Armor
An object type's armor class, or on a country or difficulty setting the divisor of the damage its objects take.
Armor class
- Applies to
ObjectType and derived types
AircraftTypeBuildingTypeBulletTypeInfantryTypeOverlayTypeParticleSystemTypeParticleTypeSmudgeTypeTerrainTypeUnitTypeVoxelAnimType- File
rules.ini- Section
[<ObjectType ID>]- Value
- ArmorType
- When omitted
- Context-dependentMost object types start at none. A TerrainType starts at wood.
A warhead’s damage to an object of this type is multiplied by the warhead’s Verses entry for the object’s armor class. Forced damage, such as a C4 charge destroying a structure, skips this multiply. A vehicle, infantryman, aircraft or structure also weighs each of its weapons against the target’s class when it picks which weapon to fire.
Other reductions come before and after the Verses multiply. A prone infantryman’s reduction, the house and crate armor divisors, and the veteran armor bonus apply before it. Distance falloff and the MinDamage and MaxDamage limits apply after it. What the target loses lists every step in order.
An OverlayType’s class matters only for a wall. Overlays never take damage through a Verses list. A wall overlay whose class is wood can also be reduced by a Wood=yes warhead, in addition to the wall-destroying warheads that reduce any wall.
A TerrainType’s class is used both ways: as a Verses entry when the terrain object takes damage, and as a wood test by the rules that set it on fire.
Tiberium=yes sets an overlay’s class to wood after its section is read, so an Armor= in such a section has no effect.
Animation armor class
- Applies to
- AnimType
- File
art.ini- Section
[<ObjectType ID>]- Value
- ArmorType
- When omitted
none- Used by the game
- No — loaded but not used
An armor class matters only to an object that takes damage or that a unit weighs as a target. An animation is neither. Strength lists the damage paths and why none of them reaches an animation.
An animation can deal damage instead. Damage sets what it applies to whatever is under it, and that damage is scaled by the armor class of each object it hits.
Armor bias
- Applies to
- HouseType
- File
rules.ini- Section
[<ObjectType ID>]- Value
- floating point
- When omitted
1.0
Damage to the objects of a house of this country is divided by this value. A value above 1 makes them harder to destroy, and one below 1 makes them easier.
[NOD]Armor=1.25 ; example: NOD's objects take 20% less damage from each hitOutside a campaign game, the house multiplies this value by the difficulty section’s Armor= once, when it is given its difficulty slot. A campaign game leaves the country’s value out, so it affects skirmish and multiplayer games only.
The division applies to every hit except damage that bypasses armor, such as a planted C4 charge. Healing is never reduced. The division comes before the veteran armor bonus, and the two together cannot bring a hit below 1 point. The warhead’s Verses percentage and the falloff with distance are applied after that.
Difficulty damage divisor
- Applies to
- difficulty settings
- File
rules.ini- Section
[<Difficulty ID>]- Value
- floating point
- When omitted
1The difficulty block is re-read from fixed defaults whenever its section is present, so a later file that contains the section but not this key resets the figure to 1.
Damage to a house’s vehicles, infantry, aircraft and structures is divided by this figure, so a figure above 1 makes the house tougher and one below 1 more fragile. [Easy], [Normal] and [Difficult] each set a figure, and a house uses the one for the difficulty slot it is assigned.
Outside a campaign, the figure is multiplied by the house’s country Armor= when the house is given its slot. In a campaign, the country figure is ignored and this one is used alone. How the figures are combined covers both cases.
The division skips healing and forced damage. Any armor crate bonus the object has picked up divides the damage in the same step, and the veteran armor bonus divides it afterward. If these divisions leave less than one point, the hit deals one point, so no figure here can reduce a hit to nothing. What the target loses lists the remaining steps.