "Find What" type in 45=JOSH, and click "Find Next". Now add a new line that says 46=KILL.

Step Three:

Until you are an advanced modder, you should stick to copying the unit entry from a unit that is similar to the one that you wish to make, so go to Find and search for [GHOST]. Copy the unit code for the SEAL, and then paste it below the original unit code.

Step Four:

Now, change [GHOST] to [KILL], UIName=Name:GHOST to UIName=Name:KILL, and Name=SEAL to Name=Killerkidd. Now remove the line PrerequisiteOverride=, so that you can build the unit normally, and remove Image=SEAL and AlternateArcticArt=yes, as you will soon be making a new image code for it. Later, you can edit the unit stats if you like, so that it has different weapons or something. Now, Save the file, and close.

Step Five:

Open Art.ini, just like you did Rules.ini. Strike the Ctrl+F keys and type in [SEAL]. Now copy the entry for the SEAL, and paste it below the original code. Now change the code to look like this:

[KILL] ; Killerkidd 
Cameo=KILLICON 
AltCameo=KILLUICO 
Sequence=SealSequence 
Crawls=yes 
Remapable=yes 
FireUp=3 
PrimaryFireFLH=100,0,100 

If you do not have a new cameo for your new unit, you can use the cameo from an existing unit, by copying their cameo name from their art(md).ini entry. If you don’t know how to do this, then please refer to the Adding A Cameo tutorial. Now, if you have a new infantry SHP to use for the unit, then name it KILL and place it in an ecache*.mix file in your RA2 directory (*=any string that uses valid filename characters). If you do not have a new infantry SHP for it, you should find an existing one that you like, and extract it with XCC Mixer. Then name it KILL and place it in the ecache*.mix file.

Note: If you wanted to make a new vehicle, you would follow the same basic procedure as you did here. Obviously, you would have to add the codes to the vehicles section of the Rules.ini, and some tags would be different, but it would be very similar. They only major differences are that when you make your Art.ini entry, you would want to copy the entry for a similar vehicle, because vehicles are voxels, not SHPs, and thus have very different codes.

Step Six:

You are now done with the INI editing. Save, and then close Art.ini, and copy both it and Rules.ini to your RA2 directory.

Step Seven:

Open RA2_English.csf in RA2StrEdit. Go to the Edit menu bar and select Insert String. Type in: Name:KILL. In the blank box type in Killerkidd. Go to the File menu and click Save. Save it in your RA2 folder as RA2.csf.

That's it. You have added a new infantry unit called "Killerkidd". Follow the same basic procedure when adding future units. Remember, the more you do this, the easier it becomes, and the fewer errors you will make.