The 25th Special Abilities Flag

SteveB · July 10, 2002, 20:02

In a previous post by Technomerk, I think, relating to the Torture Mod, he kindly provided a list of what the 26 special ability flags do in #UNITS, but said he couldn't find out what the 25th flag does.

Well, I've found out! It's Deep Radar. I my modding of alpha.txt I gave deep radar the abbreviation of RDF, replacing what was there before (no abbreviation at all).

Deep Radar, 0, MilAlg, RDF, 010000111111, Sees 2 spaces

When you add a custom unit such as the following :-

~Air Defense Chopper, Copter, Impact, Scout, 4, 8, 0, MindMac, -1, 00000000000000000000100010

you'll find that it lists the deep radar (RDF) ability in the design workshop when the unit becomes available with the appropriate tech (MindMac in this case).

Another mystery solved. I wish the game would give these units a reactor greater than level 1, as and when you discover fusion power, etc. I was kinda hoping that's what the 25th flag did.

Flag 2 is Soporific Gas Pods, I understand. With or without using them as a special ability flag do they work? The're supposed to lower non-native enemy morale by 2 levels - but I'm not sure I see that happening in the window that calculates strength during an attack. Can anybody confirm that they work?

Long time browser, first time poster.

gwillybj · August 5, 2002, 19:10

The Special Abilities flags correspond exactly in reverse order to the list under #Abilities.

SMAC4.0 has 24 Abilities listed and 24 digits in the flag. The first ability listed is activated by the last digit in the flag.

SMAX, though, has 29 Abilities listed but only 26 digits in the flag. Can someone fill me in why the difference? Are the last three of the new Abilities (Marine Detachment, Fuel Nanocells, Algorithmic Enhancement) therefore disallowed for predesigned units?

SteveB:
I'm not positive what RDF stands for, but I'm sure it's appropriate. I put EWS in that spot, for Early Warning System. I also shortened Fungicidal to FungX.

SteveB · August 31, 2002, 15:07

Wow!
Adding three more binary flags to the beginning of the existing 26 binary flag string works ( in the order
I'd never thought to try that but they do work.

Adding an enhanced probe team is one I've tried, and giving nanocells to the unity chopper is another.

RDF stands for Radar Directional Finding, but I like EWS just as much.

Now, can anybody tell me how to get Anything listed under #UNITS to use anything other than reactor level one? Don't the Battle Ogres Mk2 and 3 come with the level 2 and 3 reactors? How do they make it do that?

SteveB

Adalbertus · September 2, 2002, 14:44

Quote:

Flag 2 is Soporific Gas Pods, I understand. With or without using them as a special ability flag do they work? The're supposed to lower non-native enemy morale by 2 levels - but I'm not sure I see that happening in the window that calculates strength during an attack. Can anybody confirm that they work?

Yes,
I can. I'm using s-gas instead of x-gas on my choppers (and before dissociative wave, or blink). In the combat screen, you normally see your enemy having an entry
veteran +25%
With s-gas this entry changes to
veteran +0%.

Googlie · August 19, 2005, 19:14

^^

Senethro · August 20, 2005, 09:33

Thread necromancy?

Get to the Puppets game now :P We've been ready to go for a week. I need your email and stuff.

Illuminatus · March 24, 2009, 16:24

Quote:

The Special Abilities flags correspond exactly in reverse order to the list under #Abilities.

SMAC4.0 has 24 Abilities listed and 24 digits in the flag. The first ability listed is activated by the last digit in the flag.

SMAX, though, has 29 Abilities listed but only 26 digits in the flag. Can someone fill me in why the difference? Are the last three of the new Abilities (Marine Detachment, Fuel Nanocells, Algorithmic Enhancement) therefore disallowed for predesigned units?

I've noticed that they are 29 Abilities in alphax.txt, which do not include Marine Detachment, Fuel Nanocells, and Algorithmic Enhancement. I would guess from work and Darsnan and others that they are not barred from being given to predesigned units.

My question is should additional digits simply be added to the begining of the string to get "1" in the proper place? Will this wreak havoc upon special abilities presets of other basic units?