Is it possible to make the flag unit in Starcraft unmovable? Right now drones and such can pick them up and move them around, but I want mine to stay firmly in place...even when owned by the player with the drone.

If it is not possible would anyone have any suggestions as to something else I can use as a marker that can change colors to suit the player and is immovable? I would prefer not to use a building if possible. I appreciate any assistance, a quick search of the forum did not turn up any answers so I decided to make an account and ask.

Try disabling them.
"Set doodad state" action. It might crash, or it might do what you need.

Placing them as a disabled sprite(expained here) makes them non-pickupable, however, you can also walk through them.

My favorite trick is to run the Junk Yard Dog AI on them, this makes them just like a normal flag, except they can't be picked up.

Thanks guys! Just disabling the doodad worked great...but what exactly is the Junk Yard Dog AI and how is it different than disabling the flag?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 9 2009, 5:44 am by rtschutter.

JYD is an AI script. You run it by the "Run AI" action. Disabling the flag toggles a section in the unit's memory which has odd effects (ie, unpickupable, no collision box, etc...). JYD can be used to also do strange effects when used on buildings and units which don't normally move.

Excellent, thank you gentlemen very much for the assistance!

Alright, now I am having a new issue. Isn't the flag supposed to change color when it changes possession? Right now, the flags are transferring to the players control when I want them to (they start to give unit sight) but they remain the neutral blue color (my player is red). Anybody have this issue before?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 9 2009, 6:05 am by rockz. Reason: merged posts

some things don't work like normal when you disable them. Just ignore the slight graphics problem or don't use neutral as the original owner.

Well, I tried it with them enabled and it didn't change their color either. Also I tried them with a non-neutral player owner and they didn't change. I am wondering if there is something wrong with my map, I may make a fresh one with just this functionality to see if I can get it to work there.

Sounds like flags don't transfer their color when given, or they may not be able to be given. Why are you using flags anyway?

I am trying to make a UMS map that plays more like Dawn of War than Starcraft. So when a player goes to capture a resource point I want there to be some kind of indication on the point that it now belongs to them. I can force it to spawn a flag, but this creates problems if there is a building on top of the where the flag is supposed to spawn. It just pushes the flag off to the side, potentially out of the location it was spawned in, which prevents me from despawning (or killing) the flag when they leave the spot. So I was really hoping to have the flags there with a neutral color from the beginning, and then have them change color once a player captures them.

That's neat. What other weirdness happens when you run the script on other units that can't move?

What's wrong with using say, a beacon, or a building that won't move? A lone pylon perhaps, a beacon, or maybe one of the other unused units like the zerg egg.

Well, a beacon isn't the most aesthetic way to handle it, I really thought a flag would be best. And luckily I think I have solved my problem.

I have put a neutral flag down to start, and rather than changing its owner, I just remove it entirely and instantly put down a new flag belonging to the player.


I am getting some whole new problems now however. While some of the flags are staying locked down, for whatever reason others are not (despite an all map all flags disable). And worse yet, when the builder does pick one up it crashes the game shortly after.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 9 2009, 10:21 am by rtschutter.

If memory serves, a disabled flag will crash the game if you see its portrait. But I might be wrong on this one though.

If it fits your situation, try using a disabled marine. They twitch in cycles of the attack animation. May look a bit odd, but stylish non the less.

I do think Jaff is right about the disabled flags, I rember back in the day trying it and it crashes your game when you look at it.

Well, you used to be able to get Terran buildings to slide if you ran the JYD AI on them while they were landing, other commonly known ones are interceptors and scarabs reactions to AIs.


I don't think that's the case, flags for extended players will crash or display incorrect portraits, but disabling doesn't do that.

Actually, from testing, disabling doesn't seem to have any ill side-effects, it does the same thing as running Junk Yard Dog on them, except Junk Yard Dog can be done to several at once.

You can only disable 1 flag at a time. You'll have to run the "Set Doodad State" once for each flag on the map, and you cannot simply use the "Anywhere" location either, or that will just run the action on the same (leftmost) flag every time. You'll need to either center a small location on each flag 1 by 1 then run Disable Doodad State, or if there is only 1 flag in each preplaced non-moving location you can run the action at each location.

Wow I love this community. You guys are so helpful and quick to do it too. I figured a mapping community as old as starcraft's would be grouchy and elitist and such but you guys are great.

I am going to try disabling each of the flags individually and hopefully that will stop the crashing. If it doesn't work I may try the Junkyard Dog AI but I cant seems to locate the AI script in scmdraft 2. Do I need to use another program? Most of the others I have tried won't run on this notebook for some reason.

The actual name of the Junk Yard Dog AI in SCM Draft is:
Set Unit Order to: Junk Yard Dog

I would recommend that one if you need to use it on several flags at the same time, otherwise, the disabling method works fine.

Thank you very much, I am actually disabling multiple flags at once but I just issued an individual action for each of them and it worked great. They all have to have their own little location anyways so its not that much additional work or complication.

Is there a list somewhere of units that count as 'men' ? I am wondering if flags count as men, because I am running into a new issue, and if they do it would explain the issue....otherwise I have some thinking to do.