Revenant fireball: Infinite circle?

[Dirk]

So something odd happened to me while playing Plutonia with Smooth Doom (GZDoom 4.4.2).  A revenant shot a homing fireball, and it ended up looping in an infinite circle around me so long as I kept standing still.  Does anyone know what triggers this behavior?

[GarrettChan]

Isn't this normal if you stand in the dead center of the missile circle? As it can only turn that many degrees.

[Eric Claus]

2 minutes ago, GarrettChan said:

Isn't this normal if you stand in the dead center of the missile circle? As it can only turn that many degrees.

 

I believe so or at least with some subtle movement.

[Mitchfork]

 

This is a good in-depth explanation of the way Revenant missiles behave on a technical level.  The first 1:30 or so explain the homing function.

 

The reason that you can make them orbit you is that the missiles have a set speed (10 map units / tic) and cannot change their direction more than 16.875 degrees every 4 tics.  If you're off by say, 45 degrees from the path of the missile, that means that the missile will have to correct its direction 3 times to actually be aiming at you.  Since it's moving in between all of those, it's entirely possible to miss you because it can't change direction fast enough.  Usually, it will be able to correct and hit you on the next pass (especially if you move away from the missile, since that gives it more time to line up), but if you're standing right at the center of its turning radius, it'll never be able to correct fast enough and orbit. 

[Michniko]

15 hours ago, Mitchfork said:

 

This is a good in-depth explanation of the way Revenant missiles behave on a technical level.  The first 1:30 or so explain the homing function.

 

The reason that you can make them orbit you is that the missiles have a set speed (10 map units / tic) and cannot change their direction more than 16.875 degrees every 4 tics.  If you're off by say, 45 degrees from the path of the missile, that means that the missile will have to correct its direction 3 times to actually be aiming at you.  Since it's moving in between all of those, it's entirely possible to miss you because it can't change direction fast enough.  Usually, it will be able to correct and hit you on the next pass (especially if you move away from the missile, since that gives it more time to line up), but if you're standing right at the center of its turning radius, it'll never be able to correct fast enough and orbit. 

Decino is top tier