Adding Factions

undergoesreprieve · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 18 Nov 2022

Looking for a canonical answer for how to add new factions to Tiberian Sun.

So far I've been experimenting with rules.ini and added a bunch of new units, weapons, warheads, etc.

Following the tutorial here:
https://www.ppmsite.com/tsnewbieguide/

I've been adding my new factions to the end of the relevant sections, ie:

Code:

[Houses]
0=GDI
1=Nod
2=Neutral
3=Special
4=NodTest

Code:

[Sides]
GDI=GDI
Nod=Nod
Civilian=Neutral
Mutant=Special
NodTest=NodTest

And finally in the "Country Statistics" section:

Code:

[NodTest]
Name=NODTEST
Suffix=NODTEST
Prefix=T
Color=Green
Multiplay=yes
Side=NodTest
SmartAI=yes

I tried to follow the same convention as the GDI and Nod sections, ie, "Name" and "Suffix" are both in all caps.

I noticed something odd here, the Nod section has "Side=GDI" ... not sure why that is.

I also added NodTest as an "Owner" to both the MCV unit and the Construction Yard structure.

After doing this, I don't see the new faction in the side selection dropdown in the skirmish game creation screen.

I'm sure there is something basic I'm missing here.

I did see this also:

https://ppmforums.com/topic-34943/multiple-mcvs-conyards-and-factions/

But this is talking about changing the MCV per faction, and I don't want to do that. I want to have the regular old MCV for each faction. (Also, I don't really like the caveats that come along with that too.)

Also, that tutorial is almost 10 years old. I'm sure there is a better way to simply add a new faction or two.

If it matters, I'm running Tiberian Sun installed from CnCNet. (And all my rules.ini changes so far have worked great)

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Original TS does not fully support additional factions. CnCNet may not have included all the patches for the same.

Use latest TSClient - https://ppmforums.com/post-608151/tiberian-sun-client/#608151

Use example - https://ppmforums.com/post-608373/ts-client-unique-mcvs-and-conyards/#608373

undergoesreprieve · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 18 Nov 2022

Thank you!! This is awesome, I didn't realize TS was still getting updates like this.

So I copied my existing "TiberianSun_Online" directory to "TiberianSun_Online.old" (just to have a backup).

I unzipped the v6 update and copied all files into "TiberianSun_Online". I then extracted that 7z archive example and copied all those files into "TiberianSun_Online" also.

I can confirm that exes are overwritten, I copied everything into the root directory correctly, ie "TiberianSun_Online".

However, when creating a skirmish game, I still only see the two sides.

I then tried removing "TiberianSun_Online" and reinstalling TS via CnCNet installer as perhaps CnCNet got that 6.0 update somewhere along the way, and tried the same process to install the mod, copied all the files into "TiberianSun_Online", still no luck.

I think I'm not updating TS to 6.0 correctly, must be some issue with the fact that it's CnCNet or something. I'm going to dig around and see what I can find about the correct update process. Thank you so much! Excited to get factions working!

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

TSClient and CnCNet are not compatible and are managed by different parties.

Start fresh with TSClient 6 and try the example (read the Info.txt). Later you can redo your changes one by one into TSClient.

undergoesreprieve · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 18 Nov 2022

Thank you, understood.

A small problem with this... I'm on Linux, and normally CnCNet just works perfectly, installs the wineprefix, libs, everything that is needed.

I did that manually for TS6, installed dotnet45 and xna40.

Everything seems to run fine, but then the game hangs on "Deploying forces to combat zone..."

I then modified the original cncnet launch script to try and use the same wineprefix cncnet as TS6, and it gives me an error saying .Net 4.5 is missing.

So it looks like TS6 uses .Net 4.5 whereas cncnet TS does not.

I seem to remember having the same problem with Twisted Insurrection, it would just hang on "Deploying forces to combat zone...".

My apologies, but I guess my question now becomes "Any tips on getting TS to work in wine" ?

I'm not sure why it hangs on "Deploying forces to combat zone..." but I was guessing it had to do with the renderer, I'm guessing the in game renderer is different from the menu, so I tried every combination of renderer settings but no luck there.

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Renderer Default should be without any ddraw wrapper.

Check if it helps - https://ppmforums.com/topic-62364/wine-and-twisted-insurrection/

undergoesreprieve · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 18 Nov 2022

Thank you!! That did the trick, TI and TS6 both work perfectly now.

Now back to this mod...I copied all the files into the root of the TS6 dir, but still only see two factions in the dropdown menu when creating a skirmish.

Is there something else I need to do?

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Read every word in Info.txt. Current version of TSClient (call as TSC6) has minor changes, so it would be better to compare the 2 directories provided in the example and apply the changes to a fresh copy of TSC6. If you have missed, INI files in Resources sub-directory also need changes and new side needs its side specific mix files. Dropdown sides are picked up from Resources/GameOptions.ini->Sides=.

In the example, I have used old MCV where as in current TSC6, a BASEUNIT is used for that purpose. Once you get this running, later if you want to, you can simplify to use single MCV and conyard for all factions.