integration wrote:And half of the time somebody was on the same server like me. Those guys always had 227j installed. How comes? I don't see any 227j download on OldUnreal.
One of those guys was me
227j is still under development and it's not officially released yet. There is a group of beta testers who receive internal builds (227j_1, 227j_2, ..., 227j_35) from the developer (Smirftsch). If you want to become a beta tester, you may ask him privately.
A Giant Gasbag spawning a Gasbag and shooting the Gasbag afterwards is way more likely though - and easy to fix (just replacing an isGasbag check with an isSubclassOfGasbag check). If it isn't fixed because that would harm some online backwards compatibility, then fine.
I presume, the only way the online backward compatibility could be broken is when someone would compile a custom subclass of GasBag/GiantGasBag with overridden function AttitudeToCreature against the modified 227j code of UnrealI.GasBag (that would include an overridden definition of AttitudeToCreature) and then hope that pre-227 users could connect to a server that uses such a subclass (pre-227 users won't be able to join the game because of missing UnrealI.GasBag.AttitudeToCreature). But I don't think this is a big problem.
But if it isn't fixed because it is considered a "feature", then I don't understand the reasoning.
If you ask me, I'd prefer to have it fixed. But some people may like the existing behavior. Maybe we should raise this question on the Oldunreal forum.
The duration of the Mercenary's invulnerability shield is supposedly reduced by 1 second per 100 damage. But since it's an integer division, it's only reduced if you do at least 100 damage at once (which is unlikely to happen on Unreal difficulty). Is that fixed in 277j or is that also a feature?
It's not fixed, I'd prefer to have it fixed, and, yes, some people may like the existing behavior. After fixing this, Mercs would be noticeably more vulnerable, hence this a significant impact on gameplay. I don't remember if this bug was ever submitted to the developer.
It's worth noting that the Merc's shield is totally bugged. In addition to that thing with integer division by 100, the script allows unlimited accumulation of invulnerability charge after the Merc activates his shield first time. If you make a Merc turn his shield on and then you won't bother him for a long time, you may notice that he can frequently reactivate his shield (which is deactivated by some timeout) as many times as he wants. But if you don't let him accumulate the charge, he won't be able to reactivate the shield so fast after each deactivation.
When you pause the game, charge accumulation and time before shield deactivation are calculated as if the game was not paused. So, after unpausing, Merc's shield can be deactivated even if it was activated right before pausing. A Merc can accumulate charge during game pauses (in combination with the previously mentioned bug, the charge can reach very high values).
If you rapidly hit a shielded Merc (using something like Minigun or Stinger), his shield won't be deactivated even when the invulnerability charge reaches zero (the shield becomes inactive after 0.3 seconds since the last damage). Hence a constant damage can make a Merc stronger, that seems completely illogical.
Finally, when the shield is deactivated while the Merc resides in a pain zone (such as slime or lava), he does not start to take damage from the pain zone (this bug was fixed in 227j).