Additional ArmorTypes and Verses

The new [ArmorTypes] section can be used to define new ArmorTypes for objects (in addition to the 11 existing ArmorTypes; none, flak, plate, light, medium, heavy, wood, steel, concrete, special_1 and special_2).

[ArmorTypes]
paper=steel
magic=11%

paper=steel declares a new ArmorType called “paper” whose verses on each warhead defaults to being the same as that warhead’s verses against the “steel” ArmorType. magic=11% declares a new ArmorType called “magic” whose Verses on all warheads defaults to 11%. These ArmorTypes can be assigned to objects in the same way as the standard ArmorTypes (case-insensitively). Their susceptibility to specific warheads can be specified as follows:

[Warhead]►Versus.magic= (float - modifier)
Sets the efficiency of this warhead against the armor called magic.

Note that each individual ArmorType‘s versus value is specified using the new Versus.* flag, whereas the original 11 ArmorTypes versus values are specified using the original Verses flag (note Westwood’s misspelling of “versus”).

The original Verses flag parser no longer crashes if you specify less than 11 values.

New in version 0.1.

Warhead Verses‘ Special Values

The Verses flag has three special-case values that can be used to define additional behavior:

  • 0% means no force fire, no retaliate, no passive acquire
  • 1% means no retaliate, no passive acquire
  • 2% means no passive acquire

These behaviors can now be toggled on or off independently of the damage multiplier (so you can now have a warhead that is 100% effective against an armor type but, at the same time, will not directly target a unit with that armor type).

[Warhead]►Versus.magic.ForceFire= (boolean)
Whether or not this warhead is allowed to be force-fired on the magic ArmorType.
[Warhead]►Versus.steel.Retaliate= (boolean)
Whether or not this warhead is allowed to be used in retaliation against the steel ArmorType.
[Warhead]►Versus.clingfilm.PassiveAcquire= (boolean)
Whether or not this warhead is allowed to be used to attack the clingfilm ArmorType automatically.

Note Ares‘ correct spelling of “acquire”.

New in version 0.1.

Immunities

The original game has a way to make certain units immune to certain warheads, however this is severely limited. For example, the [DESO] infantry has the flag ImmuneToRadiation=yes and the [RadBeamWarhead] warhead has the flag Radiation=yes. This means that the Desolator is immune to damage from the radiation beams fired by other Desolators. This immunity system has two limitations:

  1. Only a small handful of working flag pairs exist, and
  2. The immunity only prevents the unit from taking damage from the warhead. It does not prevent the unit from being targeted. In the above example, Desolators can fire at each other ineffectually.

Ares overcomes these limitations with new armor types, as mentioned above. If you want to have additional ‘old-style’ immunities that still allow units to target things they can’t damage (e.g. because they will affect enemies in an area around the target) then you can create a new armor type that will emulate this as follows:

[ArmorTypes]
flakImmuneToFrost=flak

[IceMan]
Armor=flakImmuneToFrost
Primary=IceBlast

[IceBlast]
Warhead=IceBlastWH

[IceBlastWH]
Versus.flakImmuneToFrost=0%
Versus.flakImmuneToFrost.ForceFire=yes
Versus.flakImmuneToFrost.Retaliate=yes
Versus.flakImmuneToFrost.PassiveAcquire=yes

The above settings give the IceMan unit a damage immunity to the IceBlast weapon, even though he can still be attacked by that weapon.

New in version 0.1.