This document provides a basic "how to" for building your own data-based MOD for Red Faction. ---------- IMPORTANT: ---------- MODs are not fully supported by Volition or THQ. While we may offer help and advice on informal channels like the VBB, we cannot provide full customer service for MOD creation or usage. They can be a lot of fun, but use them at your own risk. -------------------- VERY VERY IMPORTANT: -------------------- Do !NOT! edit the original files when making a MOD. If you need to change any of the files (table files, textures, etc.) make a copy of them and place them in your MOD directory. Altering the original files can cause serious problems with the game. It will also cause problems when updating to newer versions of Red Faction in the future. If you found you've accidentally altered original datafiles and you're not sure what to do, uninstall Red Faction and re-install it from CD. BASICS: ------- The MOD system more or less works like this: You can either replace existing files from the game with new ones, or add new files to the game. If you replace an existing file it will be changed everywhere in the game. Ex - if you change the texture file for a guard, all guards of that type will appear with the new skin in the game. This is the easiest way to make small changes to the game. Creating new items won't have a direct affect on the game as is, but can then be used in new levels that are created with that MOD. Once all the needed models and table files are created you can place the item in a level just like any of the predefined items. NOTE: if you create a level with a MOD (by running the editor with the "-mod " option) that level will not be available to play unless you are running Red Faction with the same MOD. The editor will warn you if you open a level and it was made with a different MOD. The directory in which you place your files IS THE NAME OF YOUR MOD. Anyone wishing to play your mod must use the same directory name. You treat both types of files essentially the same when creating the MOD: put all of the files you want for the MOD in to the directory: \RedFaction\mods\your_mod ... where "RedFaction" is the directory the game is installed and your_mod is the name of the MOD you are creating. (See the next section below for details) VPP PACKFILES: -------------- Once you have all of the files in the directory you need to create a VPP packfile out of them (see NOTE below). The game and editor both require mod data to be in packfiles in order to load. The packfiles you build for your mod can be named anything, but they must have the filename extension ".VPP". Place your packfile(s) into a subdirectory under \RedFaction\mods\. Example: You want to make a mod called "JohnWeapons". Any VPP file(s) you create for it must go into this subdirectory: \RedFaction\mods\JohnWeapons\ By doing this, you are officially naming your mod "JohnsWeapons". The subdirectory name you see in the \mods directory is the name of the mod. This means anyone (particularly in multiplayer) who wants to use your mod needs to name that subdirectory the same way. Keep this in mind when you're zipping up your mods for others, creating installers, etc. You may have more than one VPP packfile in a given mod directory. If you have multiple VPP files in your mod directory, and the same file appears in more than one VPP packfile, the one inside the highest-alphabetically-named VPP file takes precedence. Example: You have "blah.vpp" and "stuff.vpp", both of which contain a modified "weapons.tbl" file. "stuff" comes after "blah" alphabetically, so the one inside "stuff.vpp" will be used. NOTE: Red Faction does not come with a utility to create VPP files. We hope to release our VPP tools along with several other content-creation tools sometime in the near future, however. The good news is, there are already a couple fan-made VPP creation/extraction tools available. One is VPPBuilder32, and can be found on the Descent Network's Red Faction Tools website: http://www.red-faction.com/tools/ Once you have your VPP file built, you can run either the game or the editor with the command line option "-mod your_mod" to load them with your new mod. Using the above example, you would run RF with this command: RF.exe -mod JohnWeapons You can also add "-mod JohnsWeapons" in the command-line field found in the RF Launcher, under the Misc. tab, then hit Play. GENERAL NOTES: -------------- When editing TBL files for a mod, be sure that you include all the required fields when creating a new type or editing an existing one. Failure to do so may very well cause the game to crash. HUD Colors: ----------- HUD colors can be changed by editing the entries in hud.tbl. These are the values and what they are used for: $HUD default color: used for most of the HUD message text. Default is yellow. $HUD msg bg color: background color for HUD messages from other NPC's. Default is dark grey. $HUD full color: used for varriety of things including health number, ammo count, and ammo bar (for weapons like flamethrower) when tank is near full. Default is green. $HUD mid color: similar to full color. Also used for armor number. Default is yellow. $HUD low color: similar to full color. Default is red. $HUD countdown color: color countdown timer is drawn in. Default is grey. $HUD body msg color: color to draw message about carrying body. Default is dark green. NEW SKINS: ---------- These are probably the easiest to MOD. You can see what texture files a character uses for their skin in the entity.tbl file. You can either edit that file and change the textures used or just make a copy of the current texture and alter that. By placing the altered texture in your packfile it will be used in place of the original when running your MOD. NEW ITEMS: ---------- You will need to alter the items.tbl file to add new items to your MOD. Information on the format required to define an item is at the top of the file. NEW ENTITIES: ---------- You will need to alter the entities.tbl file to add new character to your MOD. Basically same as adding a new item. NEW WEAPONS: ------------ To make a new weapon you can take one of two routes: 1) modify a current weapon or 2) create an entirely new one. 1) To modify a current weapon you will need to edit the weapons.tbl and possibly ammo.tbl and/or item.tbl (NOTE: Do NOT edit the original files, make copies of the ones you need and place them in \mods\your_mod directory). Find the definition of the weapon you want to modify in the weapons.tbl file and change the change the desired parameters - most likely to change would be damage, geo-mod abilities, clip size, rate of fire, and the models that represent the weapon. NOTE: if you change the weapon models replace them with files of the same type (if it was a .V3D use a .V3D to replace it, if it was a .VCM use a .VCM to replace it... they don't mix). When you made all the changes you want build a new packfile and run the game with the -mod your_mod option. If you want to change the name of the weapon, search in strings.tbl for the current weapon name and replace it. NOTE: Red Faction does not come with a utility to create many RF-specific datatypes, such as .V3D, .VCM, etc. We hope to release our data-creation tools sometime in the near future, however. 2) Making a new weapon is much like modifying a current one. You will need the same tables only this time you will most likely have to edit items.tbl and ammo.tbl (unless it uses the same ammo as another gun). You can basically copy the definition of another weapon and then alter the fields to suit your needs. Be sure to give it a unique cycle position and pref position. You have to create new item types so you have place them in the level - create one item for the weapon and one for the ammo (unless it is like the grenade where you will only need the ammo). You can have up to 32 player weapons in the game. You can have a total of 64 weapons in the game - this includes vehicle weapons and all other weapons defined in the weapon.tbl file. Change the $Cycle Position to change where the weapon is located in the rotation order (and which key it is bound to if it is < 10); change $Pref Position to change the way a weapon is selected when the current weapon runs out of ammo (and when a new weapon is picked up) - the lower the pref position, the "better" the weapon is. Ex - if you currently have a weapon with pref position 5 in your hand and you pick one up with a pref position of 3, the player will switch to the new weapon, but if you pick one up with a pref position of 6 he won't. To change the default weapon that the player starts with change the $Default Player Weapon: entry in the game.tbl file. This should be set to the same name that appears in the weapon.tbl file. MULTIPLAYER MODS: ----------------- Multiplayer mods work very much the same as single player mods. RED can be run with "-mod " parameter just like the game can. By doing so, any levels you save with RED become marked as requiring that mod. Anyone wishing to play those levels will need to have that mod running. Mod-based multiplayer levels require the same game-mode naming prefix as other multiplayer levels. See RED's online Help topics for details. In the Multiplayer/Join screen, any servers running a mod will show up in a tan color, instead of the default blue color. They will also show their mod name next to the game mode in the "Game Type" column. MORE INFO ON MODS: ------------------ Volition may release updates to this document, or updated MOD-creation tools in the future. Please visit www.redfaction.com for news. Also visit the Red Faction PC forums on the VBB. Many mod-creating fans post there, and would be happy to help: http://vbb.volition-inc.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi