Parasite
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| Flag: | Parasite |
| File(s): | rules(md).ini |
| Values: | Boolean values: yes or no, true or false, 1 or 0 |
| Default: | no |
| Applicable to: | Warheads |
Specifies whether or not the firer themselves will physically enter the target on warhead impact, to cause its effects from within. This effect is used on the Terror Drone in conjunction with LimboLaunch=yes ("become the bullet") to give the appearance of the Drone jumping inside a vehicle and dismantling it from the inside.
Parasites are, of course, protected whilst they are inside a target as they cannot be hit by conventional weapons (their 'host' is hit instead). However, Sonic=yes weapons will evict a parasite from its target. Repair Depots and Repair IFVs will instantly eliminate any parasite contained within the vehicle being repaired.
Setting Parasite=yes will make the infested target rock and produce sparks, even if Rocker=no is set (however if you set Rocker=yes then the weapon damage will be dealt with each rock of the target rather than over time).
If the parasite destroys the target then it will emerge, unscathed, however if the target is destroyed by another weapon whilst the parasite is inside then the parasite will be destroyed as well (so it may be in the interest of the target's owner to destroy the target themselves if they cannot get it repaired in time, to avoid the parasite infesting further units).
Warheads that also have MindControl=yes set will indeed mind-control the target instead of dealing damage, thus giving the appearance of a hijacker. The target will not take damage from the weapon, nor will it rock or produce sparks. Further more, the parasite can never be evicted (not even by Sonic weapons, Repair Depots or Repair IFVs). As a result of this, the parasite will not be recoverable - the parasite will always be destroyed along with the target. As the target is mind-controlled it cannot be re-mind-controlled by another unit (parasite or otherwise), except for permanent mind-control using the Psychic Dominator.
Note that Parasite=yess warheads will cause an Internal Error when detonated if any of the following conditions are true:
- Firing weapon is a ShrapnelWeapon or DeathWeapon or AirburstWeapon.
- Firing weapon is an urban combat weapon (fired from an occupied building).
- Firing weapon is a secondary weapon. (The problem was resolved by adding Parasite=yes to the warhead of Primary and ElitePrimary.)
Note
- Hardcoded to always use AG=no.
- Hardcoded to kill InfantryTypes instantly.
- Hardcoded to not attack BuildingTypes even though it can be set to attack.
- When a unit uses parasitic weapons with both Naval=yes and Organic=yes settings, it will use hardcoded squid parasitism.
- If TechnoTypes has Parasiteable=no, the units that use parasitic weapons as their primary weapons will not be able to select them as attack targets. This will not result in automatic switching of Secondary.
- When the parasitic unit is destroyed, parasites that were not destroyed by SuppressionThreshold will immediately be generated on the dead cell.
- The damage of parasitic weapons will still be calculated normally based on Verses and other settings. If the warhead is set with special settings such as Radiation, the damage can still be immunized by units with corresponding immune flags. Of course, doing so will not prevent parasites from launching parasitic attacks, it will only prevent parasitic damage from occurring.
Bugs/Side-Effects/Unexpected Limitations
- If a friendly unit is mind-controlled (e.g. Yuri Clone) and then you infest it with a parasite (e.g. Terror Drone), but then kill the enemy that is mind-controlling your unit, your unit will revert back to your ownership but the parasite will remain inside and continue to damage it.
- If a parasite destroys an airborne unit then the parasite will appear, unscathed, on the ground beneath the destroyed airborne unit.
- There is a graphical glitch with mind-controller parasites, in that the mind-control link is drawn between the target and the position the parasite was at just before it entered the unit. This can be overcome in Ares by using MindControl.Permanent=yes. When the parasitized unit dies, the line will be removed. However, parasites do not actually die or reappear, However, the parasite will not actually die or reappear, it will continue to be stored in game memory, and BuildLimit will still consider it to exist.
- A parasite with Naval=yes cannot attack targets that are not located on Water cell.
- The reappearance of parasites after killing units is not limited by SpeedType, only by Naval. The Naval=yes will determine parasites can appear on the corresponding Water cells. For example, the original Terror Drone cannot exist on water, but if Naval=yes is added to it, it will be able to stay on water after killing units on water, rather than disappearing directly, although it still cannot move on water.
- Squid parasitism will be immediately cleared when the parasitic target is on a Non-Water cell. Parasites will reappear in nearby suitable cells, but there is a high probability that they cannot appear due to factors such as terrain and unit obstruction.