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OpenTS Manual

NextParticle

The particle type created in place of this one when it expires.

Specification
Applies to
ParticleType
File
rules.ini
Section
[<ObjectType ID>]
Value
string
When omitted
none
rules.ini
[MYGASCLOUD] ; a ParticleType registered in [Particles]
Image=CLOUD1
BehavesLike=Gas
MaxEC=1000
EndStateAI=28
NextParticle=MYGASTHIN ; a thinner cloud takes its place as it expires


[MYGASTHIN] ; a ParticleType registered in [Particles]
Image=CLOUD1D
BehavesLike=Gas
MaxEC=50
EndStateAI=12
DeleteOnStateLimit=yes
; no NextParticle, so the chain ends here

The particle system holding the particle decides whether a successor appears, and how many:

  • A gas, weak gas or web system replaces each expiring particle with one successor, placed at NextParticleOffset from the point where the original expired.
  • A smoke system replaces it with two, thrown to either side by this type’s Radius. It ignores the offset.
  • Fire, spark and railgun systems create no successors, so the setting has no effect on the types they hold.

A successor keeps the speed its predecessor had reached. Only a Smoke or Fire successor moves by that speed; Gas, WeakGas and Web particles do not move by speed at all. In a gas, weak gas or web system the successor also keeps the sideways drift the predecessor had built up. In a smoke system the successor usually starts one step more translucent, as Translucency describes. Everything else, including lifetime, damage, behavior and artwork, comes from the successor’s own section.

NextParticle=<none> clears the setting. Any other name the game has not seen, none included, registers a new particle type under that name. That type reads a section of the same name if the rules have one, even when [Particles] does not list it. With no such section, its particles do nothing and disappear after their first frame.

See also — NextParticleOffset, Radius, MaxEC, BehavesLike