Adding a new Weapon

How to create a new weapon

Creating a new weapon is very easy in OpenRA. In this tutorial we are going to copy a weapon and explain what everything is for.

First lines

First of all open the missiles.yaml from this location:

OpenRA\mods\ra\weapons

Then search for the SCUD entry and copy this part of the code:

SCUD:
	Inherits: ^AntiGroundMissile
	ReloadDelay: 240
	Range: 10c0
	MinRange: 3c0
	Report: missile1.aud

After that, paste it at the bottom of the file (however you can paste it at any place). Now we will make little changes here to make it separate.

First of all we change the name. In this tutorial, we call it LRSCUD (Long Range Scud). Now, we are looking into the first lines of code:

Trait	Description
Inherits	From which weapon definition are traits inherited (e.g. from `^AntiGroundMissile`).
ReloadDelay	How long it takes to reload the weapon in ticks.
Range	How far the weapon can fire.
MinRange	How close the target can be to the actor to shoot the weapon.
Report	Soundfile to play when the weapon is firing.

(See World-Coordinate-System for more information about cells.)

In our tutorial, we change the values like that:

LRSCUD:
	Inherits: ^AntiGroundMissile
	ReloadDelay: 400
	Range: 24c0
	MinRange: 7c512 # 0c512 is the half of a cell.
	Report: missile7.aud # make sure the audio file you choose exists.

The Projectile

Let's look on the next part. Copy and paste it too:

	Projectile: Bullet
		Speed: 170
		Blockable: false
		TrailImage: smokey
		TrailDelay: 5
		Inaccuracy: 213
		Image: V2
		Shadow: True
		LaunchAngle: 62

Again, we look on every single trait:

Trait	Property	Description
Projectile	-	The Projectile of the weapon. (e.g. `Bullet`, `Missile` and some others).
Projectile	Speed	Speed of the projectile.
Projectile	Blockable	The projectile is blockable (e.g. by walls).
Projectile	TrailImage	A sequence/image given as trail.
Projectile	TrailDelay	How long the trail is / how long it exists (! This has nothing to do with `TrailImage`!)
Projectile	Inaccuracy	How much the weapon can differ from the target.
Projectile	Image	Image of the projectile.
Projectile	Shadow	If true, a shadow will be generated.
Projectile	LaunchAngle	In which angle the projectile will be fired.

We are also changing the values a bit:

	Projectile: Bullet
		Speed: 150
		Blockable: false
		TrailImage: smokey
		TrailDelay: 10
		Inaccuracy: 512
		Image: V2
		Shadow: True
		LaunchAngle: 70

Warheads

After that, we are looking into the last part of the SCUD. Again, copy and paste the code.

	Warhead@1Dam: SpreadDamage
		Spread: 341
		Damage: 45
		Falloff: 1000, 368, 135, 50, 18, 7, 0
		ValidTargets: Ground, Water, Trees
		Versus:
			None: 90
			Light: 70
			Heavy: 40
			Concrete: 100
		DamageTypes: Prone50Percent, TriggerProne, SmallExplosionDeath, Incendiary
	Warhead@3Eff: CreateEffect
		Explosions: napalm
		ImpactSounds: firebl3.aud
	Warhead@4EffWater: CreateEffect
		Explosions: large_splash

Warhead	Type	Property	Description
Warhead	SpreadDamage	-	A Warhead. It will be triggered when the weapon reached its target (e.g. `SpreadDamage`, `CreateEffect`, `LeaveSmudge` and many others.
Warhead	SpreadDamage	Spread	How wide the damage affects actors.
Warhead	SpreadDamage	Damage	The damage to add to the hitted actors.
Warhead	SpreadDamage	Falloff	The damage percentage at each range step.
Warhead	SpreadDamage	ValidTargets	What actors are affected by the warhead.
Warhead	SpreadDamage	Versus	The damage percentage at each armor (the armor is given at the actors definition).
Warhead	SpreadDamage	DamageTypes	If the actor dies, this will trigger it to e.g. play a specified animation (e.g. `FlameDeath` of the flamethrowers weapon).
Warhead	CreateEffect	Explosions	Image of the explosion.
Warhead	CreateEffect	ImpactSounds	The sound of the explosion.

We are changing the values a bit:

	Warhead@1Dam: SpreadDamage
		Spread: 2c256 # you can also use cell values here.
		Damage: 75
		Falloff: 1000, 768, 535, 250, 118, 17, 0
		ValidTargets: Ground, Water, Trees
		Versus:
			None: 140
			Light: 110
			Heavy: 90
			Concrete: 150
		DamageTypes: Prone50Percent, TriggerProne, ExplosionDeath, FireDeath
	Warhead@3Eff:: CreateEffect
		Explosions: nuke
		ImpactSounds: kaboom1.aud
	Warhead@4EffWater: CreateEffect
		Explosions: large_splash

If you want to, you can copy other warheads and paste them here.

After that, you can save the file.

Adding the weapon to an actor

Now go to:

OpenRA\mods\ra\rules

Open the vehicles.yaml file and search for V2RL: (It will most likely be at the top for just find it using Ctrl + F). now look for Armament: and change SCUD to LRSCUD: