Player starts disregard Z height

[Kate]

This one is pretty simple - if the player is set to start in the air; example, they need to be standing on a 3D bridge at the beginning of the level, the player start seems to completely disregard the Z height set in the editor and defaults them to standing on the floor anyway.

This level should start you on the 3D platform. Instead, it will currently unceremoniously dump you in the lava and kill you.

[Gez]

That's not really a bug, more a consequence of special handling code for bogus start points.

Some time ago I suggested to Graf a MAPINFO flag that'd allow proper Z-height support for player start, by telling the engine not to use compatibility-mandated position shuffling in that map. Didn't make a proper thread for it, though.

[randi]

Yeah, it's not a bug, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be supported through some means either.

[Xaser]

I wonder if it's worth side-requesting this as an ability to define new player starts and set properties like this. I'd love to be able to define some multiplayer equivalents for Strife's special player starts, since that's necessary-ish for a strife co-op mod and I'm afraid to try and use zwadconv on 'em since I don't think that supports Strife specials at all.

Still, this is assuming this is done in a way that allows for further customization of what ZDoom's currently doing internally, which would be a bit more complex than just an "allowZ" flag being set somewhere, I think.

Either way, it could use its own thread.

[Kate]

Either way, it could use its own thread. :P

I think this thread is fine - I figured it would be closed as [Addressed] when a solution is implemented, which is why I figure it's still open for now. No reason to close it just yet.

[Kinsie]

A GAMEINFO flag to enable player start z-heights could work. There's precedent for GAMEINFO defining player start behavior with the player5start flag.

[Enjay]

The problem there would be what if only some maps in a multi-map project required player starts to have a z height value?

Making it a per-map MAPINFO entry similar to FILTERSTARTS for allowing start spots at different locations when playing at different skill settings would be better than GAMEINFO IMO. Either that or, if it's possible, handle it something like teleport spots: different versions of the start spots for how they respond to gravity. Of course, that would involve a lot of duplication because there are, what, 8 player start spots plus the deathmatch spots and I guess that all of them would need to have alternative no-gravity versions.

Speaking of different start spots... I don't suppose that there could ever be a way to put a number of start spots in a map and, rather than have each one (except the last) spawn a voodoo doll, the game could be told to pick a start spot at random? I have a number of maps where many of the gameplay elements are randomised. This includes where the player starts from but, at present, this has to be handled by teleporting the player to any one of a number of randomly chosen teleport spots. It would be neater to have the player actually start in a randomised location rather than being moved there shortly after the map starts. Again, it would make sense for this to be a MAPINFO option IMO.

[NeuralStunner]

MapInfo/Map does sound better. If you need to affect your whole mapset, that's what DefaultMap is for.

As for randomly selected starts, that's an awesome idea too.

[Kate]

This is a map problem, so it should go with the map definition. I'm perfectly fine with using DefaultMap since I'm already using it to set the border flat.

[randi]

Added in r3746.

[MG_Man]

The problem there would be what if only some maps in a multi-map project required player starts to have a z height value?

If the project (or some maps within) is designed with this feature in mind, then those who don't need the feature could just leave the z-height value alone and the result would be the same.

[randi]

I don't suppose that there could ever be a way to put a number of start spots in a map and, rather than have each one (except the last) spawn a voodoo doll, the game could be told to pick a start spot at random?

Added in r3749.