The reason why INI files mismatch online with other players is because the INI file doesn't work for them yet, while it does work for you. So when you have an INI file like making trains garrisonable, on your computer you can garrison the train, but on the other player's computers they can't. This causes the mismatch. All the other player(s) has to do is exit Zero Hour & start it up again. After that, the INI file will work properly in the map. So you can play with INI files in your map, you just have to do it with a buddy. Instruct your buddy that after game starts, it'll mismatch (It may take up to a minute for the mismatch to occur). Then tell him to exit Zero Hour to his desktop & start it up again. Then you'll be able to play the map without any an normal interruptions.

The reason why weather INI files don't mismatch the game is because it's not really important to have one player with rain & another without it.

This same thing will happen if you have Zero Hour running in the background (minimized) & you put an INI file into your map folder. When you maximize your game & try the map, you'll see no changes the INI file should've done. But when you restart Zero Hour you'll see the INI changes. But after you have the INI file included in the map, & you make the changes, then maximize the game, it will work properly.

The same applies to STR, TGA, & WAK but not MAP (of course, the game wouldn't work otherwise.) I've noticed that when playing a map with other players with an STR file in them, they only see MISSING: 'Caption1' for all the captions. This is because they need to restart Zero Hour, then it'll work for them. Some of you may have noticed that when you've just gotten a map from someone else & your waiting for all the players to load the map. (After it's been downloaded.) You'll see a picture of the map in the top left portion of the screen. All that's there is the positions, resources, & techs on a grey background. You should see the map from what you see in your radar. From then on when you host the map & your waiting for players to come into your room, you won't see the map terrain until you restart Zero Hour. So if you make a map with an STR file in it, be sure to put for the caption names the captions them self so the players will still see the caption, just with MISSING in front of it. I.E.

Welcome to my map!
"Welcome to my map!"
END

The same applies to WAK, the other players wont see the waves until they restart Zero Hour.

I hope this helps you guys. Have Fun!

One more thing, this doesn't apply to Generals (not Zero Hour) All files work fine for that game.

You should really test your hypothesis's before you proclaim them as fact. Just because you can't see the preview map for new maps before restart doesn't automatically mean that it "doesn't load right away" It could also mean other things (for example, the My Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data\MapPreviews file isn't created yet and is created at the boot of the game.) I have already prooven your theory wrong though, because Map.ini's will not allways create mismatches, neither will certain scripts or others ect.. Mismatches sometimes occur randomly between 2 specific party's and when Map.ini's are involved and you get them repeated times you can't just assume its because of it. Your explanation of how weather map.ini's don't create mismatches is solely based on opinion, in your logic any changes made inside of a map.ini should cause a mismatch. The .STR missing string occurs alot even if you have made the map and everything is set up perfectly, but if it doesn't work the first time it never will.

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Well, I didn't get into the TGA files much. That really doesn't matter. But if Map.inis affect the game play, they will cause a mismatch unless the other player have the map & have loaded up Zero Hour after getting it. I know there could be other reasons why you wouldn't see the picture file, but it really deosn't affect the game play one way or another.

I've also tested this stuff over two computer multiple times with friends.