AbilityRules.txt

Unlike in SE4, not all of the abilities you can use in FrEee are hard-coded into the game. You can define additional abilities which can be referenced by scripts to do whatever you want, or you can simply change the rules of how the stock abilities behave.

AbilityRules.txt has one record for each type of ability in the game, though not all are necessary; defaults will be provided for any missing abilities.

The fields in each record are as follows (required fields are in bold; formula fields are in italic):

• Name - The name of the ability in question.
• Alias - An alias by which you can refer to the ability. You can use multiple Alias fields to create multiple aliases for an ability.
• Targets - What types of objects this ability is valid for. This can be a comma separated list. Options are:
  • Basic object types: Empire, Race, Trait, Component, Facility
  • Shared object types (different abilities for each empire): Sector, StarSystem, Galaxy
  • Stellar objects: AsteroidField, Planet, Star, Storm, WarpPoint
  • Vehicles: Base, Drone, Fighter, Mine, Satellite, Ship, Troop, WeaponPlatform
  • Fleet
  • Compound types (shortcuts for lists of types): StellarObject, SpaceVehicle (all vehicle types except Troop and WeaponPlatform), Unit (all vehicle types except Ship and Base), Vehicle, SpaceObject
  • All
• Description - A default description to use for this ability, if the object containing the ability doesn't provide a description. You can use the replacement strings [%Amount1%], [%Amount2%], etc. to refer to the ability's value fields.
• Value 1 Rule, etc. - The rule to use when grouping and stacking abilities. Valid rules are:
  • None - Do not group by this value or stack it.
  • Group - Abilities will be grouped by this value when stacking.
  • Add - This value will be summed when stacking.
  • TakeHighest - Only the highest value will apply when stacking.
  • TakeAverage - This value will be averaged when stacking.
  • TakeLowest - Only the lowest value will apply when stacking.
• Value 1 Group Rule, etc. - The rule to use when stacking abilities after grouping.

Here is an example record:

#!
Name := Combat To Hit Offense Plus
Alias := Accuracy
Targets := Facility, Planet, Component, Vehicle, Trait, Empire
Description := Accuracy is increased by [%Amount1%]%.
Value 1 Rule := TakeHighest
Value 1 Group Rule := Add
Value 2 Rule := Group

The name of this ability is "Combat To Hit Offense Plus", but it can also be referred to as "Accuracy". It targets facilities, components, and traits so it can be placed on them, and planets and vehicles so it can affect them, and finally empires so it can be passed through them from traits to planets and vehicles. The description will contain the first value of the ability. The ability will be grouped by the second value. Within each group, the highest value will be taken, and after grouping, the values will be summed. (Thus if Combat Sensors provide a 30% accuracy bonus while a Targeting Computer provides 20%, and they have different Value 2s you will get a 50% total bonus from attacking one of each, but only a 30% bonus from installing Combat Sensors alone, no matter how many you install.)