[TF2] MVM projectile shield does not block flame particles or laser projectiles

[okamiterasu]

It's somewhat unclear if either of these are bugs or deliberate balance choices.

[PackageOLies]

It's likely for balance, since shield is already just aoe uber that charges faster and deals damage. making it block fire/piercing as well would ruin any balance the gamemode still has by having medic delete the entire video game by himself.

[FrozenDragon0]

I'm pretty sure the shield not blocking flame particles is intentional, laser projectiles on the other hand I'm not sure.

[amagnemite]

I looked into it, turns out the projectile shield has the same collision group as Engineer buildings. Thus, flamethrowers and projectile penetration arrows piercing shield is correct (also pierces Engineer buildings). Lasers get kinda weird. Bison lasers pierce both buildings and projectile shield, which seems fine, but then Pomson lasers are properly blocked by buildings but not shield. If I had to guess, shield might be failing a physics collision check against lasers, which wouldn't matter for Bison but does for Pomson.

But yes, I'd say even with the Pomson oddity, shield not blocking these is fine the way it is.

[okamiterasu]

That explains why it doesn't work, but not really whether it should. After all, in most other aspects, the shield is not an engineer building.

[amagnemite]

I think if they gave it the collision group of a building and didn't give it any collision changes related to these (flames, lasers, piercing), then it's intentional they didn't want shield to ignore those.

[okamiterasu]

It's also possible that Valve picked buildings as a "good enough" base and just forgot to consider that buildings don't block everything. I don't think any official missions even use the Bison or Pomson.

[DrCactusTF2]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think laser projectiles are modified flame particles? If that's the case, makes sense they go through the shield