Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:30 pm Post subject:
Ares 3.0 Development
Hello and welcome back! Finally some actual news: This is the development thread for what shall become Ares 3.0, roughly targeting mid-2019. Here is the first unstable: (19.109.1009).
As always, I'm not only adding new features but also reworking existing features. This version will have an unusual amount of breaking changes, all of which you can find below. Because there have been quite a lot of changes, I'll group them into batches.
This month, Visual Studio 2019 was released, and it is the first version to no longer support Windows xp. I don't know who is still using the almost 20 year old operating system today, so I will not upgrade the compiler for Ares for now, at least not without testing. Maybe VS 2019 will still produce DLLs usable on Windows xp, maybe this is the end of that road... I'll keep you updated on this.
Minor additions
Better support for using Operator with Type Conversions
Show proper veteran cameos for the new spy effects
Fixed PrismForwarding=forward, which was parsed as "no"
Operator logic now takes a list of TechnoTypes, not a single InfantryType
Animate the IvanBomb cursor
Recheck all prerequisites when a unit converts its type
Only add the granted super weapon cameo if the spy is owned by the player
Do not always default EMP.Threshold to inair when reading and INI
Even play Super animation if super weapons exist but all of them are disabled
Let Harvester=yes FreeUnits start in Harvest mission, all others get AreaGuard
Changed the default cursor for the Detonate actions to the Detonate cursor
Fixed an original game savegame bug with Image and Palette settings
Many internal changes
The first one will be the breaking changes:
Selling units on UnitRepair structures
The game now uses the dock coords instead of the building center when determining whether a UnitRepair structure can sell a unit. Not all buildings dock at the center, thus the square Allied Repair Depot could sell units why the Soviet Service Depot could not. Now both can.
Migration: Currently this is hardcoded. This might become a setting, if you modders desire to rather make this optional.
Changed how the Money Steal Spy Effect works
Previously, only one of the tags SpyEffect.StolenMoneyAmount and SpyEffect.StolenMoneyPercentage would be used at the same time. If both were defined, SpyEffect.StolenMoneyAmount would take precedence.
Now, SpyEffect.StolenMoneyPercentage will always take precedence over SpyEffect.StolenMoneyAmount, which also now can be used to denote the max amount of money to steal: If SpyEffect.StolenMoneyAmount is greater than 0, it will act as the maximum value.
Migration: If you ever used both tags at the same time, you can restore the original behavior by removing SpyEffect.StolenMoneyPercentage.
Changed the IvanBomb bomb overlay anim
The calculation of the frame to show has been changed to do what the game does. The logic deals in sets of two frames, the original bombcurs.shp does, too.
Now, the last frame, which is used for Death Bombs, will never show if the frame number is even. Thus, it no longer has to be removed, and it doesn't have to be present if Death Bombs aren't used.
If IvanBomb.FlickerRate=0 (which was unsupported previously), the animation will be stretched over the entire duration of IvanBomb.Delay. Furthermore, if the flicker rate is zero, the last frame is ignored if the frame count is odd. The logic only uses full blocks of two frames. Modders might need to duplicate the last frame to make the number even.
The bombcurs.shp should have the following format: (2 * timebomb_frames) + deathbomb_frame. The Death Bomb frame is optional. timebomb_frames could be 0 if Time Bombs aren't used. The shp must have at least one frame, though.
Example: For a bombcur.shp with the frames A, B, C, D, and E, previous versions of Ares would flicker between (A B), (B C), (C D), (D E). Now, like in the original game, it will flicker (A B) (C D), ignoring E because the frame count is odd (it will be used as Death Bomb frame, though.
Migration: This change is hardcoded. Getting back the old behavior would require to duplicate all frames but the first and the last one.
Changed how the HunterSeeker SW counts successful launches
Previously it assumed that each eligible building would always successfully launch a Hunter Seeker, and it would stop trying after the set maximum number of launch sites had been checked. Now, a launch is only considered successful if the Hunter Seeker unit could actually be deployed.
Migration: Nothing that can be changed here.
DropPod SW Targeting Mode
Changed the default AI Targeting Type for DropPod SWs. It is a new targeting mode that goes by the name "DropPod" and fires at a random cell in the outer sector of the owning player's base. It requires the player to have picked a favorite enemy.
Migration: To enable the previous behavior, explicitly set the AI Targeting Mode to "ParaDrop".
The second batch is related to refinies and harvesters:
Unloading Cell and Facing for Refineries
The following two tags have to be defined in artmd.ini.
[BuildingImage]DockUnloadCell= (2 integers - cell offset, defaults to 3,1)
The cell a harvester will dock on when unloading on this refinery. The cell is required to be passable.
[BuildingImage]DockUnloadFacing= (facing32, defaults to 8 (east))
The facing a harvester will turn to when docking on this refinery.
Deglobalized several harvester related settings
The following settings allow to customize Chrono Miners, War Miners, Slave Miners (buildings and units) as well as their Slaves (infantry) per type.
[TechnoType]Harvester.LongScan= (integer - cells)
For Harvester=yes units, defaults to [General]TiberiumLongScan. For Slave Miners, defaults to [General]SlaveMinerLongScan.
[TechnoType]Harvester.ShortScan= (integer - cells)
For Harvester=yes units, defaults to [General]TiberiumShortScan. For Slave Miners, defaults to [General]SlaveMinerShortScan, and for Slaves defaults to [General]SlaveMinerSlaveScan.
[TechnoType]Harvester.ScanCorrection= (integer - cells, defaults to [General]SlaveMinerScanCorrection)
For Slave Miner buildings.
[TechnoType]Harvester.TooFarDistance= (integer - cells)
For Harvester=yes units. Defaults to [General]ChronoHarvTooFarDistance for Teleporter=yes units, otherwise to [General]HarvesterTooFarDistance.
[TechnoType]Harvester.KickDelay= (integer - frames)
For Slave Miner units. Defaults to [General]SlaveMinerKickFrameDelay. Use -1 to not kick the Slave Miner to action.
Another batch of features, related to base building:
Define whether a building extends the AI player's build radius
[BuildingType]AIBaseNormal= (boolean)
Whether this building will extend the base space of the AI player. Defaults to no if both UndeploysInto= is set and ResourceGatherer=yes (like for Slave Miners), otherwise defaults to whether the building is considered a vehicle (old TS notion of deployed 1x1 Tick Tanks, Artilleries and Juggernaughts not counting as building).
Special rule for AI building placement
[BuildingType]AIInnerBase= (boolean, defaults to CloakGenerator=)
Whether the AI prefers to place this building closer to the center of the base.
The next batch will be some miscellaneous additions:
Queue 5 items at once
Five items can be queued at once when shift-clicking the cameo. This needs network testing, in particular with units with build limits.
Added a new intrinsic cursor "RepairTrench"
This cursor defaults to the Repair one, and it used to indicate that an engineer will rebuild a trench from rubble and thus not be consumed by the action.
Clone Units As Different Types
Against all common sense, clones can now have a different type than the original.
[TechnoType]ClonedAs= (TechnoType, defaults to none)
The type to use when producing a clone of this type. If not set, the clone will be of the same type as this object. Vehicles can only be cloned as VehicleTypes, and infantry can only be cloned as InfantryType.
Detached Railgun Beams
A unit cannot fire another railgun beam as long as the previously fired beam dissolved. This new setting allows to get around that limitation.
[Weapon]IsDetachedRailgun= (boolean, defaults to no)
Whether this weapon is a railgun. Has the same particle effect as IsRailgun but does not have the limitation that the weapon cannot be fired as long as the particle system created by firing the weapon previously subsided.
Combining IsDetachedRailgun=yes with IsRailgun=yes is not supported.
The following batch extends some Super Weapon types:
Chrono Kill Cargo for Chronosphere
[SuperWeapon]Chronosphere.KillCargo= (boolean, defaults to no)
Whether all passengers and occupants should be destroyed when the object is chronshifted.
Allow disabling extending base space for Unit Delivered buildings
[SuperWeapon]Deliver.BaseNormal= (boolean, default to yes)
Whether other buildings can be built adjacent to buildings delivered using this super weapon. If yes, normal base space rules will apply. If set to no, delivered buildings will not provide base space to build adjacent to.
There is a new super weapon type:
Battery Super Weapon
Type=Battery is a Charge Drain super weapon that uses the new targeting mode "lowpower" (see below) and has the following settings:
[SuperWeapon]Battery.Power= (integer - power, defaults to 0)
The amount of auxiliary power given to a house when the super weapon is active.
[SuperWeapon]Battery.Overpower= (list of BuildingTypes)
The types of buildings this super weapon will temporarily overpower.
[SuperWeapon]Battery.KeepOnline= (list of BuildingTypes)
The types of buildings this super weapon will temporarily keep online. Base defenses and radar buildings are fully supported.
There are new AI Targeting modes:
LightningRandom Super Weapon AI Targeting Mode
"LightningRandom" targets a random cell no matter its contents and is not otherwise constrained except for checking Designators and Inhibitors.
Added two new AI Targeting Modes related to power
"Attack" fires like "NoTarget" when the last attack on a building was recent.
"LowPower" fires to the same cell as "NoTarget" when the owning house has insufficient power.
"LowPowerAttack" fires like "LowPower", but only if the last attack on a building was recent. This can be used to activate auxiliary power or to force-overcharge base defenses.
There are two experimental map actions:
AuxiliaryPower Trigger Action
Defined as follows:
146,11,<house id>,0,0,0,0,<power>
Adds an amount to the house's auxiliary power. Can be negative.
KillDriversOf Trigger Action
Defined as follows:
147,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Kills the driver of all units with the trigger attached.
Next will be the super weapon related additions:
Super Weapons for AI or human players only
When a house cannot use the super weapon, neither the cameo nor the timer will become visible.
[SuperWeapon]SW.AllowPlayer= (boolean, defaults to yes)
Whether this super weapon will be available to human players.
[SuperWeapon]SW.AllowAI= (boolean, defaults to yes)
Whether this super weapon will be available to AI players.
Super Weapons provided without buildings
[SuperWeapon]SW.AlwaysGranted= (boolean, defaults to no)
Whether this super weapon is not provided by any building but is instead always available. Respects AuxBuilding, SW.AuxBuidings, SW.NegBuildings, SW.ForbiddenHouses, SW.RequiredHouses, SW.AllowPlayer and SW.AllowAI.
The first super weapon can become available immediately
[SuperWeapon]SW.InitialReady= (boolean, defaults to no)
Whether the first super weapon of this type will be ready immediately after the super weapon becomes available. Once the super weapon has been fired, it will charge normally.
Charge super weapons even if no building exists
This can be used to untie super weapon charging from the existence of a building. So the super weapon will charge in the background, or outside the map. When the cameo is removed and added again, the super weapon will not restart charging but instead appear with the cameo charge already partially progressed.
For example, reinforcements could become available every five minutes, as long as a radar building exists that could call them in, even if it has been built only a minute ago.
[SuperWeapon]SW.VirtualCharge= (boolean, defaults to no)
Once the super weapon becomes available, it will charge continuously.
Only allow a super weapon to fire so and so many times
[SuperWeapon]SW.Shots= (integer, defaults to -1)
How often this super weapon is allowed to fire before becoming unavailable. Use -1 to allow unlimited firing. Is not supported for Charge Drain super weapons.
Currently, super weapons granted by crates or map actions will also count against this limit.
Use SW.AITargeting for human players
[SuperWeapon]SW.UseAITargeting= (boolean, defaults to no)
Whether AITargeting will decide the target used when firing this super weapon. If yes, clicking the cameo will not allow manual target selection and instead fire the super weapon at an automatically determined location.
If the applicable constraints of a targeting mode aren't satisfied (see below), the cameo will be darkened. If the targeting mode cannot find a target, firing the super weapon will display a message. It will not discharge the super weapon.
[SuperWeapon]Message.CannotFire= (CSF label, defaults to "MSG:CannotFire")
The message to display to the owning player if firing a super weapon using AITargeting fails.
This might pan out pretty well when it comes to preference constraints: In single player missions, it could be possible to set and reset the preferred cell by trigger and have the player decide when to strike. Needs testing, though.
What follows are expert settings to customize the AI Targeting:
SW.AITargeting Preference
This setting allows to customize what target cell to prefer when firing the super weapon. This way, the targeting mechanism can be overridden by map actions.
[SuperWeapon]SW.AITargeting.Preference= (SW targeting preference)
The cell set by Map Actions to prefer to fire this super weapon at. Defaults depend on the Type=.
The values are:
"none": no preference
"offensive": prefer the offensive cell if set by Map Action
"defensive": prefer the defensive cell if set by Map Action
SW.AITargeting Constraints
Constraints are the circumstances under which a super weapon can be fired. Some of those are artificial (Hunter Seekers could be launched if the AI hasn't chosen an enemy yet, but it makes no sense), some are descriptive (if the favorite enemy's base is targeted, but the AI hasn't picked any yet, there's no location to fire at).
If the constraints are not chosen right, then the SW cameo might become un-darkened inappropriately if AI Targeting is used. If the player then fires but the targeting mode cannot find a target because of its actual constraints, then the player will get a failure message instead of an early visual cue that it can't be used.
[SuperWeapon]SW.AITargeting.Constraints= (SW targeting constraints)
A comma-separated list of constraints that have to be satisfied for the super weapon to fire. Defaults depend on the Type=.
The values are:
"offensive_cell_clear": whether the offensive cell has been cleared by Map Actions
"defensive_cell_clear": whether the defensive cell has been cleared by Map Actions
"offensive_cell_set": holds until the offensive cell has been set by Map Action
"defensive_cell_set": holds until the defensive cell has been set by Map Action
"enemy": whether the firing house has selected a favorite enemy
"lightningstorm_inactive": wheter a storm is not manifesting or active
"dominator_inactive": whether a Psychic Dominator is not active
"attacked": whether the firing house has been attacked recently
"lowpower": whether the firing house has low power
The following constraints will not be applied to human players for the following reason:
"lightningstorm_inactive", because the player gets a proper abort message
"dominator_inactive", because the player gets a proper abort message
"attacked", because it's a helper for the AI, but the player is free to ignore this
"lowpower" for the same reason
It is now possible to launch a super weapon at a time chosen by the player at a location chosen by the mapper. This should allow per-map one-shot super weapons that launch an EMP at the enemy base entrance, or paradrop some Seals near power plants behind the enemy lines before the player attacks, ... _________________ QUICK_EDIT
WOW lots of great new features I especially look for to using the new refinery docking locations, I'll be able to add a bit of extra variety to the different sides buildings in D-day. Nice to see the new player AITargeting too, it will make "upgrades" via SW a lot cleaner to use. _________________
This is AWESOME! _________________ One and only developer of the Command & Conquer Dune "C&C D" mod.
m7 wrote:
I tend to release things I create so that assets are never lost to hard drive problems, accidental deletion, or me having to pretend to care about rippers taking things from my project when it is done.
To enable the two new map actions in FinalAlert 2, one can add the following at the end of [ActionsRA2] list in FAData.ini. Descriptions are my own based on AlexB's documentation and can be further adjusted to your liking.
Code:
146=Add auxiliary power for a house,-11,2,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,Adds an amount of auxiliary power for specified house. Amount can be negative.,0,1,146,1
147=Kill drivers of attached units,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,Kills the driver of all units that this trigger is attached to.,0,1,147,1
Obligatory note that they currently have some problems in-game (auxpower's effect is not reliably sprung immediately, killdriver does not appear to work at all). This will likely be fixed in future builds. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Some mighty impressive features added in here, really impressed with all of these. Will get to work testing these features immediately!
Quik-edit: I can confirm the following features to be working on my end:
- Selling vehicles in Service Depots in the shape of the Soviet Service Depot
- Shift-Queue of 5 units seems okay in skirmish, will test online tomorrow
- ClonedAs works as intended, this is a pretty cool features
- DetachedRailguns seem to be working, and seem to allow objects to use multiple railgun weapons without firing issues
- Battery SWs seem to be working properly, and play well with the existing ChargeToDrain tags as well. Battery.KeepOnline seems to work correctly as well, but I have not tested Spy-induced Power Outages against Battery SWs.
- SW.AllowAI, SW.AllowPlayer, SW.UseAITargeting all seem to be working correctly as well
- The documentation is missing the Deliver.Buildups tag on the Type=UnitDelivery page. Last edited by m7 on Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:29 am; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
Can also de-hardcode the side slaves switch to if miner is destroyed? Robot slave is gonna be royal to the former owner and change to battle mode. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
- The documentation is missing the Deliver.Buildups tag on the Type=UnitDelivery page.
Deliver.Buildups was removed in Ares 0.D because disabling it never worked properly for AI players in the first place and it kept causing all sorts of trouble when Alex tried to make it work (using art without buildup achieves the same effect much more reliably anyway). The removal, albeit not the reason is mentioned in migration guide section of the documentation. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 11:12 am Post subject:
Re: Ares 3.0 Development
AlexB wrote:
I don't know who is still using the almost 20 year old operating system today
Owners of old PCs and laptops with <2 GB of RAM, I'm one of those, unfortunately.
AlexB wrote:
so I will not upgrade the compiler for Ares for now, at least not without testing.
Thanks for this
AlexB wrote:
Maybe VS 2019 will still produce DLLs usable on Windows xp, maybe this is the end of that road... I'll keep you updated on this.
I can be the XP test subject
AlexB wrote:
Queue 5 items at once
Five items can be queued at once when shift-clicking the cameo. This needs network testing, in particular with units with build limits.
IsDetachedRailgun works great, all fired by the same unit.
_________________ "Don't beg for things; Do it yourself or you'll never get anything." QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 5:47 pm Post subject:
Re: Ares 3.0 Development
Damfoos wrote:
AlexB wrote:
I don't know who is still using the almost 20 year old operating system today
Owners of old PCs and laptops with <2 GB of RAM, I'm one of those, unfortunately.
You can upgrade the RAM easily tho. Those old laptops shouldn't have had their RAM soldered to the board yet, and generally more user-accessible than today's.
Your machine is using DDR2 RAM? QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:10 pm Post subject:
Re: Ares 3.0 Development
TAK02 wrote:
You can upgrade the RAM easily tho. Those old laptops shouldn't have had their RAM soldered to the board yet, and generally more user-accessible than today's.
Your machine is using DDR2 RAM?
You don't know the scale of trouble. He uses a netbook (more like a crapbook).
On the other hand, me and our team are testing the 5-click functionality and we're yet to see any issues (except probably the "access denied" sound (lol) when shift-clicking on hero units cameo after some delay). All BuildLimited units, buildings, aircraft, abilities seems to work fine. If there would be any issues - I'll reply again. _________________ Using MagicaVoxel to create voxel models :: Phobos YR Engine Extension
I want to see Battery superweapon type in action please :p _________________ If you are a MetalHead (Heavy Metal Fan) and don't want to be a metalhead, Just remove your metal ball from your head. �:p .
QUICK_EDIT
Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 4:52 am Post subject:
Re: Ares 3.0 Development
Kerbiter wrote:
TAK02 wrote:
Damfoos wrote:
AlexB wrote:
I don't know who is still using the almost 20 year old operating system today
Owners of old PCs and laptops with <2 GB of RAM, I'm one of those, unfortunately.
You can upgrade the RAM easily tho. Those old laptops shouldn't have had their RAM soldered to the board yet, and generally more user-accessible than today's.
Your machine is using DDR2 RAM?
You don't know the scale of trouble. He uses a netbook (more like a crapbook).
My HP Mini was also running WinXP, also a netbook (I think. Netbooks are small laptops, no?). And the entire PC could be easily disassembled to access every nook and crook with some time and a screw driver (except for the CPU that may have been glued (yes, glued, not soldered) to the board...), and then reassembled together, working properly as if nothing ever happened. Never got around to swapping the RAM, tho.
And I once swapped the 1024x576 screen with a 1920x1080 screen from another machine. Didn't fit in the chassis and looked odd, but still worked just fine and was more of a test than anything else.
RA2 also worked fine. At the full 1920x1080 res.
Was slow as heck, tho. Hardware too weak...
If he isn't using such a machine, then it really is a crapbook.
Deliver.Buildups was removed in Ares 0.D because disabling it never worked properly for AI players in the first place and it kept causing all sorts of trouble when Alex tried to make it work (using art without buildup achieves the same effect much more reliably anyway). The removal, albeit not the reason is mentioned in migration guide section of the documentation.
Thanks for the clarification! Good to know. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Location: LocationNotFoundException at RealLife.Location.find() at line: -1
Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 1:41 pm Post subject:
These are some truly fascinating features!
In which way does the KillDriversOf action differ from using a change house action to change it to the special house?
Also, two suggestions regarding the new superweapon features:
Could a superweapon like SW.AlwaysGranted require another superweapon to be fired first? For example launching a spy satellite, which instead of revealing the map gives a area scan superweapon. (This particular example can already be done by delivering a fake building, but it would be simpler.)
Could a structure be forced to only be able to be powered/activated by the battery superweapon, similar to Firestorm.Wall=yes? QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 05 Sep 2013 Location: LocationNotFoundException at RealLife.Location.find() at line: -1
Posted: Thu May 09, 2019 7:58 pm Post subject:
Tried two of the new features;
Tested SW.VirtualCharge=yes with a superweapon that uses SW.AuxBuildings, and it does continue to charge even when the AuxBuildings are not present, as expected.
AIInnerBase=yes works to some degree, although if it is a building that can be built multiple times the AIs seem to cluster them in one area of their base. Tried it with power plants, prism towers and tesla coils, and this is especially visible on the advanced base defences. AIInnerBase also doesn't seem to affect superweapon structures as much (Chronosphere and Iron Curtain), though that could be due to their large foundations being hard to place close to the center of their base.
If this was intended for structures that the AI only builds one instance of, then it works as intended.
innerbase2.png
Description:
All the power plants the AI built with AIInnerBase=yes get clustered together in this one area.
Filesize:
527.18 KB
Viewed:
339238 Time(s)
innerbase.png
Description:
When setting AIInnerBase=yes, the Prism Towers end up all clustered together. These are all they built. The Soviets did the same with their Tesla Coils.
Really appreciate the hard work you have done for this community.
I would like to get your opinion on possibly some more features:
Is it possible to make Radiation not hardcoded, so it would be possible to implement a 2nd type of radiation to the game?
Is it possible to include more difficulties, rather than just 3?
Is it possible to have more than 8 players? (I get the feeling this would be game breaking to get working)
Why is it when I clone the Psychic tower weapon (same name but with a "2" on the end), using the original projectile/warhead, and assign it to it, it crashes, but if I rename the weapon to something completely different, it works as intended? is there some form of hard coding going on here?
Posted: Sat May 25, 2019 5:22 am Post subject:
Re: Ares 3.0 Development
AlexB wrote:
Queue 5 items at once
Five items can be queued at once when shift-clicking the cameo. This needs network testing, in particular with units with build limits.
Maybe some expansion of this, like a unit has to be purchased 2 or more at a time.
[Conscript]
MustBuy=3
I click a conscript it automatically queue 3 (Shift-clicking queue 15), if it has less than 3 in the queue, I can't cancel it. QUICK_EDIT
Many thanks for testing! I'll answer your questions soon in a separate post.
Today I uploaded the second official testing build 19.145.1133, which took way longer to finish than I anticipated. It contains some smaller features, though I wanted to add a few more but ran out of time. More small features soon.
There's more than small features. I hope that I didn't mess up something basic like last time... adding the Kill Driver map action, then not hooking it up so the game would actually use it. As this testing build adds a lot of things Ares didn't have previously, there's always the possibility that the first step is bad and following it further goes more and more in a bad direction. If that's the case, please comment.
Minor additions
Actually hook up KillDriversOf Trigger Action so it can be used
Update the power status once an Auxiliary Map Action was used
EMP should no longer disable buildings playing their buildup animation
Battery Overpowering no longer requires Overpowerable=yes
Do not let the AI fire Charge Drain super weapons that are currently active
Allow Single Team Skirmish
Fixed reversed meaning of Abductor's Passengers.BySize
Fixed erratic Prism Forwarding log lines introduced in the last build
Customize whether docking structures can sell units
[BuildingType]UnitSell= (boolean, defaults to UnitRepair=)
Whether this building can sell docked units. Human players can click the Sell button an move it over the docked unit. The cursor will change to the SellUnit cursor.
Extended the Unsellable tag to non-buildings
[TechnoType]Unsellable= (boolean, defaults to [General]UnitsUnsellable=)
Whether this unit can be sold at UnitSell=yes docking structures.
[General]UnitsUnsellable= (boolean, defaults to no)
Whether units are by default Unsellable=yes and thus not sellable at UnitSell=yes docking structures.
EVA.Lost for buildings
The default for buildings is <none>, and it can be enabled for structures manually.
Override DieSound and DieVoice per warhead
[Warhead]DieSound.Override= (soundmd entry)
The sound to use when an object is destroyed by this warhead. Objects that have no DieSound will not play anything. Use <none> to suppress DieSound.
[Warhead]VoiceDie.Override= (soundmd entry)
The voice to use when an object is destroyed by this warhead. Objects that have no VoiceDie will not play anything. Use <none> to suppress VoiceDie.
Keeping a player alive
[TechnoType]KeepAlive= (boolean, defaults to yes for Insignificant=no DontScore=no buildings, to no otherwise)
Whether an object of this type will keep the owning player alive, independent of DontScore= and Insignificant=. If a player owns at least one object that keeps alive, a Short Game will not count as lost.
Culling for ordinary warheads
[Warhead]Culling.BelowHealth= (integer - percentage)
[Warhead]Culling.RookieBelowHealth= (integer - percentage, defaults to 0)
[Warhead]Culling.VeteranBelowHealth= (integer - percentage, defaults to 0)
[Warhead]Culling.EliteBelowHealth= (integer - percentage, defaults to -1)
The health a victim unit must fall below to be culled by a hit using this warhead. Use 1 to 100 to represent percentages of full health, use 0, -1, and -2 to represent health states critical/red, damaged/yellow, and healthy/green respectively. Requires Culling=yes.
The default is the behavior of parasites with Culling=yes: It culls units with critical health if the firer is rookie or veteran, and also culls damaged units (yellow) if firer is elite.
[Warhead]Culling.Chance= (integer - percentage, defaults to 100)
[Warhead]Culling.RookieChance= (integer - percentage)
[Warhead]Culling.VeteranChance= (integer - percentage)
[Warhead]Culling.EliteChance= (integer - percentage)
The chance that a cullable unit is actually culled by a hit using this warhead. Requires Culling=yes.
Support an argument for Tech Type Does Not Exist Trigger Event 61
Instead of only checking for existence, also check for the number of objects. The argument is understood as "Tech Type Does Not Exist more than this number of times".
Previously the parameter was parsed but the argument unused. The value is usually 0, thus keeping the original meaning of "not more than 0 times" / "does not exist".
Team Scripts:
Auxiliary Power
The format is '65,<power>'. Power can be negative. The power is added to the house owning the team.
Kill Drivers
The format is '66,0'. All affected units will change to the country called Special.
This script respects Protected Drivers, Iron Curtain and all the other mechanisms that prevent drivers to be killed.
Take Vehicles
The format is '67,0'. All infantry that can either drive or hijack vehicles will be assigned the closest object they can drive or hijack.
This works like the similar scripts Garrison Structure, Enter Occupiable, and Enter Tank Bunker: the infantry will try to find a new object if the current one becomes unavailable. If there is no object, the infantry will stop.
Convert Type
The format is '68,0'. Changes all members of this team into their respective Convert.Script type. This Team Script generalizes the Load and Unload Truck scripts.
[TechnoType]Convert.Script= (TechnoType)
The type to convert an object to when executing the Convert Type Team Script.
Sonar Reveal
The format is '69,<frames>'. Frames is the duration for which objects will not be allowed to cloak. If frames are 0, ends the sonar effect.
Disable Weapons
The format is '70,<frames>'. Frames is the duration for which objects will not be allowed to fire. If frames are 0, ends the effect.
Trigger Events:
There is so much to explain about triggers, events, and actions, but that will have to wait for another day. For now I hope that this won't be confusing.
EMP
The formats are
62,0,0 Under EMP: Triggers when the attached object is disabled by EMP (works like 53 in TS)
63,0,<house> Under EMP By House: Triggers when a certain house disables the attached object by EMP
64,0,0 Removed EMP: Triggers when the attached object is reactivated by a "healing" EMP
65,0,<house> Removed EMP By House: Triggers when a certain house reactivates the attached object by a "healing" EMP
These are all incidental and non-persistent.
When deactivating an object, 63 is triggered before 62 and when reactivating, 65 is triggered before 64. This is to allow a specific house to take precedence over the general case.
Enemy In Spotlight from Firestorm
The format is
66,0,0 Enemy In Spotlight Now: Triggers when the attached building's searching spotlight found an enemy. This works like event 54 in Firestorm.
This works like event 35 with the minor difference that the game will not remember this event occurred. This means, this incidental non-persistent event has to be the last to be satisfied.
KillDriver
The formats are
67,0,0 Driver Killed: Triggers when the driver of the attached object has been killed
68,0,<house> Driver Killed By House: Triggers when a certain house kills the driver of the attached object
Both are incidental and persistent.
A note on the order: 68 is triggered before 67 to allow a specific house to take precedence over the general case.
Vehicle Taken
The formats are
69,0,0 Vehicle Taken: Triggers when a driver or Vehicle Thief enters the attached object
70,0,<house> Vehicle Taken By House: Triggers when a driver or Vehicle Thief of a certain house enters the attached object
Both are incidental and persistent.
70 is triggered before 69 to allow a specific house to take precedence over the general case. Both trigger before the Entered By event.
Abduction
The formats are
71,0,0 Abducted: Triggers when the attached object is abducted
72,0,<house> Abducted By House: Triggers when a certain house abducts the attached object
73,0,0 Abducts Something: Triggers when the attached object abducts something
74,0,<house> Abducts Something Of House: Triggers when a attached object abducts something of a certain house
All of these are incidental and persistent.
72 triggers before 71 and 74 triggers before 73, to allow more specialized behavior before the general behavior.
Super Weapon Activation
The formats are
75,0,<super weapon> Super Weapon Activated: Triggers when the owning house fires the super weapon
76,0,<super weapon> Super Weapon Deactivated: Triggers when the owning house deactivates the super weapon
Both are incidental and persistent.
Super Weapon Near Waypoint
The format is
77,2,<waypoint>,<super weapon ID> Super Weapon Activated Near Waypoint: Triggers when the named super weapon is used near the waypoint.
This is incidental and persistent.
Currently, the distance is the same as for the Comes Near Waypoint one: 5 cells. This might be expanded later and could become a super weapon setting.
Reverse Engineered
The format is
78,2,0,<techno type id> Reverse Engineered: Triggers while the owning house has access to reverse engineered techno type
This event is situational and non-persistent.
Reverse Engineering
The formats are
79,0,0 Reverse Engineers Anything: Triggers when the attached building successfully reverse engineers any type
80,2,0,<techno type id> Reverse Engineers Type: Triggers when the attached building successfully reverse engineers the specific type
Both are incidental and persistent.
80 triggers before 79 to allow more specialized behavior before the general behavior.
House Owns Techno Type
These mirror the Tech Type Exists and Tech Type Doesn't Exist trigger events 60 and 61, but they only check the owning house instead of all houses.
The formats are
81,2,<count>,<techno type id> House Owns Techno Type: Triggers while the owning house has at least count instances of the specified techno type
82,2,<count>,<techno type id> House Doesn't Own Techno Type: Triggers while the owning house has fewer than count instances of the specified techno type
Both are situational and non-persistent.
Attacked Or Destroyed By
These mirror the Attacked By Anybody and Attacked By House trigger events 6 and 44, but they will fire even if the object just has been destroyed, that is, also for fatal hits.
The formats are
83,0,0 Attacked Or Destroyed By Anybody: Triggers when the attached object is attacked or destroyed by any attack (even ones without damage source)
84,0,<house> Attacked Or Destroyed By House: Triggers when the attached object is attacked or destroyed by an attack where the source is owned by a specific house
Both are situational and non-persistent.
Unlike the original game, the house-specific event will fire first to allow the more specific event to take precedence over the less specific one. _________________ QUICK_EDIT
The version number embedded in the DLL and shown in-game is wrong, not sure if this is indicative of the DLL actually being a wrong version or just that the version number itself was left unchanged.
Other early notes:
• KillDriversOf trigger action doesn't seem to work at all still. Auxilliary power one seems to work as expected now, though.
• DieSound/VoiceDie override seems to work properly.
• EVA.Lost on buildings seems to work properly.
Will test other changes later.
I also quickly compiled a list of the new trigger event definitions for FAData.ini - they should be added at the end of [EventsRA2] list. Mind that I have not had a chance to test all of these in-game yet, part of the reason I put this up was that others could also try them out more easily. Also once again, the descriptions were based on AlexB's documentation and adjusted by me, so feel free to edit them I guess.
Code:
62=Under EMP,0,0,0,0,Triggers when attached object is disabled by EMP.,0,1,62,1
63=Under EMP by house ...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when attached object is disabled by EMP by specified house.,0,1,63,1
64=EMP removed,0,0,0,0,Triggers when attached object's EMP is removed by negative duration EMP effect.,0,1,64,1
65=EMP removed by house ...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when attached object's EMP is removed by negative duration EMP effect by specified house.,0,1,65,1
66=Enemy in spotlight currently,0,0,0,0,Triggers when an enemy unit is currently in the spotlight cast by the attached building.,0,1,66,1
67=Driver killed,0,0,0,0,Triggers when the driver of the attached object has been killed.,0,1,67,1
68=Driver killed by house...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when the driver of the attached object has been killed by specified house.,0,1,68,1
69=Vehicle taken,0,0,0,0,Triggers when a driver or vehicle thief enters the attached object.,0,1,69,1
70=Vehicle taken by house...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when a driver or vehicle thief of specified house enters the attached object.,0,1,70,1
71=Abducted,0,0,0,0,Triggers when the attached object is abducted.,0,1,71,1
72=Abducted by house...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when specified house abducts the attached object.,0,1,72,1
73=Abducts something,0,0,0,0,Triggers when the attached object abducts something.,0,1,73,1
74=Abducts something of house...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when the attached object abducts something of a specified house.,0,1,74,1
75=Superweapon activated...,0,20,0,0,Triggers when the owning house fires the specified super weapon.,0,1,75,1
76=Superweapon deactivated...,0,20,0,0,Triggers when the owning house deactivates the specified super weapon.,0,1,76,1
77=Superweapon activated near waypoint...,49,30,0,0,Triggers when the specified super weapon is used near the waypoint.,0,1,77,1
78=TechType reverse-engineered ...,0,46,0,0,Triggers while the owning house has access to reverse.engineered tech type.,0,1,78,1
79=Reverse-engineers anything,0,0,0,0,Triggers when the attached building successfully reverse-engineers any tech type.,0,1,79,1
80=Reverse-engineers TechType ...,0,46,0,0,Triggers when the attached building successfully reverse-engineers specific tech type.,0,1,80,1
81=House owns TechType ...,48,46,0,0,Triggers while the owning house has at least this many of the specified tech type.,0,1,81,1
82=House doesn't own TechType ...,48,46,0,0,Triggers while the owning house has no more than this many of the specified tech type.,0,1,82,1
83=Attacked or destroyed by anything,0,0,0,0,Triggers when the attached object is attacked or destroyed by anything what-so-ever.,0,1,83,1
84=Attacked or destroyed by house...,0,2,0,0,Triggers when the attached object is attacked or destroyed by specified house.,0,1,84,1
Also for the event #77 to work, a new parameter type has to be added at the end of [ParamTypes] list.
Code:
49=Superweapon,14,2
The AI script actions cannot be added to map editor without exe hacking as they are hardcoded.
EDIT: Disregard the code relating to event #77 and associated parameters - they do not work, as I missed that it requires superweapon ID instead of index. Adding this isn't possible with only INI edits. _________________ Last edited by Starkku on Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:08 pm; edited 2 times in total QUICK_EDIT
So will the "Attacked or destroyed by" triggers work for multiplayer too? because that could be interesting. _________________ MIdAS - Turning wages into beer since 2002 QUICK_EDIT
Auxiliary Power 65 - Both negative and positive power works.
Kill Drivers 66 - Team's vehicle's occupant gets killed and the vehicle's owner changes to Special.
Take Vehicles 67 - Works. Though all infantry in a team reach their nearest vehicle which is typically the same and when that vehicle gets occupied, the remaining infantry target their next nearest vehicle.
Convert Type 68 - Works.
Sonar Reveal 69 - Works, stops cloaking for the frame duration.
Disable Weapons 70 - Works when there is target in range when executing this script action. If there are no target in range when this script action is executed, this effect is void and the team moves on to execute its next script action. QUICK_EDIT
Add KeepAlive=no to the Tech Missile Bunker in Mental Omega 3.3, and it will fire its super weapon properly, yet won't keep the player alive if it is the last building. QUICK_EDIT
Whether an object of this type will keep the owning player alive, independent of DontScore= and Insignificant=. If a player owns at least one object that keeps alive, a Short Game will not count as lost.
What should we expect when Short Game is off then? Should KeepAlive=no objects still count as existing, or not?
westwood wrote:
KeepAlive works as expected.
Add KeepAlive=no to the Tech Missile Bunker in Mental Omega 3.3, and it will fire its super weapon properly, yet won't keep the player alive if it is the last building.
It seems to work as expected for everything except for MCVs.
Insignificant=yes MCV instantly loses the game. Insignificant=yes and KeepAlive=yes MCV will still keep the player in the game. But a KeepAlive=no MCV also keeps the player in the game, while one could expect that it should instantly lose the game.
KeepAlive=no ConYard will still result in an instant loss when the MCV deploys, though. QUICK_EDIT
Here's another build for testing (19.174.815), with several fixes and changes, and some new features.
Minor additions
Put AI units into hunt mission when hijacking a vehicle
Fixed Culling not working on conventional warheads
Fixed map events needing a TechnoType ID
Fixed an unbounded strcpy overflowing a buffer
MultiplayPassive=yes houses will no longer anger AI players in multiplayer games
Support GapRadiusInCells and SuperGapRadiusInCells values larger than 127 (use with caution)
Fixed a dangling pointer issue that broke AEs and caused crashes (thanks SOSolacex)
Fixed logging in the original game that crashed when Tiberium wasn't set up correctly
Experimentally enabled GapGenerator=yes for units
Units can now create gaps. The code was already in Ares, coded by DCoder in 2009, but disabled for performance reasons. I tried to optimize it a bit, so it might be good to give it a go. Might be turned off again if it causes more problems than it solves.
Override the radius of radial indicators
[TechnoType]RadialIndicatorRadius= (integer - cells)
Overrides the radius of the radial indicator for HasRadialIndicator=yes objects.
Extended HasRadialIndicator to Non-Buildings
Units, infantry, and aircraft now support non-sweeping, non-concentric radial indicators. RadialIndicatorRadius= can be used to override the two defaults for GapGenerator and weapons range.
Added Destroyed By House Trigger Event
This works like Destroyed By Anybody trigger event 7, but will fire only if the house matches.
The format is
85,0,<house> Destroyed By House: Triggers when the attached object is destroyed by any attack where the source is owned by a specific house
This is incidental and persistent.
The house-specific event 85 will fire before the generic event 7 to allow the more specific event to take precedence over the less specific one.
Split Techno Type Doesn't Exist Into Two Trigger Events
The argument to event 61 of the original campaigns isn't always 0. It seems to contain the index for building types or something else. Thus, using it and expecting it to be zero will break missions.
The format is
86,2,<count>,<techno type id> Techno Type Doesn't Exist More Than: Triggers while there are no more than count instances of the specified techno type
This is situational and non-persistent.
Event 61 has been restored to its original meaning, ignoring the passed argument.
Set EVA Voice Trigger Action
Defined as follows:
148,0,<eva index>,0,0,0,0,A
Sets the player's EVA. The builtin EVAs are 0, 1, and 2 for Allied, Russian and Yuri respectively. Higher numbers represent the custom EVAs. Use -1 to disable EVA.
This implements the Firestorm trigger actions 102 (Disable EVA) and 103 (Enable EVA).
Set Group Trigger Action
Defined as follows:
149,0,<group number>,0,0,0,0,A
Sets the group for the object that triggered this action. This can be used to make units available for recruitment through TeamTypes and TaskForces.
This implements the Firestorm trigger action 104 (Set Group). _________________ QUICK_EDIT
I can confirm HasRadialIndicator working on vehicles, jumpjet infantry and jets.
RadialIndicatorRadius works as intended, however (not Ares' fault) the indicator is not displayed correctly when the range is >20 (can't tell the exact value right now, but it's clearly broken at 35 and isn't shown at 45) - it'd be nice if you could fix that limitation.
GapGenerator=yes doesn't work on jets, but does work on ground units. However, when such a unit is destroyed, the shroud will still be generated (and regenerated) around the spot where the unit was destroyed. The issues seem familiar, as stealth detection is the other thing that doesn't work on jets and keeps working if the detector is destroyed. Last edited by Damfoos on Tue Jun 25, 2019 3:59 pm; edited 1 time in total QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 04 Mar 2015 Location: Notso "The Finale" Airship
Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2019 1:00 pm Post subject:
There is a tag "RadialColor=" to custom Radial Indicator's color, but it seems to be obsolete. Now Ares supports to give any TechnoType a radial indicator, so why not repair this tag? QUICK_EDIT
Didn't know there was a tag for columns, tried but nothing o_o
I've tried all sorts of numbers with NumberImpassableRows= and doesn't work, used different arts and building sizes too, even a completely passable building and it won't work.
hm _________________
ayylmao on Discord QUICK_EDIT
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Ares 3.0 Development
I especially look for to using the new refinery docking locations, I'll be able to add a bit of extra variety to the different sides buildings in D-day. Nice to see the new player AITargeting too, it will make "upgrades" via SW a lot cleaner to use.
