Hey guys, I'm quite new here :)
And I'm also new in modding Red Alert 3. To start, I would like to make a simple mod. I want to reduce the build time of all buildings (including turrets) of the Allies. I have downloaded Red Alert 3 Mod BuildStudio (don't know which version) but I don't understand *censored* about it. It only shows some build button, and some select buttons with some text I rarely understand :P Oh, and you can select SampleMod, but nothing changes :P
There are some documentations though, but none of them includes some kind of tutorial.
I heard you needed to compile it, which sounds quite complicated.

Reading the documentation I only found out that it was about editting xml files, but I cannot find any xml files to edit. So I guess I need to create them. No problem? Well, nowhere in the entire documentation is there any sign or any hint on where to put the files!

Can someone give me a step-by-step guide on how to do this? This is possible right?

Oh, btw, if someone wonders why I wanted to reduce the Allied build time;
I normally play on 40k, you'll get bigger armies, better battles etc. The problem there, is that both the Soviets and the Empire are fast at building, while the Allies always lag behind. It would be more fun if the Allies had their build time multiplied by 0.7 or something like that. And, it makes a good start for further modding :)

Thanks for the help, and for all you modders out there, good luck :D

Thanks for your reply.

So, I did what you said; copy and paste the samplemod, then rename it (I renamed it to 40K correction). I copied the Structures map from \SageXml\Allied to \mods\40K correction\. Then I changed some values. I clicked Build Mod, no errors.
After that, I launched the game using this command:

D:\Games\Electronic Arts\Red Alert 3\RA3.exe -modConfig "C:\Users\*name*\Documents\Red Alert 3\mods\40K correction\40K correction_1.0.skudef"

But nothing really changed. Now, I've got patch 1.12, and I read somewhere that there should be a Control Panel included in patch 1.09 for launching mods. I can't find it anywhere.
How do I launch the mod?


Well, I'm one step further now. I know how to launch the RA3 Control Panel. But once I click the 'Game browser' it crashes.


Another step further. Game browser doesn't crash anymore. I fixed it by backing up my replays, and then deleting the replay folder in C:\Users\Name\Documents\Red Alert 3\Replays.
But now it asks for my CD key, which I don't have. I downloaded the game. So I tried a keygen, but none of the keys pass through. Then I tried creating a shortcut on my desktop. No luck there. Whenever the game starts, it starts normally. But when I try to edit the shortcut, and add -modConfig "C:\Users\Name\Documents\Red Alert 3\Mods\40K correction\40K correction_1.0.skudef" to it, it starts complaining about the file not being found.
How do I create such a shortcut?


Using Vista right now, btw.
Hate it, but I'm bound to it now.

I definitely like Linux more.


I finaly got to launching the game by executing RA3.exe -ui -runver 1.12, going to game browser, then select 40K correction and click launch.
However, nothing is changed.


To be more precise, in my 40K correction mod map there are these files:

AlliedBarracks.xml
mod.str
mod.xml

No errors on building the mod, but when starting the mod by executing "ra3.exe -ui -runver 1.12".

Can anyone help me with this? I don't know wether I set it up correctly.

Edited by moderator Tuesday, October 13, 2009 1:55:01 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Sextuple Post Splice

Ok I changed a little bit;

My folders look like this:
In
D:\RA3 MOD SDK\Mods there are these folders:

- 40Kcor -> data
- samplemod -> data

In 40Kcor and samplemod both have 1 file; mod.babproj.
For 40Kcor thats this file:



Then in 40Kcor/data there's these files:
- mod.xml
- AlliedBarracks.xml

mod.xml looks like this:



And AlliedBarracks is a little too large to show here, but its the exact copy of this one:
D:\RA3 MOD SDK\SageXml\Allied\Structures\AlliedBarracks.xml except for this variable:

BuildTime="1" enclosed in the GameObject tags.

Thats all I have right now. If this works, I'm planning to change the other buildings too.

My game config is like this btw;
I've got patch 1.12, cracked, and I start the game by executing 'ra3 -ui -runver 1.12'. When I don't put in the '-runver 1.12' the game will ask me for a serial key, and every key I generate doesn't work. So the game won't start this way.

Thanks for your respond again, hope to hear from you soon.
Next Monday I want this to be finished.
PS I would like to change the amount of ore that's in one box, which is currently 30k. I find that way too low. In every game at 40K I've had the 'ore mine depleted' message, which annoys me like *censored* :P Where can I change that? I've searched for it, but I can't really find it. If you'd help me with this too, I would be one happy guy :D

Well, I found out that SampleMod doesn't work either. I installed the required programs:
.NET Framework v3.5 (version 2.0 is needed, is this a problem?)
Visual C++ 2005 SP1

There are no errors, no warnings, and no critical errors when building the mods.
In the documentation it says that the include should be:
<Include type="all" source="DATA:40Kcor/data/AlliedBarracks.xml"/> and I tried different configures, but none of them work. I'm starting to think that its not my mod, but the whole program not working.