INI-Editing

The process of editing the Engine's INI-Files. This is technically equal to "modding", as in the moment you edited the INIs, you modified the game.

In the case of CnC games, this can either be done with a normal text editor like wordpad (as most people do), or with a special tool like TibEd.

RA2YR Guide - Rules code (by Detail)

Intro - How to navigate the "Rulesmd.ini". You dont have to remeber (or read) this to make a mod, but is useful.

Open - Open "Rulesmd.ini" in "WordPad.exe".

Layout - The Rule of RA2YR are split into main sections "[General]", "[InfantryTypes]", "[VehicleTypes]", "[AircraftTypes]", "[BuildingTypes]", Art List, "[Warheads]", "[MultiplayerDialogSettings]", "[AI]", Item Statistics, Weapon Statistics, Projectiles Statistics, Warhead Statistics and Special Weapon types. Theres is alot there !

Parts - This list shows what each section of the rules is used for.

Name. - Dose?

[General] - Containes a varity of code
[InfantryTypes] - Contains a list of all the infantry used in the game.
[VehicleTypes] - Contains a list of all the Tanks & Boats used in the game.
[AircraftTypes] - Contains a list of all the Landably AirCraft used in the game.
[BuildingTypes]- Contains a list of all the Buildings used in the game, including Civilian.
Art List This is a long list of all the Art and Animations used by the game.
[Warheads]- Contains a list of all the weapon bullet types used by the game.
[MultiplayerDialogSettings] - A small section of code that can be edited to give things like more money or units at the start of a game.
[AI] - An area of code that conrols basic A.I.
Item Statistics - This large area of code is the most used, it contains the code for all Infantry, Units and Aircraft in the game.
Weapon Statistics - Contains the code for all the weapons in the game.
Projectiles Statistics - The code for a weapons fired item.
Warhead Statistics - Contains the code for all the bullets in the game.
Special Weapon types - Small section of code used to customise the superweapons.

Concluson - With this general knolage of the rules it should make following parts of the Guide easyer to understand.

Common INI Coding Mistakes (by Kravvitz)

• Spelling and capitalization errors.
• Missing list entry.
• Missing art(md).ini entry.
• Bad techlevel, prerequistites, and/or owners.

Things you have to know (by DCoder)

Before you start reading the tutorials, reade this article to make sure you know what is necessary.

• INI files are case-sensitive. This isn't stressed enough. The files are case-sensitive, so if you reference a weapon called BIGGUN, you have to have [BIGGUN], not [BigGUn], not [BiGGUN], not [biggun], not [BIGGUn] or any other way. It's spelling must be consistent.
• You can use spaces between [ brackets ], but it's best not to.
• Some of the INI files need some dummy lines in the end, else they won't work. This is because of a parsing bug in the RA2 code, which prevents the last section from being read correctly.
• Read the DeeZire's INI Editing Guide. It is an invaluable source of information.
• Read the Glossary of Common Editing Terms

• See also: NCO-Bug