ideas on what to do with falling ragdolls from skyscraper?

[poseyjmac]

my map is getting near finished, its really high up in the sky, and the only snag i have now is what to do with ragdolls when they fall off the sky scraper. when living players fall off, thats the easy part, i can trigger_teleport them away to die. but ragdolls aren't recognized by triggers.

so as of now its very ugly, the ragdoll collides with the bottom of the box, above the skybox.

im wondering if anyone has ANY ideas on what to do to make this look less ugly. ive been trying to come up with a solution for a while throughout my map making process but nothing seems to work. if only trigger_teleports could recognize ragdolls! any ideas at all would be appreciated.

the only things i need to accomplish are these:

1. players in skyscraper cannot look down and see a corpse floating far down.

2. the camera of the dead player cannot see the ragdoll resting on nothing.

if i can't do anything fancy, the least i need to do is occlude the ragdoll from being seen unrealistically.

 

[chestburster]

just a thought: maybe utilize fog for that?

 

[poseyjmac]

fog could work, but the only thing about that is a cool part of the map is seeing the city below and different things i have happening down there.

but just now ive taken care of #1 by putting a large occluder at the bottom of the box. now all thats left is making what the death camera sees, not ridiculous. hmmmm

 

[poseyjmac]

that energy core in the citadel levels of hl2 that zaps ragdoll corpses. that would be perfect, if only i knew how to make it. its not the citadel_energy core entity.

 

[poseyjmac]

also another way that would work is to find out how that core slows down the ragdolls. i could put a zone to slow them down before they hit the bottom of the box. anyone know how to do that?

 

[Davi8d]

Can you do the map of the city passable? So they will fall through and hit something bellow. But this would still look wierd if you saw them fall. Make them all wear safety lines! =D

 

[poseyjmac]

well the city below is part of the 3d skybox, you never actually go past it. its always going to be at the bottom. i just need to find some way to encompass the player in darkness so he can't see that hes just lying in mid-air at the bottom of the skybox.

i think those citadel entities for dissolving ragdolls is SP only, so im outta luck there.

 

[Viceman]

hmm.. i got an idea but its tricky to explain. And if i understood your problem properly.

But i give it a try, maybe you should make your maps bottom a bit slope, so ragdolls slide under the skyscraper?

I made a pic to make things clearer:

http://www.dlc.fi/~cruxer/seka/screenshots/HL2_hammering/note.jpg

kind a this way..?

 

[Viceman]

Oh.. maybe.. you should post a screenshots of your map :naughty:

well, actually... u must :angel:

 

[Davi8d]

That's the greatest explanation pic ever.

Anyway. You can make a trigger_multiple that kills "name of your enemy" whenever they enter it. The kill command will make them just disappear and unfortunately it will be a bit tricky making it so it will only kill the enemy that fell down.

You can do this by nameing them different things and just a wad of triggers.

 

[poseyjmac]

well the biggest problem is what the dead guy sees when hes falling. the camera that focuses on the ragdoll that is. if he slid under the skyscraper, it would look very strange.

whats this 'kill' thing you talk about? see the thing is i can't target the ragdoll that i know, which is why i have to let it fall and somehow create something around it that gives the illusion the ragdoll isn't at the bottom of the skybox floating. even somehow if i could get the camera to look at black, or nothing at all.

 

[Viceman]

well the biggest problem is what the dead guy sees when hes falling. the camera that focuses on the ragdoll that is. if he slid under the skyscraper, it would look very strange.

Youre right about that. but if the falling distance is far enough there's time to respawn on the way down

or you can always do a wider lower part to building, like there manytimes are in real life. Like this:

 ##
 ##
 ##
 ##
####
####
####
####

so the bodies and players actually fall to a 'balcony' in below.

btw, how bout that screenie?

 

[poseyjmac]

well i would do that, but the balcony would have to be the length of the skybox, and i have a stuff to look at at the bottom of the skybox.

im going to post some screens or a small movie when its done, but not yet .

 

[Viceman]

im going to post some screens or a small movie when its done, but not yet .

i look forward to it :stare:

 

[poseyjmac]

well, i finally just made a funnel-like clipping that directs ragdolls to a ledge-like area. and its actually not bad, looks kinda funny seeing the ragdoll fall down it.

 

[NoisyMonk]

just before you make the ragdoll slide off to the side or whatever, why don't you put a an func_illusionary a few units above the bottom of the skybox, so that the ragdoll just fits under it. And make it dark so that it just looks like he fell really far and dissapeared?

 

[poseyjmac]

hmmm. ill try it. but it would have to be a hollowed out func_illusionary right?

 

[NoisyMonk]

I dunno.. maybe not.. well, you could either make it a really think clock, so the stay inside it.. or just make it thin, but have it several units off the floor, so they fall right through it