Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 12:41 am Post subject:
Modding limitations in the remasters
I am looking to collect a list of all the limitations in terms of modding the remasters (and a few related limitations in the GlyphX engine for that matter)
Here is what I know of so far in terms of limits:
1.There is no way for the game code to change the name of an object at runtime, objects will always use the values from ObjectNameTextID and ObjectDescriptionTextID in cncbuildables.xml/rabuildables.xml or I think also stuff from cncrules.xml. There should be some way to override this by saying "use this string ID instead of the one in the xml" (and then the GlyphX-side would use that and display the appropriate localized string as needed)
2.There appears to be no way to change cncrules.xml in a mod meaning you can't change the game difficulty settings or the name override stuff in your mod (as mentioned I think that ties into point #1 above). Some analysis/reverse engineering shows that cncrules.xml is read before the mods are loaded and read. There should be some way to modify cncrules.xml in your mod.
3.It is not possible to add a new theater to the game because the GlyphX engine has hardcoded links between the theater number and what tileset to load and if you add a new theater, the GlyphX engine has no way for you to specify a new tileset to be loaded for that theater containing the theater specific graphics. There should be some way to control the links between theater numbers (as sent by the game code) and tilesets so you can tell GlyphX which tileset to load for your new theater.
4.The Petroglyph map editor has no way to know about up any new items you have added to the game (new units, new templates, new overlays etc) and so there is no way to place those items in your map (unless you have another editor that can place the items for you or some sort of manual editing of the map file). As the map editor source code is unlikely to be released, the information in the map editor that describes all these things (buildings, infantry, overlays, smudges, templates, terrain, theaters, units and anything else hardcoded) should be moved into a file that modders can edit.
5.There is basically zero documentation on the XML files meaning editing things can require trial-and-error or guessing based on what's there. There should be more documentation on the XML files (especially things like house colors), at the very least some schemas or otherwise a full list of valid XML tags etc would be useful.
Anyone know of any other limitations on modding the remasters? QUICK_EDIT
There's no XML object aggregation between two of the same XML files adding different objects when the game loads. One overwrites the other and I'm not sure how that's determined, Perhaps Alphabetically? In fact at the moment I'm not sure how the game behaves when loading conflicting files, but will inevitably come across some interesting instances.
While it would have been nice to have mini mods you could combine together at your discretion, the meta for modding the Remastered is larger more complete experiences instead of minor modifications you can combine together. There's nothing wrong with either approach, And I suppose that's how modding in C&C has been done anywayXD QUICK_EDIT
btw, #1 refers to the fact that (unlike in the original games) its not possible for missions to have overrides that change the name of units/structures. QUICK_EDIT
Another modding limitation (but one that I can't see any way to fix) is that you can't make custom campaigns in the remasters (you can make custom missions but there is no way to combine them into a proper campaign) QUICK_EDIT
It also seems that intro movies and the "play movie" trigger don't work for custom missions. That seems like a genuine bug and should be fixed.
Briefings also do not appear in the pause menu in custom missions the way they do in standard missions (which can make it harder to remember what your mission is) QUICK_EDIT
Another issue with custom missions, the faction colors for enemies are chosen wrong (e.g. things that should be green and show up as green in the legacy graphics show up as blue in the remastered graphics) QUICK_EDIT
Ok so after a bunch of messing around I can confirm that the following issues exist related to unit naming compared to the original. (at least these are the ones I can find where its displaying a different name to what the original game would display)
Issues in Red Alert:
1.Civilian buildings are given names instead of being called "Civilian Building"
2.Civilians are given names instead of being called "Civilian"
3.Technicians are not correctly called "Technician"
Issues in Tiberian Dawn:
1.Civilian buildings are given names instead of being called "Civilian Building"
2.Civilians are given names instead of being called "Civilian"
3.Technicians are not correctly called "Technician"
4.The building with the 3 domes on it should be named "Technology Center" instead of "Prison" (it should only be named "Prison" in Nod mission 3, this could be fixed by using the existing NameOverride stuff as is used for Red Alert).
CNCRules.xml not being editable prevents the NameOverride stuff from being changed but if that's fixed, the problem with being able to override the name of units at runtime should go away (also assuming the above mentioned bugs especially the "prison" one are solved) QUICK_EDIT
2 more name related things I found. First is that for Allies mission 5 the building with the 3 domes is named "Prison" (something the original game didn't do but something that I assume to be a bug fix given what the mission involves).
Second is something that is definitely a bug from what I can see is that the "IsNominal" flag (which makes stuff display their actual name instead of "Enemy xxx" when you mouse over it) does not get properly interpreted for units and infantry, just buildings.
The original game used the flag for units and infantry as well. QUICK_EDIT
Going over this thread in the context of the latest patch, here is what I have found (most likely these couldn't be fixed due to lack of time and all the many other far more important things they had to do for this patch):
1.Being able to change cncrules.xml is now possible so you can absolutely use NameOverrides (and mod code) to give things any name you like as well as changing the difficulty settings.
2.Its unclear about theater changing and what, if anything, they have done there.
3.The map editor is open source so all the limitations in it are no longer a problem, people can change it how they want.
4.XML documentation still doesn't exist but with the map editor source its at least possible to get a better idea of what the house color data (for example) is actually doing.
5.Custom campaigns are obviously not possible (and will never be) as that would be a LOT of work.
6.Movies appear to be working for custom single player missions now (so says CCHyper anyway)
7.Briefings still do not appear in the pause menu for custom missions (an analysis of how this works suggests it would have been very difficult to fix)
8.The issue with house colors and custom missions is supposed to be fixed.
9.Civilians and civilian buildings are still given names (unlike in the original game)
10.Technicians are still not called technician
11.The "Technology Centre" is still called "Prison" in TD (it shouldn't be called that except in a few missions)
12.It looks like the IsNominal flag is still not respected for infantry or units. QUICK_EDIT
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Modding limitations in the remasters
