Targeting¶
General Settings¶
These settings allow to enable AI targeting even for human players.
[SuperWeapon]►SW.AutoFire=
(boolean)- Sets whether this super weapon should be launched automatically even for human players. If this is set to yes, the AI targeting options are used to infer the best target cell. Defaults to no.
[SuperWeapon]►SW.ManualFire=
(boolean)- Sets whether this super weapon can be manually fired by the owning player. If
set to no, the player will not be able to get a selection cursor for
this super weapon when clicking the cameo. This setting is ignored if
SW.AutoFire=no
is set, because the player would have no way to fire this super weapon. You can use this on auto-firing super weapons where the targeting mode might prevent it from being fired (like the Lightning Storm or Psychic Dominator, if another super weapon of this type is currently active). Defaults to yes.
New in version 0.2.
Manual Target Selection¶
These settings only apply to human players.
[SuperWeapon]►SW.FireIntoShroud=
(boolean)- Whether or not this super weapon is allowed to fire into an unexplored area of the map. Default is yes.
[SuperWeapon]►SW.RequiresTarget=
(enum none|land|water|empty|infantry|units|buildings)Which items this super weapon can fire upon. Hovering above an allowed item will show the
Cursor
, otherwise the player gets theNoCursor
and it is not possible to launch the super weapon. For an example seeSW.AffectsTarget=
.Note
Please be aware of the problems that can arise if this and
SW.AffectsTarget=
are set to mutually exclusive values not allowing the super weapon to affect anything.[SuperWeapon]►SW.RequiresHouse=
(enum none|owner|allies|team|enemies|all)- Which house’s items this super weapon can fire upon.
New in version 0.2.
Automatic Target Selection¶
Define the way the AI selects eligible targets to fire the super weapon at.
[SuperWeapon]►SW.AITargeting=
(enum SW Targeting Type)- Select one of the following values to define how the AI will use this super weapon:
None
Does not fire. Effectively disables this super weapon for the AI.
Nuke
Selects a valid target using the Ion Cannon rules or picks a target by preferred type. Ignores cloaked targets.
LightningStorm
Selects a valid target using the Ion Cannon rules or picks a target by preferred type. Ignores cloaked targets. Cannot fire when a Lightning Storm is currently active.
PsychicDominator
Selects the valid target that has the most enemy units in Cell Spread range 3 nearby that can be permanently mind-controlled. Does not fire if a preferred target cell is set. Ignores cloaked targets.
GeneticMutator
Selects the valid target that has the most enemy infantry units in Cell Spread range 1 nearby. Does not fire if a preferred target cell is set. Ignores cloaked targets.
ForceShield
Fires at the position the last super weapon with
AIDefendAgainst=yes
was fired at. This honors theAISuperDefense
tags, and not all super weapons might be defended against.ParaDrop
Searches for a free area of 5 by 5 cells close to the favorite enemy player’s base center. If the owner has not settled for a favorite enemy yet, tries to find a location around the owning player’s base center.
Offensive
Selects a valid target using the Ion Cannon rules. Ignores cloaked targets.
MultiMissile
Selects a valid target by looking at the summed
ThreatPosed
values of the area around them. For cloaked targets, a random value between 0 and 100 is used.HunterSeeker
Fires at no target, but only if the owning player settled for a favorite enemy. This is only useful with certain super weapons, or when a super weapon has a full map effect.
NoTarget
Fires at no target. This is only useful with certain super weapons, or when a super weapon has a full map effect.
Stealth
Selects a valid target using the Ion Cannon rules. Only considers cloaked targets.
Self
Selects a building owned by the firing player which provides this super weapon and satisfies power requirements. The target is the center of the building.
Base
Fires at what the game considers the firing player’s base center.
EnemyBase
Fires at what the game considers the base center of the firing player’s favorite enemy.
[SuperWeapon]►SW.AIRequiresTarget=
(enum none|land|water|empty|infantry|units|buildings|all)- Specifies which targets will be considered eligible by AI players or human
owned automatically fired super weapons. The default value depends on the
SW.AITargeting
setting. See the table below. [SuperWeapon]►SW.AIRequiresHouse=
(enum owner|allies|team|enemies|others|all)- Specifies which houses will be considered eligible by AI players or human
owned automatically fired super weapons. The default value depends on the
SW.AITargeting
setting. See the table below.
New in version 0.2.
Changed in version 0.9.
Mechanisms¶
There are several mechanisms to select a target, but three of them are notable, because they are recurring.
The Ion Cannon targeting rules assigns each valid object a value, which is
determined by the [General]►AIIonCannon...
tags. A target is picked
randomly from all objects with the highest score.
The base center is determined by the game and updated whenever a player builds or loses buildings. The base center can be manually set and cleared using map actions 137 and 138 respectively.
The preferred target by type is set by map action 35. The game looks at the first team on them map owned by the firing player and has the team leader acquire a target of the preferred type. A value of 1 means to use the special firing behavior, which usually is Ion Cannon targeting or base center selection.
Note
Currently, Ares does not support preferred types other than 1. The super weapons might not check ranges, designators, and inhibitors, and fire regardless of any restriction.
Defaults¶
The following table lists the defaults for the AI targeting tags depending on
SW.AITargeting
, as well as some general properties that affect targeting.
Note that the defaults used depend on the super weapon’s Type
, and the
type always takes precedence. See the specific super weapon type documentation
for the actual values. If no specific value is given, the value from this table
is used.
Requires Enemy means that this targeting mode will only select a target automatically if the house has settled for a favorite enemy player. This is usually determined when a player is attacked. Without a favorite enemy, the super weapon will not fire.
The Preference is overriding the actual targeting. Offensive targets are set using the map action 135. Defensive targets are set using map action 140. As long as these overrides are set, the super weapons will prefer these targets. Super weapons might also hold and stop firing as long as an override is set. They will resume once the override is cleared using the corresponding map action.
Most targeting modes support the new extra features added by Ares. That is maximum and minimum ranges, designators and inhibitors. Note that if a preferred target type is set using map action 35, they are not checked.
SW.AITargeting |
SW.AIRequiresTarget |
SW.AIRequiresHouse |
Requires Enemy | Preference | Extras |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
None | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Nuke | infantry,units,buildings | enemies | yes | offensive | yes |
LightningStorm | infantry,units,buildings | enemies | yes | offensive | yes |
PsychicDominator | infantry,units | all | yes | hold if offensive | yes |
GeneticMutator | infantry | all | no | hold if offensive | yes |
ForceShield | do not use | do not use | no | defensive | yes |
ParaDrop | do not use | do not use | no | offensive, base center | yes |
Offensive | infantry,units,buildings | enemies | yes | nothing | yes |
MultiMissile | buildings | none | yes | offensive | yes |
HunterSeeker | N/A | N/A | yes | nothing | no |
NoTarget | N/A | N/A | no | nothing | no |
Stealth | infantry,units,buildings | enemies | no | nothing | yes |
Self | none1) | do not use | no | nothing | yes |
Base | do not use | do not use | no | base center | yes |
EnemyBase | do not use | do not use | yes | base center | yes |
If you define the SW.AIRequiresTarget
or SW.AIRequiresHouse
when
the table says do not use, you might render the super weapon unable to fire.
1) Self always only checks buildings owned by the owning player. You can only use land, water, and none here. All other values are invalid.