Description

The text a campaign, a multiplayer map, or a saved map seed is listed under.

Campaign list entry

Specification — Campaign list entry

Applies to: Campaign
File: BATTLE*.INI
Section: [<Campaign ID>]
Value: string
When omitted: ComputedThe campaign's section name, as its `[Battles]` entry writes it, stands in as the row text.

The text is the campaign’s row in the mission selection list, and the only part of a campaign the player sees before choosing it. At most 127 characters are kept; a longer value is cut. A campaign that the running expansion does not allow is left out of the list, so its text is never shown (RequiredAddon).

Each value in a [Battles] section names one campaign, and that name is also the section the campaign’s settings are read from, this key included. The number to the left of the = is ignored.

[Battles]
1=GDI1

[GDI1]
Description=REUNION
Scenario=Maps/Missions/GDI1A.MAP
CD=0

The list is built from several battle files, read in this order:

every BATTLE*.INI file that the file search finds, in alphabetical order;
the base battle file, BATTLE.INI unless the deployment names another, when step 1 did not find it;
the expansion’s battle file, BATTLEFS.INI unless the deployment names another, when it exists. It is read here even if step 1 already read it.

A campaign named in more than one file gets one row, placed where it was first named. Each later file that names it updates its settings, so the last file to set Description for a campaign decides its text. The expansion’s battle file is read last. Where it names a campaign in its [Battles] section and sets a value for it, that value wins over every other file’s.

Keep campaign names to 24 characters. A longer name is cut to its first 24, and the campaign’s settings are read from the section with that shortened name. A longer name also gets a new row each time a [Battles] section names it.

Packet list entry

Specification — Packet list entry

Applies to: map packets
File: scenario packet (.pkt)
Section: [<Map ID>]
Value: string
When omitted: (empty)The map is listed with a blank description.

The text is the map’s row in the multiplayer scenario list. At most 43 characters are kept; a longer value is cut.

A scenario packet lists its maps in [MultiMaps]. Each value there names a section of the packet, and that section holds the map’s settings, this key included.

[MultiMaps]
1=MYMAP

[MYMAP] ; the section the entry above names
Description=Four player canyon

The map file is the section name with .MAP appended, MYMAP.MAP in this example. When it builds the list, the game reads that file only for its digest, which other players’ copies are checked against, and never for a description.

In the game’s own network lobby, the host sends this text to the other players with the game options. A joining player who has a map with the same file name sees the text their own list gives it. The host’s text is shown only to a player who does not have the map.

Loose map list entry

Specification — Loose map list entry

Applies to: multiplayer maps
File: map file (.mpr)
Section: [Multiplay]
Value: string
When omitted: ComputedThe title from the map's [Basic] Name, including the fallback that key applies when Name is missing as well.

A loose .MPR map, one found on its own in the searched folders and not listed in a packet, is shown under this text in the multiplayer scenario list. At most 43 characters are kept; a longer value is cut. An empty value counts as a missing one, so the row falls back to the map’s Name.

[Multiplay]
Description=Four player canyon

Saved map name

Specification — Saved map name

Applies to: random map generation
File: map seed file
Section: [RandomMap]
Value: string
When omitted: Context-dependentThe name the language files give a random map, so the text follows the language the game is running in.

The text is the name a saved map seed is listed under in the load, save and delete dialogs. Saving a seed writes the description the player types in the save dialog. At most 127 characters are kept; a longer value is cut. Map seed files covers the section it is written in.

[RandomMap]
Description=Four player temperate map

When a player sets up a game on a map generated from a loaded seed, their game setup screen shows this text as the scenario name. Players who join them over the network see the language’s name for a random map instead.

A seed file whose Description is missing or empty appears in the dialogs as a blank row. Loading it still works, and the loaded seed is then described by the language’s name for a random map. Saving onto a blank row writes a new file and leaves the old one in place.

RandMap.Sed, the file the game writes for the generated map being played, is never listed.

The text does not affect the map that is built. It is left out of the identifier that network games use to match maps, so changing a seed’s description does not make it a different map.

See also — Scenario, RequiredAddon, FinalMovie, MinPlayers, MaxPlayers, Name, Official, Seed, NumPlayers