Abilities and Bullets

Which Cooldowns are activated?

When a unit fires a weapon, both its air weapon and ground weapon cooldowns are set. It doesn't matter if the unit fires its air or ground weapon.

Why is the cooldown always different?

Starcraft randomizes the cooldown. It takes the base cooldown and adds a value between (-1) and (+2).

What are the cooldowns on units that are unloaded from a transport?

• Goliaths/Tanks: 15 frames
• Reaver: 30 frames
• Spell cooldown: 30 frames
• Everything else: the default weapon cooldown

What is the cooldown on unloading from a transport?

The cooldown for transports unloading units is 7 frames.

Why are some abilities and bullets considered units? (Dark Swarm, etc)

Mostly because of laziness, deadlines, or similar reasons. Blizzard was able to easily implement these abilities and bullets without much effort. BWAPI considers them units only because Starcraft does. Some of them include:

• Nuclear Missile
• Protoss Scarab
• Scanner Sweep
• Dark Swarm
• Disruption Web

Can you tell me about Dark Swarm and Disruption Web?

When a Dark Swarm or Disruption Web is created, it is owned by the Neutral player (Player 12). They do not distinguish between players after that. They run on an already-implemented unit self-destruct timer, as well as set to invincible and unselectable, making the implementation easier.

Can you tell me about Scanner Sweep?

When a Scanner Sweep is created, it is owned by the player that cast it. The Scanner Sweep is "invisible", similar to that of units inside a bunker, but retains its sight range, which is the same as a Map Revealer (a Use Map Settings unit that permanently reveals part of the map). The difference is Scanner Sweep is run on an already-implemented self-destruct timer, and set to be a detector, making the implementation easier.

Can you tell me about Protoss Scarab and Nuclear Missile?

For Protoss Scarabs, being in a hangar much like a Protoss Carrier allows it to also use the same implementation, and also allows it to follow collision rules instead of directly travelling to the target, a function which bullets do not have. For the Nuclear Missile, it sports a unique behaviour of launching, disappearing, and re-appearing at a new location, a process which is already available for units. Both the Protoss Scarab and Nuclear Missile are given a weapon much like an Infested Terran, Zerg Scourge, and Vulture Spider Mine, exploding on impact. Both attacks can also be cancelled, causing them to die at their immediate location(a concept which units can easily execute).