Houses

Houses (in some games known as Countries) are the available factions, playable and non-playable, in every C&C game from Tiberian Dawn to Yuri's Revenge.

Red Alert

In RA1, the houses list is hardcoded into the game executable, therefore it's not possible to add or remove houses via INI editing. However, there are several multiplayer-oriented houses named after countries such as [England], [Russia], etc. that are defined and modifiable in rules.ini.

Tiberian Sun

[Houses] in Rules.ini

TS introduced a new rules section which lists available house types, making it possible to add or remove playable houses at will:

[Houses]
0=GDI
1=Nod
2=Neutral
3=Special

These house types are available both in single- and multiplayer.

For skirmish/multiplayer, playable houses are specified with the flags Multiplay and MultiplayPassive. Singleplayer campaigns are defined in battle.ini and mapsel.ini.

Be cautious when changing this list. Many game mechanics refer to the house names and/or indexes, so changing the list can break existing missions, scripted multiplayer maps, or even crash the game. Starkku's TriggerIndexParamTool allows batch-editing house index references in maps, if needed.

[Houses] in Maps

Singleplayer missions can add a number of custom houses specific to the map. The [Houses] list must first contain the rules.ini houses at the beginning of the list, in the same order, appended with the custom houses.

Skirmish/multiplayer maps cannot add more houses. Even though some stock maps do have a [Houses] list, these maps only use the houses defined in rules.ini.

Notes

• The total number of houses should not exceed 32.
• Visceroids spawning by mutation belong to the Neutral house.
• In skirmish & multiplayer, Neutral and Special houses have hardcoded properties:
  • Neutral is hostile to all players. However, player units won't automatically engage neutral enemies, only retaliate if attacked by them.
  • Special is allied to all players.
  • Color of Neutral and Special is hardcoded to LightGrey.

Red Alert 2 & Yuri's Revenge

[Houses] in Rules(md).ini

In RA2/YR, this section was renamed to [Countries], but the [Houses] list is created and populated by the engine on-the-fly. See Countries for more information.

[Houses] in Maps

Maps can define additional houses for their internal needs, as long as they specify which Country they represent. The contents of this [Houses] section are appended to the rules' houses list, forming a zero-based numbered list, which is used by a lot of map Events and Actions.

Applicable INI Flags

These tables show all INI flags applicable¹ to Houses. The flags are grouped by the internal classes the flags are inherited from, and then listed in the order they are read in by the game. You can re-sort the rows by column values by clicking the arrow icons in the column headings. Each flag can be clicked to visit its page for detailed information.

Please note that this section is accurate only for Yuri's Revenge. All other C&C games use different sets of flags.

¹ ↑ "Applicable" in this context means "read from the INI files". Certain flags listed here don't have any effect ingame , but they are read and in certain cases cause a crash if not present. Again, refer to each flag's individual page for detailed information.

AbstractTypes

INI File	Section	Key	Value Type	Default Value	Adds to list
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Name	string(48 symbols)	ID
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	UIName	string(31 symbol)	""

Houses

INI File	Section	Key	Value Type	Default Value	Adds to list
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Suffix	string
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ParentCountry	string (Country)
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Prefix	string
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Groundspeed	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Airspeed	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ROF	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Cost	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	BuildTime	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Color	string (Color)
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Multiplay	boolean
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	MultiplayPassive	boolean
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	Side	string (Side)
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	WallOwner	boolean
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	SmartAI	boolean
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ArmorInfantryMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ArmorUnitsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ArmorAircraftMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ArmorBuildingsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	ArmorDefensesMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	CostInfantryMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	CostUnitsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	CostAircraftMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	CostBuildingsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	CostDefensesMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	SpeedInfantryMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	SpeedUnitsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	SpeedAircraftMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	BuildTimeInfantryMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	BuildTimeUnitsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	BuildTimeAircraftMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	BuildTimeBuildingsMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	BuildTimeDefensesMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	IncomeMult	float
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	VeteranInfantry	stringlist (InfantryTypes)
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	VeteranUnits	stringlist (UnitTypes)
Rules(md).ini	Object's ID	VeteranAircraft	stringlist (AircraftTypes)
Maps	Object's ID	ActsLike	int (House index)
Maps	Object's ID	Country	string (Country)
Maps	Object's ID	TechLevel	int (TechLevel)
Maps	Object's ID	Credits	int
Maps	Object's ID	IQ	int (IQ)
Maps	Object's ID	Edge	string (SourceType)
Maps	Object's ID	PlayerControl	boolean
Maps	Object's ID	Color	string (Color)
Maps	Object's ID	Allies	stringlist (Houses)
Maps	Object's ID	PercentBuilt	int (0–100)
Maps	Object's ID	NodeCount	int

Trivia

• Originally, Houses referred to the three playable houses (Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos) in Dune II, the precursor to Command & Conquer. As all C&C games up to YR were built on the previous title, starting with Dune II, the House name carried over. Perhaps there was little practical need to change it.
• According to the Sides list in TS, the Neutral house was intended for civilians and Special for the Forgotten mutant faction, however this distinction is nonexistent in the actual game. Both houses are essentially carried over from TD and RA1.

See Also

• Countries
• Sides
• Owner
• ActsLike