Paradrops
Paradrop Logic
A Paradrop is the result of a Superweapon spawning Paradrop planes full of infantry at the map edge, to drop around the selected cell on a map, no farther than a distance (in leptons) defined by ParadropRadius. The aircraft used is always the PDPLANE in Red Alert 2, although the Image and various statistics of the PDPLANE can be changed, only Ares allows full customization per Side in Yuri's Revenge.
All valid InfantryTypes can be dropped, multiple types at the same, and a very high number of them. Each distinct type of infantry will be dropped by a different (but identical) Spawned plane, according to how everything is configured in rules(md).ini under [General]. In some cases of large numbers, the game will opt to split them across even more planes than configured.
The area to start dropping paradrops can be altered by
[General] ParadropRadius=1024 ; Drop paratroopers if plane is within this many leptons from drop site.
The type of infantry type deployed by conventional paradrop superweapons can be altered by
[General] AmerParaDropInf=E1 AllyParaDropInf=E1 SovParaDropInf=E2 YuriParaDropInf=INIT ;Types of infantry for the planes to drop
The type of infantry number deployed by conventional paradrop superweapons can be altered by
[General] AmerParaDropNum=8 AllyParaDropNum=6 SovParaDropNum=9 YuriParaDropNum=6 ;How many of each of those infantry
An example to drop 12 Conscripts and 4 Flak Troopers via 3 Paradrop planes would look like:
SovParaDropInf=E2,E2,FLAKT SovParaDropNum=6,6,4
Parabombs
'Parabombs' can be simulated by creating a new type of infantry, that has a very long range weapon with Suicide=yes, to attack enemy units anywhere on the map, and a damaging DeathWeapon with a decently large CellSpread to Damage anything nearby its landing zone.
The infantry art for this can be a single keyframe plus a shadow frame, but the shadow will be ignored (and substituted by INFSHDW.SHP) while parachuting down anyway. It will require a new Sequence to make sure every possible action or state will display the exact same frame, and because it will have an explosive death, it must be given a death anim.
Paradrop Caveats
The actual location where an AI player will attempt to drop its Paratroopers is a cell distance from the notional center of your base, factoring in some unknown calculation based on the number of buildings you own, and other threat based coefficients. The end goal being that the Paratroopers should land just at the edge of your base, or a reasonably empty spot within it. However, if you expand your base across the map, either through capturing buildings, or deploying a new MCV, the notional center of your base may end up far away from any of your buildings, making the Paradrop a wasted effort. This is especially wasteful when the Superweapon was dropping 'Parabombs'.
Scripted Paradrops in Maps
While VehicleTypes cannot be dropped by Superweapons normally, when scripting a reinforcement army, the TeamType can have Droppod=yes set, which will deliver the units by Paradrop plane, and parachute them the same way. The Droppod option in FinalAlert 2 is toggled by a checkbox for Cargoplane in the TeamTypes dialog.
Unlike the Superweapons that must have pre-determined units on a pre-determined number of planes, when done within a TeamType, there can be a diverse group of units in the Taskforce, but they will all be dropped from a single Paradrop plane.
Notes
The number of transport aircraft is determined by the number of elements following the XXXParaDropInf list. Each group of elements corresponds to one aircraft.
- You can repeatedly fill in the same element.
- For example, with XXXXParaDropInf=E1,E1,E2 and XXXParaDropNum=1,2,3, this will deploy 3 aircraft that will airdrop 1 GI, 2 GIs, and 3 Conscripts respectively.
- In Yuri's Revenge, the number of Soviet SpyPlane superweapon aircraft and the number of American paratrooper transport planes are both determined by the number of elements in the AmerParaDropInf list.
Bugs/Side-Effects/Unexpected Limitations
In Yuri's Revenge, when summoning an airstrike, it checks the SovParaDropInf{{{1}}} list, and although this seems redundant, if it is missing, it will cause a crash.
- This bug has been fixed in Ares 0.2.