Why is selen over a mass spot not considered an exploit?

[RealityCheck]

I was watching a ladder game between two players on Theta Passage. Player A is Seraphim and he creates a selen and sends it over a mass spot in Player B's half of the map. Some time later Player B gives a command to an engy to build several mexes in a queue, starting with the spot the selen is sitting over. The engy reaches the mex and stops there, waiting. Player B doesn't notice anything for some minutes, while the battle rages on. Then Player B selects the engy and gives it a command to go to the next mass spots in the queue and build over them. Player B obviously does not realize what is happening. Then Player B sees that the enemy has already sent a force to these spots and gives up on the idea to build there. The engy receives another command - to build a mex on the same spot the selen is on. So engy returns to the spot and stops again, waiting.

After a minute or two Player A decides that's enough. He breaks his cover and kills the engy. After yet more time Player B finally manages to build a mex on this spot but (related or not) his ACU explodes shortly after.

What is the most interesting thing in this little story?
It is that these both players are 1600 rated.

If this can happen to a 1600 rated player, what is the hope for the rest of us?!

I fail to understand the logic of all this. The engy reaches the mex spot and obviously thinks "That's funny, I can't seem to be able to build a mex there. I guess I'll just stay here indefinitely then.".
However, if the player gives attack move command to the engy, then the engy somehow realizes it can reclaim the selen. Well, why didn't the engy realise this as soon as it reached the mass spot?

What will a new player think if this happens to them? They'll think the game is buggy, that's what.

[keyser]

Worse is when mexx is in middle of reclain :s
Deselectselen ui mod does make that feature super stronk too

[Myxir]

yes it requires some attention to notice it, but given that, it's actually stronger just to keep it next to massgroups, and then send a bomber/raid every single time the opponent is building those

[Zoram]

I used to find it massively annoying too, especially since at the time, I couldn't figure out for a while how to order my engie to reclaim the selen I knew was there :p

at the very least, would it be possible for the engy to proceed with next queued order if one order can't be accomplished ?

[Downlord]

It's not considered an exploit because it's an explicitly documented feature.

If that's good is another question.

[Zoram]

I don't think it can be considered an exploit, but it might be considered blody annoying
doesn't make much sense that a futuristic mechanised engineer just stops there and does nothing because something is on the way

[Gorton]

You can do the same thing with moles
I don't consider it an exploit, but maybe we should look into decreasing the time engineers take to go "ok, moving on"

[wasdf]

Not saying I consider selen's on mass spots an exploit, but i do wonder why is an shielded UEF gunship an exploit when this isn't? It would seem that was intended too since shields turn off on normal transports.

Having the engy move on when he can't build on a spot would be a welcome addition.

[keyser]

The issue with shielded gunship is that it isn't balance.
We might consider letting shield on, if it display on 10% of the shield. (10% being a random number given as exemple)

[Blodir]

Not saying I consider selen's on mass spots an exploit, but i do wonder why is an shielded UEF gunship an exploit when this isn't? It would seem that was intended too since shields turn off on normal transports.

Having the engy move on when he can't build on a spot would be a welcome addition.

Shielded gunship being an exploit is just because it didn't happen before, and it's inconsistent with transports not having shields activated. Pretty arbitrary really. I actually really really enjoyed shielded gunships