Migration Guide

If you are upgrading from previous versions of Ares, you may have to account for the following changes.

From Ares 0.1

Changed tags:

[SuperWeapon]►SW.Deliver –> [SuperWeapon]►Deliver.Types.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.DeliverBuildups –> [SuperWeapon]►Deliver.Buildups.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[SuperWeapon]►SonarPulse.Range –> [SuperWeapon]►SW.Range.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[SuperWeapon]►GenericWarhead.Warhead –> [SuperWeapon]►SW.Warhead.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[SuperWeapon]►GenericWarhead.Damage –> [SuperWeapon]►SW.Damage.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[SuperWeapon]►Nuke.Sound –> [SuperWeapon]►SW.ActivationSound.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

Other changes:

Ares 0.1 supported options in ares.ini to configure how graphics surfaces were allocated. The tags Surface.*.Memory and Surface.*.Force3D are obsolete now and have no effect any more.

From Ares 0.2 and below

Changed tags:

No changes required.

Other changes:

The ini file reader has been updated for Ares 0.3. Values that were invalid previously might now be valid, and previously valid notations might have become invalid. If values cannot be parsed correctly, Ares puts a message into the debug log.

For example, it was possible to supply only one or two numbers when three comma separated numbers were expected. In that case, the value became inconsistent. This is no longer allowed and will result in a message in the debug log.

From Ares 0.3 and below

Changed tags:

The following tags have been changed to use the actual value of their default tags, not the value the default tags have in rulesmd.ini. If a default is changed in a game mode or map file, this updated value will be used. In other words: It now uses the last value, while previously the first would have been used.

If you do not change a default tag in game modes or maps, no action is needed. If you want to use the value the default tag has in rulesmd.ini, you have to copy the default value to the respective tag.

[Weapon]►IvanBomb.AttachSound

Defaults to [AudioVisual]►BombAttachSound.

[Weapon]►IvanBomb.TickingSound

Defaults to [AudioVisual]►BombTickingSound.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.Sounds

Defaults to [AudioVisual]►LightningSounds.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.Clouds

Defaults to [General]►WeatherConClouds.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.Bolts

Defaults to [General]►WeatherConBolts.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.Debris

Defaults to [General]►MetallicDebris.

Other changes:

Animations that have an owner now also respect AffectsAllies. Previously only AffectsEnemies was supported.

The original tag Crashable does now also apply to AircraftTypes. Previously it had no function.

The original tags Pip and OccupyPip have been changed to also support integers. Previously, integers were invalid and defaulted to green.

From Ares 0.4 and below

Changed tags:

The following tags have been changed to use the actual value of their default tags. (Continued work from the Ares 0.4 release.)

[Side]►DefaultDisguise

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Side]►Crew

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Side]►SurvivorDivisor

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Side]►AI.BaseDefenses

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Side]►AI.BaseDefenseCounts

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Weapon]►IvanBomb.Warhead

Defaults to [CombatDamage]►IvanWarhead.

[Weapon]►IvanBomb.Damage

Defaults to [CombatDamage]►IvanDamage.

[Weapon]►IvanBomb.Delay

Defaults to [CombatDamage]►IvanTimedDelay.

[Weapon]►IvanBomb.FlickerRate

Defaults to [CombatDamage]►IvanIconFlickerRate.

Other changes:

Values in [Side]►Crew and [Side]►DefaultDisguise will not be added to the list of InfantryTypes automatically any more. Make sure these values are listed under the InfantryTypes list.

Previously, destroyed units did not eject survivors if they were owned by Neutral or Special, because Ares did not support survivors for them. The original handling has been restored, and these houses will use [General]►Technician as crew.

From Ares 0.5 and below

Changed tags:

The following tags have been changed to use the actual value of their default tags. (Continued work from earlier Ares releases.)

[Side]►ParaDrop.Num

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Side]►ParaDrop.Types

Defaults to the original tag for a side.

[Side]►Parachute.Anim

Defaults to [General]►Parachute.

[Country]►ParaDrop.Num

Defaults to the side’s ParaDrop.Num.

[Country]►ParaDrop.Types

Defaults to the side’s ParaDrop.Types.

[Country]►AI.PowerPlants

If empty or not set, the side’s default power plants are used.

[Weapon]►Wave.Color

Default depends on wave type.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.Damage

Default depends on Type.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.Range

Default depends on Type.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.Deferment

Defaults to [General]►LightningDeferment for Type=LightningStorm.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.Animation

Default depends on Type.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.Sound

Default depends on Type.

[SuperWeapon]►SW.ActivationSound

Default depends on Type.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.Duration

Defaults to [General]►LightningStormDuration.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.RadarOutage

Defaults to [General]►LightningStormDuration.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.HitDelay

Defaults to [General]►LightningHitDelay.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.ScatterDelay

Defaults to [General]►LightningScatterDelay.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.Separation

Defaults to [General]►LightningSeparation.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.PrintText

Defaults to [General]►LightningPrintText.

[SuperWeapon]►Lightning.BoltExplosion

Defaults to [General]►WeatherConBoltExplosion.

[SuperWeapon]►Nuke.TakeOff

Defaults to [General]►NukeTakeOff.

[SuperWeapon]►Dominator.FireAtPercentage

Defaults to [General]►DominatorFireAtPercentage.

[SuperWeapon]►Chronosphere.BlastSrc

Defaults to [General]►ChronoBlast.

[SuperWeapon]►Chronosphere.BlastDest

Defaults to [General]►ChronoBlastDest.

[SuperWeapon]►Mutate.Explosion

Defaults to [General]►MutateExplosion.

From Ares 0.6 and below

Changed tags:

No changes required.

Other changes:

Only unpowered units create sparkle particle systems. Deactivation because of EMP and Operator logics does not make the unit sparkle any more. This is not optional at the moment.

From Ares 0.7 and below

Changed tags:

No changes required.

Other changes:

The Unit Delivery super weapon uses a new placing method. Compared to previous versions, unit and buildings are placed more random now. Delivered objects are put on guard, area guard or hunt mission.

Force Shield no longer considers buildings with ForceShield.Modifier less than or equal to 0.0 eligible targets.

Super weapon targeting mode Self now centers on the firing building instead of using the origin.

From Ares 0.8 and below

Changed tags:

The following tags have been changed to use the actual value of their default tags. (Continued work from earlier Ares releases.)

[BuildingType]►SecretLab.PossibleBoons

Defaults to the combination of the latest [General]►SecretInfantry, [General]►SecretUnits and [General]►SecretBuildings.

Other changes:

The way projectiles deliver the new warhead effects has changed. Previously, they were applied on the location the projectile was supposed to hit, not where it actually detonated. Short distance misses still count as direct hit. Abduction, KillDriver and Occupant Damage are only applied on direct hits.

AttachEffect only checked verses if it had an owner. Now verses are applied even if owner-less. Previously affected victims might not get affected any more.

The default SW.AITargeting for Type=HunterSeeker super weapons has been changed from NoTarget to HunterSeeker. It now only fires if the house has selected a favorite enemy.

The targeting type Stealth now adheres to SW.AIRequiresTarget and SW.AIRequiresHouse instead of SW.RequiresTarget and SW.RequiresHouse. The targeting type Offensive no longer requires SW.AffectedHouse to include enemies.

Prism Forwarding now properly uses negative intensity values for supporting beams. A PrismSupportModifier related bug has been fixed.

Lasers were often drawn too big. This has been changed.

From Ares 0.9 and below

Changed tags:

No changes required.

Other changes:

Solid Buildings have been reworked. The feature now works with invisible projectiles. Also, units will now change positions instead of just firing through a Solid Building.

The Firestorm Wall active and idle animations will now draw in the building’s palette, while they were drawn using the animation palette before.

ares.csf will always be read, no matter which language the game is run in.

From Ares 0.A and below

Changed tags:

No changes required.

Other changes:

None.

From Ares 0.B and below

Changed tags:

[TechnoType]►Spotlight.StartHeight

Default has been changed to 430. Defaulted to 200 before.

[TechnoType]►Spotlight.AttachedTo

The value barrel is no longer supported. Use turret instead.

[Country]►AI.PowerPlants

Default for the second side and all sides after side 3 now includes [General]►NodAdvancedPower again.

[Projectile]►SubjectToFirewall

The tag has been removed. Use [Projectile]►IgnoresFirestorm instead.

Other changes:

None.

From Ares 0.C and below

Changed tags:

[General]►EngineerDamageCursor

The tag has been removed. Customize the EngineerDamage cursor instead.

[General]►TogglePowerCursor

The tag has been removed. Customize the TogglePower cursor instead.

[General]►TogglePowerNoCursor

The tag has been removed. Customize the NoTogglePower cursor instead.

[SuperWeapon]►Cursor

The tag has been changed to only support mouse cursor names.

[SuperWeapon]►NoCursor

The tag has been changed to only support mouse cursor names.

[SuperWeapon]►Deliver.Buildups

The tag has been removed. Buildups are now always on.

Other changes:

Some ArmorType parsing issues have been resolved to improve defaulting to other types, and to not reset data unexpectedly.

The Unit Delivery super weapon has been reworked. It now allows placing units on ore, and delivered objects are put on guard, area guard or hunt mission. The option to skip the buildup animations has been deprecated, because it never worked correctly.

Hunter Seekers no longer target objects under the effect of the Iron Curtain or objects being temporally attacked.

From Ares 0.D and below

Changed tags:

[SuperWeapon]►Nuke.Payload

No longer automatically adds the weapon to the list. Ensure that the weapon is known to the game by adding it to the [WeaponTypes] list.

Other changes:

KillDriver has been changed to be applied like regular damage. It now respects immunities and supports CellSpread. Thus, the effect might not be applied in all cases where it was applied before, and might be applied in cases where it previously was not.

From Ares 0.E and below

Changed tags:

No changes required.

Other changes:

Some Super Weapon Targeting Modes used the wrong target cell when firing at buildings. Now, the centers of the buildings are targeted. Affected modes are Nuke, LightningStorm, Offensive, Stealth, Self, and MultiMissile.

From Ares 1.0 and below

Changed tags:

[BuildingType]►SpyEffect.UnitVeterancy

This setting has been replaced by finer grained options. Replace with SpyEffect.InfantryVeterancy=yes for BuildingTypes with Factory=InfantryType, and with SpyEffect.VehicleVeterancy=yes for BuildingTypes with Factory=UnitType to achieve the previous effect.

[BuildingType]►FactoryOwners.HaveAllPlans= –> [BuildingType]►FactoryOwners.Permanent=.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[Warhead]►Ripple.Radius= –> [Warhead]►IonCannon.Ripple=.

Replace the old tag name by the new tag name.

[Weapon]►Abductor.ChangeOwner=.

Respects PSIONICSIMMUNE veteran ability.

Other changes:

Splits logic only targets air units if the AirburstWeapon projectile is AA=yes. Furthermore, Splits logic now only retargets objects that the projectile’s warhead can affect.

Units lifted by a Magnetron no longer count as being actively in air, and EMP might no longer destroy them.

The AI supports other Iron Curtains and it might now use super weapons with Type=IronCurtain it has not used before, because of the changed default for SW.AITargetingMode. To restore previous behavior, manually set SW.AITargetingMode=none on all but the first super weapon with Type=IronCurtain.

DeployToLand=yes units will only turn towards DeployDir if they have a DeployingAnim.

From Ares 2.0 and below

Changed tags:

[BuildingType]►SpyEffect.StolenMoneyAmount

[BuildingType]►SpyEffect.StolenMoneyPercentage now takes precedence, and the meaning of this tag changed if both tags are used together. To retain the previous behavior in this case, remove [BuildingType]►SpyEffect.StolenMoneyPercentage.

[BuildingType]►PrismForwarding.MyHeight

The tag has been removed. It had no effect.

[BuildingType]►Rubble.Destroyed

The hardcoded building properties have been removed. To go back to the previous behavior, set TogglePower=no and Unsellable=yes. Rubble buildings are not allowed to have occupants or passengers.

[InfantryType]►IsDesolator

Now also controls the behavior that deployed infantry starts firing at the ground automatically. Desolator-like infantry has to have this set.

Other changes:

Overlay images for Ivan Bombs have been rewritten to work like in the original game. Editing bombcurs.shp is no longer necessary.

The default SW.AITargeting for Type=DropPod super weapons has been changed from ParaDrop to DropPod. The effect is similar.

The Soviet Repair Depot can now by default be used to sell units. To restore the vanilla behavior, add [NADEPT]►UnitSell=no to rulesmd.ini.