Can someone please tell me how to create air units blind, so that they may not see over walls, and ruin surprise or attack units that you cannot see. Or is this not even possible?
This is the answer to your question:
Yes it is possible, and it's very easy to implement as well as being reliable. The units should not attack the medic, as it is unnecessary and could potentially disrupt the system with unwanted unit behaviors. Any medics you use for this purpose should be invincible.
To begin, make sure the computer has Optical Flare researched and is unallied to the player who owns the unit to be blinded. When you need to create the blind unit, create the unit at some isolated blinding area (corner of the map for example). The next action in the same trigger, immediately after your create action, will be "Create Unit with Properties" to create an invincible medic for the computer at the same location.
For example:
-Create valkyrie at 'blind' for Current Player.
-Create medic at 'blind' for Player 8. Apply properties (invincibility).
Now, wait either 4 death counts (if you're using hyper triggers) or 336 milliseconds (if you aren't). This is the time it takes the medic to cast Optical Flare. The medic can now be removed and the blind unit moved to wherever it is needed.
You can have multiple "blinding areas" if you want to create multiple blind air units simultaneously.
Keep in mind, the numbers provided are specifically for air units created at the same location as the medic. If you create the medic at a different location than the air unit for whatever reason, you must increase the wait time in order to account for the optical flare's travel time. Even if the medic successfully casts optical flare on a unit, the unit is not blind until the projectile actually hits it, so moving the targeted unit away prematurely will result in it not being blinded.
If you want to use the 4 DC/336 MS delay, simply create the air unit and medic at the same location.
Edit: Although this is completely reliable the first time you perform this action in your map, you may find reproducing it numerous times in a row to be less so. In a worst case scenario, you can make multiple "blinding areas" to blind any number of air units right when the map starts, and then save those blind units somewhere so you can move and give them to a player when they're needed.
Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Oct 12 2010, 12:12 pm by DevliN. Reason: Mineral abuse.