Prop Solidity

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

So when I first started playing Fort Wars, if you fired a pill or sticky at a prop, it would bounce off, and then slowly fall through if it sat on a bed of props.  Now, when I shoot at a prop, it goes right through.  This makes it a very different game when playing as demo since pills essentially can't be used to destroy forts any more (very difficult to get pills to sit next to props when they explode).

I was wondering if this change was intentional and if so, what the rationale for the change was.  If the change was unintentional, can it be reverted?

Thank you

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

Also, if someone could explain how the game determines whether something is in the "no build" zone or not I would greatly appreciate it.  Sometimes it seems as though if part of the prop would go into the zone it's not allowed, other times it seems it is.  Might just be me not having the right viewpoint

[VoiDeD]

So when I first started playing Fort Wars, if you fired a pill or sticky at a prop, it would bounce off, and then slowly fall through if it sat on a bed of props.  Now, when I shoot at a prop, it goes right through.  This makes it a very different game when playing as demo since pills essentially can't be used to destroy forts any more (very difficult to get pills to sit next to props when they explode).

I was wondering if this change was intentional and if so, what the rationale for the change was.  If the change was unintentional, can it be reverted?

Thank you

This doesn't appear to be something that we changed. I reverted our FW plugin to it's earliest version and tested it on my dev server and nades still seemed to travel through the props, so this rules out anything we've changed. It seems like Valve may have messed with collision rules if this had previously worked in the past.

Unfortunately I'm unsure of how to fix this just yet.

Also, if someone could explain how the game determines whether something is in the "no build" zone or not I would greatly appreciate it.  Sometimes it seems as though if part of the prop would go into the zone it's not allowed, other times it seems it is.  Might just be me not having the right viewpoint

We have some fairly aggressive AABB collision checks in place that prevent players from placing props near spawn points and resupply areas to prevent griefing. They can sometimes be a little inaccurate as that's the nature of a AABB that doesn't rotate with the prop it belongs to, so sometimes even if the prop isn't physically rotated to intersect with a nobuild area, the AABB likely does.

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

Ok, thanks for the insight.  That makes sense about the AABB stuff, I noticed some maps had increased no build zones around spawn rooms that could easily be blocked.

Kind of a shame about the pills/stickies and clipping, typical valve.

Is there anywhere where I could download the full map rotation so I can explore each map, not just the one that is voted for each round?

[VoiDeD]

We don't normally have entire rotations up for download, but I've uploaded it temporarily. You can grab it here: http://saxtonhell.com/Files/fw_maps.rar

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

Damn, just saw your post, link doesn't seem to be good anymore. Oh well, ty for your effort though

[VoiDeD]

Sorry, didn't mean to delete it so quickly. Link should be working again.

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

awesome, thank you very much.


time to explore!!

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

We have some fairly aggressive AABB collision checks in place that prevent players from placing props near spawn points and resupply areas to prevent griefing. They can sometimes be a little inaccurate as that's the nature of a AABB that doesn't rotate with the prop it belongs to, so sometimes even if the prop isn't physically rotated to intersect with a nobuild area, the AABB likely does.

there's an issue wit the protection for fw_platform_v15, it makes it very hard to build a walkway from spawn to the little bar a distance away.  it's especially a problem when fps is a bit low or if you are a bit laggy as the jump isn't always a sure thing

[VoiDeD]

http://steamcommunity.com/id/VoiDeD/screenshot/702859019101501471

The zone there is pretty aggressive due to how easily that section can be blocked by props. I'm able to make the jump to the platform as a heavy pretty easily so I'm not sure what to say. :S

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

at lower fps or non-perfect connection it's more of an issue.  I'm assuming there's no way for us regular people in the server to see those no build zones?

[VoiDeD]

Correct, those are admin only.

On the bright side, I've made a little progress with how nades interact with props. Nades and stickies will now explode and bounce off the enemy team's props so that they behave like they used to. However, I'm not able to make them act similarly for your own personal props.

I gave it some cursory testing, and it doesn't seem like this change has any negative side effects, but if this changes some other behavior of weapons/projectiles/props, it would definitely be something to check out.

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

So for the collision stuff, it appears as though pills explode on contact with enemy props and bounce off of friendly ones.  If i remember correctly, they used to bounce off all props, similar to walls.  Currently this makes pills quit good, potentially overpowered against people sitting on props cause all you need to do it hit near them.  If possible, get them to bounce off and then slowly fall through the props (as this was what they originally did)

Stickies appear to go through friendly props and bounce off enemy ones. (can't remember if they bounced off all props originally)

and still as you said they go through personal props.

[VoiDeD]

I don't think there's much more I can do regarding collisions; convincing vphysics to follow the rules is a very fickle business.

As for being overpowered, I don't think it's too much different from the explosive effects of a rocket launcher. If anything, I think this undoes a potential nerf to the nades.

[The_Hairy_Baboon]

Fair enough,

Thank you for your effort though, having at least something being solid is quite nice, shame valve just changed the prop physics on us.