Hey. I've got an idea for a graphical overlay (that would function as an appear on target weapon sprite) that looks like a visual distortion over the area. I know this is possible because the EMP Shockwave looks a bit like that, but I'm not sure how I would go about doing it. Anyone have any ideas? In the meantime I'll sort through all the game's graphics and see if I can figure out if/how Blizzard did it.

DatEdit->Images tab->Palette. 3 for cloak distortion, or 8 for EMP distortion. How, exactly, SC calculates where to offset what pixels, I don't know - I don't even know if different palette indices in the source image affect this, or if colors themselves are ever shifted, or what the precise difference between Cloak Distortion and EMP is, but there's a start. Try seeing what happens when you use different source sprites. Overlaying repeatedly produces a stronger effect, of course.
Some mods use these for attacks, actually, though I can't think of which ones, at the moment. My own involves them in a modified Archon attack animation, though it's no longer available here, so far's I know.

Ah, thank you. Yes that indeed works well

On a related note, I find it very annoying when people use EMP for missile hits. It can easily distort way too much and make microing nearly impossible. It can almost get as bad as Observer spam, imo. Note that this is just my personal experience, others might find microing through EMP Shockwave spam easy. idk

Hmm, thanks for your thoughts. After I get the weapon working properly I'll do some playtesting to see if the graphical effect is too much.

TZ, you just suck at micro.

On a more serious note, I have no trouble microing through EMPs.