Make ticks set off mutually

I do not want to derail Saktoth thread about cloacked heavy unit http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/5743 so I start a parallel thread.

In this battle, http://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/197580 , there was something annoying, independently from any other mistake which I likely did.

It happened a couple of times that I sent my 3-4 ticks to a pack of reapers, one is set off and EMP the rest of the ticks !! Result: reapers are not stunned by one tick only and can escape and the remaining stunned ticks may be safely destroyed a distance.

IMHO, it should not be so. The explosion of a tick should not stun, but set off the other ticks like roaches do.

Of course, you may reply: you just have to self-d them when they get into the pack but then it's a micro step which is absent when handling roaches and I do not see why using ticks should be more cumbersome than using roaches, all the more so since it's only a EMP weapon as opposed to a crawling bomb.

There was a gadget that fixes this, but I think Spring (91) crash if many tick explode at once.

In Spring 95 it doesn't crash, so if Spring 95 is finally released probably the gadget could be activated.

This: https://code.google.com/p/zero-k/source/browse/trunk/mods/zk/LuaRules/Gadgets/unit_chain_ticks.lua

Well, when one tick detonates, it's fairly certain that other ticks nearby are also meant to detonate and should do so without me being obliged to calculate the delay for a self-d.

I've made all Ticks explode in a group when that group is given a self-d command.

Because I'd feel the need to change the effect if that were the case. Gadgets are easier. Also:

• Slow explosions are confusing (so many people were confused by Outlaw).
• Slow explosion could change balance and that's more effort.
• Slow explosion would have to be really really slow because Ticks can be bunched really tight.

Wait, did you mean a delayed explosion? Not like the Outlaw pulse at all, it started instantly but was slow. An uninterpretable 0.5s Tick death animation followed by an explosion would also fix the issue but it would be harder to catch units within the explosion. Also that would take more effort need even more effort to not look bad or confusing.

No, it won't. The engine appends random delay to self-d of any unit. The death animation time would have to be longer than 0.05s to overcome it.

Oh yes they were yours ;)

"You may have a line of ticks such that each would only EMP it's neighbours."

Good remark, but there a way to avoid it: space out the ticks even more.

I did not understand what you meant with: "I've made all Ticks explode in a ground" They get into the ground??

quote: "I've made all Ticks explode in a ground" They get into the ground??

87% likely mnematic substitution error in quoted post (group -> ground), string should read "I've made all Ticks explode in a group". Accept correction? y/n