Change to Pounce/Spit to disable macros that are generating salt

[Adameltablawy]

Summary (a quick, 2-3 sentence summary):
Essentially, the reason why Autopounce and Autospit macros actually work and exist is due to an oversight in how the abilities were designed. Autopounce, for the uninformed, essentially means that when pounce is hit, it automatically selects the nearest marine's name, pounces at them, automatically, regardless of where they are. Essentially, this stunlocks them. It's not fair, and also allows xenos to save a target they saw earlier to pounce at much later. Same with autospit. Unlike shift clicking where you actually aim, you just macro over to them.

So, we change the ability to a more modern version. I'll explain how.
Benefits (How this will benefit the server and game as a whole):
Disables the unfair spit or pounce macro which, while a legit 'tactic', is about as 'fair' or 'fun' as eggwalls or grenades around the dropship or carrying 9 welder masks in your backpack or handbiting when resincuffed, when that existed. Also makes the code more effective and up to date which is always nice~
Details (Description of how you think this would work, the benefits, etc):
Essentially, what would happen, is that Pounce as the example ability for this, would be changed from a spell that creates a list of viable objs/turfs/mobs to pounce at and thus can be macro'd to immediately gun for the nearest and first marine name to pounce at, to something far more interesting.

What pounce would do is put the alien in a pounce state. Essentially, when you hit the pounce button, you enter the pounce state-AKA you are ready to pounce. Then, on the next click, you pounce at whatever you clicked on. You could also just make pouncing be an inhand to do that-have the xeno pounce at what was clicked. This removes the dropdown list of things to pounce at (which is generally disliked codewise due to the possibility of exploits such as this-See what happens with the hand tele, and it being taken out of people's backpacks but they can still teleport away because the window's open).

For an example, but I'm not suggesting like an actual rip, look at /tg/'s hunter, which has pounce as an action button, that when clicked puts the xeno in a pounce state, then allows the xeno to pounce at the turf was clicked. The way they implemented it was somewhat overpowered, but it can be done with how our pounce ability works as well, respective to the cooldowns.

Alternatively, you could just remove the pounce-(20) verb itself from the menus so it can no longer be selected, so that aliens pounce using the shift click hotkey, but I feel that the implementation of a pounce state itself would be preferable since it also allows the marines some chance to fight back rather than being shift-clicked while also adding to combat when fighting a pounce capable alien (is it pounce-ready or not, etc).


Implementation (Optional, if you have an idea how to implement it):

Firstly, remove the pounce (20) verb. Then, add a button next to the intent buttons sort of similar to how marines have the button to allow them to reload or w/e or make it an action button icon like how toggling mesons/lights is at the top of the screen.

Change the path of pounce entirely from what it is to then set the xenomorph into an is-pouncing state. When the is-pouncing state is entered, have the game call ClickedOn() or another viable proc to check what was clicked, and then the xenomorph will pounce towards the clicked object, sort of like how shift-clicking does it currently.

This then entirely disables the dropdown list of mobs to pounce to, so that xenos can reliably pounce in the pounce-state while having to enter it rather than always 100% having it ready, and removes the pouncing macro.

You can do something similar with spit, make it a state so that when a xeno clicks the spit goes towards that area.

And of course, you can change the xeno's icon so that marines can tell when it's about to pounce/spit or not.

[Casany]

Hi! Just gonna say, -1. If you get pounce locked, it's your fault. ALL of this is fixed if marines don't RAMBO. If your with atleast 2 others this will NEVER happen.

[Surrealistik]

The real solution: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=9556

[Adameltablawy]

Two main things.

First off, as you should be well aware, hunters can pounce on numerous marines at a time, and yes, it's been seen several times that even young hunters can exploit the autopounce macro to chain-pounce on numerous marines to stun them.

It's less a matter of concern that it's possible because being able to pounce on numerous marines normally would be a sign of being robust.

The main concern here is that it's abusing a macro to do something that isn't normally possible by any means, exploiting what amounts to an antiquated system.

The second point is, like I said, the whole system is antiquated. Doing as I suggested would keep the code up to date with current standards and also be less intensive.

[Adameltablawy]

The real solution: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=9556

This is a balance change.

I'm not interested in a balance change. I'm interested in getting rid of the easily exploited mob/turf/obj list dropdown for the sake of keeping things up to date and getting rid of an exploit that's already being abused for it.

[Surrealistik]

This is a balance change.

I'm not interested in a balance change. I'm interested in getting rid of the easily exploited mob/turf/obj list dropdown for the sake of keeping things up to date and getting rid of an exploit that's already being abused for it.

You're interested in a balance change; macro use is an integral part of the game's balance, and they most definitely factor into design/balance decisions.

[Snypehunter007]

Old, lack of continued interest.

Locking.