OpenSYW

A remake of Seven Years War RTS (1997) on the OpenRA engine. It is not a 100% adaptation of the original mechanics, lots of things have been modernized.

Original Game Description

Seven Years War is based on the historical conflict between Korea and Japan in the late 16th century. Similar to other real-time strategy games the workers harvest vegetables which are used to construct buildings. In turn these are used to build walking, sailing or flying combat units which are used to defeat the enemy.

Features

• Korea and Japan, each with its own infantry, cavalry, spellcasters, vehicles, ships and aircraft.
• All 18 original skirmish maps, converted from your copy of the game.
• Skirmish against Medium and Hard General bots, with a chosen or random faction.
• Day and night (units see less at night) and rain showers.
• The original art, voices and sound effects.

Playing (Windows)

1. Download the latest OpenSYW-<version>-x64.exe installer (or the portable .zip) from the Releases page and run it. Nothing else is needed: .NET is included.
2. On first launch OpenSYW asks for your own copy of Seven Years War. It finds common folders such as C:\SYWAR by itself; otherwise click Browse... and choose the folder holding syw.exe. Install converts the art, sounds and maps in a few seconds, then the game starts.

The original game files are not included. The converted content is stored in %APPDATA%\OpenRA\Content\syw; the main menu's Manage Content button converts it again (for example from another copy).

Building from source

Requirements:

• The .NET 6 SDK.
• Your own copy of Seven Years War.

The OpenRA engine (release-20250330) is downloaded automatically by the first build.

1. Build the mod once: make.cmd (Windows) or make (Linux / macOS).
2. Start the game with launch-game.cmd or launch-game.sh. On first launch it asks for the original game folder and converts it, as above (the Browse button is Windows-only; on Linux and macOS use install-assets.sh below).

The converter can also run from the command line, pointing it at the original game folder (the one holding syw.exe, FNT1, fst, Ani, effect and cusmap):

• Windows: install-assets.cmd C:\Games\SYWAR
• Linux / macOS: ./install-assets.sh ~/Games/SYWAR

Without a folder it looks for SYWAR next to this repository. Unlike the in-game installer it also builds our test maps (bot-test, ffa-spectate), which run_tests.py needs. Run it again after a change to the converter.

Both write into the player content folder (%APPDATA%\OpenRA\Content\syw�1, or ~/.config/openra/Content/syw/v1); install-manifest.txt there lists every file written. Options:

• --list shows the stages (sprites, buildings, effects, terrain and maps, chrome, map objects, audio, test maps).
• --only units,chrome runs some of them.
• --out FOLDER writes somewhere else.
• --write-yaml also updates the generated YAML files kept in the repository: the three terrain tilesets, the crop sequences, the map-object rules and sequences, the cursors and the main-menu fire.

The converter lives in OpenRA.Mods.Syw/AssetInstaller, the first-launch screen in mods/syw-content and OpenRA.Mods.Syw/Widgets/Logic/SywContentLogic.cs.

Development

Windows	Linux / macOS	Purpose
make.cmd	Makefile	Compiles the mod and fetches dependencies (including the OpenRA engine).
launch-game.cmd	launch-game.sh	Launches the game from the repository.
launch-dedicated.cmd	launch-dedicated.sh	Launches a dedicated server.
utility.cmd	utility.sh	Launches the OpenRA Utility for the mod.
packaging/windows/package-windows.ps1	packaging/package-all.sh	Generates release installers.

Checks:

• utility.cmd syw --check-yaml (or ./utility.sh syw --check-yaml) lints the rules, maps and chrome.
• python run_tests.py builds the mod, runs the YAML check and plays every automated test map (--only start-test,combat-test picks some, --no-build --no-check skips the first two steps). The test maps need the converted game assets; logs and a summary go to test-results/.

Releases (Windows):

• powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File packaging\windows\package-windows.ps1 -Tag v0.1 builds the installer and a portable zip into dist/. It needs NSIS for the installer (-NoInstaller builds only the zip). Only files under mods/ that git does not ignore are packaged, so converted game assets never end up in a release.
• Pushing a tag such as v0.1 makes GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/release-windows.yml) build both and publish them as a GitHub Release. Running that workflow by hand only uploads them as a build artifact.
• The application icon is drawn by packaging/artwork/make-icons.ps1.

The repository is based on the OpenRA Mod SDK; see its FAQ and the guide to updating to a new engine version.

License

The OpenRA engine and SDK scripts are made available under the GPLv3 license, and any executable code developed by a mod and loaded by the engine (i.e. custom mod DLLs, lua scripts) must be released under a compatible license.