Commander cloak widget behavior and spy defaults in beyond all reason

How the hold-fire-on-cloak widget works, spy widget activation, and which files control the build and order menus.

Tags: beyond all reason commander, cloak widget, hold fire, spy widget, build menu removal

Commander hold fire on cloak

The widget unit_com_dontbreakcloak.lua prevents the commander from firing while cloaked. It sets hold fire when the commander activates cloak and only restores the previous fire state when the player manually decloaks.

There is a known behavioral gap. If an enemy unit decloaks the commander, the commander stays in hold fire mode instead of switching back to return fire. This happens because the widget only triggers on manual decloak, not on forced decloak. The commander sits passively until the player manually adjusts fire state. Whether this is intended behavior remains an open question within the development community.

Spy widget default state

The spy widget at luaui/Widgets/unit_default_spy_move_cloaked.lua makes spy units automatically move while cloaked. Whether this widget activates by default depends on the specific BAR version and configuration. Check the widget list in-game under the spy category to see its current status.

Removing build and order menus

Three widget files control the interface menus:

• gui_buildmenu.lua the build menu panel
• gui_gridmenu.lua the grid menu for factory builds
• gui_ordermenu.lua the right-click order menu

Replacing these with empty files does not always hide the menus. The engine may still render default menu elements. Proper removal requires unregistering the widget from the widget configuration so the engine skips loading it entirely.