Countries

This page should correctly be named "[Countries]"; it is wrong due to technical restrictions.

This section of rules(md).ini is a zero-starting list of all available countries in the game.

Countries and Sides

Editing/adding countries or sides is one of the most common questions asked by new modders. This should provide the necessary information regarding this subject.

RA2/YR

Basic Info

The countries are listed in the [Countries] section of the rules(md).ini in this format:

; PCG; WARNING; Do not remove, override or reorder the major 9 houses for skirmish
; or LAN game maps.  These need to go into the house types array first and without
; interruption by other types of houses, or we will get evil crashes.
[Countries]
0=Americans
1=Alliance
2=French
3=Germans
4=British
5=Africans
6=Arabs
7=Confederation
8=Russians
9=YuriCountry ;this country appears only in YR, it is not present in RA2
10=GDI
11=Nod
12=Neutral
13=Special

The sides are listed in the [Sides] section of the rules(md).ini in this format:

; ******* Side Type List *******
; The combantants can be grouped according to side. This
; lists the sides and their respective member houses.
[Sides]
GDI=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance
Nod=Russians,Africans,Confederation,Arabs
ThirdSide=YuriCountry ;this entry appears only in YR, it is not present in RA2
Civilian=Neutral
Mutant=Special

As you can see, the [Countries] list requires the countries belonging to the GDI side (allies, in this case), to be listed first, followed by countries in the Nod side (soviets), then followed by ThirdSide countries (Yuri) (YR only), and then the unplayable countries (Civilian side, then Mutant).

Each country in the list also has it's own section, detailing its properties:

[Americans]
UIName=Name:Americans
Name=America
Suffix=Allied
Prefix=G
Color=Gold
Multiplay=yes
Side=GDI
SmartAI=yes
;VeteranInfantry=E1
;CostUnitsMult=.85

Some of these tags are assumed to be unused/leftovers, but it requires confirmation.

UIName points to a CSF string which will be displayed in the country selection screen for this country.

Name defines an additional internal name, that can be used in Owner= tags along with the section name. Both will work.

Suffix is Allied for GDI side countries, and Soviet for Nod and ThirdSide. This is believed to be left over from TD/RA.

Prefix is G for GDI side, B for Soviets and ThirdSide. This is believed to be left over from TD/RA.

Color is a default color for this country. This is the default colour this country will be in a single player map, though it is often overidden by mappers.

Multiplay is yes for countries which should be enabled in the Skirmish/Multiplayer country select menu, no for others.

MultiplayPassive is no for countries which should be enabled in the Skirmish/Multiplayer country select menu, yes for others.

Side decides which side's EVA/GUI/side specific actions this country should get. NOTE: the starting units/tech tree is determined by this country's listing in [Sides].

SmartAI is yes for all countries playable in Multiplayer.

VeteranXXX= and YYYZZZMult= are detailed in more detail below.

VeteranXXX and YYYZZZMult=

You can grant some bonuses to certain countries. VeteranXXX= makes the specified unit(s) build already at veteran status. XXX can be Infantry, Unit, or Aircraft. Keep in mind that these refer to [InfantryTypes], [VehicleTypes] and [AircraftTypes] accordingly. Otherwise issues can occur.

YYYZZZMult= gives the country a specific bonus.

YYY can be one of:

Armor
Cost
Speed
BuildTime

ZZZ can be one of:

Aircraft
Units
Infantry
Buildings
Defenses

You simply concatenate these two strings, and add "Mult" to the end. Logically, SpeedBuildingsMult= and similar crazy bonuses don't work. There is also IncomeMult which is a special case that doesn't follow the above logic and affects a countries income.

All of the possible combinations are included below:

VeteranAircraft=
VeteranUnits=
VeteranInfantry=

ArmorAircraftMult=
ArmorUnitsMult=
ArmorInfantryMult=
ArmorBuildingsMult=
ArmorDefensesMult=

CostAircraftMult=
CostUnitsMult=
CostInfantryMult=
CostBuildingsMult=
CostDefensesMult=

SpeedAircraftMult=
SpeedUnitsMult=
SpeedInfantryMult=

BuildTimeAircraftMult=
BuildTimeUnitsMult=
BuildTimeInfantryMult=
BuildTimeBuildingsMult=
BuildTimeDefensesMult=

IncomeMult=
Firepower=
ROF=

(All these values are straight multipliers to default values.)

SpeedBuildingsMult= and SpeedDefensesMult= have been excluded because the tags are useless because buildings and defense do not require a speed value and as such there is nothing to multiply.

Art assets related to countries

The country flags and loading screens are actually bound to the country's index in the [Countries] list, not the country name. Here's a list of what means what:

Country index	Default country	Flag file	Loading screen file	Loading screen palette 1
0	Americans	usai.pcx	ls800ustates.shp	mplsu.pal
1	Alliance (Korea)	japi.pcx	ls800korea.shp	mplsk.pal
2	French	frai.pcx	ls800france.shp	mplsf.pal
3	Germans	geri.pcx	ls800germany.shp	mplsg.pal
4	British	gbri.pcx	ls800ukingdom.shp	mplsuk.pal
5	Africans (Libya)	djbi.pcx	ls800libya.shp	mplsl.pal
6	Arabs (Iraq)	arbi.pcx	ls800iraq.shp	mplsi.pal
7	Confederation (Cuba)	lati.pcx	ls800cuba.shp	mplsc.pal
8	Russians	rusi.pcx	ls800russia.shp	mplsr.pal
9 (YR only)	YuriCountry (Yuri)	yrii.pcx	ls800yuri.shp	mpyls.pal

¹ ↑ The palettes are country-specific only in YR. In RA2, all countries share the same palette - mpls.pal.

All of these names are hardcoded via array data in the executable itself.

Text assets related to countries

• The country list you see in the country selection screen is not hardcoded - it builds a list of all countries in the order you list them in the [Countries], using their associated UINames.

Text assets list:

Note: Like the art assets above, this table depends on the country's index in the country list, not its name. So the first country in the [Countries] list (#0 below) will always use stt:playersideamericans, and so on.

Country index	Tooltip 2	Loading screen text #1 3	Loading screen text #2 4	Loading screen text #3 5
0	stt:playersideamericans	name:para	loadbrief:usa	name:americans
1	stt:playersidekorea	name:beagle	loadbrief:korea	name:alliance
2	stt:playersidefrance	name:gtgcan	loadbrief:french	name:french
3	stt:playersidekgermany	name:tnkd	loadbrief:germans	name:germans
4	stt:playersidebritain	name:snipe	loadbrief:british	name:british
5	stt:playersidelibya	name:dtruck	loadbrief:libya	name:africans
6	stt:playersideiraq	name:deso	loadbrief:iraq	name:arabs
7	stt:playersidecuba	name:terror	loadbrief:cuba	name:confederation
8	stt:playersiderussia	name:ttnk	loadbrief:russia	name:russians
9 (YR only)	stt:playersideyuricountry	name:yuri	loadbrief:yuricountry	name:yuricountry

² ↑ These are the tooltips ("Britain can train Snipers, USA can drop paratroopers, etc") that you see at the bottom of the country selection screen.

³ ↑ This is the loading screen's top string name (typically the country's special unit's name).

⁴ ↑ This is the description below #1 (typically a description of that special unit).

⁵ ↑ This is the country name in the lower right corner of the loading screen.

In conclusion, if you reorder the [Countries] list (which is almost a necessity if you intend to switch some sides), you will need to work extensively on making it look correct. To do that, you have several chances:

• A. Make all [Country_Name] sections point to completely different CSF strings. Like name:country0, name:country1, name:country2, etc. Then adjust these names, and correct all the original CSF entries which are used by countries you moved in the list. This means you'll have to adjust 1 extra CSF entry for each country.

• B. Swap the UIName entries of the Countries so that the first country on the list gets the name:Americans entry, the second gets name:Korea, etc. Then correct them to say the correct things. This means you'll only need to adjust the CSF for the countries you moved around.

• C. See the last section.

Editing hardcoded elements

All the previously mentioned "hardcoded" items can be modified in the exe. For example, it is possible to patch the exe to take different flag names (even flg0.pcx, flg1.pcx etc.. would be better IMO) , [which is a 10 second job], and different CSF strings. But this way, you need to distribute a patcher with your mod, which bites. And can interfere with The Project's patcher, or uninstalling the mod.

TS

In Tiberian Sun and Firestorm, the [Countries] list is named differently, it's called the [Houses] list.