jumping down without getting damage

[legacy-Ryandar]

I'm working on a map that has a little area you can lift jump too, right under the ceiling. Problem is, once you're up there, it's pretty hard to get down. I don't want to mess with the architecture of the map, but at the moment, the only way out is to jump down, receiving a bit of damage. I'm putting a 50s there, but the liftjump itself is already hard enough, if you have to take damage to get down, the shield won't be worth it. I can't make a walkway out of pipes or anything, cause I'm afraid that would cause people to camp them and just rain rockets from above.
Now I'm thinking of using some kind of wolume to get rid of the falling damage. I thought of a physics volume, but I don't want the falling speed itself reduced, as that would loo weird, plus I don't really know how this volume would affect weapon projectiles.

So, my question is, what kind of volume could I use to negate falling damage without in any way affecting the way weapons act and without changing fall speed?

[legacy-Juggalo_Kyle]

i dont know, i would just say leave it and let people dodge off the walla about half way so it reduces the damage, or resort to lograv

[legacy-hydro]

You can use a normal Volume and set gravity to around -500, so they wont recieve damage, they will fall, but slower :P

[legacy-Ryandar]

low grav is pretty much out of the question, since it'd totally mess with gameplay.
The problem is, it's hard to double dodge. There are some slanted walls, so dodging is only possible in a few select locations. I guess I'll just try to add some pipes that can be dodged against, but without otherwise affecting gameplay... won't be easy.

thx for the advice though, if anyone can think of another workaround, don't hesitate to let me know.

[legacy-Mr_Caravaggio]

You could put up a force field about half way down, something that only slows them momentairly so that movement isn't changed under it (on the main level) or above it (on the upper level).

Or you could take the old platformer idea and just leave trails of health vials streaming down in mid air. I don't know why people don't do that.

Maybe just a one way teleporter?

Does kicking off a wall really reset your fall damage? I haven't tried that... ...huh.

[legacy-Ryandar]

double dodging does indeed enable you to survive high falls.
Now I don't pretend to know how Unreal falling damage works, but when you dodge, your vertical velocity gets reverted to practically 0, so you're kind of "restarting" your fall.

Health vials wouldn't work out: I don't want an arcadey feel to my map, plus it makes it all too easy to see which route most people will take to get down.

Not sure what you mean with a force volume, please explain (keep in mind I know next to nothing about most volume types).

[legacy-Mr_Caravaggio]

No, not a different kind of volume. I mean just a thin layer of a no gravity volume, like an awning that hovers in mid air. So you've got your level, all with regular gravity. Abover the lower floor, just a little higher than characters can jump, you put a thin but broad gravity volume. That way when falling there will be a point where the characters slow down about 10-20 feet in the air, enough not to die. It would look kind of funny, but that's where I thought you might put a force field texture or mesh in the map to give it an excuse.

I don't know, I was just throwing out ideas.

Maybe a jump pad with an extremely low kicker force might work to just coushin the fall, but they'd have to land right on it...

I think you'll have to find a more traditional method. Either a teleporter, a downward lift, or just thin ledges for them to jump down to.

How much damage do you take if you use the shield gun as a buffer? That's what smart players would do. I'm thinking if you can lift jump to this place you're talking about then it seems like the shield gun would be enough to get back down.

[PointlesS]

look at as-junkyard...on some of those jump pads there's physics volumes placed at the landing point so it slows you down like .2 seconds before you hit the ground...I did that in my map and it works great...you may still get the feeling you're slowed down when you land...but it's only for like .1 seconds...which I don't care about because I'd rather hyave that then be down 20 hp

[legacy-mr_scary_wasp]

ive had a similar problem with my current map. i found the only way to do it was to alter the gravity. i have it set at -940, and no fall damage. it does however feel a bit slow with the fall. it is set in space so i can get away with it.

i guess another way to do it would be to limit the terminal velocity of movement in the zone. i guess this would be just like altering the gravity though, as you would slow down the movement speed.

alternatively, have you played half-life 2 to its conclusion? not to give anything away, you go on a bit of a trip and fall, but your fall is broken by a 'gravity cushion' i guess is the best way to describe it. perhaps just above double jump height you could wack a physics zone that breaks the fall just enough to stop fall damage. of course, it may not be practical for your map...

[legacy-Ryandar]

Thank you for all the advice.

Unfortunately, a force field would look quite out of place in an industrial style map, so that's out of the question. A physics wolume might do the trick, but I want the players to be able to land anywhere on the floor (pretty large area) so the volume would once again start messing with gameplay.

What I've done is add some popes you can double dodge against, which if done right, allows you to get down without any damage.
And silly me, I haven't tried it with the shield gun. If you jump down normally you get around 10 damage, so the shield gun should be good enough.

Once again, thx for all the help.