[not a bug] Heresiarch's fireballs

LilWhiteMouse · Post by **LilWhiteMouse** » Sat Jan 17, 2004 8:41 pm

The two red fireballs that the Heresiarch spit out and bounce around act odd when the player is at a higher elevation. If the player is at an equal or lower height, they bounce around like normal. If the player is higher, they just slide around the floor and don't bounce. I don't remember vanilla Hexen's behavior in this situation, but it seems odd to me.

Post by **Kate** » Sun Jan 18, 2004 3:48 pm

I think this has something to do with the head being able to fly if the player is floating above the Heresiarch when he summons them.

LilWhiteMouse · Post by **LilWhiteMouse** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 12:45 pm

I've also noticed that the three mana tokens floating around his head tend to disappear.

If it get's near an obstruction (including me), they disappear. What's confusing is they don't always come back into view when he clears the obstruction. Even when he wanders into the middle of a large open area, I have to circle strafe to get them to re-appear.

[EDIT] Obstructions don't seem to be that cause like I thought. It seems to be orientation, as I can move side to side and they'll blink in and out of view.

Post by **randi** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:21 pm

The bouncy balls are normal seeker missiles that happen to bounce. If you get above or below the missile, they will change their vertical velocity to try and reach you. They are not simply sliding along the floor.

The spell balls above the Heresiarch's head I could not get to disappear, even by flying on top of his head. Can you provide an easy way to reproduce the problem?

LilWhiteMouse · Post by **LilWhiteMouse** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:43 pm

randy wrote:The bouncy balls are normal seeker missiles that happen to bounce. If you get above or below the missile, they will change their vertical velocity to try and reach you. They are not simply sliding along the floor.

They only change their height when they're directly next/under me though. Other wise they slide along the ground. In the linked map, stand on the throne and wait for the heresiarch to spawns the fireballs in a lower sector. They'll just slide around the floor and never come up.

The spell balls above the Heresiarch's head I could not get to disappear, even by flying on top of his head. Can you provide an easy way to reproduce the problem?

I left out everything but the heresiarch, so you'll get a lot of texture errors and what-not.

http://home.midmaine.com/~lilwhitemo/neutered.cab

Lure the heresiarch into the main room with the pillars, and just circle around him. They'll pop in and out of view.

Post by **randi** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 8:07 pm

Okay, the spinny balls disappeared because they weren't updating their sector information, so if the original sector the Heresiarch started in wasn't in view, they wouldn't be drawn.

The bouncy balls, well, eh... If you get high enough, they will fly at you off the ground. Not sure why they stick to the ground if you're above them but not too far above them. Maybe they aren't getting enough vertical thrust to overcome gravity?

David Ferstat · Post by **David Ferstat** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:55 am

Sorry that I can't help, Mouse, but I do want to say that your hud looks super-neato!

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Fri Jan 30, 2004 5:43 am

So, is this fixed or not?

Post by **randi** » Mon Oct 04, 2004 11:17 pm

The disappearing spell balls are fixed. The fireballs that don't bounce as well as they should are not yet fixed.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Tue Oct 05, 2004 8:06 am

randy wrote: The bouncy balls, well, eh... If you get high enough, they will fly at you off the ground. Not sure why they stick to the ground if you're above them but not too far above them. Maybe they aren't getting enough vertical thrust to overcome gravity?

I did some checking and judging from the properties of these balls the behavior looks as it should. If the player is in the air (i.e. the player's feet are higher than the projectile's top) P_SeekerMissile constantly sets the balls' momentum to a positive value that depends on the height difference to the player. Logically at a certain distance this momentum is just enough to overcome the gravity the balls are subject to. Of course this means that at this distance the balls just hover over the ground without touching it (and thus don't bounce.)

I really don't see anything wrong with the current behavior.