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OpenTS Manual

SmallVisceroid

Makes a UnitType behave as a small visceroid, or picks the UnitType that Tiberium deaths spawn.

Small visceroid behavior

Specification — Small visceroid behavior
Applies to
UnitType
File
rules.ini
Section
[<ObjectType ID>]
Value
boolean
When omitted
no

SmallVisceroid=yes makes the vehicle behave as a small visceroid. It wanders on its own, heads for Tiberium when hurt, and merges with other small visceroids into a large one.

It wanders when it stands still with no destination and no target, on a guard mission or no mission at all. It picks one of the eight directions and moves one cell that way if it can enter the cell. It keeps its last direction two times in three.

Below ConditionYellow health, a visceroid standing off Tiberium heads for Tiberium within 16 cells instead. While it is hurt and standing on Tiberium, it wanders only onto other Tiberium cells. This steering heals nothing by itself. The visceroid heals on Tiberium only with TiberiumHeal=yes, as the shipped VISC_SML sets, or with the TIBERIUM_HEAL ability from VeteranAbilities or EliteAbilities.

Merging is what separates it from a LargeVisceroid=yes type:

  1. A small visceroid standing still checks the eight cells around it, starting north and going clockwise, and stops at the first that holds another small visceroid.
  2. If that neighbor has no destination and no target, it is sent to the first visceroid’s cell. Either way, finding a neighbor ends that frame’s check, so the visceroid neither wanders nor heads for Tiberium.
  3. Small visceroids never block each other’s cells, so the neighbor drives onto the first one.
  4. On arrival, the visceroid that stayed becomes the type named by the global LargeVisceroid at that type’s maximum strength. The one that arrived is removed.

Both visceroid flags give the type the same exemptions:

  • NonVehicle is forced on after this key is read, whatever the section says.
  • An EM pulse does not stun it.
  • It can fire while immobilized, which no other object can.
  • It does not need to face its target before it fires.
  • A Jellyfish=yes unit never stings it.
  • It is drawn without a shadow.

It is drawn from its ordinary artwork except during an attack, which plays five frames of its AltImage artwork.

Spawned visceroid type

Specification — Spawned visceroid type
Applies to
global rules
File
rules.ini
Section
[General]
Value
class
When omitted
none

The named UnitType is the creature that Tiberium deaths leave behind. It belongs to the Neutral house, whoever owned the victim. It appears after either of two deaths, unless the scenario sets TiberiumDeathToVisceroid=no:

  • an infantryman killed by the Tiberium in its cell (Damage covers that hit);
  • any object killed by the damage a gas particle (BehavesLike=Gas) deals to its cell.

The creature appears in the cell where the death happened. No creature appears in a cell that a vehicle occupies or is moving into.

rules.ini
[General]
SmallVisceroid=VISC_SML  ; the UnitType the shipped rules name

Naming a type here does not make it behave like a visceroid. Merging, wandering and the creature artwork come from SmallVisceroid=yes in that type’s own section. Without it, the spawned type is an ordinary vehicle.

The name does not have to match a declared UnitType. A name that matches no type creates a UnitType of that name, which reads its statistics from a section of the same name and stays blank if the rules have none. Only none and <none> select no type.

See also — TiberiumDeathToVisceroid, LargeVisceroid, tiberium, AltImage, NonVehicle