Scenarios

Scenarios are the playing worlds which the player can select and start from the menu. With their components the scenario designer can adjust freely everything from the landscape, the goals and rules, the available objects and materials to the look in the menu.

Scenario Components (c4s)

Scenario.txt
Contains most scenario settings.
Teams.txt
Contains the Teamsettings for multiplayer scenarios. Since 4.9.6.0 CR.
Title.png/Title.bmp
The title picture of the scenario in png format. Size: 200x150 pixel. The older bmp format with 256 colors is still supported as well.
Icon.bmp
The icon of the scenario in the menu. Windows bmp with 256 colors, 16x16 pixel, RGB 255,0,255 is treated as transparent.
Loader*.png/Loader*.bmp
Loader screen to be displayed while the scenario is loading. If multiple files are present (Loader1.png, Loader2.png, Loader3.png...), one is selected randomly. You can optionally specify which loader to use in Scenario.txt. Loader image files located in parent scenario folders are also used.
Sky.png/Sky.bmp
The sky background image. Sky graphics should either be tileable or match the exact landscape size. Notice that you cannot know the exact landscape size with dynamic maps which may increase with the number of participants.
Desc*.rtf
The description text of the scenario in rich text format (rtf). '__' is to be replaced by the two digit language code, e.g. DE for German and US for American English. Multiple descriptions for several languages can be contained in a scenario file of which the game will automatically load the one appropriate for the configured language.
The font of the description text is set internally on display. The character size in the file should be 10pt for headings and 8pt for text. Images or other rtf tags are ignored.
It is recommended to edit this file using a small scale rtf editor such as WordPad.exe in Windows and not a full-blown word processor such as Word as these will stuff kilobytes of unneeded extra information into the rtf file.
Title.txt
By default, the title of a scenario is set when renaming the scenario in the menu system and stored in section [Head] of Scenario.txt. The file name of the scenario group file may differ. For language dependent titles you should create a Title.txt component with the appropriate contents: 
DE:Angriff der Killerwipfe
US:Attack of the Killer Wipfs
Important: No quotation marks and special characters should be used.
Script.c
The scenario script.
Landscape.bmp
Static landscapes are stretched by factor MapZoom defined in Scenario.txt to the size of the actual landscape in the game. The colors used in Landscape.bmp correspond to materials and textures as defined in TexMap.txt.
Exact landscapes represent the actual in-game landscape saved to a bitmap file. The bitmap color indices (128-191 and 192-255, 3 colors per material) correspond directly to the material pixels used in the scenario. The current material list is stored in MatMap.txt.
Landscape.png
Full size map for exact landscapes. This is mainly used in savegames to store the exact terrain including transparent materials and their texture. Exact landscapes consume an extreme amount of memory and should not be used for regularly distributed scenarios.
Landscape.txt
Advanced scenario designers can use this component to define highly complex, fully random generated dynamic landscapes. This does require certain mathematical skill and some patience, however.
MatMap.txt
Stores the material table used in this scenario. The materials listed here are used by the exact landscape and have to be available in the loaded Material.c4g group.
Objects.txt
This component is generated by the engine and stores runtime object data of a savegame.
Material.c4g
Scenarios can contain local material definition groups. See overloading rules.
Graphics.c4g
Scenarios can overload individual entries of the global Graphics.c4g group. See overloading rules.
*.wav
Scenarios can contain any number of sound files. These can be played back by script during the game. Scenario local sounds are loaded dynamically on demand which might cause delays with large scenario files.
*.mid/*.ogg
If the scenario contains music files, these can be played back during the game in random order. Also see script command Music().
Music.c4g
Local music files can also be combines in a local music group.
*.c4d
Scenarios can contain local object definitions which are then available in that scenario only.
The engine will also search all parent folders (c4f) of the scenario for additional local object definitions. In this way, a scenario folder can contain object definitions which are then available in all its contents scenarios.
Names.txt
These names are used for clonks created in this scenario.
Info.txt
Here an author can store additional information about the development of his scenario, his email address, or other information he wants to share with other developers.
Author.txt
Should contain the name of the author in format "FirstName LastName (Nick)" and is used to maintain the name of the original author, if the scenario group file is edited by another developer at a later point in time. The name stored here is only displayed, however, if the scenario was edited by RedWolf Design. This feature is mainly used for contest scenarios.

Overloading Rules

Various system components (graphics, loader screens, materials, music, or objects) can be overloaded in scenarios. In doing this, parent scenario folders (c4f) are searched. Also, components located in child groups will always overload the same components located in parent groups.
Sven2, April 2002
matthes, June 2004