Think Red Alert 2 !

First Look On the files ...

ART.INI is a text file which contains the "hooks" needed for Red Alert Two to display graphics. If graphics are not unlocked here, either nothing will show or the game will crash. To unlock an unused graphic you must make an entry such as:

[NAME]
Voxel=yes
Remapable=yes

It would be safe to just copy another entry and change the name. Right now we're only dealing with vehicles, which are all stored in a 3D graphic format called "voxels". These "volume pixels" files describe the size, shape, and some coloring of each unit. Certain units, tanks for example, will consist of more than one component. Each component is normally stored in a seperate voxel file. If you want to view the raw voxels you'll have to use a viewer such as comes with XCC utilites.
 

RULES.INI is the text file which controls what units and structures do. This is where we will do the bulk of our work. Note that any "new" graphics needs to be "hooked" in the ART.INI first before you can use it. To add a totally new unit you must add the name to the list of units that is near the top of this file. Then add a new unit entry down with the others. Even experience mod makers start out a new unit by copying a similar old unit and changing what they need to.

Doing A Quick Visual Test: Let's say that you have a new unit, or changed the graphic of an old unit with an "Image=" line. You could boot up Red Alert Two, start a skirmish mission, build all the structures, and then see if you did it right. Or, you could start FinalAlert, start a new map, and place your new unit. I think you'll find FinalAlert much faster for a visual check. Of course, if you want to check movement, sounds and weapons you'll have to run a test mission, but that's what test maps are for.

Where Do They Come From? There are three sources of the over thirty "leftovers" units in Red Alert Two . The first batch were test voxels created during the development of Tiberian Sun. These units are all from the original Red Alert. This sound better than it really is, most of these voxels are much smaller than the scale used in Red Alert Two. The second source comes from Tiberian Sun itself. These voxels loom much better as they are closer to scale and design to the Red Alert Two units. The third source is the small batch of deleated Red Alert Two units. Sadly, this is a very short list.

Owner Color Explained: Every player controlled voxel has areas on it that change color to match their owner. This can also be seen in non-voxel SHP graphics for buildings and SHP based vehicles and infantry. All of the test voxels were designed so that the entire body changes color, except for some minor decorations. From Tiberian Sun and on, except for the GDI Ampihb. APC, owner color is restrected to areas or bands of color. In addition, those units which were GDI in Tiberian Sun have a "GDI Gold" theme while Nod units are mostly silver.
 

1TNK - Light Tank - much too small to look good. When you see these on your screen you'll wish they were bigger, they would make nice IFVs for a third force.
2TNK - Medium Tank - may too short to look good. This voxel has the look of a test, it does the job, but there's nothing to catch your eye. Not very useable.
3TNK - Original Soviet Heavy Tank - small, but barely useable. If you wanted to give some force a bunch of "leftover" Soviet Tanks, these could do. Iraq would be a good choice.
4TNK - Original Mammoth Tank - a little small, but this is perhaps the most useable of the batch. This voxel has a lot of nice details, including tail lights and those side-mounted missile launchers. You could easily use these as "old" Soviet units.
ARTY - The Original Mobile Artillery - too small and the wrong style. There are just too many other artillery options to be interested in this unit, even as something to give a Tech Army.
FTNK - Nod's Flame Tank - this is too small and the style does not match anything else in Red Alert Two. Since RA2 doesn't do flame very well (don't you miss that?) we can't capture the right feel for this unit.
MLRS - This is the original GDI Rocket Launcher, sadly it's very small.
MNLY - This is the original GDI APC, only built for midgets.
MRJ - Either the Mobile Radar Jammer or the original Mobile HQ (or a unit named after a club that is a few blocks noth of Westwood Pacific) - while still on the small side, what makes this unit work is that you can easily make the tiny radar dish spin (TurretSpins=yes).
TRUK - Here is the original Troop Truck as seen in the first Red Alert. To get a feel for the scale difference put it next to the Troop Truck that is in Red Alert Two.

Special Note: 2TNK, 3TNK, 4TNK, MLRS and MRJ all need "Turret=yes".
 

APC - This is the GDI APC. It looks a little like a modern Soviet BMP, so it could be an interesting unit to give the Soviets.
BGGY- Ah yes, your classic dune buggy! Give this guy a texas voice and let 'm rip. Yehaa!
ART2 - The Mobile Artilly looks like a small cousin to the Howitzer. Could be a small Tank Destroyer. Make sure "Turret=no" or it will look starnge when it moves.
BIKE - Could be nice for a biker gang mod, too small for most folks I think.
DSHP - Big, that's the best thing going for it. Use with Kirov code for a nice effect.
HMEC - Yes! This guy actually walks! Plus he's big enough to feel right at home in RA2.
HVR - If you use the code from one of the landing craft and add the HoverMissile you will get an exact copy of the Hover Missile Launcher from Tiberian Sun. That is, if that's what you are interested in having. Don't forget "Turret=yes".
ICBM - It doen't do much, but it looks nice. Could be a prop, though most of the "deployed" graphics are also available. Would take some work to make this look right.
ORCA - The original ORCA, ready to go.
ORCAB - Here's Bomber!
ORCATRAN - They replaced the Chinook with THIS?
SONIC - The Sonic Tank is good size, so give it Flipper's Sonic Zap and call it a day. One interesting alternative is to set "TurretSpins=yes" and give it some missile. The "sonic" dish looks a lot like a search radar, so this would easily work as a mobile SAM.
TRNSPORT - Another big ORCA, the Carryall version.
 

CPLANE - Finally, we figured out the real name for this aircraft, which I still think may have been modeled after the Badger Bomber from the original Red Alert.
FORTRESS - This is the unused "Flying Fortress" bomber which may have been replaced by the Kirov. Nice looking flying wing. There's a backstory to this unit that I'd love to hear.
HELI - a small yellow helicopter, sadly the rotors don't spin. This looks like a first draft of the Destroyer's helicopter, it has the same color. If the blades spun it would be useable.
HOWI - This is the unused Howitzer, which looks like was going to go to the Soviet side due to the colors it has. It looks very similar to the Tank Destroyer.
LPST - This is a large tractor [undeployed TibSun unit] like vehicle, not military looking.
LTNK- This Light Tank seems to use the same "high tech" turret as the IFV does when you put certain infantry into it. Not really an "exciting" unit.
PHAL - Some people think this is just some strange looking tank. But if you take a close look at the voxel, you can't really see either wheels or tracks like you do on every other land vehicle. While it could be some kind of hovercraft, I think it looks more like a jet propelled water craft.
TRACTOR - You saw it in a couple of the preview shots, this is little farm tractor.
WRMN - This looks like an early version of the Soviet War Miner. It's a little smaller and there seems to be no alternative "no back" version. It almost looks as if it were scaled down to match the Tiberian Sun units.
 

Adding New Units Part One: While it is possible to add a large number of new entries to Red Alert Two representing dozens of new units, there are costs. At the very least you'll get the annoying "New Construction Options" every time a new unit pops out of the war factory. After a while this will get very old. In addition, your mod may screw up certain single player triggers to the point where some official maps crash. One very good option would be to either rename or move your modified RULES.INI file when you want to play "official". If you go that route then feel free to add as many new units as you wish.

Adding New Units Part Two: If, on the other hand, you want a more controlled mod, then you can use one of the "open" vehicle slots. These are entries that are not really used in Red Alert and didn't get deleated by Westwood. They include:

APACHE - the unbuilt attack helicopter, not used.
CARRIERB - was going to be a multiplayer special, not used in Red Alert Two
DREDB - was going to be a multiplayer special, not used in Red Alert Two
HIND - yet another unworking unit - Don't touch this one, it's in the update.
HOWI - partial unit, not used in Red Alert Two
LTNK - partial unit, not used in Red Alert Two
PICK - this points to the tiny TibSun pickup truck, not used in Red Alert Two.
WINI - this points to the tiny TibSun RV Camper, not used in Red Alert Two.

So, we have eight (though you should ignore the HIND for now). Even if you plan to activate both the Howitzer and the Light Tank, you have still four slots. But what can you do with only five new vehicles? Here's one of your first lessons in mod making. It's not good enough anymore just to make a mod that adds a gazillon new units. You have to start out with a perspective, present a reason, tie things together. Step back for a moment and realize that for one thing there are only four multiplayer specific vehicles. This means that you could double the special units. This gets more interesting if you throw the Light Tank and Howitzer back into the mix. The following code is for an American Scout unit that we've made out of the Nod Attack Buggy. Since the dune buggy was (as far as I know) an American creation, it's natural to give it to the Americans as a multiplayer special. Note how we're using some text from a non-name list and the voices from the Teaxan civilian. Because it is not as flexible as the IFV, we'll make it cheaper and just a little faster.

[WINI]
UIName=THEME:SCOUT
Image=BGGY             ; assumes graphic is unlocked
Name=American Scout
Category=Transport
Primary=CRM60
Secondary=none
Strength=200
PipScale=Passengers
Passengers=1
DeployTime=.022
Armor=light
Turret=no
TechLevel=2
Sight=8
Speed=12
Owner=British,French,Germans,Americans
RequiredHouses=Americans
AllowedToStartInMultiplayer=yes
Cost=300
Points=40
ROT=5
Crusher=no
SelfHealing=no
Crewed=yes
IsSelectableCombatant=yes
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
VoiceSelect=CivTexanSelect
VoiceMove=CivTexanMove
VoiceAttack=CivTexanAttackCommand
VoiceFeedback=CivTexanFear
VoiceSpecialAttack=CivTexanMove
MoveSound=IFVMoveStart
DieSound=CivTexanDie
Locomotor={4A582741-9839-11d1-B709-00A024DDAFD1}
Weight=2
MovementZone=Normal
ThreatPosed=10    ; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,SmallGreySSys
DebrisTypes=TIRE
DebrisMaximums=4
CarriesCrate=no
ImmuneToRadiation=no
ImmuneToPsionics=no
Size=2
SizeLimit=1
Insignificant=yes
Trainable=no

Special Tip: How would you like to add two vehicle slots free and clear? You can, for a tiny price. If you take a good look at the code for either of the Harvestors you'll see a line such as "UnloadingClass=CMON ". That's right, the graphic that Red Alert Two uses to show the Haverstors unloading is soft coded. This means that you can change the line so that the alternate graphics is the same as the normal graphics. Yes, you won't see the Harvestors flip their tail gates, but that will be the only effect. And you will have two more open slots to play with.
 

Adding Units Part Three: There is a third road that you can go down, and that is to modify existing unbuildable units, such as civilians and civilian vehicles. The only bad side to this route is that certain maps may get a little strange. Picture that rampaging Police Car replaced by a Mammoth Mark II. However, with a little thought, you can come up with something pretty usefull. Here's a code snippit to do just that:

[COP]
Image=HMEC           ; assumes graphic is unlocked

Adding New Units Part Four: The next way is to "upgrade" existing Red Alert units with other airwork. For an interesting effect, replace the Hornet with the Scrin Fighter. Again, you want to aim towards telling a story. Why do different countries have these new units? Setting up a game plan ahead of time will cut down on the work later on. The following is a snippit that replaces the Intruder with the Tiberian Sun ORCA.

[ORCA]
UIName=Name:ORCA
Name=Intruder
Image=ORCA                ; assumes graphic is unlocked

Adding New Units Part Five: This last process is a little different from the others in that is doesn't add new units that are buildable. Instead, we add totally new units so that they can be placed on maps. While they may only be props, you can add the Ninth Army (or Tenth after Yuri comes on the scene) to a battle. For example, you may decide that all of those Tech buildings should be defended by a Tech Army, so maybe you have to make a little effort to get those Oil Pumps. Prime candidates for this are all of the test voxels.