Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:16 pm Post subject:
Editing Unit Stats in Generals
Hello there!
So recently, I've been going on a C&C journey through every C&C game ever made after buying TUC on Origin (except for Renegade because I've already played that one to death). I've recently started Generals after finishing RA2/YR, with a short break in between to focus on my schoolwork, However, I wanted to change some unit stats (mostly hitpoints to give me a bit of an edge), looked around and discovered that with SAGE, all unit stats are packed into the INI.BIG file. I unpacked it using FinalBIG 0.4 but don't really know where to even start. There are a *ton* of files here. Any pointers?
I should stress, I have NO DESIRE to use these modified units online. Cheating in MP dosen't appeal to me at all. And I imagine I'd be caught real fast
I should stress too, I have the Origin TUC pack, but I have the patched launchers installed.
TibEd2 did pack my changes into a BIG file but, it seems like they didn't take? At least when I loaded my save game for Nuclear Winter it didn't take. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 18 Jun 2005 Location: Dordrecht, the Netherlands
Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 8:26 pm Post subject:
Rule(s) of modding: always edit ini files by hand, as tools just mess it up. Try to get around the whole idea of Generals modding by hand as soon as possible so you can ditch TibEd2. Also, never edit the original .big/.mix files directly, as you need to reinstall the game in case you want to remove your mod.
With that sorted out, your best bet is to initially make a backup of your ZH folder in case you frak something up. You can do without it, but cleaning it up when you want to play unmodded, or a different mod can be hard.
You indeed need to extract the INI.big to get to the files you need. To create a mod, you can either extract the whole folder structure from INI.big and copy it to your ZH folder. ZH, just like TS and RA2, can read loose ini files just fine, as long as they are in the same folder tree as they are in the INI.big. This way they will overwrite the ones from the INI.big
In case you are familiar with TS/RA2 modding, Generals works a bit alike, but also different. Compared with TS/RA2 where most modding is done in the rules.ini, here everything is split up in seperate .ini files. Most are self-describing (Weapons.ini contains all the weapons ie), while other require some research first (ObjectCreationList.ini is one that is a bit complex, but you will need it many times ie).
Your best bet is to look up a unit and see how the code looks like, and change simple stuff, like the cost or health. As said, Generals modding is a bit harder then TS/RA2 modding, so take slow steps. It is also a lot less forgiving with mistakes, and unlike TS/RA2 the error message isn't helpful at all; it's even counter-effective as it says it may be your hardware frakking up, while you just made a spelling mistake in example.
Besides this, I advice you check the tools (and tricks) in the following link: Generals Modding Tools and Tricks (just made this one) QUICK_EDIT
so the ini in the folder get used by the game instead of the ones in the big file? if so he could just let tibed2 create new ini files in the folder and then edit these either by hand or with tibed2. When he doesn't like his mod anymore just delete the ini files and you got good old generals back from the original ini files that are still in the big. _________________ Free Tibed!
EA for worst company of the decade! QUICK_EDIT
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Editing Unit Stats in Generals
