This new section allows you to declare new weapons without having to declare a dummy unit to parse them (like the official "WEEDGUY" hack). This works in the same way as the existing [Warheads] section. Any WeaponType listed under the [WeaponTypes] section will be parsed by the game and can be used as a shrapnel weapon or a new weapon in a game mode, etc.
0.1
Rad beams can have custom colors and duration and amplitude.
Before Ares, Radiation beams could not be customized they were always either green or blue depending on the type of weapon. Now, however, radiation beams can be customized using the following flags (which affect weapons with IsRadBeam=yes set and/or IsRadEruption=yes set) in the weapon's INI section:
[Weapon]Beam.Color= (R,G,B)The color that the beam will be drawn in. Defaults to
[AudioVisual]ChronoBeamColorfor weapons with a Temporal warhead, and[Radiation]RadColorfor weapons with a non-Temporal warhead.[Weapon]Beam.IsHouseColor= (boolean)Whether or not the beam should be drawn using the firing unit's player color instead of the specific color specified by
Beam.Color.[Weapon]Beam.Duration= (integer)The number of frames for which the beam should be visible. Default is 15 as per original RadBeams. The RadEruption effect originally used a random value between 5 and 20.
[Weapon]Beam.Amplitude= (float)The amplitude of the beam (possibly measured in pixels?). Defaults to 40.0 as per original RadBeams. The RadEruption effect originally used a random value between 100.0 and 500.0.
0.1
Electric bolts can have custom colors.
[Weapon]Bolt.Color1= (R,G,B)First color used for drawing this bolt.
[Weapon]Bolt.Color2= (R,G,B)Second color used for drawing this bolt.
[Weapon]Bolt.Color3= (R,G,B)Third color used for drawing this bolt.
The three colors used to draw this Electric Bolt. Can be omitted to use the default values (default values are palette-dependent as opposed to RGB).
0.1
Enabled unused IsLaser wave effect.
An unused weapon effect (present in the game code but disabled) has been enabled. It is similar in appearance to the old laser beam or the old disruptor wave from previous games. For now it is referred to as Laser.
[Weapon]Wave.IsLaser= (boolean)Should the Laser effect be applied to this weapon?
[Weapon]Wave.IsBigLaser= (boolean)Should the BigLaser effect be applied to this weapon?
IsLaser and IsBigLaser produce two different effects, however their naming was established before the effects were fully tested: IsLaser appears to actually render a wider beam! See the image below, left unit is using Wave.IsLaser, the right one is using Wave.IsBigLaser:
Insert image of different laser widths
0.1
The following flags are applicable to all Wave effects; the aforementioned Wave.Is(Big)Laser=yes as well as Sonic=yes and IsMagBeam=yes.
Waves can have custom colors.
[Weapon]Wave.Color= (R,G,B)The color of the wave. Default value is different depending on the type of Wave.
[Weapon]Wave.IsHouseColor= (boolean)If this is set to yes then the wave will be drawn in the firing unit's house color instead of the color specified by
Wave.Color.
Warning
Sonic Waves do no yet have a sensible default Wave.Color.
0.1
Customisable wave direction.
Waves are drawn in different directions (from firer to target or vice versa) depending on the type of wave and the circumstances. This direction can now be customized in several ways. The following flags all default to no unless otherwise specified.
[Weapon]Wave.ReverseAgainstVehicles= (boolean)Whether or not the wave will be drawn from the target to the firer when the target is a VehicleType. Defaults to yes if
IsMagBeam=yesis set on the weapon.[Weapon]Wave.ReverseAgainstBuildings=(boolean)Whether or not the wave will be drawn from the target to the firer when the target is a BuildingType.
[Weapon]Wave.ReverseAgainstInfantry=(boolean)Whether or not the wave will be drawn from the target to the firer when the target is an InfantryType.
[Weapon]Wave.ReverseAgainstAircraft=(boolean)Whether or not the wave will be drawn from the target to the firer when the target is an AircraftType.
[Weapon]Wave.ReverseAgainstOthers=(boolean)Whether or not the wave will be drawn from target to firer when the target is anything not covered by the other
ReverseAgainstflags (i.e. trees, overlays, empty cells, etc.).
0.1
All waves can now deal disruptor-style damage to objects that they pass through, a feature that was previously limited to Sonic Waves only. As a reminder, the flags that control this are:
[Weapon]AmbientDamage= (integer)How much damage the wave deals to objects it passes through. Defaults to zero.
[Weapon]Warhead= (WarheadType)The warhead used to deal ambient damage as well as normal damage.
0.1
Customisable Ivan bomb clones.
As with many other features of Yuri's Revenge, the settings that control Crazy Ivan Bombs are global so you can't have multiple variations of them with their own controls. With Ares it is now possible to create new Ivan Bomb-esque weapons new types of sticky bomb with whatever settings you like. The only aspect of Ivan Bombs that hasn't been de-globalized is the ability to remote detonate the bombs this feature is either enabled or disabled for all Ivan Bomb types.
When IvanBomb=yes is set on the weapon's warhead, the weapon can specify the following flags in order to customize that bomb:
[Weapon]IvanBomb.Warhead= (WarheadType)The warhead that will be used when the bomb detonates.
[Weapon]IvanBomb.Damage= (integer)The damage that will be dealt when the bomb detonates.
[Weapon]IvanBomb.Detachable= (boolean)Whether or not Engineers can remove this bomb from units it has been attached to.
[Weapon]IvanBomb.DestroysBridges= (boolean)Whether or not this bomb can be used on Bridge Repair Huts in order to destroy the corresponding Bridge.1
[Weapon]IvanBomb.Delay= (integer)The number of frames that will elapse before the bomb detonates automatically.
[Weapon]IvanBomb.AttachSound= (Soundname)The sound that will be played when the bomb is attached to a target.
[Weapon][Weapon]IvanBomb.TickingSound= (Soundname)The sound that will be played whilst the bomb is attached to a unit. In order for this sound to loop correctly, the sound must have
Control=loopset in its INI section in soundmd.ini.[Weapon]IvanBomb.Image= (filename, *excluding*the .shp extension)The SHP file for the image to display over a unit that has a bomb attached to them, in the format "filename"(the ".shp" extension is automatically added by the engine). If the image cannot be loaded then the game will fall back to the default bombcurs.shp.
[Weapon]IvanBomb.FlickerRate= (integer)The rate at which the bomb SHP will flip back and forth between two frames to give the impression of a flickering fuse. On every game frame, the frame of the bomb SHP is calculated as follows:
frameToShow = (Game.CurrentFrame Bomb.PlantingFrame) / (Bomb.Delay / (Bomb.Image.Frames 1)) IF (CurrentFrame mod (2 * Bomb.FlickerRate) >= Bomb.FlickerRate) THEN frameToShow = frameToShow + 1Originally this logic was hard-coded to ignore the last frame of the bomb SHP, which was originally planned to be used for so called "death bombs" which were cut from the game before Red Alert 2 was released. This hard-coding has been changed so that the whole SHP is now considered for the fuse, however this means that you'll now see that extra frame from bombcurs.shp, unless you replace that SHP file.
0.1
[Weapon]LaserThickness= (integer)Enables the customization of laser widths.
Note
Currently this has the same bugs as the NPatch version, only works with IsHouseColor=yes and have low quality.
0.2
Footnotes
Bombs can always be attached to Bridge Huts, but the resulting explosion will not destroy the bridge unless
IvanBomb.DestroysBridges=yesis set.↩