Why does [Special] exist?

Millennium · Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:20 pm Post subject: Why does [Special] exist?

I'm sure this is a very fundamental question without much practical application, but: why is [Special] defined as a separate country (and Mutant as a separate Side, for that matter)? I've no real idea about mapping and perhaps the answer to this is found in mapping, but it appears to me that in maps, ordinarily, there are several houses that instantiate a country (GDI1 through GDIn, Nod1 through Nodn, Neutral1 through Neutraln) owning pre-placed objects. On skirmish maps, pre-placed objects are typically owned by an instantiation of Neutral. Why is a separate Special side needed, if objects, including mutant objects, could simply be owned by an instantiation of Neutral? The only other purpose of countries that are not playable is to provide a "handshake" from Factory Types to the TechnoTypes that can be provided by them and to determine Taskforces. In the rules.ini, there is no instance of the Special entry providing such a handshake; there are no factories available to mutants and no objects that they could construct even if a non-passive mutant house were to be created. I know there exists a mission (Sheep's Clothing) in which a house that is by "fluff" mutant produces units, but I don't think that, in that case, assigning this house to the "Special" country (if that was done at all, I seem to remember that this house was, in fact, assigned to GDI) would have provided any differentiation not already offered by assigning it to Neutral: there are no other Neutral houses on the map, or at least these are passive or could easily be rendered passive.

So, my question remains: what is the purpose of the [Special] country, distinct from [Neutral]?

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E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Special are friendlies in MP/Skirmish while Neutrals are not.

Millennium · Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 10:21 pm Post subject:

That's it? Well, thanks.

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