Adding a new Side

Minimal version: 1.05

Adding a new side

This Tutorial is designed to aid people using the RockPatch in the creation of a completly new side.

Adding new countries

I recommend to check out the tutorial about how to add new playable countries, which covers everything you have to do in order to add new countries for your new side.

Adding the new side

Head to the [Sides] section in rulesmd.ini. There you should add your own side (name can be customized) after ThirdSide:

[Sides]
GDI=British,French,Germans,Americans,Alliance
Nod=Russians,Africans,Confederation,Arabs
ThirdSide=YuriCountry
;New Side, it's important that your fourth side is also 4th in the list!
FourthSide=NewCountry ;you can use any name for the side and add any country to it
Civilian=Neutral
Mutant=Special

Now, head to the BaseUnit tag in the [General] section and add your new side's MCV to the list.

Note that all the countries of the new side must be in the Owner list of the new base unit!

In the [General] section, create the FourthPowerPlant tag and attach a valid building type to it, which will be the power plant of the new side (required for AI!).

Note about buildings: with the RockPatch, the game should recognize every first letter for BuildingTypes as valid. This means that you can use different theater shemed buildings with any first letter (i.e. "KABRCK", "SUCNST" etc).

To use a special loading screen text color, you can add the FourthLoad tag to the [Colors] section.

New stuff since v1.06

The following tags should be added in order to get a working AI:

[General]
FourthSurvivorDivisor=[number] ;currently, this is only known to allow one survivor, for whatever reason
FourthBaseDefenseCounts=25,22,6
FourthCrew=[InfantryType] ;works, but see note at survivor divisor

[AI]
FourthBaseDefenses=[defensive buildings]

Requirements for the new side

The new side needs all the basic factories and structures (ConYard, Barracks, Ore Refinery etc.) which all the other (playable) sides have as well. Since 1.06 also supports walls, you should make your new side some of them, too.

Attach the value 3 to the AIBasePlanningSide tags of the 4th side's buildings.

Note that the ConYard and the MCV must not be owned by any country but by the new side's countries!

Also don't forget to add the naval yard to both the Shipyard tag and the BuildNavalYard tag!

Another thing which is required is the existence of the sidec04.mix file. Simply clone sidec01.mix or sidec02.mix and either leave the graphics inside or edit them for your side. If the file does not exist and you want to play as the new side, the game is about to crash.

Finally, the 4th side requires AI triggers. If no AI triggers exist, the game crashes. Set the trigger's side to 4 in order to make it work for the new side.

What's not done yet

There is still a lot to do to complete the support of a 4th side in the Patch.

The most important things, though, are possible since version 1.06. You will have to wait for future versions if you need 100%...

To view a list of what's possible regarding a 4th side and what's not, go to the RockPatch Status page and scroll to the bottom.