What would ZK look like if direct unit control were highly limited? Probably very different, but it would be fun to try. Whoever knowns how to get the most out of retreat zones and anti-bait settings could come out on top. Here are two ways to take this.
Idea #1 is that you can control units provided they are not too close to a visible enemy unit. The idea here is that you can set up battle plans with move orders and retreat states, then execute them in an assault. Taking the enemy by surprise is advantageous here. The range would be around the usual maximum sight range of 660. Some units have a lot more range than this, but perhaps being able to manually control artillery is fine. If a fixed distance does not work then perhaps some sort of way to detect whether a unit is "in battle" would work.
Idea #2 is that you are the commander, and you can only give commands to units within 500 or so elmos of yourself. This is conceptually simpler than trying to detect whether a unit is in battle or not, but the best strategies will probably boil down to rolling around with your commander. Also there is the question of whether you can control your factory and constructors when your commander is on the front. Figuring out how team play works with this version would also be rough, perhaps whoever is closest gets control of uncommanded units?
Both these approaches would possibly benefit from some coarse global commands. For example, it could be good to issue a general retreat to units in a battle that makes them return to safety. There is potential to exploit this by making retreat zones in the enemy base, so retreat zones may need to be limited in some way.
This mod should use its own shortname so as to have distinct settings from main ZK, because players would need to enable more automated unit behaviours.
