Please change the behaviour of the Uber cannon...

I would like to be able to click a direction for my commander to move (i.e. retreat backwards) and then press the Uber Cannon hotkey and click a spot to fire my unit cannon independently.

Currently if I retreating backwards and then click the Uber Cannon and choose a spot to fire, my commander starts walking forwards, back into the direction of the enemy. This is the last thing i want to happen when I'm trying to retreat.

Maybe the Uber Cannon cursor icon could change colour when enemy units are in range?

The only currently built in mechanic to accomplish this in-game, is for you to know the range for starters...

...but maybe they could tweak something sort of like if a weapon is set to manualfire:true, that the unit is not allowed to move to get in range. That way, if you click too far, you don't get a ubercannon shot, but you don't walk into danger either (the commander is bulky and takes 2 seconds to turn back around, 2 seconds of pirouetting in front of 12 ants is a lot of damage and can be the single thing that decides successful escape or horrible death).

Is this not because you have clicked to attack somewhere outside of the current range of the uber cannon? Thus the command stops moving backwards and starts moving forwards in order to get in range?

Yes we hate that behavior. There is no situation when this would be useful.

It is tricky, one hand you want to retreat and on the other you want to fire to reduce the risk of getting destroyed. I think the best solution might be to use some kind of overlay for the ubercannon to show its range, coupled with some kind of mode to put the commander in whereby it prioritises retreat above all else.

I would love if the range of the Uber Cannon appeared whenever I select the manual fire. That way, it's clear where to click and then you can decide to click in range or to halt your retreat/move.

Afaik, it's the same range as the default weapon. Just hold ctrl.

Alternatively it could just shoot in the direction you clicked while the commander continues moving away. Given that units are likely chasing you and usually move faster than the commander even the shorter ranged shot will still destroy the front few ranks of units. It would be less annoying that clicking and the commander not firing. Better players will learn the range while newer players will at least get the expected shot even if it's not as effective as it was intended to be.

Is that a thing?! Now you mention it, it rings vague, distant bells... I shall test this tonight!

Been playing since late alpha and I'm still learning these things

All the above are good ideas. We just need Uber to try some of these ideas out and see which one works best. Because the way it works now is obviously very frustrating.

No, it's not obvious. As I've already stated, it appears to have the same range as the default weapon.

or just, you know, have all the ranges on the map and togleable individually and by type.

And your point being? Just knowing the Uber cannon has the same range doesn't make it any easier to use. I would still prefer for commander movement to be independent of the Unit Cannon. There is no point in me clicking a certain point with the Uber Cannon and the commander walking to that position to fire it. By the time a commander gets to that position in order to fire the Uber Cannon, the enemy units have already moved closer towards you so your Uber cannon would miss anyway. Uber cannon should not be linked to commander movement, period.

*shrug*

Look, it's just something we all learned while playing through experimentation. We then learned to deal with it and are now good at microing our commanders. It's just something you learn.

Well, now that I remember, ranges do show up when holding a button. Should Uber link that to "automatically toggle to show ranges" when a "manual fire" weapon is selected? It already does for the nuke launcher if I remember.

That doesn't mean it should stay the way it is. It just means you have learnt to deal with it. The current behaviour has no benefits, only drawbacks, and a mis-click with the Uber cannon can cost you the match.

Nuke launcher has unlimited range?

Wouldn't it be better just to remove the "move" command from the Uber Cannon? And for the Uber Cannon curson icon to change colour when in firing range?

not the rangeS of a unit, we'd need two for the commander. as I understand it the ubercannon is shorter that the regular cannon? and also when it fires at air?

The air is, for all intensive purposes JKJK for all intents and purposes, automatic. You can't "target" air in this game, moves too fast, but the com aa range is as long as the turret at 150, and prioritizes what it should.

The Ubercannon is, in fact, the exact range of that red ring you see in-game, at distance 100. In alpha, it was point blank, but changed in beta, before gamma even.

D GUN , I NEED A D GUN

(or at leas an OverCharge)