FreeUnit

Flag:	FreeUnit
File(s):	rules(md).ini
Values:	Strings: Normal text. (Limited to: VehicleTypes)
Default:	<none>
Applicable to:	BuildingTypes

Specifies the vehicle that should appear beside this building when it is placed after being constructed by the player (the unit comes free with the building). In the unmodded games, this logic is only used by Tiberium/Ore Refineries to spawn free Harvesters/Miners.

The FreeUnit Cost is not taken into account when the building is sold. In Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, the building's Soylent is based on the Cost of the building only, so you need to set the Soylent for the building manually. In the case of the Ore Refinery, Soylent is set to 300 because the Ore Refinery has Cost=2000 and its FreeUnit has Cost=1400 (in the unmodded game, you get 50% refund when you sell a building).

FreeUnit and Industrial Plant logic

As far as Industrial Plant logic is concerned, 'free units' are not actually free. In the case of the Ore Refinery (Cost=2000), the game thinks you are paying for a 1400 credit ore miner and a 600 credit Ore Refinery at the same time. Assuming the original Industrial Plant settings are used, vehicle prices are reduced to 75% and building prices are not reduced. Therefore the price of the Ore Refinery becomes:

(0.75 x 1400) + 600 = 1650

If you changed the Industrial Plant so that building prices were reduced to 50% as well (or made a new Industrial Plant), then the price of the Ore Refinery would become:

(0.75 x 1400) + (0.5 x 600) = 1350

Note that multiple Industrial Plants stack their bonuses. For example, owning two [unmodded] Industrial Plants would cause the price of the Ore Refinery to become:

(0.75 x (0.75 x 1400)) + 600 = 1387.5

Bugs/Side-Effects/Unexpected Limitations

• You cannot have a building that costs less than its FreeUnit. If the Cost of the FreeUnit is higher than the Cost of the building, then the price of the building will be overridden to match the Cost of the FreeUnit. For example, if you have a building with Cost=500 and its FreeUnit has Cost=2000 then the building will actually cost 2000 in-game. However, the construction speed of the building is not affected by this change in price.
• If you own an Industrial Plant that reduces the cost of vehicles and/or buildings (whether one or both of these causes the problem has not been established) using a very small multiplier, say 0.01, then FreeUnit will cease to function on all your buildings - i.e. the free unit will not appear.