if we're knocked out, don't flail our legs and arms when airborn

[vinnytherabbit]

Description

Let's keep this here in the meantime.

Type of Changes

	Type
✓	🐛 Bug fix

[EraOSBeta]

This can pass into scenev1 if flailing doesn't really affect anything in the physics simulation

[efroemling]

This would slightly affect physics sims in some cases: older clients would be simulating with flailing limbs while the servers they are connected to would not, so there'd be some popping and resyncing until everyone got the update. But I don't think that would be too problematic.

Rather my main question with this would be: does it make things funnier or improve gameplay? The knockout mechanism is kinda meant to just mean that a character is too stunned to stand; I don't think it breaks any logic if they still wave their arms when flying through the air. Right now one can tell at a glance if a flying character is alive or dead by whether they are flailing, but this would complicate that. And I worry that a large percentage of events that launch a character through the air would also knock them out, meaning that we could essentially just be removing flailing, which is no fun.

So anyway I'm probably against this for those reasons, but I do want to be receptive to other opinions if you feel it is an improvement.

[vinnytherabbit]

@efroemling i think it's funny because the character would be like a rag doll every time he goes flying, whether due to a punch or an explosion, the death animation could be modified a little to avoid confusion with living and dead people, if that's what it is what you mean...

[EraOSBeta]

@VinniTR can you show us a comparison video between the old behavior and the new one so we could compare the funni value?

[vinnytherabbit]

@VinniTR can you show us a comparison video between the old behavior and the new one so we could compare the funni value?

i dont know how :cc

[vishal332008]

@efroemling @VinniTR @EraOSBeta
Normal (without the code):
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/53f08fc0-ad99-444d-8255-37c4a7775a4d

New (with the code):
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e277f614-b44d-456d-9d4a-a221b6f4b140

Now decide.

[EraOSBeta]

Seems to add a bit of funni, but I think it would be nice to have both this and the old behavior available in the game at the same time with the new behavior being a toggle in the advanced menu for a few versions; this way we could merge this for now while the people decide which one is better.

I think in general we need an "Experiments" section in the advanced settings to add all sorts of QoL changes there for stuff like this, when we aren't really sure if the change is better or worse.

[MatiasMGz]

I think this subsection of "Experiments" should be in Settings->Advanced.

[MatiasMGz]

I would like this to be added to the game anyways.

[skiskijojo]

if theres toggle for that no flail ragdoll for modding, y ea

[DinoWattz]

This disables flailing only while knocked out right? This would make it easier to tell if your character is knocked out while airborne

Right now one can tell at a glance if a flying character is alive or dead by whether they are flailing, but this would complicate that.

There's a bunch of indicators already though, like..

• The character won't be screaming while falling if the same is dead
  (but I think it'd look odd if they screamed while knocked out without flailing)
• The character will either be glowing bright red or be darkened
• The character's health bar will be flashing red and if it has a name, the name will be desaturated

but we still need to test if those indicators would be good enough by themselves

And I worry that a large percentage of events that launch a character through the air would also knock them out, meaning that we could essentially just be removing flailing, which is no fun.

Bomb explosions also knocks out characters if I remember correctly, I CAN'T imagine Spaz not flailing (nor screaming) after being launched by an explosion.
Would there have to be two type of knockouts? Will it need to be damage type based? Does it need to be moddable?

Geez this really is complicated.