USA Spy Drone (General Power) is selectable and exploitable

[xezon]

Investigate whether or not USA Spy Drone needs to be selectable at all

[commy2]

Don't see why. Would make it ever so slightly easier to watch its health. But the benefits of it not being selectable outweight that.

[Jundiyy]

Selectable by the enemy for sure. I suppose it doesn't really make a difference to the one who owns it, so would be fine to disallow.

Although wasn't it already going to be taken off Q select? If that's the case and it's the only problem then I wouldn't mind leaving it in as it doesn't interfere.

[commy2]

Both are issues. Q and multi unit select box.

[Jundiyy]

The opponent needs to be able to select it to destroy it. This matters a lot, especially early game as it prevents scouting.

[xezon]

Is there a scenario where the Spy Drone owner would like to force fire his drone? Clicking it to see health sounds rather irrelevant, because there is nothing you can do with this information. You can't heal a Spy Drone.

[commy2]

The opponent needs to be able to select it to destroy it.

Making the unit not selectable, does not mean it cannot be attacked or targeted afaik.

[Jundiyy]

Is there a scenario where the Spy Drone owner would like to force fire his drone? Clicking it to see health sounds rather irrelevant, because there is nothing you can do with this information. You can't heal a Spy Drone.

I can't really think of a reason to attack ones own Drone, this is only done to vehicle drones. Although regarding your second thing, drones can be healed using Repair GP but I don't know if anyone has ever done this before. Rare case.

Making the unit not selectable, does not mean it cannot be attacked or targeted afaik.

Can you still Laser Lock?

[commy2]

I don't know, but if it were to shut down Laser Lock, that'd mean we have to keep it selectable.

I don't think that's the case, but @alanblack166 should know for sure.

[alanblack166]

As it stands, the vehicle drones cannot be Q-selected nor box selected. The only thing I would change is remove the health bar information from the player by adding the IGNORED_IN_GUI KINDOF. This does not make the drones untargetable nor unselectable (for force fire).

[commy2]

Health bar being visible is preferable to no health bar imo.

[xezon]

I agree with Jundiyy that Spy Drone (General Power) needs to be laser lockable. It would be nice if it was not selectable together with other units, but if we can't change that single behaviour, then it is also fine to just leave it as is.

[xezon]

Rage:

It is really annoying that you can select your own USA sentry drone (i.e. spydrone from cc) when selecting your units. This sometimes screws up your micro for example when you want to laserlock with your md’s but have also accidentally selected your own drone. Unsure if this is a bug. Dont think selecting your own drone is useful in any way since you cant do anything with it.

[Madrageeeeee]

I have never ever in all my years seen anyone force fire their generals power spy drone.

yes enemy one needs to be laser lockable.

Removing it from drag box select and q select would be great. I think it is seriously annoying cause it messes up micro and can really hinder you in clutch attacking situations (microing vees / mds)

[xezon]

Selecting Spy Drone can also be exploited in a certain way. We should try make it not selectable, but attackable only.

[xezon]

Test 1

I tried removing SELECTABLE KindOf. That makes spy drone not selectable. But also not attackable, at least not with force fire as the owner. Maybe it can be attacked by enemy? I do not know how to test it in Single Player.

Test 2

I also tried setting UNSELECTABLE status with SELECTABLE KindOf. That did nothing.

  Behavior = GrantUpgradeCreate ModuleTag_AlwaysGrantedUpgrade01
    UpgradeToGrant = Upgrade_DummyUpgrade
  End
  Behavior = StatusBitsUpgrade ModuleTag_IgnoreMe01
    TriggeredBy   = Upgrade_DummyUpgrade
    StatusToSet   = UNSELECTABLE
  End

[xezon]

Test 3

I removed SELECTABLE and added FORCEATTACKABLE KindOf. That makes spy drone not selectable. Drone is attackable with force fire. Perhaps it can also be attacked by enemy.

[ImTimK]

To test in skirmish, just place the drone above a stinger, patriot or gatling tower.

[xezon]

Ok I tested that. Enemy Stinger automatically targets and kills Spy Drone. We still need to test targeting.

[xezon]

Test 4

Added KindOfs SELECTABLE CLICK_THROUGH. This makes SpyDrone selectable, but not show health bar. It is of no use.

Test 5

Added KindOfs SELECTABLE IGNORED_IN_GUI. This makes SpyDrone selectable, but not show health bar. It also will not show any other GUI hints on Drone. But it can still be controlled as usual. It is of no use.

Conclusion

Perhaps it cannot be fixed the way we want it. The most elegant approach I can think of is removing SELECTABLE and adding an ATTACKABLE KindOf. But this ATTACKABLE does not exist. It would have to be added in Thyme.

[ImTimK]

While we're on it, could the hitbox also be fixed? Like it doesn't seem to sync up with the visual model and it can be very annoying to target/laser lock it.

[xezon]

Test 6

Removed Locomotor from Spy Drone. Spy Drone falls to ground and dies.

Test 7

Added IMMOBILE KindOf to Spy Drone. Spy Drone falls to ground and dies.

Test 8

Added Speed = 175 to SpyDroneLocomtor. Spy Drone can be controlled and into one direction.

[commy2]

AIRPLANE should ignore F move. Executable.