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Veterancy System
ChthonVII edited this page Jul 27, 2021
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Since the veterancy system has too many details to fit compactly into the readme or features chart, it is mentioned briefly there and fully documented here.
- Attaining veterancy should be relatively common and fast-paced, and attaining max rank should be feasible. There's no point in implementing a veterancy system if players never get to see it in action.
- Most veterancy bonuses should be relatively modest. TD and RA did not originally have veterancy systems, and were not balanced around the possibility of extremely powerful individual units. If the veterancy bonuses are too strong, we run the risk of the veterancy system dominating the gameplay, resulting in a game that's not really TD/RA anymore. Units that are hard to level up may have somewhat better bonuses.
- XP points need to be awarded equitably. The "final blow gets all the XP" system from TibSun, etc. had a lot of awkward consequences that ranged from annoying to borderline exploits.
Units and defensive structures gain XP whenever they damage an enemy by shooting at them, squishing them, bombing them with C4, or killing them by killing the transport unit containing them. The amount of XP gained is equal to the damaged enemy's cost multiplied by the percentage of its max HP that it lost. (Exceptions: Since fighting a visceroid is supposed to be a harrowing experience, they award XP as if they had a cost of 5000. Similarly, there is a 50% XP bonus while under the effects of a Chronosphere or Iron Curtain.) A unit or defensive structure is promoted to rank 1 upon attaining XP equal to its cost, to rank 2 upon attaining XP equal to to 3x its cost, and to rank 3 upon attaining XP equal to 6x its cost.
The following bonuses are common to all units and defensive structures, unless otherwise specified.
- +5% firepower per rank, up to a total of +15%.
- +5% faster rate of fire per rank, up a total of to +15%.
- -10% less damage taken per rank, up to a total of -30%.
- +10% faster movement speed per rank, up to a total of +30%. (Obviously does not apply to defensive structures. Also does not apply to fixed-wing aircraft (since it messes up their landing logic).)
- Infantry auto-scatter from threats at rank 1 and above.
- Self-healing up to 50% HP at rank 2 and above. (Units that already had self-healing up to 50% (Mammoth Tanks, etc.) instead get self-healing up to 100% HP.)
- Defensive structures get self-healing up to 100% HP at rank 3.
A few details about these bonuses:
- The rate of fire bonus functions differently than the house bonus for France in RA. This is a true modifier to shots per unit time, while the France house bonus is a 10% reduction in time per shot.
- The firepower and rate of fire bonuses interact multiplicatively, resulting in an overall bonus to damage per second of 10.25% at rank1, 21% at rank 2, and 32.25% at rank 3.
- The rate of self-healing is based on a unit's max HP so that every unit takes the same amount of time to heal the same percentage of its health.
Each type of unit or defensive structure also receives a special veterancy bonus. Special bonuses are received upon reaching rank 3, unless otherwise specified.
- Minigunner -- armor-piercing ammo (deals more damage to armored targets)
- Grenadier -- range increased by +1 cell
- Rocket Infantry -- significantly increased move speed
- Flamethrower:
- friendly-fire damage to allies is reduced by 90%, unless specifically targeting that ally.
- no longer takes 5 extra damage from himself when hit, at rank 1 and above.
- death explosion damage reduced by 30% per rank, up to a total of 90%.
- Chem Soldier:
- friendly-fire damage to allies is reduced by 90%, unless specifically targeting that ally.
- death explosion damage reduced by 30% per rank, up to a total of 90%.
- If DO_CHEM_GUY_BUFF==1, then chance to spawn visceroids from slain infantry of 10% plus 5% per rank.
- Engineer -- no bonus (Engineers can't deal damage.)
- Commando -- gains stealth
- Mammoth Tank -- becomes a "quad shooter" (fires two volleys of two shots each in rapid succession)
- Medium Tank -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession)
- Light Tank -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession)
- Stealth Tank -- upgraded cloak technology:
- less damage taken when cloak is active, up to -50% at full cloak
- rate of fire bonus also affects delay before commencing recloak (all ranks)
- commence recloak twice as quickly when not targeting something (or target not in range)
- cloak doesn't fail when heavily damaged
- 90% chance to go undetected when driving past enemies who can see stealth units
- 50% chance to remain cloaked and 50% chance to "shimmer" when squishing infantry (default is 100% chance to do full uncloak)
- Flame Tank -- friendly-fire damage to allies is reduced by 90%, unless specifically targeting that ally.
- APC (GDI) -- on-board medic (heals passengers over time)
- APC (Nod) -- gains stealth
- MLRS -- additional -20% damage taken (overall total is -50%)
- Humvee -- armor-piercing ammo (deals more damage to armored targets)
- Buggy -- becomes a "crusher" (can squish infantry)
- Harvester:
- additional -30% damage taken (overall total is -60%)
- self-heal rate doubled
- (Yes, a harvester could conceivably attain rank 3 if it squished a lot of infantry.)
- Artillery -- range increased by +1 cell
- SSM:
- rate of fire bonus also affects reload time (all ranks)
- reload time reduced by 1/3 (rank 3, multiplicative with effect from rate of fire bonus)
- Attack Cycle -- fires high explosive missiles when targeting infantry (more effective against infantry)
- MCV -- no bonus
- Orca:
- reloads twice as fast
- repairs for free while docked at helipad (repairs at half the speed of repair bay)
- Apache:
- reloads twice as fast
- repairs for free while docked at helipad (repairs at half the speed of repair bay)
- Chinook -- no bonus.
- Guard Tower -- range increased by +1 cell
- Advanced Guard Tower -- becomes a "quad shooter" (fires two volleys of two shots each in rapid succession)
- Turret -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession)
- Obelisk -- range increased by +1 cell
- SAM Site -- becomes a "quad shooter" (actually, fires 2x the number of shots configured in the "Smarter SAMs" feature in volleys of four.)
- Minigunner -- armor-piercing ammo (deals more damage to armored targets)
- Grenadier -- range increased by +1 cell
- Rocket Infantry -- significantly increased move speed
- Flamethrower:
- friendly-fire damage to allies is reduced by 90%, unless specifically targeting that ally.
- death explosion damage reduced by 30% per rank, up to a total of 90%.
- Medic -- heal thyself! (gains self-healing up to 100% HP and uses healing skill on itself if damaged, and idle, and has no other target to heal)
- Tanya -- gains stealth and self-healing up to 100% HP.
- Dog -- leader of the pack (aggro other nearby dogs to its target if they don't have a target already).
- Shock Trooper -- chain lightning (attack chains to a second target near the first target; secondary range is 2/3 original range).
- Mechanic -- gives veterancy XP to healed vehicle. (XP amount depends on amount of HP healed, decreases the closer the vehicle is to leveling up; Mechanic cannot cause level up.)
- Engineer/Spy/Thief/General -- no bonus.
- Mammoth Tank:
- becomes a "quad shooter" (fires two volleys of two shots each in rapid succession).
- gains a built-in Iron Curtain (20 sec. duration, 2 min. recharge, activates automatically upon taking damage when charged).
- Heavy Tank -- becomes a "quad shooter" (fires two volleys of two shots each in rapid succession).
- Medium Tank -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession).
- Light Tank -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession).
- APC -- chronoshift doesn't kill passengers
- Jeep -- armor-piercing ammo (deals more damage to armored targets)
- Harvester:
- additional -30% damage taken (overall total is -60%)
- self-heal rate doubled
- (Yes, a harvester could conceivably attain rank 3 if it squished a lot of infantry.)
- Artillery -- range increased by +1 cell
- V2 Launcher:
- rate of fire bonus also affects reload time (all ranks)
- reload time reduced by 1/3 (rank 3, multiplicative with effect from rate of fire bonus)
- Minelayer -- regenerates ammo (1 ammo per 20 sec.)
- Chronotank -- additional -20% damage taken (overall total is -50%)
- Tesla Tank -- chain lightning (attack chains to a second target near the first target; secondary range is 2/3 original range).
- Phase Transport -- on-board medic (heals passengers over time)
- MCV/Radar Jammer/Mobile Gap Generator/MAD Tank/Demo Truck -- no bonus.
- Submarine -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession).
- Missile Sub -- submerges faster.
- Gunboat -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession).
- Destroyer -- built-in short-range sonar (activates automatically every 30 sec.).
- Cruiser -- becomes a "quad shooter" (fires two volleys of two shots each in rapid succession).
- Transport -- no bonus.
- Longbow:
- reloads twice as fast
- repairs for free while docked at helipad (repairs at half the speed of repair bay)
- Hind:
- reloads twice as fast
- repairs for free while docked at helipad (repairs at half the speed of repair bay)
- MIG:
- compact munitions (fires two shots per ammo).
- fires high explosive missiles at unarmored targets.
- repairs for free while docked at airstrip (repairs at half the speed of repair bay).
- (extra strong bonuses are compensation for no move speed bonus.)
- Yak:
- compact munitions (fires two shots per ammo).
- armor-piercing ammo (deals more damage to armored targets).
- repairs for free while docked at airstrip (repairs at half the speed of repair bay).
- (extra strong bonuses are compensation for no move speed bonus.)
- Chinook -- no bonus.
- Pillbox -- range increased by +1 cell
- Camo Pillbox -- range increased by +1 cell
- Turret -- becomes a "two shooter" (fires two shots in rapid succession)
- Tesla Tower -- chain lightning (attack chains to a second target near the first target; secondary range is 2/3 original range).
- Flame Turret -- range increased by +1 cell
- AA Gun -- range increased by +1 cell
- SAM Site -- range increased by +1 cell