C&C Remastered Triggers Guide

The definitive guide to tiggers in Command and Conquer Tiberian Dawn.

About

The editor provided with the remaster has numerous issues (not to be unexpected with an in-house tool made public), but in their wisdom, the developers gifted the community the source code. A much improved version, now called the Mobius Map Editor, exists here:

https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor

For those unfamiliar with github, you can find the download in the Releases page. The download for the app should be called something like "CnCTDRAMapEditor_1.#.#.#.zip"

Basic Events

Event: "Time"

From the start of the mission (technically when the house becomes active), the house timer ticks every 6 seconds or 1/10th of a minute. The event will fire after the time specified. If repeating, the event will reset the timer back to it's initial value once it's fired and begin again.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	Let the Action decide which house, else default to the player's.
Loop	N/A	No = Once, Or = Repeats
Data	Positive integer	Time in multiples of 6 seconds (1/10th of a minute)

Event: "Player Enters"

When a unit of an active house (excluding aircraft) enters attached Cell Trigger. Multiple cell triggers placed on the map are counted as one. This event won't fire if the unit is cloaked.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house controlling the unit.
Loop	No, Or	No = Once, Or = Can Repeat

Event: "Civ. Evac."

When a civilian unit (Mobius, Chan, Delphi, etc.) is loaded into a Chinook, the Chinook will take off and leave the map. At this point, the event will fire. Note: The Chinook may still be shot down.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house controlling the civilian.
Loop	N/A	No = Once, Or = Can Repeat

Attached to Object Events

These events need to be attached to objects.

Event: "Discovered"

When the attached object (a unit or structure that doesn't belong to the player) is first revealed, either from the shroud covering it being removed, or if the attached object moves into a non-shrouded area.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Loop	N/A	No = Fires one time an attached object is first discovered And = Fires when all of the attached objects are discovered Or = Fires any time an attached object is first discovered

Event: "Attacked"

When the attached object is attacked.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be set to None
Loop	N/A	No = Fires one time an attached object is first attacked And = Fires when all of the attached objects have been attacked Or = Fires any time an attached object is attacked

Event: "Destroyed"

When the attached object is destroyed or captured.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Loop	N/A	No = Fires one time an attached object is destroyed And = Fires when all of the attached objects have been destroyed Or = Fires any time an attached object is destroyed

Event: "Any"

When the attached object is discovered, attacked, destroyed or captured.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Loop	N/A	No = Fires one time any of the attached objects are touched And = Fires when all of the attached objects are touched Or = Fires any time any of the attached objects are touched

very specific event-action hybrid

Action: "Cap=Win/Des=Lose"

The structure attached to this trigger will cause a Win action if captured or Lose action if destroyed.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	House the capturing engineer belongs to.
Event	"Any"	This event is technically both "Destroyed" and "Player Entered" and should be set to "Any"
Action	"Cap=Win/Des=Lose"	N/A

House-specific Events

Event: "Credits"

When the house collects enough credits, this event will fire.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house which holds the credits.
Loop	No	N/A
Data	Positive integer	Amount of credits

Event: "Bldgs Destr."

When all of a houses structures are destroyed

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that owns the destroyed structures
Loop	No	N/A

Event: "Units Destr."

When all of a houses units are destroyed
(excluding gunboat, Chinook and AI controlled aircraft)

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that owns the destroyed units
Loop	No	N/A

Event: "All Destr."

When all of a houses units and structures are destroyed
(excluding gunboat, Chinook and AI controlled aircraft)

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that owns the destroyed units and structures
Loop	No	N/A

Event: "# Bldgs Destr."

When the total number of destroyed structures of this house exceeds an amount.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that owns the destroyed structures
Loop	No	N/A
Data	Positive integer	number of destroyed structures

Event: "# Units Destr."

When the total number of destroyed units of this house exceeds an amount.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that owns the destroyed units
Loop	No	N/A
Data	Positive integer	number of destroyed units

Event: "No Factories"

The first time the house has no unit producing structures on the map.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that owned the factories
Loop	No	N/A

Event: "Built It"

When a house builds a specific structure.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house	The house that the structure belongs to
Loop	N/A	No = Once, Or = Can Repeat
Data	ID from the structure enumeration (DEFINES.H in the source code)	0 = WEAP 1 = GTOWER 2 = ATOWER 3 = OBELISK 4 = RADAR 5 = TURRET 6 = CONST 7 = REFINERY 8 = STORAGE 9 = HELIPAD 10 = SAM 11 = AIRSTRIP 12 = POWER 13 = ADVANCED_POWER 14 = HOSPITAL 15 = BARRACKS 16 = N/A 17 = REPAIR 18 = BIO_LAB 19 = HAND 20 = TEMPLE 21 = EYE

Basic Actions

Action: "DZ at 'Z'"

Drop-Zone at Waypoint Z creates a flare object and reveals the shroud in a 4 cell radius.
The flare will remain indefinitely unless a structure is built over it.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Action: "Win"

Mission Accomplished

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Action: "Lose"

Mission Failed

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Action: "All to Hunt"

All computer controlled houses send their units to attack.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Action: "Reinforce."

Reinforcements have arrived.
See the reinforcements section of this guide.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Team	N/A	The team that will be reinforced.

Action: "Create Team"

Computer player will create this team. See the teams section of this guide.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Team	N/A	The team that will be created.

Action: "Dstry Teams"

All active teams with this name will be disbanded.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Team	N/A	The team that will be disbanded.

Action: "Production"

Computer controlled houses are dormant by default and need to be enabled if they're to build units. This can allow the player to complete early mission objectives without being harassed.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Must be an active house*	House to start producing

* This action has a special case. If it's triggered by a "Player Enters" event (which requires a house for the unit that enters a cell), then the house will instead be the "opposite" of the player house, Goodguy => Badguy starts production, Badguy => Goodguy starts production

Action: "Autocreate"

Begin the first attack wave. See the section on attack waves for details.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Super-Weapons

Action: "Airstrike"

A player house is granted airstrike. If airstrike is already charging, it will become instantly ready.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
House	Player House*	N/A

*If the trigger is object-attached, such as when SAM-sites are destroyed, this can be set to None.

The number of aircraft depends on the map's build level. Sometimes the aircraft perfectly overlap each-other giving the impression of fewer aircraft than there should be, also making them more vulnerable to anti-air. The aircraft will still do the same level of damage when overlapped.

Build Level	Number of aircraft / damage multiplier
1-5	1
6-8	2
9-99	3

Enemy Airstrike

Enemy airstrike is called in by the Reinforce. action with a team of A10 assigned to the computer player. They will target what they consider the greatest threat level, and unlike player airstrike may fly to another target if they haven't used all their bombs. The number of aircraft is specified by the reinforcements team.

NOD Airstrike (2x) to target GDI:

House	BadGuy
a10	2

Action: "Ion Cannon"

GDI must have an Adv. Comm. Center on the map for this trigger to work.

If the player is GDI, Ion Cannon will recharge instantly. Warning: If this action happens before the player discovers or builds the Adv. Comm. Center (if it's hidden in the shroud), this super-weapon will break indefinitely.

If the computer is GDI, the computer will fire the Ion Cannon at an opponent's structure with the highest threat rating. Usually a defensive structure. If there are no structures to target, nothing will happen. The computer can fire Ion Cannon as long as they have an Adv. Comm. Center on the map, regardless of base power or shroud coverage.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Action: "Nuclear Missile"

NOD must have a Temple on the map for this trigger to work.

If the player is NOD, the Nuclear Missile will recharge instantly. If this action happens before the player discovers or builds the Temple (if it's hidden in the shroud), the trigger will fail. As single-player maps only grant one nuke for player use, this trigger will only work for the player one time.

If the computer is NOD, the computer will fire the Nuclear Missile at an opponent's structure with the highest threat rating. Usually a defensive structure. If there are no structures to target, nothing will happen. The computer can fire the Nuclear Missile as long as they have a Temple on the map, regardless of base power or shroud coverage.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Meta Actions

Action: "Dstry Trig '....'"

Cancel another trigger. This includes repeating and triggers not yet fired. Only supported for three trigger names: xxxx, yyyy or zzzz.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
Action	"Dstry Trig 'XXXX'", "Dstry Trig 'YYYY'" or "Dstry Trig 'ZZZZ'"	N/A

Action: "Allow Win"

Any trigger with this action will block the player from winning the mission until it's been fired or cancelled, used to create secondary objectives.

Parameter	Requirements	Description
N/A	N/A	N/A

Action: "Cap=Win/Des=Lose"

See object attached events section.

Reinforcements: sea and sky

Every house has a map edge that will influence where reinforcements come from.
North / South / East / West. The house edge can be changed in the map settings dialog.

Reinforcements are made of Teams. The team flags and settings only apply after the reinforcement has taken place, so they can be ignored for this section.

Hovercraft

Hovercraft can deliver one vehicle, or up to 5 infantry.
The team should consist of one hovercraft ("LST") and it's passenger(s).
Due to the way reinforcements work, the hovercraft is unable to carry an APC.

Example team, one medium tank for GDI, to be delivered by hovercraft:

House	GoodGuy
mtnk	1
lst	1

Hovercraft can only enter the map from the bottom (south side) via a strip of water that starts outside of the map bounds and ends at a shore tile that's free to walk on. Once triggered, the game will search for a free water strip, starting from the bottom-right (south-east side) of the map.

If a water strip is blocked or currently in use by another hovercraft, it'll try the next one, and so on until it runs out of water strips, at which point the reinforcement will be blocked until one becomes free. When a unit leaves the hovercraft, they will block that water strip until the player moves them.

Chinook

Chinook can airdrop up to 5 infantry.
The team should consist of one Chinook ("TRAN") and it's passenger(s).

Example team, 1 commando and 3 engineers for GDI, to be delivered by Chinook:

House	GoodGuy
rmbo	1
e6	3
tran	1

The Chinook enters the field somewhere along the owning House's map edge,
lands at the waypoint "Reinf.", unloads the passengers, then leaves the map.

Other waypoints can be used instead of "Reinf." to specify where to land.
To use waypoint P5 for example, assign the following mission to the team:

Mission	Argument
Unload	5

Important: If the waypoint is blocked by impassable terrain, structures or units, etc., the Chinook may fly away without unloading!

Chinook as a unit

Chinook can't be placed directly onto the map like ground units, it needs to be called in as a reinforcement. A controllable Chinook reinforcement that doesn't fly away should be a team consisting of just the Chinook.

House	GoodGuy
tran	1

Chinooks can be captured by engineers, if an enemy Chinook needs to be discovered by the player, it can be reinforced at the start of the mission using the shroud to hide this quirk.

Helipads automatically provide the owning house's attack aircraft when the mission starts, so Orca and Apache shouldn't normally need to be called in this way.

Reinforcements: ground

Ground

Ground reinforcements require a strip of land that starts from outside the map bounds and end with a ground tile that's free to walk on. The side of the map the reinforcements come from depends on the house's map edge setting. In the image, the house's map edge is assumed to be set to East.

When the reinforcements action is triggered, each unit in the team will search for an available land strip to enter, if the edge is west or east, the order of search will be north-to-south, if the edge is north or south, the order of search will be west-to-east. If no available land strip is available, units will be blocked until one becomes available. Ideally there should be enough free land strips for each unit of a reinforcement team.

A ground reinforcements team can consist of any ground based unit, with the exception of APC which will be explained further on. The team must have a move command to a valid waypoint, or the reinforcement will not trigger. The waypoint should be a number of cells away from the edge of the map to give the team enough room to maneuver.

Example ground reinforcement team,
1 MCV, 2 medium tanks and 6 grenadiers for GDI, to move to waypoint P1:

House	GoodGuy
mcv	1
mtnk	2
e2	6

Mission	Argument
Move	1

APC

An APC delivered team works like a Chinook team. There must be 1 APC and up to 5 infantry. Unlike the Chinook team, the APC will remain on the map with the infantry as a controllable unit. Multiple APC drops must be reinforced as separate teams. To have the APC unload it's passengers, the mission should specify an unload command after the move.

Unloading to the same waypoint as the move causes the APCs to unload randomly in a messy fashion, to make it unload like a player deploying, create a waypoint adjacent to the reinforcement destination and unload to there. Note: the APC will unload in the direction it's facing, not the direction of the adjacent waypoint.

Example team,
1 commando and 3 engineers for GDI,
delivered by APC to P1, unloading at P2:

House	GoodGuy
rmbo	1
e6	3
apc	1

Mission	Argument
Move	1
Unload	2

APC as a unit

A team of only APC.

House	GoodGuy
apc	3

Mission	Argument
Move	1

Teams

Teams are combinations of units that come together to perform a mission. When a team is created, it's units are first recruited from the map, including those from other teams with a lower priority number than the recruiting team. The order in which the units on the map are recruited is based on the order they were placed in the editor and then the order in which they were built during the game (I think!). The placement order can be rearranged manually in the mission's *.ini file. Units with the following missions are excluded from being recruited: Sticky, Sleep, Area Guard, Hunt and Harvest.

If there are no units available on the map, the computer will attempt to create them from their respective factories. House production needs to be started by the production trigger action before any new units will be produced. House requirements strictly apply, for example NOD are unable to build grenadiers even if they own a barracks. Prerequisites don't apply however, NOD could build a stealth tank at tech level 1 with only a war factory.

If there are no units on the map, no factories and/or no production action triggered, creation of the team will stall.

Teams can be created by trigger action, or automatically based on the team's settings. Teams are disbanded when they no longer have a mission. If no missions are set for a team, the team is disbanded the moment it's created.

Team Settings

Some settings do nothing. Maybe they did during development of the game.

Setting	Description
Roundabout	Try and avoid certain death while sticking to the objective. Maybe don't walk straight into an Advanced Guard Tower if there's a way around.
Learning	N/A
Suicide	All sense of self-preservation is lost in favor of sticking to the objective. See Tiberium Harvesters for an example of this behavior.
Auto-create	This team is a part of the scenario's attack wave.
Mercenary	N/A
Reinforcable	Nothing to do with actual reinforcements. If a member of the team is killed then it's okay to turn back and wait for a replacement.
Prebuilt	When house production has started, build the units for this team and have them wait outside their respective factories. Note that even without this flag set, the AI may prebuild a team anyway. Use the flag to ensure it.
Priority	When teams are created, they can recruit units from other teams if that team has a lower priority.
Init Num	N/A
Max Allowed	If auto-create is set then it will be the number of times the team is created during an attack-wave. If (counter-intuitively) auto-create isn't set, then the AI will always try to ensure the creation of this team type until active teams of this type reaches this number.
Fear	N/A

Missions

Missions are run in order, one at a time, until the end of the list or a "loop" mission. Missions are more like guidelines than a script, so don't expect units to behave exactly as you want them to, if at all. Time for missions is measured the same as in triggers, in multiples of 6 seconds (1/10th of a minute). Like team settings, a number of missions are also unused.

Mission	Argument	Description
Attack Base	Timeout	Hunt for structures that aren't allied with this team's house until timeout.
Attack Units	Timeout	Hunt for units that aren't allied with this team's house until timeout.
Attack Civil.	Timeout	Hunt for civilians that aren't allied with this team's house until timeout.
Rampage	Timeout	Hunt for anything that isn't allied with this team's house until timeout.
Defend Base	N/A	N/A
Move	Waypoint #	Move to waypoint.
Move to Cell	Cell #	The number of the cell the mouse is on can be found in the statusbar of the map editor. Should only be used is if you run out of waypoints.
Retreat	N/A	N/A
Guard	Timeout	Stop and wait for an amount of time.
Loop	Mission #	Of this team's missions, to the specified mission by index (starting from 0).
Attack Tarcom	Target	Attack the specified target.
Unload	Waypoint #	Unload an APC or Chinook at a waypoint

Attack TarCom

Because most AI behaviors can be accomplished with unit positioning and generic attack missions, don't expect to use "Attack TarCom" at all unless you have something very specific in mind.

It's not used in any official maps.

Short for "Target Command" (maybe?). It allows a team to attack anything on the map, regardless of the house. Targets have two components, a type (see "TARGET.H") and an ID. ((TYPE << 12) | ID)

Type	ID	Hex << 0xC	Decimal << 12
KIND_CELL	1	0x1000	4096
KIND_UNIT	2	0x2000	8192
KIND_INFANTRY	3	0x3000	12288
KIND_BUILDING	4	0x4000	16384
KIND_TERRAIN	5	0x5000	20480
KIND_AIRCRAFT	6	0x6000	24576

You can make a target using this table and the object's ID in the map's .ini file.
For example, a GDI Barracks at Cell ID 469:

[Structures]
011=GoodGuy,pyle,256,469,0,None

The target for this structure is KIND_BUILDING,011

Referring to the table, KIND_BUILDING has a shifted value of 16384.

16384 + 011 = 16395

Mission	Parameter
Attack Tarcom	16395

Attack Waves (auto-create)

Teams marked with auto-create take part in a repeating attack wave. During the wave, the team will be created the number of times their "Max Allowed" property is set. The first wave will start immediately when the auto-create trigger action is fired. Subsequent waves happen at random intervals depending on the player's chosen difficulty level.

Difficulty	Time between waves
Easy	16 - 40 minutes
Normal	5 - 20 minutes
Hard	4 - 10 minutes

Teams don't actually need to attack to be part of the wave.
They'll be created regardless of their mission.

Although creating teams with a repeating time trigger can have the same effect, because auto-create responds to difficulty level, it's a good way to keep the player engaged without expecting too much of them.

Examples

Standard win / lose

Playing as GDI, if all Nod forces are destroyed, mission accomplished.
If all GDI forces are destroyed, mission failed.

Name	House	Loop	Event	Action	Team	Data
win	BadGuy	No	All Destr.	Win	None	0
lose	GoodGuy	No	All Destr.	Lose	None	0

Attack-waves

Starting at 4 minutes, enemy AI sends waves of bazooka infantry to attack the player's base.
3 teams of 5 bazookas will be sent every attack-wave.

• The enemy needs a Hand/Barracks and enough funds for attack-waves to be sustained.
  
• Each team will hunt for 5 minutes, then stop and guard (attack whatever's near by).

Name	House	Loop	Event	Action	Team	Data
prod	BadGuy	No	Time	Production	None	0
auto	BadGuy	No	Time	Autocreate	None	40

House	BadGuy
Auto-create	yes
Max Allowed	3
e3	5

Mission	Argument
Attack Base	50

Airstrike

When these SAM-Sites are destroyed, give player airstrike

Name	House	Loop	Event	Action	Team	Data
air1	None	And	Destroyed	Airstrike	None	0

[Riptos]

I can't get win triggers to work. I have two maps that are unwinnable as nothing happens when all the units and buildings are destroyed, the game doesn't end. It just sits there. I have my trigger set up exactly the same as the example and nothing works.

[Nyerguds]

Looks like I was slightly wrong about the "Player Enters" thing. Only capturing stuff triggers Player Enter; Commando's bombing stuff don't. By the way, the updated map editor's url changed to "MobiusMapEditor", which is now it's official name ;)

[M4X4]

How do I get a enemy reinforcement transport helicopter in TD to unload engineers and let the engineers attack (capture) the base?
The unloading works fine but any command after that (like attack base) appears to get ignored.
Same with other AI infantry reinforced by TRAN. They just get dropped off and all commands after unloading are ignored.
I did get it to work by using a second trigger that creates a team of engineers and taack base. So the c ommands are correct, they just never seem to work if reinforced by TRAN.

I did find an example in an old TD guide which has an example, but this does not work. It just onloads the engineers and they do nothing.
chop=BadGuy,0,0,0,0,0,7,0,0,0,2,E6:5,TRAN:1,3,Move:2,Unload:2,Attack Base:50,0,0

[Nyerguds]

Another important note: celltriggers DO NOT get triggered by cloaked units. This is 100% deliberate, and seriously impacts some missions. In fact, the Covert Ops mission "Cloak & Dagger" is completely built around this exception.

[Rawflesh0615]

Question, if it possible that I place a capture trigger on a Research Biodome Facility and including the Advanced Communication Uplink or no?

[Nyerguds]

The "Player Enters" info is incomplete. Not only can "Player Enters" also be used on structures (when Engineers/Commandos enter them), but its loop status is also incomplete. It can be put to "None" to trigger only on the first occurrence, on "or" to repeat on every linked thing, and on "and" to trigger only once when all of them are triggered.

[DDF3]

HoverCraft have a distance limitation as well , they wont appear on the map if they have to travel more than about halfway up the map , you will still get the reinforcement message though

[Nyerguds]

By the way, there's a version of the editor out there that fixes the flare/home/reinf. waypoints stuff. In fact, it's kind of already fixed in the released source code, but somehow that didn't end up in the build.
Google for Rampastein / Rampastring's "Improvements for the map editor" topic on ppmsite.

[yesfish]

@Nyerguds thanks I'll look into this

[Blaze]

yesfish thanks for makeing this guide, i was haveing a lil trouble understanding the TD editor after coming from the RA one a few weeks ago, but thanks to the hints in here i was able to make it work .