Luc
Aubret is the Chief Engineer in charge of product
development for aubreTEC Labs.
"Break no content" my ass.
Published April 18, 2008 in Personal
So the recent installation of Havok 4 has me
pulling my hair out by the roots. I've never seen
this much breakage of content before in my time in
SL. I mean, sure, we've had the odd bit of
screwiness from time to time, generally as
overreactions to grid attacks, but this...
The problem isn't really the Havok 4 engine. As far
as I can tell, Havok 4 just broke Blitz, which we
all love but let's face it can live without.
The problem seems to be that the Lindens have, for no discernible reason, crippled push. You can't push anything that's not right on top of the scripted object doing the pushing. You can push at a vector of <0,0,99999> and the most you can expect is a slight hop from the object you're pushing on unless that object is generally in your virtual rectum.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Lindens have chosen this particular limitation as a "feature" or whether it's unintentional and may commence the process of being largely ignored in JIRA. No matter what you call it, it's a bug, and it breaks a LOT of existing content, much of which is legitimate content (assuming, for the nonce, that we're referring to griefing as an illegitimate use, which I'll get to in a second).
We don't need push limitations - that's what the whole no-push region flag was designed for. For Christ's sake, leave it alone already. There are plenty of places where Second Life residents can go do their thing without fear of orbit - so what's the point in stopping the rest of us from flinging each other around the sim?
It's not even orbits that bother me; we'll find other ways of annoying each other in combat zones. Fling cages, etc. - there are options to the more determined of us. But this has also broken all features related to push on shields (in proTEC alone it cripples Neutralizer, Inner Shield, Outer Shield, and Interceptors), toys that involve flinging willing avatars about like theme park rides and catapults, and other gizmos of similar ilk.
And here's the other thing, guys, and this is more insidious: the whole idea of "don't break existing content" is that you don't get to pick what kind of content YOU think is valid. The term "content" isn't limited to prim shoes and Pontiac Solstice models; combat is a recognized aspect of Second Life play and was, at one point, a pretty major part of its content base. Stop treating those of us that play rough - willingly - as if we're second-class Second-Lifers.
The problem seems to be that the Lindens have, for no discernible reason, crippled push. You can't push anything that's not right on top of the scripted object doing the pushing. You can push at a vector of <0,0,99999> and the most you can expect is a slight hop from the object you're pushing on unless that object is generally in your virtual rectum.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Lindens have chosen this particular limitation as a "feature" or whether it's unintentional and may commence the process of being largely ignored in JIRA. No matter what you call it, it's a bug, and it breaks a LOT of existing content, much of which is legitimate content (assuming, for the nonce, that we're referring to griefing as an illegitimate use, which I'll get to in a second).
We don't need push limitations - that's what the whole no-push region flag was designed for. For Christ's sake, leave it alone already. There are plenty of places where Second Life residents can go do their thing without fear of orbit - so what's the point in stopping the rest of us from flinging each other around the sim?
It's not even orbits that bother me; we'll find other ways of annoying each other in combat zones. Fling cages, etc. - there are options to the more determined of us. But this has also broken all features related to push on shields (in proTEC alone it cripples Neutralizer, Inner Shield, Outer Shield, and Interceptors), toys that involve flinging willing avatars about like theme park rides and catapults, and other gizmos of similar ilk.
And here's the other thing, guys, and this is more insidious: the whole idea of "don't break existing content" is that you don't get to pick what kind of content YOU think is valid. The term "content" isn't limited to prim shoes and Pontiac Solstice models; combat is a recognized aspect of Second Life play and was, at one point, a pretty major part of its content base. Stop treating those of us that play rough - willingly - as if we're second-class Second-Lifers.