E2160 - Modding Overview

To modify Earth 2160, you first need to understand the key components of the game and the limitations that are currently enforced upon the community due to the lack of availible game source code.

The core components are as follows:

Engine

The Engine is fully contained within the game executable, for which the Source Code was lost.

Game Parameters

The core configuration of the game (outside of the engine) is done in the paramenters file.
This file contains all information on definitions, buildings, units, weapons, and much more.
The parameters (or "par" file for short) is named aptly "Earth2160.par".

Programming Language

EarthC is the main programming language for the game.
The is used to create Campaigns, Gametypes, Unit & AI Scripts.
Full guides for this can be found here.

Tools

SDK Tools
- To obtain access to the SDK & Tools, you will need to purchase the "Earth 2160 - Deluxe Edition"
Community Tools
- In this repository, you will find a combination of community developed tools to assist with the extraction, editing and re-packaging of the required game files.

In addition to the above, the following information should be understood;

The Game Folder Structure is as follows;

<~/GAMEROOT>
   ├───CustomWDFiles (Manually added)
   │       *.wd
   │      
   ├───Video
   │       *.wd1
   │ 
   └───WDFiles
           *.wd

* The Game Folder Structure is as follows;
<~/<USERNAME>/DOCUMENTS>
   ├───Levels
   │       *.lnd
   │
   └───Players
       └───<PLAYERNAME>
           │   UserInfo.usr
           │
           ├───ALIEN
           │       *.jpg
           │       *.sav
           │       _files_.txt
           │
           ├───ED
           │       *.jpg
           │       *.sav
           │       _files_.txt
           │
           ├───LC
           │       *.jpg
           │       *.sav
           │       _files_.txt
           │
           ├───Network
           │       *.jpg
           │       *.sav
           │       _files_.txt
           │
           ├───Replays
           │   ├───Network
           │   │       *.jpg
           │   │       *.rpl
           │   │       _files_.txt
           │   │
           │   └───Skirmish
           │           *.jpg
           │           *.rpl
           │           _files_.txt 
           │
           ├───Skirmish
           │       *.jpg
           │       *.sav
           │       _files_.txt
           │
           └───UCS
                   *.jpg
                   *.sav
                   _files_.txt

Any and all modified files should be compiled into a single ".WD" file, that is then placed into a "CustomWDFiles" folder that resides in the Game Directory Root, or within the existing "WDFiles" folder, however the later is not recommended.

~\GAMEROOT\CustomWDFiles\<FILENAME>.WD
   ├───efx
   │       *.efx
   │           
   ├───Interface
   │       *.tex
   │       
   ├───Language
   │       Credits.txt
   │       Language.lan
   │
   ├───Meshes
   │       *.msh
   │
   ├───Models
   │       *.std
   │
   ├───Music
   │       *.ogg
   │
   ├───Parameters
   │       EARTH2160.par
   │       gamescripts.txt
   │       objdef.txt
   │
   ├───Particles
   │       *.prt
   │
   ├───Scripts
   │   ├───Campaigns
   │   │   ├───ED
   │   │   │   └───Missions
   │   │   │           *.ecoMP
   │   │   │
   │   │   ├───LC
   │   │   │   └───Missions
   │   │   │           *.ecoMP
   │   │   │
   │   │   └───UCS
   │   │       └───Missions
   │   │               *.ecoMP
   │   │
   │   ├───GameTypes
   │   │   └───Single
   │   │
   │   └───Units
   │
   ├───Sounds
   │       *.wpk
   │
   ├───Textures
   │       *.material
   │       *.tga
   │       *.bmp
   │       *.dds
   │
   └───Waves
           *.wpk
           *.ogg

└───