I have been told that this skill no longer triggers if there are adjacent allies, due to templates being cancelled if they would affect an ally. Is this true? Hope not, the rule makes more sense and is more fun if its a potential downside.
Explode has the Attack label. From the Attack label we see that attacks are not allowed to affect allies (or neutrals) if they cause damage and/or states. Explode will fail if there is an ally affected by the template.
Still unresolved is whether the whole of Explode is cancelled, leaving the unit unconscious, or whether only the template attack is cancelled but the unit still Explodes and goes to Dead. I've been playing that they still go to Dead, but I'm not sure.
i'm certain it was resolved that the jackbot are removed even if there is a nearby ally (such as being a 2nd jackbot near). The effects of explode are: This Special Skill forces its user to detonate automatically when he enters Unconscious state. At the end of the Order in which the user entered Unconscious State, before making Guts Rolls, the Trooper makes a Direct Template Attack, placing the center of the Circular Template (Blast Focus) over the center of their base. This Attack has Damage 13 with Shock Ammunition, against the ARM Attribute. Enemy Troopers who are affected by the Attack and had performed a Dodge will avoid this Attack if they passed their PH Roll. Once all Rolls have been made, the user enters Dead State and is removed from the game table. The only question is if the last bullet should still apply if there was no Roll to be made. Such as a model exploding in the middle of nowhere, nothing is being hit. Well yes, you would still remove the model. If the explosion hit a fake holo echo, the echo would be removed without making any roll, then the user enters Dead state and is removed even if there was no Roll made. If the explosion hit an ally, then the attack is cancelled, but just like the case where you were in the middle of nowhere and there was no attack being made; the lack of an attack doesn't prevent the model entering the Dead State. So the line really is "Once all Rolls to make, if any, have been made, " Which is important in saying, combined with Effect #2 (you make this Explode attack before making Guts Rolls), that you hold on to effect #5 until all Rolls (ARM rolls and Guts rolls) are made before removing the user.
I agree it was more fun when Kuang Shi could cause collateral damage to allies (and to HVT); but it doesn't damage allies anymore. The only downside is that you can't heal/repair them; which for the jackbot is actually an important downside as they are sync'd to an engineer.
Is the question solved? I mean, if ally is adjacent to the exploding trooper, does the trooper go into Dead state without making an attack or does Explode not take effect since it is an Attack, and the trooper remains Unconscious?
Template Weapons, and Allied and Neutral Troopers Declaring Attacks against Allied or Neutral Troopers is not allowed, nor is it allowed to perform Attacks that may affect them, unless the Template lacks a Damage Attribute value and does not inflict States. Therefore, if when declaring an Attack with a Template Weapon, an Allied or Neutral Trooper would be affected by the Template, that shot is cancelled (but not other shots of that same Burst that have no Allies or Neutrals within their Area of Effect). Any reactive Troopers within the Area of Effect of the cancelled shot can still declare AROs. In this case of a cancelled shot, if a Weapon with the Disposable Trait was used, the initially declared use is still consumed. --- While the Trooper with the Explode skill is not explicitly a Disposable Trait, if we read a bit between the lines we see that the template of the attack is crucially still placed and that other effects from the attack such as granting AROs for being affected by a template weapon still happen. Additionally, we are not directed that the attack becomes anything other than the attack's skill - no "perform Idle" here, and no rolling back similar to a mines' detonation! So, the exploding trooper will be removed while the specific burst of the template attack (even if this is the only burst) is the only effect of the Explode skill that is cancelled.
