Oh wow... I forgot to update this thread for a while now. Definitely a few major things I should get back to, so I shall list them in order.
- Updated 2.0.0 download linkFirst of all: The mouse issue was caused by a change in GitLab, which was causing the wrong version of Vore Tournament to be downloaded. I posted an updated link, please download data_voretournament from it in order to fix this problem:
blog.php?b=38891- Voreception
Today I'm happy to bring you a very fun change for Vore Tournament, which will be available in version 2.0.1 upon its release. It's the first time this feature is ever implemented, it has never existed in either the old VT nor the new 2.0 mod. Some of you might remember this funny little code comment from way back:
// don't allow voreception (a player inside a player inside another player)
That comment has now been changed, and so has the reality behind it: Voreception is now possible and enabled by default! Implementing it wasn't hard as this was disabled arbitrarily out of fear that it may break things... I removed the limitation and tested, and it turns out there are no negative side effects to not removing prey from other prey! Here are the differences between the past and present functionalities:
- Old functionality: You could not have prey in your stomach as long as you were the prey of another player yourself. Predators could still be eaten by other predators, however their prey was instantly regurgitated and walked free the moment the pred got swallowed.
- New functionality: Predators now keep their prey after being eaten, meaning you can be sitting in another player's stomach while having prey in your own stomach. If you regurgitate your prey inside someone's stomach, the prey will be transferred to your predator and joins you as a belly neighbor. Note that the stomach kicks you receive from your prey don't transfer to your predator as either force nor damage, although they will deal damage to you as usual.
The screenshot showcases this change in action: As you can see, the player is inside a stomach, but also has their own stomach bulging out. The stomach HUD panel in the lower-left corner of the screen also shows the stack accordingly... in this case I was eaten by Anthro Felidae Female, while my prey are Anthro Felidae Male and Anthro Lupine Herm.
- Micro / macro bounding boxes
This is the latest major update coming to Vore Tournament 2.0.1. It once more fixes a huge limitation, which both the ancient Vore Tournament as well as VT 2.0 have been subject to. The change marks the last milestone in terms of properly implementing all of the basic and essential functionalities.
First we need to talk about how the micro / macro system used to work: As you know, players shrink and grow based on the amount of health they have. Despite looking convincing, this effect has been purely visual up until this point: The visual scale of the player model was modified, along with other effects such as the giant footsteps or changing the weight... however the real size was never actually touched. Some could probably tell this from the fact that macros always had their feet poking into the ground, whereas micros slightly floated above the floor... this was due to players being centered from the middle of their bounding box at all times.
Real scale is determined by a bounding box (mins / max vectors) which affects the collisions of the player. Changing this box to non-standard sizes has always been very tricky for characters: The old Nexuiz based VT didn't even have CSQC players (they were engine based rather than QC based) and the box is hardcoded there, thus trying to change it broke movement prediction and more. The new VT mod for Xonotic did implement the ability to change bounding boxes a while ago, but whenever I tried using it in the mod it caused players to glitch making them float or perpetually fall through the floor. There was also the problem that if a player grew while standing close to a wall, they would remain stuck in that wall forever.
Last month I had a chat with one of the core Xonotic developers about this, who helps me a lot with questions regarding the integration of my code with Xon. He explained what and how I need to change in order to resize the player's real collisions. After fiddling with the code for a while based on his advice, I finally got the bounding box working flawlessly! The visual scale is now based on the same calculation as the bounding box scale, which is itself only updated once there's enough room for a player to grow in order to avoid crushing them. For instance: If you enter a tunnel at 100 health and get 150 health but can't grow inside because the tunnel is too small, you'll instead grow once you exit the tunnel and there's enough room to do so.
In a nutshell, this modification means that a player's collisions are now also resized correctly, not just the visual model. An example of why that matters: If you were a micro before this, someone shooting above your head would deal damage because your hitbox was the same, even if you appeared smaller and visually it seemed like the shot went right past you. Oppositely if you were a macro, someone could shoot your model right in the face and the shot would go through you like a ghost without dealing damage, since once more the hitbox was that of a normally sized player. This applies not just to projectiles but everything else: Your collisions with walls and other players, the range at which you pick up items, etc... all were off even if it wasn't noticeable, now it's no longer the case.
The most important change however is how this affects navigation: Macros can no longer fit inside passages too large for them... they'll have to crouch to fit through some normal sized doors, whereas some entrances will be entirely inaccessible to them until they shrink again (you may thus have to shoot yourself if you absolutely need to take a blocked path). Oppositely, micros can now enter tight spaces and cracks that normal players cannot, allowing them to hide or perhaps even take special shortcuts that only a tiny person can use!
I chose a screenshot that nicely illustrates this in action: It shows me as a micro now able to walk under a plank resting tightly against the wall. At normal size, no player is ever capable of fitting in there, not even by crouching! But when turned into a micro, you can simply walk under that plank and even have room to move back and forth a bit!
- Other changes:- Predators may eat dead prey laying on the ground. Note that this is only enabled in theory, the trace may fail due to Xonotic disabling collision boxes on dead bodies.
- Don't take damage from external projectiles if prey, unless the attacker is a neighboring prey.
- Fix the vore flash showing while prey was being healed.
- Truly fix predator progress getting stuck in some rare circumstances. The pred ring is now copied separately instead of being set by the prey.
- Proper branding for the menu and console, which now have the Vore Tournament logo just like the loading screen.
- Don't allow players to fire weapons when under or over a given size. This simulates micros inability to pull the trigger once the gun becomes too big, and macros being unable to press the trigger on a tiny gun.
- PatreonI have to additionally remind everyone this is a Patreon project, and all of those changes were only made possible thanks to your support. If you enjoy those updates and want to see more, I still need your support greatly at this point in time! Working alone on such a project is anything but easy as much as I love doing it... especially while struggling with a still very nasty financial situation which isn't making it easier to put effort into it. Please chip in anything amount you can if you're willing to help:
patreon.com/MirceaKitsune
