Alternative to Winter Preview's Infrared Halftrack

As many of you know, Infrared Halftrack's bugged scan causes units to stay permanently revealed on the minimap when certain circumstances are met. While I think that the balance team's solution is solid and keeps it role as a spotter unit, I wondered whether there are any alternatives.

Don't know if any modders figured this out before, but after tinkering around I managed to give the "Uhu" vision that ignores line-of-sight blockers. It sees everything, not just "infrared ghosts" of units, though it doesn't reveal camouflaged units. Video below shows how it works in-game.


I'm not saying this is a superior way of fixing Uhu, but I do think it's a bit closer to its original form. Of course, this would require plenty of balancing - a narrower arc and shorter range, maybe longer setup/packup time, or maybe even changing it into a timed ability.

There is one side effect to this method - as you may have noticed in the video, IRHT has its "global" vision even when not setup. This can be easily addressed by making its default vision shorter than usual. In fact, the modded Uhu in the video has vision of 20 (boosted to 80 on setup), but perhaps 10 would be better.

What do you think?

A few ideas which I don't know if they'd work since I don't mod so it's up to you to judge them:

1)What if the beam was like the live version, but only revealed units in the fog of war when you looked at them (aka the actual map) and not the minimap? The bug is minimap reveal as far as I remember, as the "tagged" units aren't visible in the normal map in the fog of war.

2) What if a tag was added where suppressed units were immune to the IR HT? Aka the moment your unit gets suppressed it stops being detected by the IR HT.

3) What if every time period of 1 rotation (from full right to left and back to right) every unit tagged by the IR HT was "cleansed" of the detection and then the detection started again for the next rotation? That was previously tagged units could be cleansed. The cleansing period of resetting could be near instant to avoid messing with the unit's role.


OFF TOPIC: There needs to be a sub section of the balance team with modders who can take a look at pressing issues with bugs.

A few ideas which I don't know if they'd work since I don't mod so it's up to you to judge them:
<snip>

From what I gather, the "weapon_scan_action" itself causes this bug. Even if the act of scanning does absolutely nothing to target, it will still cause the reveal bug when the circumstances are met. I'm no senior modder, but believe me - I tried my best to work around it to no avail.

From what I gather, the "weapon_scan_action" itself causes this bug. Even if the act of scanning does absolutely nothing to target, it will still cause the reveal bug when the circumstances are met. I'm no senior modder, but believe me - I tried my best to work around it to no avail.

Isn’t there some kind of way for the retreat action to kind of “reset” the unit’s status and override the effect of weapon_scan_action ?

I made an equal implementation and proposed it to the patch-team. The response was short: they don't want it to see through LOS blockers.
It has probably the same reason that the Brits gets a medic squad: requiring micro.

The gameplay advantages (for what we are trying to achieve) of the squad requiring extra micro and costing popcap are definitely worth the disadvantage of the squad being able to cap a point on rare occasions.

I like the approach allot but it should be an ability and no always on and then it would require micro.

Actually it would more like a unit able to fire "free" flare.

Sneakeye is you MOD publish so we can test it?

I like the approach allot but it should be an ability and no always on and then it would require micro.

Actually it would more like a unit able to fire "free" flare.

Sneakeye is you MOD publish so we can test it?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1nnpnpy2l2s0exa/IR_Halftrack_new_ability_v2.sga?dl=0
The halftrack has an timed ability which ignores line of sight, same effect as in the video of Olekman. It also detects camouflaged units within the sightcone while the ability is active.

I made an equal implementation and proposed it to the patch-team. The response was short: they don't want it to see through LOS blockers.
It has probably the same reason that the Brits gets a medic squad: requiring micro.

So just as I thought, someone else did figure this trick out before me. I still think that it could be made to be balanced and require micro by, for example, making this into a timed ability that only lasts 10 seconds, but also reveals the Uhu's location to your enemies. Think Katyusha, but instead of rockets it delivers vision.

Still, too bad it likely won't be implemented.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1nnpnpy2l2s0exa/IR_Halftrack_new_ability_v2.sga?dl=0
The halftrack has an timed ability which ignores line of sight, same effect as in the video of Olekman. It also detects camouflaged units within the sightcone while the ability is active.

Great. Thanks for the link.

Great. Thanks for the link.

Here's my version, just for comparison's sake:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PYmQSyM7xW0_TXP4U9GKSsxjNwaN1_3I

Here's my version, just for comparison's sake:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PYmQSyM7xW0_TXP4U9GKSsxjNwaN1_3I

great thanks

After checking Sneakeye Mod I think it big improvement.

I also do not see what the problem is since Ostheer get a similar ability with the "mobile observation post" with 251 that has allot more utility and more sight by default and the flare can provide sight in more range.