feat(client): Add EasyMilitaryDrag option to leave builders out of drag selections

[triatomic]

Adds an opt-in client option dropping builders from drag selections. Defaults off; retail behavior unless set in Options.ini.

EasyMilitaryDrag (= Yes) — boxing over your base picks up the army without dragging workers off their jobs. Covers KINDOF_DOZER and KINDOF_IGNORES_SELECT_ALL — the same kinds Select All already disqualifies (which also catches GLA Workers). Only drags are affected: point selection, double click, control groups and select-matching behave as before.

Holding Ctrl inverts the filter for that one drag — boxing only the builders — and cancels force-attack mode for that selection, since Ctrl drives both. A box holding only builders still selects them via a second pass with the filter suspended, tested against "no units survived" rather than list emptiness so a building in the box cannot silently win over the workers beside it.

Works in both Zero Hour and Generals — everything lives in the shared selection code.

This option ships in the Contra mod's engine fork and has been played there; this PR is the port onto current main with both follow-up fixes folded in. Code was written with LLM assistance and human-reviewed, adapted and playtested by the author.

Prepared for Squash and Merge.

[qodo-free-for-open-source-projects]

PR Summary by Qodo

Add EasyMilitaryDrag builder filtering to box selection

✨ Enhancement ⚙️ Configuration changes 🕐 20-40 Minutes

AI Description

• Adds opt-in drag filtering that excludes dozers and Select All-ignored units.
• Lets Ctrl-drag select only builders without triggering force attack.
• Retries unfiltered when normal filtering leaves no non-structure units.

Diagram

graph TD
  OPT["Options.ini"] --> PREF["Option preferences"] --> PICK["Drag state"] --> FILTER{"Builder filter"} --> RESULT["Selection result"]
  FILTER -- "No units" --> FALLBACK["Fallback pass"] --> RESULT

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High-Level Assessment

The following are alternative approaches to this PR:

1. Use a drag-filter mode enum

• ➕ Makes normal, inverted, and suspended states mutually exclusive
• ➕ Could pass one resolved mode through filtering and force-attack checks
• ➖ Requires a broader selection-state refactor
• ➖ Still needs careful handling because point-selection state is assigned after construction

Recommendation: Keep the PR’s localized boolean-state approach for this port because it minimizes risk in shared legacy selection code and preserves retail defaults. A dedicated drag-filter enum would be cleaner if selection state is later refactored, but it is not necessary for this focused feature.

Files changed (5) +143 / -0

Enhancement (3) +127 / -0

SelectionInfo.hDefine per-drag builder filtering state +17/-0

Define per-drag builder filtering state

• Extends drawable-pick state with normal, Ctrl-inverted, and fallback-disabled filter flags. Declares a helper that distinguishes inverted drag selection from point force-attack behavior.

Core/GameEngine/Include/GameClient/SelectionInfo.h

SelectionXlat.cppRetry builder-only drags without filtering +36/-0

Retry builder-only drags without filtering

• Detects when filtering leaves no non-structure drawable and repeats the region scan with EasyMilitaryDrag suspended. This prevents nearby structures from taking precedence over builders in builder-only boxes.

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/MessageStream/SelectionXlat.cpp

SelectionInfo.cppFilter builders and resolve Ctrl-drag behavior +74/-0

Filter builders and resolve Ctrl-drag behavior

• Caches the preference per selection, excludes builder kinds from normal drags, and inverts the filter for Ctrl-drag. It also suppresses force attack for inverted drags while leaving point selection and other selection mechanisms unchanged.

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/SelectionInfo.cpp

Other (2) +16 / -0

OptionPreferences.hExpose the EasyMilitaryDrag preference accessor +1/-0

Expose the EasyMilitaryDrag preference accessor

• Declares a const getter for the new Options.ini preference so shared client selection code can query it.

Core/GameEngine/Include/Common/OptionPreferences.h

OptionPreferences.cppParse EasyMilitaryDrag from Options.ini +15/-0

Parse EasyMilitaryDrag from Options.ini

• Reads the EasyMilitaryDrag key case-insensitively and enables the behavior only for Yes. Missing or other values preserve retail behavior.

Core/GameEngine/Source/Common/OptionPreferences.cpp

[qodo-free-for-open-source-projects]

Code Review by Qodo

🐞 Bugs (0) 📘 Rule violations (0) 📎 Requirement gaps (0) 🎨 UX issues (0) 🔗 Cross-repo conflicts (0) 📜 Skill insights (0)

1. Selections repeatedly reload Options.ini ✓ Resolved 🐞 Bug ➹ Performance

Description

Every PickDrawableStruct construction creates an OptionPreferences, whose constructor
synchronously calls loadFromIniFile(), so every click or drag reparses Options.ini; Ctrl-drag
handling constructs another instance in contextCommandForNewSelection. This puts avoidable file
I/O and parsing directly in the input-selection path and can cause selection latency or disk churn.

Code

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/SelectionInfo.cpp[R101-102]

+		OptionPreferences optionPref;
+		if (optionPref.getEasyMilitaryDragEnabled())

Evidence

The changed selection constructor instantiates OptionPreferences for every PickDrawableStruct,
while the options class constructor immediately loads Options.ini (or the per-instance equivalent).
onMouseLeftClick constructs this pick structure for every point or area selection, and the later
inversion helper creates another options object for Ctrl drags.

Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/SelectionInfo.cpp[80-81]
Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/SelectionInfo.cpp[85-102]
Core/GameEngine/Source/Common/OptionPreferences.cpp[49-67]
Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/MessageStream/SelectionXlat.cpp[724-741]

Agent prompt

The issue below was found during a code review. Follow the provided context and guidance below and implement a solution

## Issue description
EasyMilitaryDrag currently constructs `OptionPreferences` during each selection, which reloads and reparses the options file on the input path.
## Issue Context
`OptionPreferences::OptionPreferences()` invokes `loadFromIniFile()`. Both the pick constructor and Ctrl-inversion helper need the same stable client option value.
## Fix Focus Areas
- Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/SelectionInfo.cpp[72-115]
- Core/GameEngine/Source/Common/OptionPreferences.cpp[49-67]

ⓘ Copy this prompt and use it to remediate the issue with your preferred AI generation tools

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[greptile-apps]

Greptile Summary

Adds an opt-in EasyMilitaryDrag preference shared by Generals and Zero Hour, filtering builders from box selections while preserving ordinary selection behavior.

• Loads and caches the option in each variant’s global data.
• Supports Ctrl-inverted builder-only drag selection without entering force-attack behavior.
• Repeats builder-only drags without filtering when no selectable owned unit survives the first pass.

Confidence Score: 5/5

The PR appears safe to merge.

No blocking failure remains.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/MessageStream/SelectionXlat.cpp	Adds the fallback selection pass and now aligns its survivor test with downstream ownership and containment filtering.
Core/GameEngine/Source/GameClient/SelectionInfo.cpp	Implements normal and Ctrl-inverted builder filtering while coordinating force-attack and existing drawable-selection behavior.
Core/GameEngine/Source/Common/OptionPreferences.cpp	Parses the opt-in EasyMilitaryDrag setting with a disabled default.
Generals/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/GlobalData.cpp	Initializes and caches the preference for the Generals runtime.
GeneralsMD/Code/GameEngine/Source/Common/GlobalData.cpp	Initializes and caches the preference for the Zero Hour runtime.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
  Drag[Drag selection] --> Enabled{EasyMilitaryDrag enabled?}
  Enabled -- No --> Normal[Normal selection]
  Enabled -- Yes --> Ctrl{Ctrl held?}
  Ctrl -- Yes --> Builders[Keep builders only]
  Ctrl -- No --> Military[Filter builders]
  Military --> Survivor{Owned uncontained unit survives?}
  Survivor -- Yes --> Select[Complete selection]
  Survivor -- No --> Retry[Repeat without builder filter]
  Retry --> Select
  Builders --> Select

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_{Reviews (3): Last reviewed commit: "fix(client): Exclude contained riders fr..." | Re-trigger Greptile}