IsMeteor

Flies the debris in along a straight approach to the point it was created for.

Animation meteor flight

Specification — Animation meteor flight

Applies to: AnimType
File: art.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: boolean
When omitted: no

IsMeteor=yes flies the animation in along a straight line from a distance, aimed just below the point where it was created. Like Bouncer=yes, it puts the animation under bounce physics, and where both are set this key decides the flight. A bouncing animation starts at its creation point and is thrown up from there. A meteor instead starts 51 to 70 frames of travel away and flies until it strikes the ground, a structure or a wall.

A meteor’s velocity is chosen differently from a bouncing animation’s:

Each frame it drops 1.4 leptons more than MinZVel sets, with no random part. This speed does not build up as it falls, so it flies in a straight line where a bouncing animation arcs.
A negative MinZVel brings the meteor down onto its target from above. A zero or positive value starts it level with or below its target, so a meteor aimed at the ground strikes the ground on its first frame, at its starting point away from the target.
Its two horizontal speeds are drawn from the MaxXYVel range. If the resulting direction would point up the screen, both are reversed, so a meteor always travels down or across the screen and never comes in from below its target.

The starting point is placed as though the meteor dropped by MinZVel alone. The extra 1.4 leptons per frame take its path 71 to 98 leptons below the creation point by the end of its travel time. A meteor aimed at the ground therefore lands short of the creation point, on the side it came from. The slower it descends, the shorter it lands: with MinZVel=-1 it lands before covering half its path.

When a meteor lands on ground, the terrain around the impact cell caves in as CraterLevel sets. It makes no crater when it ends four height levels (416 leptons) or more above the ground, which is where a bridge deck sits.

When a meteor lands in water, it plays the last animation in the rules’ SplashList. Other thrown animations play a wake and the first splash instead.

Voxel meteor flight

Specification — Voxel meteor flight

Applies to: VoxelAnimType
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: boolean
When omitted: no

A meteor flies in to the coordinate it is created for. Ordinary debris is thrown up from that coordinate instead.

When a meteor is created, its velocity is drawn and its lifetime is shortened by a random 0 to 19 frames. The meteor then starts as far back from its target as that velocity would carry it over the shortened lifetime. Duration therefore sets the length of the approach.

A meteor’s velocity differs from ordinary debris in three ways:

Its vertical speed is MinZVel minus a fixed 1.4 leptons per frame for gravity. MaxZVel is ignored. With MinZVel=-10, for example, the meteor falls 11.4 leptons per frame.
Its two horizontal speeds are drawn from the MaxXYVel range, then both are reversed if the result would carry the meteor up the screen. Its horizontal motion therefore always runs down or across the screen.
Its vertical speed stays the same until it strikes something, so it flies in a straight line where other debris arcs.

The starting point leaves out the 1.4 leptons per frame for gravity. A meteor falling onto level ground therefore lands before its lifetime runs out and short of its target. With MinZVel=-10, it lands after about 88 percent of its shortened lifetime, 88 percent of the way to its target. It then rebounds as Elasticity describes, and its lifetime ends wherever the rebound has carried it.

A MinZVel of 0 or above starts the meteor at or below the height of its target. A meteor aimed at level ground with such a setting starts under the surface and strikes it on its first frame.

When a meteor’s life ends anywhere except low over water, it has two effects that ordinary debris never has:

Spawns breaks it into new pieces of debris.
The terrain around the impact cell is deformed according to CraterLevel, unless the meteor ends at bridge-deck height or above.

Low over water, as ExpireAnim defines it, a meteor plays the last animation in SplashList in place of the wake and splash other debris makes.

See also — Bouncer, MinZVel, MaxXYVel, CraterLevel, IsTiberium, Spawns, MaxZVel, SpawnCount, Duration