LandTypes
One of the principal characteristics of any terrain is passability, i.e. how well units can traverse it. In Tiberian Dawn, terrain tiles were simply either passable or not. In Red Alert, this system was expanded significantly. Different tiles could now affect the speed of different units at different rates. This attribute is managed by LandTypes.
LandTypes are essentially different types of terrain. Every terrain tile has a parameter linking it to a specific LandType.
The available LandTypes are as follows:
| LandType | Available in | Description | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
| ||
| Clear | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Clear ground, no obstacles. |
| Rough | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Rougher terrain such as rocky areas or thick grass. In Red Alert 2, this defaults to the same settings as Clear. |
| Road | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Dirt or paved roads. |
| Water | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Water as in lakes or ocean areas. |
| Rock | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Rocks, trees, cliffs, anything impassable. |
| Wall | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Non-firestorm/non-laserfence walls. |
| Ore | ✓ | Ore/Gem overlays. | ||
| Tiberium | ✓ | ✓ | Ore/Gem/Tiberium overlays. | |
| Beach | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | The line where water and ground join. |
| River | ✓ | Rivers. | ||
| Ice | ✓ | ✓ | Water gone cold (works in Tiberian Sun, in Red Alert 2 it is not assigned to anything and can be used for new movement rules). | |
| Tunnel | ✓ | ✓ | Tunnel entrance/exit (works in Tiberian Sun, in Red Alert 2 requires Terrain Expansion (aka TX)). | |
| Railroad | ✓ | ✓ | Train tracks (works in Tiberian Sun, in Red Alert 2 requires Terrain Expansion (aka TX)). | |
| Weeds | ✓ | ✓ | Tiberium Veins (Works in TS, in RA2 it is not assigned to anything and can be used for new movement rules). | |
| Cliff | ✓ | Cliffs (before Red Alert 2 Rock was used for cliffs). | ||
In addition to unit speeds, LandType governs whether buildings can be constructed on the terrain or not.
Each LandType has it's own section in rules(md).ini, setting up its defining characteristics:
[Clear] Buildable=yes Foot=100%[1] Track=100%[2] Wheel=100% Float=0%[3] ;The following LandTypes were added Tiberian Sun and later games: Hover=50% Amphibious=80% Creep=100% ;only available in Firestorm FloatBeach=0% ;only available in Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge
The numbers indicate at what percent of its speed can units with a matching SpeedType move over this terrain. In this example, units with SpeedType=Hover, for instance, can move only up to half their normal Speed over tiles with this LandType.
Notes
- You can make overlays which, when placed, transform the ground (technically) to any type mentioned above. To do that, use the Land=<terrain type name> tag on the overlay rules coding.
- Winged can not be modified in the LandType section (i.e. Winged=80% would not work).