Rules.ini

The rules.ini (naming variations for expansions) is the core file of C&C modding. As indicated by the name, it contains the "rules" of the game – the properties of every object, weapon, warhead, etc. in the game. For any C&C game from Red Alert to Yuri's Revenge, this is the main modification file. For Generals and everything else based on the SAGE engine, the INI-system is more complex and wide-spread.

Disregarding the side functions of the other various INI files (like ai.ini or art.ini), there is no way to make any changes to the game other than what the rules.ini allows for¹. Not everything in the game is customizable. Features that cannot be modified are called "hardcoded" features.

File Locations

Game	Location	Notes
Red Alert	redalert.mix → local.mix
Tiberian Sun	tibsun.mix → local.mix	The patches add a new rules.ini to patch.mix
Firestorm	expand01.mix	rules-equivalent is called firestrm.ini, the mix also contains a new rules.ini for regular TS.
Red Alert 2	ra2.mix → local.mix
Yuri's Revenge	expandmd01.mix	Called rulesmd.ini, for mission disk.
Mental Omega	expandmo99.mix	Called rulesmo.ini, for Mental Omega.

Script to Read UnitsIdCode in Rules.ini

Python 3

ReadRulesCode.py

This script will read the rules.ini and list the UnitType, SequenceNum, UnitIdCode, UnitUIName, UnitInternalName and Armor, and store these informations into a txt file.

To get the CSF.ini that required in this script, please go to page CSF File Format.

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# set the directory of rules.ini here # need to modify the rules.ini if there are any error reports during reading it by module configparser rules_dir=r"C:\Users\August\Documents\rulesmo_mod.ini" # rules_dir=r"/storage/emulated/0/1/rulesmo_mod.ini" # set the output file directory ofdir=r"C:\Users\August\Documents\UnitCodes.txt" # ofdir=r"/storage/emulated/0/1/UnitCodes.txt" # set the directory of CSF.ini that decoded by ReadCsf.py csf_ini_dir=r"C:\Users\August\Documents\CSF.ini" # csf_ini_dir=r"/storage/emulated/0/1/CSF/CSF.ini" from configparser import ConfigParser import os # read rules.ini rules=ConfigParser(delimiters="=") rules.read(rules_dir) # read CSF.ini if it exists csf_exist=False if os.path.isfile(csf_ini_dir): csf=ConfigParser(delimiters="=") csf.read(csf_ini_dir, "UTF-8") csf_exist=True # sections of unit types type_list=["InfantryTypes", "VehicleTypes", "AircraftTypes", "BuildingTypes", "SuperWeaponTypes"] # the attributes of the unit we need as the ini options attr_list=["UIName", "Name", "Armor"] def clear_file(file_path: str): """clear the file especially the file for output""" with open(file_path, "w", encoding="UTF-8"): pass def add_to_file(file_path: str, content: str): """write a string into the file in addition mode""" with open(file_path, "a", encoding="UTF-8") as f: f.write(content) def cut_ref(content: str) -> str: """cut out the reference in ini file""" if ";" in content: content=content[:content.find(";")] return content.lstrip().rstrip() # clear the output file clear_file(ofdir) for unitype in type_list: # store the header of UnitType txt="== "+unitype+" ==\n" for seqnum in rules[unitype]: idcode=cut_ref(rules[unitype][seqnum]) # record the infomations in "line" line=seqnum+"\t"+idcode+"\t" for attr in attr_list: # SuperWeapons/SupportPowers does not have Armor if unitype=="SuperWeaponTypes" and attr=="Armor": pass # if the unit has the general attributes listed above elif rules.has_option(idcode, attr): # try to translate UIName by CSF if the CSF exists if attr=="UIName" and csf_exist: # browse the CSF for UIName by order UIName="N/A" for section in csf: if csf.has_option(section, rules[idcode][attr]): UIName=csf[section][rules[idcode][attr]] line+=UIName+"\t" else: line+=rules[idcode][attr]+"\t" else: line+="N/A\t" line=line[:-1]+"\n" # add the line into the "txt" txt+=line # write the "txt" into the output file add_to_file(ofdir, txt+"\n") # try to open the output file, may fail if the OS does not support try: os.startfile(ofdir) except: pass

CorrectRulesCode.py

This script will correct the rules.ini with a large amount of duplicate definition and invalid codes, cut out the useless references line without "=", and write a new rules.ini to store the result, so that the module configparser in Python can read it.

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# set the directories of input and output files ifdir=r"C:\Users\August\Documents\rulesmo_mod0.ini" # ifdir=r"/storage/emulated/0/1/rulesmo_mod0.ini" ofdir=r"C:\Users\August\Documents\rulesmo_mod.ini" # ofdir=r"/storage/emulated/0/1/rulesmo_mod.ini" # read the input rules.ini with open(ifdir, "r", encoding="UTF-8") as f: content=f.read() # use str.replace() method to remove useless codes dic={"\t": "", " \n": "\n", "\n\n": "\n", " ;": ";", " =": "=", "= ": "="} for key in dic: while content.find(key)!=-1: content=content.replace(key, dic[key]) # split the content as a list by section header li=content.split("\n[") # remove not-section item in list if "]" not in li[0]: li=li[1:] # creat a dictionary to store the information dic=dict() # read content by sections for i in li: # split the section name and the option-value pairs sec, opt_s=i.split("]")[0], i.split("]")[1] # creat a dictionary to store the option-value pairs in this section dic[sec]=dict() # split the option-value pairs by line break between each of them opt_li_orig=opt_s.split("\n") # separate the useful line with "=" to cut out the lines only contain references opt_li=list() for opt_i in opt_li_orig: if "=" in opt_i: opt_li.append(opt_i) # seperate the option and value of the pairs for opt_i in opt_li: opt, val=opt_i.split("=")[0], opt_i.split("=")[1] # cut out the references behind the value if ";" in val: val=val[:val.find(";")] # store the option-value pairs dic[sec][opt]=val # write the output file as the ini format with open(ofdir, "w", encoding="UTF-8") as f: for sec in dic: f.write("["+sec+"]\n") for opt in dic[sec]: f.write(opt+"="+dic[sec][opt]+"\n") f.write("\n")

Footnotes

¹ ↑ An exception to this would be pd's RockPatch.

See Also

• Art.ini
• Sound.ini
• CSF
  • CSF File Format
• Hardcoded features
• Rules(md).ini Sections
• Rules(md).ini Flags
• Lists of Applicable INI Flags