How Does TA:Mutation Work?
All TA:Mutation does is two things:
Rename and move around files.
Because of this, there is no special or proprietary format that your files have to be in.
Just plain ol' TA compatible files.
This is why there really are no "compatibility issues" to deal with in TA:M.
The TA-Mutation folder under your game folder can be thought of as your "holding place" for all the units/files that you may use at some point.
Anything in the TA-Mutation folder itself will NOT be run by TA - because TA does not look in the TA-Mutation folder for its files.
What TA:M does is allow you to pick and choose which items in your "holding place" will be moved into your game folder and thus be read by TA.
It does this through the tabs you can click on when you run TA:M. A highlighted item means that this item is not in the TA-Mutation folder anymore, but it is actually in your TA game folder and it will be loaded when you run TA.
Each data file has its own Control File that goes along with it.
The Control File is what tells TA:M what you have installed.
The Control Files stay in the TA-Mutation folder, while the game data file that it belongs to is moved back and forth between TA-Mutation and the game folder itself.
This is because TA:M needs to be able to keep track of what is installed, even when the data file is active.
Filenames are very important to TA:Mutation.
If a file is named wrong, TA:M will not be able to control it. Correct file naming is the only way TA:M knows what file is what.
Here are the file naming rules:
For Total Conversions, all files must begin with the two characters "][".
Total Conversion data files must have the extention ".ufo"
Control Files for Total Conversions have the extension ".tc"
For Mutators, all files must begin with the two characters "}{".
Mutator data files must have the extension ".ccx"
Control Files for Mutators have the extension ".tam"
For AI's, all files and folders must begin with the two characters "^^".
Control Files for AI's have the extension ".ai"
3rd party UFO files you include must have the extension ".ufo" and go in the UFOManager folder.
Control Files for UFO's have the extension ".txt" and go in the UFOManager folder.
UFO Packs only consist of a .pac filethat contains a list of UFOs
UFO Pack files are just a list of UFO's that go together so you can turn them all on or off with a single click.
UFO Pack files also go in the UFOManager folder.
TA:Mutation expects you to not move any of these files in or out of your game folder yourself.
If you move files around yourself, TA:M will warn you by telling you which files got moved, and tell you that you should fix it before continuing.
ESPECIALLY do NOT move data files around while TA:M is running. Very bad things could happen.
To install items, all you have to do is copy the files you download or create into the right place, and run TA:M.
To uninstall items, you must first turn the item off from within TA:M. This will move the item back to the TA-Mutation folder, and from there, you can delete it.