carepackage bug

[Tim]

in the mw2 ftag server there is a bug, when multiple carepackages drop at the same time (the're dropped by the helicopter, didn't hit the ground) and one hit the ground, all packages stop where they are. This causes packages to hang in the air where they can't be reached.

 

Can you fix this sammy?

[Sammy]

Never seen that one before. I assume in this case each package belonged to a different player and possibly on different teams. What is the name of the map? There could be something strange specific to what is in that one and might require some kind of exception to be added. It would also help if I had a vid of it. Otherwise it could be a needle in a haystack because I have seen at times multiple packages dropped at the beginning of rounds. To fix it I need to be able to reproduce it.

[Onyx]

Happens all the time Sammy. If two players on the same team throw packages too close together they hang in the air.

This has been happening as far back as I have played here.

Happened before the OW2 switch.

It's as if the packages have a bigger box around them that get caught up together

[Sammy]

edit: I only see one error in the log related to care packages, unless the server had been restarted in between when this happened and when I got the logs. Happened when one of them exploded and its possible the owner was no longer in the game. For what you saw its possible there might be there is an unusual map ceiling on that map so I need to know which one it was.

 

Techie stuff below so dont have to read if you arent interested.

 

Just for how dropping works. First when you throw the marker it assumes you did so in a valid area. If you do something silly like throw it inside a building it will drop anyways on the roof. It takes the marker, adds a certain height to it, and sets that as the calculated drop point. It also adds a little bit of randomness. When the package is dropped it makes a trace straight down to see where it will land. So it the trace hits a car it will land on the car. Once the package is told to go from point A to point B nothing will stop it unless I specifically tell it to. So a heli can somehow pop up underneath after it dropped and it will fall straight through. Its like airstrikes that fly through buildings. They know where to start. When to drop. And where to leave. All in a straight line. Nothing in the way will affect it.

 

If on a map you see a heli appear, disappear, and reappear above the map then it is a sign that it is too high and I will need to adjust the care package drop height specifically for that map. Also if you see things like dust being thrown up by the rotors. If this happens tell me the map so I can make the proper adjustments.

[KingStinger!]

I've seen this happen to and I think I've know why. If to players throw there care package smoke at the same time in the same place one of them makes it to the the ground and the other doesn't. Don't know for fact that is it but that's what I have noticed.

[Sammy]

I can see a potential problem if the straight down trace is hitting a package in mid-air. It might treat it as an obstruction. But for this to happen the second drop where the package appears would have to be right on top of the first one while it was in the air. The size of the collision area for the trace is the box itself. There is no invisible hitbox that is bigger like there is for players.

[Onyx]

I'll keep note of any maps and try and get screen shots any time I see it

[iboomboom]

Sammy I don't know and I don't think it is map related. If two people throw CP markers in the same spot, it gets stuck mid air. Happened in the ACR mod and this mod too.

[Sammy]

I ran some quick tests that forced three package drops on the same marker. It can happen if done at the same drop point. They would have be so close that helis could have to pretty much occupy the same space at the same time. Close enough to touch or fly threw each other. Or maybe within 1/2 a second or less. In this case perhaps the second drop trace is hitting the first helicopter.

 

If this is the case then I will have to figure out something like a delay in case both drop points are too close but not sure how to do that. In the meantime, dont throw your own marker where another is already there. Wont help if both throw their markers at the same time at the same spot but it should make this problem less likely.

 

This is one of those things that only show up when lots of people test a mod over a decent period of time so I can fix it. As much as XI members hate the gametype its why I prefer TDM on testing, or at least Domination/CTF, because it keeps the pace up and promotes more activity.

 

edit: I dont recall anyone telling me about this in the older mod. Or wasnt specific enough about it and I figured it was just a map height problem.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Sammy

[CobraBites]

in the mw2 ftag server there is a bug, when multiple carepackages drop at the same time (the're dropped by the helicopter, didn't hit the ground) and one hit the ground, all packages stop where they are. This causes packages to hang in the air where they can't be reached.

 

Can you fix this sammy?

if u drop packages almost rt on top of each other they will get stuck rt where heli or plane drops them high in air...u have to make sure u space out ur pkgs from teammates...and this happens on every map sammy...all ppl have to do is not drop pkgs rt next to each other just got to give each other space so this doesnt happen...

 

hey @@Sammy just fyi...the sam turrents still bugged too...they still are separate ...top is like 2 feet away from the stands ...looks weird lol they the only ones all other turrents are fine its just the sams...and yes it still glitched on all maps just b4 u ask lol....

[Sammy]

The SAM problem is fixed in the update. The model had a tag in the wrong place. Yea I figured that was the problem with the package. Have to see what I can figure out how to deal with that kind of situation.

[Tim]

Like a bunch of people said before, happens on all sorts of maps. I'll tell you if I see something interesting when it hangs again.

 

Just curious, is it hard to make it so carepackages not stop when they hit an helicopter?

 

 

edit:

also, match sometimes ends like on the following screenshot after a round ends.

http://quick-screen.co.uk/xndsw7

 

AFAIK it happens when some rounds were a draw and you enter the 10th round or so.

I guess it should just show the match is a draw, it should show the teams like normal(not in this yellow-ish style) and the proper score (eg. 4-4, not 5850 or whatever).

Edited July 4, 2014 by ikkentim

[CobraBites]

The SAM problem is fixed in the update. The model had a tag in the wrong place. Yea I figured that was the problem with the package. Have to see what I can figure out how to deal with that kind of situation.

its not really a problem as long as some dumbass dont throw pkg over where u throw urs at...i just make sure no one around me when i throw mine...problem already solved for me lol

[Sammy]

There have been a few maps that override how to do win/lose/draw for matches. I dont know how they do it but maybe they were set up by the mapper for specific gametypes. I dont know why.

 

When doing a trace you can normally tell it one specific entity to ignore (not including players, which are handled separately) however that is already being used elsewhere by the package. That kind of thing is the normal purpose of it. It would be best if I could figure out some kind of air traffic control where one automatically waits for a second or two. Another option I had in mind that might work is that if there is already a heli spawned and on the way then it will not spawn another. It will make its first drop, turn around, and the same one would make the second. This wouldnt work if both markers exploded at the same instant. I mean milliseconds.

 

Also not sure how long the turnaround would take or if the turnaround itself would be a problem. Obviously wouldnt work with ac130 drops, which are required when mappers chose not to include heli support for their maps. So I recommend throwing your marker at your feet as much as possible right now. Also to wait 1 second or 2 if you know some already threw a marker. It will hopefully reduce the chances of this.  Lots of workarounds to get things to work that the developers had no idea about at the time and it never ends.

 

 

I must disclose that there might be a bug in how they land. If they are too close the second package, if landing on the first, should cause the older one to blow up and kill whoever is around it. But it would pretty much have to be close enough to touch. The owner of the blown up package gets credit for any kills caused by the explosion. This kind of thing is done because I cannot do actual physics like in mw2 while keeping track of its location. Also to help prevent things like double captures because one is inside of another. I might have turned something off for testing and forgot to turn it back on.

[CobraBites]

There have been a few maps that override how to do win/lose/draw for matches. I dont know how they do it but maybe they were set up by the mapper for specific gametypes. I dont know why.

 

When doing a trace you can normally tell it one specific entity to ignore (not including players, which are handled separately) however that is already being used elsewhere by the package. That kind of thing is the normal purpose of it. It would be best if I could figure out some kind of air traffic control where one automatically waits for a second or two. Another option I had in mind that might work is that if there is already a heli spawned and on the way then it will not spawn another. It will make its first drop, turn around, and the same one would make the second. This wouldnt work if both markers exploded at the same instant. I mean milliseconds.

 

Also not sure how long the turnaround would take or if the turnaround itself would be a problem. Obviously wouldnt work with ac130 drops, which are required when mappers chose not to include heli support for their maps. So I recommend throwing your marker at your feet as much as possible right now. Also to wait 1 second or 2 if you know some already threw a marker. It will hopefully reduce the chances of this.  Lots of workarounds to get things to work that the developers had no idea about at the time and it never ends.

 

 

I must disclose that there might be a bug in how they land. If they are too close the second package, if landing on the first, should cause the older one to blow up and kill whoever is around it. But it would pretty much have to be close enough to touch. The owner of the blown up package gets credit for any kills caused by the explosion. This kind of thing is done because I cannot do actual physics like in mw2 while keeping track of its location. Also to help prevent things like double captures because one is inside of another. I might have turned something off for testing and forgot to turn it back on.

the pkg thing being stuck in the air when thrown on top of or rt next to another pkg is been like that since pkgs where added in the beginning of pkg days just fyi

[Sammy]

I know it happened before because of map ceilings being too low. Or the heli too high. But this is the first time I knew about this one.  I know some may find it hard to believe but I dont know everything. j/k.

[Tim]

There have been a few maps that override how to do win/lose/draw for matches. I dont know how they do it but maybe they were set up by the mapper for specific gametypes. I dont know why.

 

 

It happened to me twice in mp_fallout, i checked it's code and it doesn't do anything special with matchendings

 

edit:

if you set the chopper.targetname near chopper.team = ... and plane.targetname near plane.team = ... you can check for this targetname in lookForEntityHits. When it hits an aircraft you can rerun this from just under the collision-point towards the marker.

if you set the targetname of aircrafts (ac130's reapers and whatever else the mod's got) it should avoid all collision.

 

i guess that would be the easiest way to solve it

Edited July 5, 2014 by ikkentim

[Sammy]

Yes airstrikes already have targetnames for use by SAMs and the like. lookForEntityHits is one I was considering. But instead of moving the trace to some arbitrary location rerun it from where the entity hit was and set the ent as the next item to ignore in the trace. See where it hits next.

 

However that is not entirely full proof either because while it will work for vehicles moving at right angles from the drop it may not for falling objects. Say someone elses care package. In which case it might require an isFalling or isResting var to know whether or not to ignore it or do another trace.

 

I dont know why Fallout does that. Maybe a dvar setting somewhere that is not in the typical map code that forces things in such a way that the final round is ignored. I would have to do something to keep track of where things were changed and why those are different but I dont really have time for it right now since that only happens rarely.

[Sammy]

Ugh, Fix one thing and it leads to another problem.

 

I think I have it so helis will not conflict with package drops. So far. But it raises another issue in that if they were close enough to cause this kind of problem to begin with what to do with the packages themselves. Its not exactly fair that one guy should lose his package because the package belonging to the second guy landed on top and blew up the first. I had to do that because if one was resting on top of another it would cause some problems related to physics, drop locations, and also capture distances and lookat. So I dont know.

[CobraBites]

I know it happened before because of map ceilings being too low. Or the heli too high. But this is the first time I knew about this one.  I know some may find it hard to believe but I dont know everything. j/k.

this is first time complained bout it but yea its been happening ever since u added them to the mod...but most ppl dont worry bout it...not that big of an issue....most ppl just carefully it usually when newer ppl playing not knowing any better to throw them in different areas ...like i said b4 as long as u dont throw them on top of each there isnt problem period...so i really wouldnt stress over this problem sammy...i would just leave it....

[CobraBites]

Ugh, Fix one thing and it leads to another problem.

 

I think I have it so helis will not conflict with package drops. So far. But it raises another issue in that if they were close enough to cause this kind of problem to begin with what to do with the packages themselves. Its not exactly fair that one guy should lose his package because the package belonging to the second guy landed on top and blew up the first. I had to do that because if one was resting on top of another it would cause some problems related to physics, drop locations, and also capture distances and lookat. So I dont know.

yea usually both pkgs end up being in the sky on few accaisians i seen one drop other stay...but usually both pkgs get stuck in air...

[Sammy]

Ok this is what I came up with. Its not perfect and there can still be strange situations.

 

Heli's wont block package drops. So far. Dropped packages will not make ones below them blow up. So you may encounter situations where they overlap. They might also stack. Still testing that. To help with close packages like that the capture radius is a bit smaller and there is a timer. For 30 seconds (right now) only the owner can take it. So if two packages by different owners are overlapping both wont be taken by a single player. Unless the timer has expired. This should be adequate for spawntime package drops.

 

Some solutions such as somehow making sure no two packages overlap and none will stack when falling introduces their own set of problems that would have normally been solved by physics but cant do that here unfortunately.