Possible grenade bug in Combat Simulator

[mthkltt]

I've been toying with the 'Start Armed' option in Combat Simulator to create wacky matches with Simulants. One of the scenarios involves everyone starting with grenades. While playing with these settings I've noticed that some grenades that have apparently been dropped after someone died (a regular ammo/weapon drop) will explode when you walk too close to them, or try to pick them up. This wasn't fast to reproduce because it doesn't happen to every dropped grenade, only with some of them. I just thought this was curious since I've never seen this behavior before. Maybe it is a bug, or some unknown condition in the code that triggers the grenades to explode? In the following video, at 00:00:04 seconds you can see a grenade on the left of my screen, at 00:00:12 seconds I walk in the direction of the said grenade and it explodes as I get close, killing me. The time it takes to explode is longer than the 4s that takes a regular grenade to explode. I would be interested in knowing what could be happening.

prox_grenade_short_2.mp4

[mthkltt]

Updating on this. Apparently it is related to how proximity pinball grenades behave when simulants throw them. When they are throw by simulants they only bounce one or two times, then they lie on the ground and essentially become proximity mines. You can tell the difference between 'timed' and 'proxy' grenades lying around by using the 'Threat Detector' mode of some weapons.

[LonelySpaceDetective]

Updating on this. Apparently it is related to how proximity pinball grenades behave when simulants throw them. When they are throw by simulants they only bounce one or two times, then they lie on the ground and essentially become proximity mines. You can tell the difference between 'timed' and 'proxy' grenades lying around by using the 'Threat Detector' mode of some weapons.

So then, is this not a bug but just normal (if obscure) game behavior, or is there something going on that is turning regular dropped-after-death grenades into proximity-detonated grenades?

[fgsfdsfgs]

It's worth noting that the original game has no Start Armed option, so it's entirely possible that this just went mostly unnoticed because you probably don't see sims do that very often. I am not sure either if this is expected behavior or not.

[LonelySpaceDetective]

Done some testing with a Dark RocketSim in bc1f1c2 (64-bit, but I doubt it makes a difference). Did some matches with the infinite ammo, cloaking device and invincible cheats to make life easier for me, and with just grenades, the K7 Avenger (for the threat detector) and the gold magnum (for immediate one-hit kills before the Sim can react). Testing was also done with Start Armed enabled and disabled in separate matches.

Based on my testing, I think the OP was mistaken on what was happening; Sims only ever drop "timed" grenades that don't explode when they die, even if they're actively wielding a grenade set to proximity when killed and have thrown some earlier in their current life. I think what was actually happening to OP was that Sims would toss a grenade just before they die, and OP thinks it was the death drop grenade when in reality it was one they just threw.

That said, I don't know if it's intentional that the proximity pinball grenades only bounce a couple times before coming to a stop when thrown by Sims. I believe this is the same behavior N-Bombs have for their alternate fire for both players and Sims, so it might be a copy-paste error of some kind that Rare never caught (which seems particularly plausible considering the next paragraph)?

For those interested in testing out Sim behavior here, protip: It seems Sims (or at least DarkSims) will only switch to proximity grenades if they accidentally kill themselves with a prematurely detonated grenade, and if that happens again while they're using proximity grenades (specifically prematurely detonated ones; ones they just bumble into after throwing seem fine), it also seems they'll switch back to timed and never switch again. Also, with Start Armed enabled Sims seem to think they've ran out of grenades after throwing two even if infinite ammo's enabled, unless they picked some up in their current life.

Also, fun fact I learned doing this: If you detonate someone else's explosive by shooting it and it kills someone, the kill is credited to you and not the owner of the explosive.

[mthkltt]

Thanks for joining in the mistery. I think some of the observations made are correct, like the fact that sims only use the proximity mode after blowing themselves up with the timed mode. However I stand by my claim that the grenades that blow up are indeed proximity grenades thrown by sims that were thrown by sims and stopped bouncing, as shown in this new video. I also noticed this time that sim weapon choice actually depends on what youre using. Whenever I was holding a proximity mine the sim would go unarmed, but if I went unarmed the sim would go back to throwing grenades.

prox_grenade_short_4.mp4

[LonelySpaceDetective]

However I stand by my claim that the grenades that blow up are indeed proximity grenades thrown by sims that were thrown by sims and stopped bouncing, as shown in this new video.

Apologies if I misunderstand, but I don't argue with that? I indeed noticed their proximity pinball grenades weren't very pinball as well.
What I was disputing is that they were dropping armed proximity grenades on death, which they never did in my testing; just happening to throw a grenade right before dying.

[mthkltt]

However I stand by my claim that the grenades that blow up are indeed proximity grenades thrown by sims that were thrown by sims and stopped bouncing, as shown in this new video.

Apologies if I misunderstand, but I don't argue with that? I indeed noticed their proximity pinball grenades weren't very pinball as well. What I was disputing is that they were dropping armed proximity grenades on death, which they never did in my testing; just happening to throw a grenade right before dying.

Im sorry, now I understand what you meant and youre right. They are not dropping the armed grenades when they die.