NoUseTileLandType

Overlay whose own land type stands instead of the land type of the tile beneath it.

Specification

Applies to: OverlayType
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: boolean
When omitted: yes

A cell recalculating its attributes starts from the overlay’s Land and then decides whether to keep it. With the flag set it keeps it and stops there; with the flag off it goes on to the tile and overwrites the land type with the tile’s own. Wall and Railroad are settled before the flag is reached, so an overlay declaring either of those keeps it whatever this key says.

One rule still reaches the cell on the way out. CliffBackImpassability runs before the early return and rewrites the land type to Rock when it is set to 2 and a neighbor stands at least four height levels above the cell. It is 0 unless something sets it, so the exception is opt-in.

[MYRUBBLE]              ; example overlay that should not change the ground
Land=Clear
NoUseTileLandType=no    ; the tile underneath keeps deciding

Stopping early does more than fix the land type. The whole tile-driven half of the recalculation is skipped for as long as the overlay is on the cell, so the cell does not re-blend against its neighbors, does not attach the animation its tile set names, and does not mark the cells its tile overshadows. Only the cell’s ramp is still taken from the tile.

Turning the flag off does not always hand the decision to the tile. Land covers the case of a Clear overlay standing on a cell where Tiberium is growing, which reports Tiberium rather than either.

See also — Land, Wall, Tiberium