Wrench anim is visible on a cloaked building

[Chanterier]

As said - when your enemy repairs a cloaked building you can see the wrench anim. I don't really think it's an intended "feature", it makes cloak useless in such situation because you can always force fire on such building.

[Renegade (renegade)]

Ouch xD
Did this happen with similar anims in TS (e.g. powered off), too?

[WoRmINaToR (worminator)]

In TS, animations like that were not displayed to enemies IIRC.

This may or may not be a reason why.

[Renegade (renegade)]

That sounds like a reasonable "fix", too - it's none of my opponent's business which buildings I'm repairing.

[AlexB (alexander-b)]

While that's true, the building's health status is public. The wrench anim is just a convenience to spare the player from clicking a building to see whether its health has improved in the meantime.

[Chanterier (speederyr)]

Yes, but it shouldn't be visible to the enemy on a building that's cloaked and reveal it's position, right? When it's discovered or decloaked - that's a different thing.

[AlexB (alexander-b)]

Of course. That should be common sense.

[Renegade (renegade)]

@Alex: While that may be true, the wrench is a significant help in that regard.
There's a big difference between my opponent manually checking each building periodically, keeping track of its health status and comparing it to the previous value to determine where I'm focusing my reconstruction money on, and him just having to take a look around to see where the wrenches are.

[WoRmINaToR (worminator)]

also, in RA2 you don't have to click enemy buildings to see their health, you need only mouse-over them.

I say the option to hide the wrench animation from enemies is perfectly reasonable.

[Graion Dilach (graiondilach)]

AFAIK, wrench anims are even visible on shrouds.

[AlexB (alexander-b)]

[General]EnemyWrench= (boolean)
Can a player see the repair wrench over enemy buildings?

Additional fix: Even if the value is yes, the repair wrench will never show on cloaked enemy buildings, and thus not reveal their position accidentally.

[AlexB (alexander-b)]

Confirmed at http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=517658#517658 and at http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=517681#517681.