Context:
The map is Team Micro Arena Legends. Jungle - 64x64. I'm with the group that have maintained the map for well over a decade. Dozens of beacons are placed in order to select units. Those beacons are disabled/cloaked, so you only see the blinking overlay and you can't select the beacon. This is perfect.
Problem:
Players frequently get detectors that ruin the benefits of disabling the beacon. When detected, you can click the beacon and it's super annoying. We don't want beacons to be clickable/selectable, because they alter pathing, and in a high intensity game, that could mean the difference between a win/loss. It's obvious why this occurs, same for any cloaked unit.
Ideal solution:
If there was an EUD or other setting that would make the beacon completely unselectable, as if it's a pure sprite. From what I've searched, this does not seem to be possible without modding the images.dat file
Rejected solutions:
- Using a pure sprite: The display units that sit anywhere on the top half of the beacon, are layered BELOW the beacon, not above of it. Looks super crazy and there's no great way to position the units otherwise.
- Use other pure sprites in place of the beacons: Same problem as above and there's really no great replacement for a good ole beacon. Most the viable effect sprites crash the game and I tried the green selection circle sprite but it's too small. The start location sprite is too large. Making a circle with nuke dots wasn't bad but requires too many sprites
- Use terrain to replace the beacons: I could not find or make a good isometrical blend of tiles that looks as inviting and professional as a beacon. I could use rectangular terrain tiles but it really clashes with the rest of the map that is classically isometrical. (This is where I'm leaning personally but the rest are purists who hate the look and feel of it)
If someone could add some thoughts, ideas, or insights into this, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
None.
