Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:29 pm Post subject:
C&C hidden options
Subject description: True civ Names, 6-Player LAN, MCV undeploy, separate Helipad...
This tool has been discontinued in favour of the C&C95 v1.06 patch, which has all of these options (and a ton more) as handy ini keys in the rules.ini file
(Note that the tool is still usable for DOS C&C)
These options were first found by Rambo on the CNCNZ forum, here.
I made a nice little tool to enable & disable them at will
Note that some options aren't identified (except for the string they're associated with in the exe file)
The program is written in C#, and requires the .net framework 2.0 to run.
Features:
-Has 13 options to enable, much like the stuff in the [General] section in RA1's rules.ini
-Shows a longer description tooltip when holding the mouse over each option
-Loads & saves the path of the file to edit in an INI file
-Scans registry for both TFD and normal C&C95 installs when no INI-file is found
-Supports English, German and French versions of the game.
Layout & usage:
-Left column shows the current status in the exe file.
-Right column shows the user selection.
-Press [Change...] to change the exe file to edit.
-Press [Apply] to apply the user's changes to the EXE file.
-Press [Refresh] to reset the user selection checkboxes to the EXE's values.
-Press [Reset] to remove all changes from the EXE file.
-Press [Close] to close the program... duh
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:48 pm Post subject:
Re: C&C95 hidden options
Yuri o07 wrote:
Btw, does "combat" enable the soldiers do martial arts?
Nyerguds wrote:
Note that some options aren't identified (except for the string they're associated with in the exe file)
^ That means those with a not-so-clear description :p
The unknown options (that seem to have no noticeable effects ingame) are "Combat", "Overrun" and "Scrolling". Last edited by Nyerguds on Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
It seems like the combat has no effect, and the beta sounds are just the original sounds without all weapon effect/explosion sounds. The wheeled vehicle rotation works fine, but I'm not sure if it's such a great feature... _________________
OmegaBolt wrote:
TS is abysmal to play, unless you're just casually city building in it.
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject:
If you download and run it, you get extensive descriptions when holding your mouse over each of the options.
"Separate helipad purchase" means that you buy a helipad without a helicopter on it, for only $300, instead of the default way where you get a helicopter with each helipad you buy, but pay $1500 for the whole thing together.
This is correct, since the 2 types of attack helicopters (orca & apache) cost $1200.
(there's a bug in the game related to this, namely that the helipad ALWAYS builds as fast as a $300 building)
What do you mean with 'properly display enemy units'? Show the names of enemy units? That can be enabled with data editors like UGE or TibEd, but there's no global option for it.
There seems to be a misunderstanding here. These options aren't something I created, they simply ARE in the exe, made by the WW programmers. I just made a program to easily enable and disable them. That's all. Last edited by Nyerguds on Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:08 pm; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 10:02 pm Post subject:
version 1.05 released... this one has a more intensive search method to find the C&C95.exe file on startup.
It will try these things until it finds a valid C&C95.exe file:
1. Reading settings in INI file
2. Looking for C&C95.exe in the current directory
3. Reading the path from the First Decade registry key
4. Reading the path from the Westwood registry key
5. Reading the default install path "c:\westwood\C&C95\C&C95.exe"
Only after all that has passed, the program will give up and just start without opening a file. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject:
Oh, small note... like with zounds.mix, the 'hidden music' is only in the Covert Operations / DOS C&C scores.mix file.
They also aren't really new tracks, so the label 'hidden music' is somewhat incorrect. They are in fact remixes of "Act On Instinct", "Looks Like Trouble" and the score theme "Great Shot!".
I should change that option to "Alternate music"... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: 3,000,000 years away from Earth
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:50 pm Post subject:
Do you mean that this option doesn't add music like Heartbreak, Reaching Out, Enemies to Be Feared or C&C 80's Mix (CovertOps) to the playlist? Most of them are missing in the C&C95 scores.mix though... _________________ I am MrFlibble. Just MrFlibble. From the Potato King to Uncle Arnie to MrFlibble. I am his right hand. FED2k Forums - Westwood Studios' Dune games and more QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 5:46 pm Post subject:
MrFlibble wrote:
Do you mean that this option doesn't add music like Heartbreak, Reaching Out, Enemies to Be Feared or C&C 80's Mix (CovertOps) to the playlist? Most of them are missing in the C&C95 scores.mix though...
Yes and no... this option does NOT control what is in the playlist and what isn't, it just makes sure the game reads music files with the extension .VAR and prefers them over the normal .AUD versions.
Many of these extra themes are indeed .VARs, but the internal music settings in C&C determine that they're not in the playlist.
It comes down to this: I got the data to enable these themes in the playlist, BUT for the .VAR files, even if I do that, I still need to enable this special Alternate Music option to actually get them ingame.
I'm going to release that info on the playlist soon, don't worry. Koen might even put it in his next TibEd, if he has time and after I'm finished listing all overlay & tileset settings.
At the moment, this is the data I got on the playlist:
(music edit list in C&C95 UGE v3.0 beta)
things I identified:
-Name Offset: location in exe file to find the actual filename string
-Name ID: index in strings file (conquer.eng) where this track's name can be found
-Track Length (in seconds)
-Appears in playlist: what needs to be enabled for the true hidden themes
-Has alternate: also needs to be enabled for the themes that are only available in .var flavour, though these seem to be set correctly already.
ORCACommander wrote:
how effective is the smarter defense logic?
Try it out?
All right, I'll describe it, sheesh. Actually it's kinda annoying. All units start moving around when attacked. For infantry it's handy, because they scatter when threatened to get crushed. But all your tanks start moving around too, and you can't keep them on the spot.
Also, with this option it becomes totally impossible to destroy tanks with a few single minigunners or chem warriors (see mission The Tiberium Strain). Tanks only try to crush infantry when they're attacked from a distance of 1 cell or less, which made infantry safely able to kill AI tanks by attacking them diagonally (pythagoras - distance is more than 1 cell). However, with them moving around this has become totally impossible, because either the infantry will follow the tank, or the tank will come closer, which usually makes the distance less than 1 cell, and then makes the minigunner very flat. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 12:22 am Post subject:
oh, lol. I'm hardly an expert at TS bugs. I know all about the TD ones though. There are pretty funny ones there too.
(Did you know there's a way to make infantry walk over walls in TD? ) _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:49 pm Post subject:
Hey, if you people are interested, I could make a small C&C Quick Hacks program to do stuff like enabling the hidden themes, and showing enemy unit names.
I'll need some more suggestions on what to implement then, though :p
Might make it into a complete bug fix patch... then I can do more, like fix the civilian building decay bug (caused by the fact C&C thinks the zero-zero power balance for house Neutral is still Low Power) and remove bibs on the buildings where they're totally not needed, like the silo and repair pad..
I want some more useful suggestions of stuff to implement then, though.
Or I could first make this program compatible with DOS C&C (which shouldn't be too hard) _________________ QUICK_EDIT
yes, yes you most certainly should. any smarter AI would be apretiated, playing against a tougher comp is like playing ALL over again. Havister bugs: when there refinerys on two sides of a river and they try to get to the one that they cant, if they CANT get to it, they should switch refinery (or work out IF they can get to it before they go there) make sure they still just stit outside refinerys in use though. maybe one so the harvisters DON just try to run everything over that shoots at them (INCLUDING RECON BIKES!) have you ever noticed how they try to run recon bikes over... one time it actually did, weird, lol.
missing nod units: Make one so nod can build ssm, helipad and chem warriors in the missions. I know theres other hacks to get this, but i feel they were missing.
Visseriods in missions when troopers die in the tiberium too.
Multiple nukes like the multi-play?
perhaps make sam sites better at hitting at least the A-10's so they actually help stop airstricks, AND make air stikes pick a valid targit instead of northern most unit/building.
computer REbuilds helicopters after they die. (lol, the old recon bike lure back to the sam sites at base trick, lol)
Thats all i can think of for now, Id like to think you know the bugs better than me, lol.
I now this isnt what your talking about, but the one thing TD was missing was skirmish, im sure you've thought about it, even if the ai was only as good as the RA1 skirmish, wouldnt be so bad. Itd be a project in itself, i know, and a big one... but we both know, the game missed it... lol.
oh and er... "The program is written in C#, and requires the .net framework 2.0 to run."
how can i get this? im a bit confused.
-Liam QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 2:38 am Post subject:
@Liam (whiteshoes-n-gloves):
You seem to be VERY confused. I'm not talking about improving C&C's AI by hacking; I can't do that. All I'm doing here is enabling hidden options made by the WW programmers. The suggestions I was asking for were stuff within the normal editing possibilities of the game.
My current edting possibilities include stats of units, buildings, aicraft, infantry, weapons, trees, terrain tiles, overlay & music. I can also edit remap colours for each side, give one side the Nod buildings colour exception, and edit the foundations and passability of trees, structures and terrain tiles.
But that's it. I can't do magic. I can't make dead infantry spawn visceroids, I can't improve AI logics, I can't make the AI rebuild helicopters, I can't make harvesters smarter, and I DEFINITELY can't (or even want to) make a Skirmish mode.
See, you'd only find out that the C&C1 AI is NOTHING like the RA1 one. RA1 had a very good, independent AI. The C&C AI s about as smart as a pallet full of bricks. It can't even deploy its MCV unless you specifically program it to do so. Let alone build a base or make units to attack you.
The ONLY things the C&C1 AI can do independently is repair damaged structures and replace destroyed harvesters (IF it has a vehicle factory). That's ALL. Really. For the rest it acts exactly like a player that doesn't touch its game controls.
Also, I'm NOT enabling these so-called "hidden" units. They are not hidden, they're simply multiplayer-only. Not to mention, even through editing there is no way of enabling the helipad for Nod other than capturing a GDI construction yard.
One thing I MIGHT pull off, after a LOT of research, is making the nuke repeat. But don't hold your breath...
@Gufu:
-Airstrike
-I Am (Destructible Times)
-Heartbreak
-DIE!!
-Enemies To Be Feared
and then the remixes of "Looks Like Trouble", "Act on Instinct" and "Great Shot!" _________________ Last edited by Nyerguds on Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:54 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
Thanks for the tool. It is really helpful. Is there anyway to change the color of the units using the editor? (e.g. changing colour of nod units to blue/green/whatever instead of red)... QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:33 pm Post subject:
Heh, that requires some serious hex editing... not to mention you can't set the actual colours, but just the palette locations it has to use. After all, C&C is always limited to the 256 colours that are loaded on the palette at that moment.
Something that's far easier to do is giving it a completely different colour set like for example the multiplayer orange colour. I've done some tests with that:
I also changed the Nod colour exception (that makes its structures red, while the real Nod colour is grey) to be applied to GDI once. That was pretty funny too.
I can change these radar colours too though, lol. _________________ Last edited by Nyerguds on Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:58 am; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:14 pm Post subject:
well if you got TFD it's in the Covert Ops scores.mix file :-\
(if you installed patch 1.02 the CovOps scores.mix file is called SC-003.MIX) _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Heh, that requires some serious hex editing... not to mention you can't set the actual colours, but just the palette locations it has to use. After all, C&C is always limited to the 256 colours that are loaded on the palette at that moment.
Something that's far easier to do is giving it a completely different colour set like for example the multiplayer orange colour. I've done some tests with that:
I also changed the Nod colour exception (that makes its structures red, while the real Nod colour is grey) to be applied to GDI once. That was pretty funny too.
Thanks and that is exactly what I want. How could I change the colour set of GDI/NOD in single player campaigns to one of the multilayer ones? QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:10 pm Post subject:
Hm... well this is so much easier to see in a disassembler... but okay, I'll look up the offsets for you
One note though... you ARE talking about the English version of C&C95 right? In the german version these offsets are different.
Data types:
Radar colours: one byte, needs a palette index from 00-FF. Check the original C&C palettes for colours, but beware the differences between desert and temperate. Remember, you do NOT need to put a colour value there; just the palette index indicating where the colour is located on the palette.
One thing that's much easier to do is just check the values the other sides use, and copy both the palette reference and the radar colours
remap colours: this needs a reference to a complete 256-byte palette re-order. These palettes can be found at offset 0xEB7E4(+n*0x100) in C&C95.exe. Normally, only the range B0 to BF is different on these palettes, since that's where the remap is.
Anyway, for just switching them none of that matters since all you need to do is edit the references to the palettes. These references are of the form "E4 39 50" (=GDI yellow), but only the middle byte of these actually changes. So here are these middle bytes:
39 - GDI yellow (is just the standard palette)
3A - Nod red
3B - MP Blue
3C - MP Orange
3D - MP Green
3E - Nod Grey
3F - Neutral yellow (is the same as GDI)
Side colour data:
These are the offsets where you need to edit data to change references. All offsets are hexadecimal.
As mentioned above, radar colours need a 1-byte palette location, and remap palettes need 1 byte to adjust the reference to the 256-colour palettes.
Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: 3,000,000 years away from Earth
Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2007 3:31 pm Post subject:
Sorry if this is a bit off-topic (hopefully not), but why do the players Multi1 - Multi6 have grey as their minimap colour in the singleplayer missions? I've never participated in multiplayer games, but I guess they have normal minimap colours in multiplayer..? _________________ I am MrFlibble. Just MrFlibble. From the Potato King to Uncle Arnie to MrFlibble. I am his right hand. FED2k Forums - Westwood Studios' Dune games and more QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2007 12:43 am Post subject:
Yeah, I don't really get that either. But they're indeed shown as grey in single player and as their correct colour in multiplayer. I should check out which palette indexes actually get picked for that.
It's probably something simple, like the indexes GDI uses, but applied to the re-ordered colour palette of the MP team. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject:
OK... Carno just found out that the Overrun option disables tiberium...
after some researh, it seems that it disables the SPAWNING of tiberium. So tiberium patches still grow to maximum density, but will not spread more tiberium, and neither will blossom trees.
It also seems to disable the initial spawning of the existing tiberium when starting a new mission. Loaded savegames will still contain tiberium though.
It's pretty bizarre... I can't find the link with the word "overrun" which is connected to that option in the exe file...
---
On a side note, I uploaded v1.07, which supports DOS C&C. Oddly enough, the alternate music option is missing in DOS C&C 1.22. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: 3,000,000 years away from Earth
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject:
Nyerguds, is there a way to have the special Nod map and score screen music play for Nod while retaining the "normal" music for GDI? Or does extra tracks option do that already? _________________ I am MrFlibble. Just MrFlibble. From the Potato King to Uncle Arnie to MrFlibble. I am his right hand. FED2k Forums - Westwood Studios' Dune games and more QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 6:36 pm Post subject:
nope, these 2 are totally unused... their name strings aren't even in the exe file.
I probably can't even enable them through hacking since it would mean having to add 2 entirely new sections in the songs list. This is pretty much equivalent to what I'd need to do to add a new unit to the game... and I really don't know how to do that _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: 3,000,000 years away from Earth
Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 2:06 pm Post subject:
I also noticed that there are infantry "corpse decay" animations in conquer.mix, called e1rot.shp etc., but their names aren't listed in the exe either. I wonder if there's a way to enable them somehow, too. _________________ I am MrFlibble. Just MrFlibble. From the Potato King to Uncle Arnie to MrFlibble. I am his right hand. FED2k Forums - Westwood Studios' Dune games and more QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:32 am Post subject:
Yeah, don't know about that either. There are no references whatsoever to these files in the exe. In fact these filenames have never been identified until XCC Mixer came along (and I don't know where Olaf got the names from). All I know is they did implement them in RA1...
Hyper wrote:
Nyer, i explained to you how to add new units
Well yea, now I got your upgraded exe I can do it, but before that I had size problems with the mem section to store them in.
I'd still need to change a shitload of references to that memory... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 24 May 2004 Location: Flanders (Be) Posts:300000001
Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:34 pm Post subject:
OK, from Hyper's disassembling work it seems like these are simply conquer.ini settings... but with a twist. The value to add behind them is encoded to a 4-byte ID, kinda like a CRC (or more specifically, kinda like filename IDs in mixfiles), so they can't be decoded. One other example of this (dirty) trick is the "funpark" string, which is encoded in the same way.
Thanks to pd I got a program to generate those IDs though, and I've already generated all strings up to 5 characters. So far, I only found one of these options in it though:
Scores=remix
Put that under [Options] in your conquer.ini, and it plays the remixes, without needing any hacking
Note that you need either DOS C&C (<v1.22), TFD or the Covert Operations to make that work. The normal C&C95 CDs don't contain these remixes, and in DOS C&C 1.22 the Scores option is removed for some bizarre reason.
I got a few more valid strings but one ID can give multiple strings, and I'm quite sure these aren't the correct ones. Nevertheless, they work:
show true civilian names:
TrueNames=bcttb
separate helipad purchase:
Helipad=wpfqq
Undeploy MCV when selling it (has a pretty bad bug with power usage)
MCV=DPGJO
MCV=FPGJN
MCV=NPGJJ
MCV=PPGJI
MCV=RXORZ
(yes, all of those work. Now, since I'm fairly sure C&C1 was made before the whole l33t r0xx0rz zkillz0rz, I think this last one is also just a coincidence)
and of course the one mentioned above, to enable the remix music.
Scores=remix
Scores=temiw
(should be clear which one is the original string there... but temiw works too )
Note that my options enabler tool actually inverts the given option, meaning that both adding the ini option and using the tool on the same option at the same time will disable it again _________________ Last edited by Nyerguds on Thu Aug 07, 2008 2:39 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
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C&C hidden options
thats is just an awesome mental picture.
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