Veterancy and promotion

Features & systems·Combat & weapons·Combat & targeting

Changed in 0.2.0

Ranks

Vehicles, infantry, aircraft, and buildings each have their own experience total. That total determines their rank:

Rank	Experience
Below rookie	less than 0
Rookie	0 up to but not including 1
Veteran	1 up to but not including 2
Elite	2 and above

Objects start at rookie with 0 experience unless another setting gives them a different rank. Veteran always starts at 1 and elite at 2. Rules can change how quickly experience is earned, but these thresholds are fixed.

VeteranLevel=0 gives an object -0.25 experience, placing it below rookie. A map’s placed-object records can also set experience directly. Below-rookie objects have no rank abilities, just like rookies. They differ in their insignia and in how crates and armories promote them, as described below.

Earning experience

The object that deals the fatal damage earns experience if its type has Trainable=yes. Each kill adds victim cost / (killer cost * VeteranRatio) to its experience. The costs come from Cost; Points does not affect experience.

Starting from rookie, an object must destroy enemies worth VeteranRatio times its own cost to reach veteran, and twice that to reach elite. A lower VeteranRatio means faster promotion. Cheaper types need fewer kills against the same enemies.

rules.ini

[General]
VeteranRatio=5
VeteranCap=2

This example allows promotion through combat up to elite rank. VeteranCap sets the experience limit. These are example values; the linked key pages give the defaults.

Cost multipliers apply to both sides

Both costs use the defeated owner’s cost multipliers. Applying the same multiplier to both costs leaves their ratio unchanged, except for whole-credit rounding. The attacker’s own price multipliers are ignored.

Buildings must explicitly set Trainable=yes to earn experience from kills. Trainable does not control rank benefits: an untrainable object still benefits from a rank given by an armory, a trigger, or another source that ignores this setting.

A building with a FreeUnit usually awards experience based on the building’s full price, even after the free unit has left. If that unit costs more than the building, its price is used instead. See structure costs for the calculation.

Keep VeteranRatio and the killer’s cost above 0: the formula divides by both. With a positive victim cost, a zero divisor sets experience to VeteranCap.

A kill gives no experience if the defeated owner considers the killer an ally. Score, loss counts, and destruction triggers still update.

Destroying a transport also awards experience for each passenger killed inside it. Crushing an object counts as a kill for the vehicle that crushed it.

Capturing awards no experience

Capturing an object gives score points equal to its cost, but no experience. Selling a building or losing an object by sinking gives neither score points nor experience to anyone.

Experience does not decrease over time, and changing owners does not reset it.

The experience ceiling

After each kill that earns experience, the total is limited to VeteranCap. Promotions from other sources ignore this limit.

Allowing elite rank through combat

Set VeteranCap to at least 2 to allow elite rank through combat. The default limit is 1, so kills alone can only produce veterans.

A low limit can demote an elite

An object above the limit drops back to it on its next kill that earns experience. For example, with VeteranCap=1, a trainable elite drops to veteran and loses its elite weapon and EliteAbilities.

Promotion without kills

The following sources can give an object a rank without kills. They ignore VeteranCap; only the veterancy crate requires Trainable=yes. A map’s placed-object records can also set experience directly.

Source	Result
Veterancy crate	Every Trainable=yes object on the ground within CrateRadius of the crate rises one rank, repeated as many times as the crate’s Data figure in [Powerups] says, which Crate powerups covers.
Armory=yes building	The infantry inside is promoted once the building’s servicing counter runs out.
Drop Pods superweapon	Each delivered passenger is created elite.
TeamType VeteranLevel	Every member created for the team takes the rank the value selects.
InitialVeteran=yes	The units and infantry drawn from the random starting selection of a skirmish or multiplayer match are created elite.
Make Elite trigger action	Every object the trigger is attached to is promoted to elite.

A crate promotes each affected object one step at a time: below rookie to rookie, rookie to veteran, then veteran to elite. Elite objects stay elite. The crate’s Data value in [Powerups] sets the number of steps. Fractions round up, so 2.5 gives three steps and 2 gives two. A value of 0 or less gives no promotion.

The other sources set the rank directly. The armory’s result depends on the infantry’s current rank.

A veterancy crate promotes every trainable object nearby

Crates also promote enemy and neutral objects within CrateRadius, including buildings, if their types have Trainable=yes.

An armory skips the veteran rank

Rookie and veteran infantry leave an armory as elite. Below-rookie infantry leave as veteran. Elite infantry do not get an enter cursor. Each admission uses one point of the building’s Ammo, which an armory never replenishes.

The training time is set by IRepairRate, which also controls hospital treatment time.

What a rank changes

Promotion bonuses depend on the type’s ability lists. A veteran with no abilities gains only a rank insignia. Elite objects can also use an elite weapon and cause other objects in their cell to scatter, as described below.

Abilities

VeteranAbilities and EliteAbilities are comma-separated lists on each object type. Veterans use VeteranAbilities. Elites use both lists, keeping their veteran abilities after promotion. Rookie and below-rookie objects use neither list.

rules.ini

[MYINF] ; example InfantryType
VeteranAbilities=FIREPOWER,ROF
EliteAbilities=SELF_HEAL,FEARLESS

A veteran MYINF deals more damage and reloads faster. At elite rank it also heals itself and becomes immune to fear.

Ability names are case-insensitive. The table lists all eighteen abilities and their effects.

Token	Effect on a qualifying object
FASTER	Movement speed is multiplied by VeteranSpeed plus one. Buildings have no speed to raise.
STRONGER	Incoming damage is divided by VeteranArmor plus one.
FIREPOWER	Weapon damage is multiplied by VeteranCombat plus one.
SCATTER	The object scatters from incoming fire even when the owner’s units would otherwise hold position.
ROF	Reload delay is divided by VeteranROF plus one.
SIGHT	Sight range is multiplied by VeteranSight plus one.
CLOAK	The object cloaks and recloaks without Cloakable=yes, and stays cloaked while immobilized.
TIBERIUM_PROOF	Infantry take no damage from standing in Tiberium, as with TiberiumProof=yes.
VEIN_PROOF	Veins do not damage the object, as with ImmuneToVeins=yes.
SELF_HEAL	The object repairs itself while below its self-healing ceiling, as with SelfHealing=yes.
EXPLODES	Death produces the violent explosion of Explodes=yes.
RADAR_INVISIBLE	The object is kept off the local player’s radar unless a sensor contact picks it up.
SENSORS	An adjacent enemy cloaked object shimmers, as with Sensors=yes.
FEARLESS	Infantry accumulate no fear, as with Fearless=yes.
C4	Infantry attack buildings by sabotage, as with C4=yes.
TIBERIUM_HEAL	Standing in Tiberium repairs the object, as with TiberiumHeal=yes.
GUARD_AREA	An idle armed vehicle, and an idle human-owned infantry, takes the Guard Area mission instead of Guard. A member of a team is unaffected, and so is a computer-owned infantry, whose idle handling never reads the ability.
CRUSHER	A vehicle crushes crushable objects and overlays, as with Crusher=yes.

Unknown or misspelled ability names are ignored without a warning.

Write ability lists without spaces

Spaces around individual names are not removed. For example, VeteranAbilities=FIREPOWER, ROF enables only FIREPOWER, because the space before ROF makes it an unknown name. Spaces at the start or end of the whole value are removed.

Setting an ability list in a later rules file replaces the earlier list. Leaving the key out keeps the earlier list. An empty assignment is ignored, so it cannot clear an existing list.

An elite object makes its whole cell scatter

Incoming fire at a cell containing an elite object makes all occupants scatter, even those without SCATTER. This effect requires no ability.

Rank multipliers

Set the five bonuses below in rules.ini under [General]. Each applies only when the object has the matching ability:

Setting	Applied as
VeteranCombat	Damage is multiplied by the value plus one, after the house and object firepower biases.
VeteranSpeed	Speed is multiplied by the value plus one, after the house ground-speed bias.
VeteranSight	Sight range is multiplied by the value plus one.
VeteranArmor	Incoming damage is divided by the value plus one.
VeteranROF	Reload delay is divided by the value plus one.

VeteranArmor=1 halves incoming damage, and VeteranROF=1 halves reload delay. For the other three settings, 1 doubles the affected statistic. A value of 0 gives no bonus. All five default to 1.

Sonic weapons and weapons using fire particles receive no firepower bonus. Sonic weapons also receive no reload bonus, as do weapons with an attached spark, fire, or railgun particle system. The reload bonus shortens the delay after a burst, not the gaps between its shots.

The elite weapon

At elite rank, the weapon named by Elite replaces the primary weapon. Target selection, range, reload delay, and firing all use this weapon. The secondary weapon stays unchanged. If Elite is unset, the object keeps its primary weapon.

The elite weapon uses the primary weapon’s art settings: PrimaryFireFLH, PBarrelLength, and PBarrelThickness. It fires from the same muzzle offset.

Building upgrades take priority

A building upgrade that supplies a weapon takes priority over the building’s own weapon in that slot, including its elite weapon. Upgrades are structure types with PowersUpBuilding= installed in the host’s upgrade slots.

When a promotion takes effect

Promotion bonuses apply the next time the object fires, takes damage, or moves. The game checks its current rank and abilities whenever it calculates those effects.

Extra sight reveals more terrain the next time the object reveals its surroundings. Promotion itself does not reveal the larger area.

Carrying rank between objects

A vehicle keeps its experience when it deploys into a building, and the building passes that experience back when it undeploys. Capturing an object also preserves its rank and any abilities or elite weapon that rank grants.

Passengers who survive a destroyed transport keep their ranks. Crew created when a vehicle or building is destroyed start at rookie.

Rank display

Veteran and elite objects display different rank insignia beside them, even when unselected. Buildings display them too. The insignia sits farther from vehicles, aircraft, and buildings than from infantry.

Ranks are visible to allies, players spying on the owner, and observers with full map visibility. Shroud, fog, or an undetected cloak hides the insignia along with the object. The healer cross follows the same visibility rules.

The insignia uses PIPS.SHP. A below-rookie object uses the frame after the last defined pip; there is no dedicated insignia for that rank.

Related settings

Filter keys

16 of 16

Key	Description	Value	When omitted
ArmoryBuildingType	Admits one infantry at a time and promotes it when the servicing delay elapses.	boolean	no
CrateRadiusglobal rules	The distance from an opened crate within which its sweeping results reach other objects, in cells.	distance (cells)	2.5
EliteAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The WeaponType an elite object fires in place of its primary.	class	none
EliteAbilitiesAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The abilities an object of this type gains at elite rank, on top of its veteran abilities.	abilities	(empty)
IRepairRateglobal rules	The interval between servicing steps inside a hospital, and an armory's promotion delay.	floating point	.016
InitialVeteranscenarios	Creates the randomly chosen starting units of a skirmish or multiplayer match at elite rank.	boolean	no
TrainableAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	Allows an object of this type to accumulate experience from kills and receive veterancy-crate promotions.	boolean	Context-dependent
VeteranAbilitiesAircraftType, BuildingType, InfantryType, UnitType	The abilities an object of this type gains at veteran rank and keeps at elite.	abilities	(empty)
VeteranArmorglobal rules	Damage taken by an object holding the STRONGER ability is divided by this value plus one.	floating point	1
VeteranCapglobal rules	The highest experience total a credited kill may leave an object at.	floating point	1
VeteranCombatglobal rules	Weapon damage from an object holding the firepower ability is multiplied by this value plus one.	floating point	1
VeteranLevelTeamType	The rank at which a reinforcement trigger creates this team's members.	integer	1
VeteranROFglobal rules	Reload delay of an object holding the rate of fire ability is divided by this value plus one.	floating point	1
VeteranRatioglobal rules	The multiple of its own cost an object must destroy to earn one point of experience.	floating point	10
VeteranSightglobal rules	Sight range of an object holding the sight ability is multiplied by one more than this value.	floating point	1
VeteranSpeedglobal rules	Movement speed of an object holding the faster ability is multiplied by one more than this value.	floating point	1

Related resources

• Drop podsFeature or system
• Team typesFormat
• Crate resultEnum
• Engineers, capture and sabotageFeature or system
• Cloaking and detectionFeature or system
• CratesFeature or system
• Destruction and debrisFeature or system
• Firing geometry and beam weaponsFeature or system
• Shroud, fog and the radar mapFeature or system
• Observers and coach modeFeature or system
• Repair and healingFeature or system
• Starting forcesFeature or system
• Target selection and threat ratingFeature or system
• Warheads and damageFeature or system

History

1. Changed0.1.02026-08-27

   Exclude allied kills from veterancy

2. Changed0.1.02026-08-27

   Honor Trainable for veterancy crates

3. Changed0.2.0In development

   Show indicators on hover and rank without selection

4. Changed0.2.0In development

   Watch a multiplayer match as an observer

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