Spring RTS Engine

Make it so that self-destruct only takes 1 second (still five for commander). And give us an option that self-destructs all selected units below 1/5 life.

That way you don't give your opponent loads of wreckages to reclaim! Mwahahaha!

Interesting idea about having them blow up when they get below a certain point in health.

Reminds me of a mod in WoW that will auto-sacrifice your Voidwalker pet (which gives you a damage shield). If the thing is going to die anyway, might as well have it go in style :)

Of course the Voidwalker sacrificing doesn't have a lot of drawbacks. Units in OTA that self destructed had splash damage.

This could cause some crazy chain self-destruction. If one of your units self destructs and damages other units around it enough, then you could have a lot of units self destructing.

Its quite simple even in Original TA to change units' self-destruct time. (See the UH roach).

I believe that is part of the unit definition. So it's just a matter of making the new units like that.

Anyway, if i'm not mistaken, the game will have that already implemented in some units like the Metal Extractors so we can easily get rid of them and start building a Moho mine.

Wreck reclamation is a most important point of TA gameplay. Making self-destruction quick to prevent that sound like a most retarded idea. I simply refuse to imagine Gnugs, TAG, PicarDOH and the likes rabidly manually self D every unit a split second before the health reach 0. I mean, think about the gameplay!!

That way you don't give your opponent loads of wreckages to reclaim! Mwahahaha!

Oh my, you really are stupid, don't you realise that whatever option there is to help you, it is also available to your opponent? You must be a loser not to think that with your way your opponent don't give you any wreckage to reclaim.

Not to mention having 5 seconds to cancel self D is really handy when you finger slip on the D key instead of the C key when selection your come right after selecting your army.

Maby, you can set your self destruct timers with a menue buton
And in the orders screen you can set the Timer to 1.2.3.4.5 and Atou destruct at Never or Split Secont befor Death. So If you set the Timer to 2 and the Atou Destruct to Never, the unit with have two seconts to cound down and it will never blow itsefl up even if its at one health. If you set it to 5 and Split secont, well you have 5 seconts to cancel an order and if a unit is almost dead then it playes a scorched earth stratagim.

its all about where your units are. If they are outside the enemy base, then their wreckage not only can be reclaimed by your opponent, but gets in the way of your oncoming army.