Air Defense Unit

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

It's me again.

I've been trying to create an air defense unit, equipping it with RedEye2. Issue is that it targets ground units as well, just doesn't fire. As long as it's locked on a ground unit, it won't engage incoming aircraft.

Is there a way to tell the game a unit is solely supposed to target aircraft?

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Original TS doesn't have proper air to air combat.

Check:
https://ppmforums.com/topic-41440/air-to-air-combat-and-asw/
https://ppmforums.com/post-583028/needing-help-with-a-hack-please/#583028

Issue related to air combat is still open for Vinifera engine extension. Custom armor types are now available in Vinifera, so you can restrict target selection.

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry for being unclear, but the unit I'm trying to create is a ground unit, something like an ADATS. For now it's based on the old MLRS, later on I could imagine something like an APC with HVR turret.

They somehow manged to get the SAM firing at aircraft only. But I can't figure out how to transfer SAM's behavior to my ADATS. Sad

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

Try AA=yes and AG=no on the weapon projectile. Or try using a weapon that already has these set.

If that is not satisfactory, you can use custom armor types feature of Vinifera engine extension where you can disable specific flags of ForceFire, Retaliate and PassiveAcquire against any armor type.

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

Yeah, RedEye2 uses AAHeatSeeker which has these attributes set by default.
Guess I'll have to look into the Vinifera thingy. I'm not good at modding, just taking my first steps.

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

Found a solution more suitable for my simple mind.

Primary=Nonstarter
Secondary=RedEye2

Nonstarter is defined like this:

[Nonstarter]
Damage=0
ROF=0
Range=0
Projectile=HeatSeeker
Speed=0
Warhead=AP

Not sure if you can just leave it empty at all.

At any rate, this will prevent the unit from zeroing in on ground targets.

NimoStar · Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2024 5:05 am Post subject:

Quote:

Not sure if you can just leave it empty at all.

As far as I know, you can't; the game will crash on missing weapon.

AG=no just makes the weapon unable to force-fire on empty land due to stupid westwood code mess Confused

_________________

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

The unit keeps stupidly charging after aircraft, rushes out in the open. An outbound aircraft drags them all out of my base where they're easy prey. They also move around unnecessarily while being under fire by jumpjet infantry.

Is there a way to tell a unit not to bloody do what it wants? Ideally, it shall never leave its assigned position unless moved by the player.

E1 Elite · General **Joined**: 28 May 2013

TS-patches has a guard mode patch applied to the game to prevent it. If you are using latest TSClient, it shouldn't happen.

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

Yeah, just doesn't seem to work on units that have secondary AA weapons. Mammoth Mk II and Mammoth Tank show the same unwanted behaviour (@TS_Client_6.05k).

Lin · Vehicle Driver **Joined**: 10 Oct 2024

Lin wrote:

Primary=Nonstarter
Secondary=RedEye2

Found the error myself. The AA weapon has to be defined as primary to prevent the unit from going wild. Define a 0 range ground weapon as secondary to prevent unwanted aiming on ground targets.
I also found a mod using HasStupidGuardMode=true, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Testing indicates no difference in behavior. Afaik it's only used for buildings and probably gets ignored.