Destruction and debris

Features & systems·Combat & weapons·Weapons, warheads & projectiles

Changed in 0.1.0

A destroyed vehicle, structure, infantry soldier or aircraft goes through two steps. The shared step runs first for every kind of object: it throws wreckage and sets off the collateral blast. The step for the object’s kind follows. It plays the death animation, lets any survivors walk away, and takes the object off the map. Three cases change that sequence: a fall into water, a vehicle’s wreck animation, and a structure whose removal is delayed.

This page starts once the object is destroyed. Projectile flight and impact covers where a blast lands and how many blasts a shot delivers. Engineers, capture and sabotage owns the number of soldiers a destroyed structure releases, because selling a structure uses the same count. That count also decides whether the structure’s footprint walk runs.

Writing the settings

Write the per-type settings in the object type’s rules section. The wreck animation’s frame counts go in the art section that the type’s Image= names. The shared animations and warheads, such as SmallFire and C4Warhead, are global rules settings; each key page names its section. The values below are examples.

rules.ini

[MYTANK] ; a UnitType registered in [VehicleTypes]
Explodes=yes           ; sets off the collateral blast
Crewed=yes             ; lets one crew member escape
MaxDebris=5            ; at most five pieces of wreckage
DebrisTypes=TIRE,WTRAK ; VoxelAnimTypes registered in [VoxelAnims], thrown in order
DebrisMaximums=4,2     ; at most four TIRE, then at most two WTRAK

art.ini

[MYTANK] ; the art section the type's Image= names
DeathFrames=2      ; frames in the wreck animation
MaxDeathCounter=16 ; game frames the wreck stands before it explodes

The step every kind shares

The shared step runs first, in this order, for a vehicle, a structure, an infantry soldier and an aircraft alike.

1. One of the type’s VoiceDie sounds plays at the object’s position.

2. The object breaks radio contact, stops, and drops its target and destination.

3. A TiberiumHeal=yes type seeds Tiberium in the five cells to its north-west, north, east, south and west. Each cell that accepts growth gets a random stage from 0 to 2 of the first registered Tiberium type. The object’s cell gets none.

4. Any flame particle system attached to the object is removed.

5. The water exit. The rest of this step is skipped when all of these hold:

   • the object is no more than 10 leptons above the ground;
   • it fell from a height, for example when a bridge collapsed under it;
   • the ground beneath it is water.

   The infantry step, and the step for a vehicle without DeathFrames, then leave a wake and a splash in place of the usual death animation.

6. The wreckage. An object whose type sets MaxDebris above zero throws wreckage. A type with a DebrisTypes list throws those animations from its center. A type without one throws MetallicDebris animations from twenty leptons above its center. MaxDebris caps the number of pieces either way.

7. The collateral blast. An Explodes=yes type, or an object whose rank grants the explodes ability, deals area damage sized by CollateralDamageCoefficient. The blast plays a combat explosion animation and uses the warhead of the object’s current primary weapon: its elite weapon at elite rank, or an upgrade’s weapon on a structure. A Bright=yes warhead adds a lighting flash. An object with no weapon in that slot gets no animation, flash or damage from this step. Explodes owns the radius and damage figures.

Because the water exit comes before the wreckage and the blast, a vehicle without DeathFrames that falls off a bridge into a river leaves only the splash, whatever its wreckage and explosion settings. A vehicle with DeathFrames also skips the wreckage and the blast, but it still becomes a wreck. The wreck gets no splash, and it plays its death explosion when its counter runs out.

Spilled harvester loads

An object carrying Tiberium, such as a harvester, spills its load only when it is Explodes=yes or holds the explodes ability. It spills even when it has no weapon and so sets off no collateral blast. A harvester that is neither keeps its load and is taken off the map with it. A scenario with HarvesterImmune=yes spills nothing. A structure’s stored Tiberium is spilled in the structure’s step instead.

The spill is always the first registered Tiberium type, whatever the harvester carried. The number of placements is nine times the fraction of its Storage that it held, rounded down, but at least one. Each placement adds a random stage from 0 to 2 to one neighboring cell. The cells come in a fixed order that starts at the north-west cell and returns to it on the third placement. A full load therefore reaches all eight neighbors, and a smaller load reaches fewer.

The load can also explode. That blast is a separate setting, TiberiumExplosive. It goes off when the vehicle plays its death explosion: at an outright death that is neither a firestorm kill nor a fall into water, and when its wreck finally explodes. A vehicle with no death explosion, from Explosion or from ScrapExplosion under ScrapMetal, never sets it off.

The loss announcement

When a vehicle, soldier or aircraft owned by the player at this machine is destroyed, EVA announces the loss. The cell that Goto Radar Event jumps to moves to where the object was heading, which is the first of these that applies:

1. the exit of the tunnel it is traveling through;
2. the coordinate its locomotor was driving toward;
3. its center, when it was going nowhere.

Three deaths are not announced, and they leave the Goto Radar Event cell where it was:

• a type marked Insignificant=yes;
• a structure, whatever its settings;
• a vehicle whose artwork declares DeathFrames, including when its wreck finally explodes.

A vehicle

A vehicle whose artwork declares DeathFrames survives the destroying hit as a wreck. It is put back to one point of strength and stays where it is, unable to move, while it plays its wreck animation. When its counter passes MaxDeathCounter, it plays its death explosion, picked the same way as for an outright death below, and it is taken off the map. The wreck path releases no passengers, no crew and no truck crate. CrewEscape covers the crew roll that it skips.

Hits on a wreck count as new kills

Nothing records that a wreck has already died. It stays on the map and holds its cell, and any hit that takes its last point of strength destroys it again and puts it back to one point. Each such hit:

• books the kill again: score and any experience for the attacker, and another entry in both houses’ loss and kill counts;
• runs the whole shared step again, so the wreck throws a fresh batch of wreckage, and an Explodes=yes vehicle sets off a fresh collateral blast;
• offers the destruction events to the wreck’s tag again. Destroyed by any house needs an attacker, and Destroyed by anything does not. Trigger persistence decides whether a tag is still there to take them.

A vehicle without DeathFrames is finished outright. Its death animation is the first of these that applies:

1. Killed by the [CombatDamage] FirestormWarhead: seven to nine firestorm particle systems.
2. Fallen into water, as the water exit describes: a Wake and the last entry of SplashList.
3. Otherwise: one random entry of its Explosion list, where it stood. With ScrapMetal on, a type that names a ScrapExplosion list uses that list instead. An Explodes=yes vehicle, or one with the explodes ability, plays the last entry of the list while it still has ammunition, which includes unlimited ammunition.

The rest follows in this order:

1. A train car is uncoupled, and the cars behind it stop.
2. The vehicle is lifted off its cells.
3. Each passenger gets out if it can enter the vehicle’s cell, and the rest are killed. Every passenger is killed when the damage was forced or the vehicle fell from a height.
4. One crew member may escape; CrewEscape owns that roll. A vehicle taken by a hijacker skips the roll, and the hijacker steps back out instead.
5. A crate-carrying truck may drop a wooden crate on a nearby cell, when the scenario enables truck crates or, for a train, train crates.
6. The vehicle is taken off the map.

A structure

A structure’s step runs in the order below. Its origin cell is the cell at the top corner of its footprint.

1. A unit in radio contact with it, such as a harvester docked at a refinery or an aircraft on its pad, is destroyed when its center is less than one cell from the structure’s center. No attacker is credited for that kill. A unit farther away is told to move off.
2. The structure’s light source is switched off.
3. Everything inside it is killed. The effects it supplied end: vision from a spied radar structure, a cloak generator’s field, and a laser fence post’s connections.
4. The central ground mark. A structure at least two cells wide and two cells deep lays one mark on its origin cell. A smaller structure lays none. The mark is a smudge, a flat stain on the ground that stays once laid. It is a scorch or a crater, with even odds, and it lands only where a smudge type of that kind fits; Scorch lists what makes a spot fit. The structure standing on the cell does not block this mark, but Tiberium or another overlay there does. A multiple-cell smudge type is preferred, and a single-cell type is used when no larger one fits.
5. Fire and explosions over the footprint. Each footprint cell has an even chance of a SmallFire, and a cell that gets one has an even chance of a LargeFire beside it. Each cell also plays one entry of the type’s Explosion list, or its ScrapExplosion list with ScrapMetal on, drawn separately for each cell.
6. An Explodes=yes structure places a FIRE3 fire animation on any explosive overlay in the four cells that share an edge with its origin cell. On a structure at least two cells wide and deep, two of those cells lie inside its footprint. The explodes ability does not count here.
7. Whatever the structure was storing is spilled one unit at a time. Each unit keeps its Tiberium type and lands one to three cells from the origin cell, wherever the ground accepts growth; credits and storage covers the rest.
8. Strength is set to zero. Forced damage, which skips the armor table and Immune=yes, marks the structure as leaving no survivors. The footprint walk below then runs.

Survivors and the scarring are one walk

The footprint walk releases survivors and marks the ground in one pass over the footprint. It takes the survivor count first, and a count of zero ends the walk before it starts, so the footprint gets neither survivors nor marks from it. The count is zero when any of these holds:

• the structure is not Crewed=yes;
• it was destroyed by forced damage;
• the game uses a SurvivorDivisor of 0.

When the count is above zero, each footprint cell in turn may release one survivor, at the odds capture sets out, until the count runs out. A multiplayer house whose player has resigned gets no survivors, and neither does one whose player left a game without AI takeover.

The same cell then takes a mark: a scorch or a crater, with even odds. Only a cell a tracked vehicle could enter takes a mark, and infantry, vehicles and structures on the cell do not count against it. A cell whose land type has a Track= cost of zero takes no mark, so a structure standing partly on water or rock is marked in patches.

A mark cannot land on a cell a structure still stands on, and the walk runs while the destroyed structure is still in place. An ordinary destruction therefore leaves no marks from the walk. Only the second walk of a delayed removal marks the footprint.

When the structure leaves the map

An ordinary structure is taken off the map on the frame it dies, right after the walk. Two kinds stay at zero strength and are removed on their next update:

• a structure that was being sold when it died;
• an Explodes=yes structure. The explodes ability does not delay removal.

The delayed removal lifts the structure off its cells, runs the footprint walk a second time, and then deletes the structure.

A delayed removal releases survivors twice

Nothing records that the walk has already run. A structure removed late therefore releases up to twice the usual number of soldiers: once when it dies and once when it is removed.

Infantry and aircraft

A forced kill of a Cyborg=yes soldier always removes it, whatever death is chosen below, and leaves an InfantryExplode animation when the soldier fell from a height. A soldier’s death is the first of these that applies:

1. the water exit from the shared step, which here leaves a Wake and the first entry of SplashList;
2. a prone Cyborg=yes soldier, which leaves InfantryExplode (a standing cyborg survives its first unforced killing hit and goes prone);
3. a jumpjet soldier, which leaves InfantryExplode;
4. otherwise the death that the killing warhead’s InfDeath names. A kill by a laser fence uses the electrocution death, or the burning death on a Doggie=yes type.

The soldier stays on the map to play three of those deaths: the gun death, the explosion death, and the burning death of a Doggie=yes type. When a gun or explosion death finishes, a soldier that is not Doggie=yes leaves a corpse from DeadBodies. Every other death removes the soldier at once and leaves an animation in its place, or nothing.

An aircraft plays one entry of its Explosion list where it was hit, or of its ScrapExplosion list with ScrapMetal on. A kill by the firestorm warhead plays seven to nine firestorm particle systems instead. An aircraft on the ground is then removed at once.

An aircraft in the air falls instead. Its passengers are killed, and it falls faster and faster until it reaches the ground. There it explodes with a fixed 1000 points of area damage through C4Warhead, credited to no one. The crash plays a combat explosion animation sized to that figure, with a lighting flash when C4Warhead is Bright=yes, and the aircraft is removed. Its wreckage and its Explosion entry appear where it was hit, not where it crashes.

What the ground keeps

A vehicle, soldier or aircraft lays no ground mark itself. A structure lays its central mark, and its footprint walk lays more on a delayed removal. Every other mark comes from an animation the death created that declares Scorch=yes or Crater=yes.

Such an animation stamps the ground on its largest frame if it is under 30 leptons above the ground. The mark is picked at random each time from the smudge types with the matching flag that fit the spot; Scorch lists what makes a spot fit. No mark lands on a cell a structure still stands on, except a structure’s central mark. A Flamer=yes or Scorch=yes animation also starts fires, within the height and ground limits that Scorch gives.

The table lists what can remain after each kind of object dies, besides the Tiberium a TiberiumHeal=yes type seeds. Check it when a death leaves less than you expect.

Left behind	Vehicle	Structure	Infantry	Aircraft
Wreckage from DebrisTypes or MetallicDebris	Where MaxDebris is above 0	Where MaxDebris is above 0	Where MaxDebris is above 0	Where MaxDebris is above 0, at the point of the kill
A mark from a death animation	Where the animation sets Scorch or Crater	Where the animation sets Scorch or Crater	Where the animation sets Scorch or Crater	Where the animation sets Scorch or Crater
Marks laid by the object itself	No	The central mark on a structure at least 2×2, and footprint marks on a delayed removal	No	No
Fire animations	Only from a Flamer=yes or Scorch=yes animation	Up to two per footprint cell	Only from a Flamer=yes or Scorch=yes animation	Only from a Flamer=yes or Scorch=yes animation
A corpse	No	No	After a gun or explosion death, except on a Doggie=yes type	No
Soldiers who walk away	Passengers who can get out, and one crew member on the crew roll or the hijacker who stole it; none from a wreck	Up to five, twice that on a delayed removal	No	No
Tiberium	A harvester’s load, when it is Explodes=yes or has the explodes ability	Whatever it was storing	No	No

A terrain object, such as a tree, leaves nothing standing. When one is destroyed, it starts to crumble and is removed from the map in the same step, so the crumble is never seen. A SpawnsTiberium=yes tree skips the crumble. It explodes with 100 points of damage through C4Warhead and can set off the Tiberium in its cell.

Related settings

Filter keys

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Key	Description	Value	When omitted
C4Warheadglobal rules	The warhead used for damage that no weapon deals, such as a demolition charge.	class	none
CollateralDamageCoefficientAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	Multiplies a destroyed object's maximum strength to give the collateral figure that sizes its death explosion.	floating point	Context-dependent
CraterAnimType, SmudgeType	Leaves a crater where the animation plays, or makes the smudge one of the craters that can be left.	boolean	no
CrewEscapeglobal rules	The chance that a destroyed vehicle's crew steps out as an infantry survivor.	floating point	.5
CrewedAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	Allows a structure or vehicle of the type to release surviving infantry when it is destroyed, or when a structure is sold.	boolean	no
CyborgInfantryType	Lets a standing soldier survive a killing hit and crawl on, and exposes it to EM pulses.	boolean	no
DeadBodiesglobal rules	The corpse animations left where an infantryman finishes a death sequence.	typelist	(empty)
DeathFramesUnitType	The number of frames in the wreck animation a destroyed shape-drawn vehicle plays before it explodes.	integer	0
DebrisMaximumsAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The largest number of pieces each debris type may contribute, one figure per entry.	list of integers	(empty)
DebrisTypesAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The voxel wreckage a destroyed object throws, spent in list order against its debris budget.	list of VoxelAnimTypes	(empty)
DoggieInfantryType	Gives the soldier the attack dog's panic, its habit of bedding down in Tiberium, and a death that leaves no corpse.	boolean	no
Explodes5 applicable types	Blasts the surroundings when an object of this type is destroyed, or detonates an overlay when any explosion reaches its cell.	boolean	no
ExplosionAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The explosion animations a destroyed vehicle, structure or aircraft plays.	list of AnimTypes	(empty)
FirestormWarheadglobal rules	The WarheadType a raised firestorm wall destroys objects with.	class	none
ImmuneNo effect in some scopes12 applicable types	Exempts the type from every damage path that is not applied as forced.	boolean	Varies by type
InfDeathWarheadType	The death sequence an infantryman killed by the warhead performs.	integer	0
InfantryExplodeglobal rules	The explosion that stands in for an infantry death animation.	class	none
InsignificantNo effect in some scopes12 applicable types	Whether the object is left out of its house's object counts, loss announcements and responses to attack.	boolean	Varies by type
LargeFireglobal rules	The greater of the two flames the engine lights for itself.	class	none
MaxDebrisAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The number of pieces of wreckage a destroyed object may throw.	integer	0
MaxDeathCounterUnitType	The number of game frames a destroyed vehicle with death frames lingers as a wreck before it explodes.	integer	Computed
MetallicDebrisglobal rules	Wreckage animations thrown up by ion storm strikes, collapsing bridges, and destroyed objects with no debris types of their own.	typelist	(empty)
ScrapExplosionAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The animations a destroyed object leaves behind while scrap wreckage is switched on.	list of AnimTypes	(empty)
ScrapMetalscenarios	Whether wrecks leave the scrap animations their types name instead of their ordinary ones.	boolean	no
ScorchAnimType	Blackens the ground under the animation and sets a small fire burning there.	boolean	no
SpawnsTiberiumTerrainType	Makes a TerrainType seed Tiberium into the cells around it.	boolean	no
SmallFireglobal rules	The lesser of the two flames the engine lights for itself.	class	none
SplashListglobal rules	The animations played where something comes down in water.	typelist	(empty)
StorageAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	Units of Tiberium an object can hold.	integer	0
SurvivorDivisorglobal rules	The divisor applied to a structure's cost when its number of survivors is worked out.	integer	100
TiberiumExplosiveNo effect in some scopesglobal rules, scenarios	Makes a destroyed harvester detonate its load; the scenario flag of the same name is stored and never read.	boolean	no
TiberiumHeal5 applicable types	Whether an object mends itself while standing on Tiberium, and how often every such object is mended.	boolean	Varies by type
Wakeglobal rules	The ripple laid on the water by something moving across it, falling into it or sinking through it.	class	none

Related resources

• Projectile flight and impactFeature or system
• Engineers, capture and sabotageFeature or system
• TiberiumFeature or system
• Veterancy and promotionFeature or system
• Goto Radar EventCommand
• Warheads and damageFeature or system

History

1. Changed0.1.02026-08-27

   Apply infantry damage safely without a warhead

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