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OpenTS Manual

MPLAYER.INI

Formats

Added in 0.2.0

Rules read over the others in every game that is not a campaign, so multiplayer and skirmish can differ from the single-player balance.

Format
Kind
Configuration file
Filename
MPLAYER.INI, MPLAYERFS.INI

MPLAYER.INI is a rules file that applies only outside a campaign. It accepts everything RULES.INI accepts, so a deployment can give multiplayer and skirmish their own balance without a second copy of the whole rules file.

mplayer.ini
[155mm]
Damage=115
ROF=150

In every game that is not a campaign, the 155mm weapon uses these two values unless the map sets them. In a campaign it uses its RULES.INI values.

MPLAYERFS.INI is the expansion’s copy. Both files are optional, and the game starts without them. The game reads them once at startup, so an edit to either file takes effect after a restart.

When they are read

Section titled “When they are read”

MPLAYER.INI applies in every game that is not a campaign, including skirmish against the computer. MPLAYERFS.INI applies on the same terms, and only while Firestorm is enabled.

Each time a scenario loads, the game applies the rules files in this order, and a later file overrides an earlier one:

  1. RULES.INI
  2. LANGRULE.INI
  3. FIRESTRM.INI, when Firestorm is enabled
  4. LANGFS.INI
  5. MPLAYER.INI, outside a campaign
  6. MPLAYERFS.INI, outside a campaign and with Firestorm enabled
  7. the scenario’s overrides

A scenario that sets one of these values therefore overrides both files, as it overrides every other rules file.

MultiplayerRules= and MultiplayerRulesExpansion= in OPENTS.INI name the two files. The game looks for them in the same folders, in the same order, as every other file it opens. Only the named file is read; no wildcard gathers other multiplayer rules files.

Write only keys the rules also write

Section titled “Write only keys the rules also write”

Each time a scenario loads, the game rebuilds its object types from the rules files: vehicles, infantry, aircraft, structures, weapons, warheads, projectiles, superweapons, animations, voxel animations, particles, particle systems, overlays, terrain objects, smudges, countries and the colors in [Colors]. A key in one of their sections therefore returns to the value the other rules files give it, or to its default, when a campaign loads.

Other settings are not reset between scenarios. A key in a section such as [General], [CombatDamage] or a Tiberium’s section keeps the last value any file gave it. If only MPLAYER.INI writes such a key, the multiplayer value stays in force in a campaign started later without restarting the game.

Write such a key here only where RULES.INI writes it too. The campaign load then reads the RULES.INI value back over it, and the two kinds of game stay separate.

The expansion rules and a map’s overrides carry the same risk. MPLAYER.INI and MPLAYERFS.INI meet it most often, because they exist to hold values that differ from the rules.

What they cannot do

Section titled “What they cannot do”
  • Declare a theater or change its settings: [Theaters] and each theater’s section are read once at startup, from RULES.INI and FIRESTRM.INI only. Rules registration explains why the list of theaters cannot change after that.
  • Set [Maximums]: that section is read only from RULES.INI.
  • Add a country a player can pick: the countries a player chooses from are read from RULES.INI alone, so a country declared only here is missing from that list. The country does exist once the scenario loads, and a map may place houses of it. FIRESTRM.INI has the same limit.
  • Set the lobby’s starting values from the expansion: [MultiplayerDefaults] in MPLAYER.INI sets the starting credits, unit count, tech level and match options a host sees, because the game reads that file before the menus. MPLAYERFS.INI cannot change them, and neither can FIRESTRM.INI, because the game does not know whether Firestorm is enabled until later. The section is still read from every rules file when a scenario loads, so a key that acts during the match, such as BuildOffAllyAnyStructure=, takes effect from either file.

Anything else RULES.INI can do, these files can do. Object types that only these files declare exist in the multiplayer game and are stored in its saves, so loading such a save restores them even when the file is no longer on disk.

Every player needs the same copy

Section titled “Every player needs the same copy”

In a game hosted from the game’s own network lobby, the host compares a checksum of its rules with each joining player’s. The checksum covers RULES.INI and MPLAYER.INI, plus FIRESTRM.INI and MPLAYERFS.INI while Firestorm is enabled. A player whose copy of any of them differs is refused, including a player who has one of these files where the host does not.

A file that is absent from every machine, or that has no sections, changes no checksum.

A game started by an external client does not make this comparison. Give every player the same files there, because a difference is not detected when the game starts.

Source files

Linked at revision 51b52aa38392.

History

  1. Added0.2.0In development

    Read multiplayer rules from MPLAYER.INI