[MrXonte]

Ammo boxes no longer despawn after the ammo has been picked from them, and they have less than 25% capacity left.
Maximum Reserve ammo is now a serverwide setting and no longer controlled by the individual ammo entity. Maximum reserve value can be controlled via F1 Administration -> Ammo Settings.
Ammo given by an ammo box entity can now be set in the same F1 menu.
Mutliple ammo box entities for the same ammo type that give different amounts of ammo are now possible.

(edited with final push state)

[MrXonte]

Should I add a convar to enable the box scaling? This feels like a minor change with no real downsides to me.

I also wanted to get your opinions on a further part of this change I want to add: Removing Weapon Ammo Storage
Personally, I find it very irritating that weapons store ammo in them (beyond the clip), especially since you can't see it. Wouldn't it make more sense to make you drop your ammo instead of storing it in the weapon? With ammo boxes next to it that not only communicates that there is ammo there it also makes switching between weapons of the same ammo type so much better. Its incredibly annoying when you switch but have all your ammo stuck in the old weapon you just dropped, then pick it up again, drop the ammo and be fast enough to switch guns before you can autopickup the ammo you just dropped again.

[wgetJane]

i assume this just removes the weird behaviour ttt does where it "rounds down" ammo?

Removing Weapon Ammo Storage

while i think the way ammo gets stored in dropped guns is silly as well, i think it's going to be very difficult to change it in a way that keeps ttt2 compatible with most of existing weapon addons: everything from custom t weps, custom floor weps, to completely different weapon bases, idk how you're supposed to really handle that

at most i think it would really only make sense for the ttt weapon base and only ones that use smg, shotgun, rifle, deagle, and pistol ammo

[MrXonte]

i assume this just removes the weird behaviour ttt does where it "rounds down" ammo?

yep exactly. This weird <25% rounding that has been an inconsistent mess ever since you can drop from reserve instead of only from clip.

Removing Weapon Ammo Storage

while i think the way ammo gets stored in dropped guns is silly as well, i think it's going to be very difficult to change it in a way that keeps ttt2 compatible with most of existing weapon addons: everything from custom t weps, custom floor weps, to completely different weapon bases, idk how you're supposed to really handle that

at most i think it would really only make sense for the ttt weapon base and only ones that use smg, shotgun, rifle, deagle, and pistol ammo

My plan was toverify that the ammo type exists and then drop them as boxes, that would also allow for this to work for third party ammo types.
To not break any addons, the original code would need to remain for unknown ammo types, still storing the ammo in the gun. I would change the weird behaviour there though, since currently you store all your reserve ammo in the gun, but when you pick it up again you delete any stored ammo above your clipMax. For default weapons clipmax is equal to the ammo box max so no issue, but if you have a gun with less or more than that you can give yourself ammo above max or delete stored ammo.

Also for custom weapon bases, unless they inherit from and override tttbase without calling the baseclass as well, they should be fine.

[wgetJane]

not sure how you'd make easy to use without adding a sort of ammo inventory ui for players

maybe i guess have a radial menu that pops up when you hold the current ammo drop bind?

it could easily display all your reserve ammo and you mouseover and release the key to drop some amount from it (and of course an option at the top or bottom of the radial menu to drop your current gun's clip)

it could internally work as just calling a concommand with the ammo type as the arg so it'd work with potential custom ammo types

also how do you handle picking up ammo for guns you don't own? i assume you'd be able to manually pick up ammo?

ammo boxes also would need to drop on death as well

[MrXonte]

it could internally work as just calling a concommand with the ammo type as the arg so it'd work with potential custom ammo types

Its actually super easy, you just check if the weps ammoEnt is valid, and if so create a box. If not, leave it at the current stored ammo system. Thats also how ammo dropping currently works, since many weps already don't have ammo entitites.

not sure how you'd make easy to use without adding a sort of ammo inventory ui for players

maybe i guess have a radial menu that pops up when you hold the current ammo drop bind?

it could easily display all your reserve ammo and you mouseover and release the key to drop some amount from it (and of course an option at the top or bottom of the radial menu to drop your current gun's clip)

also how do you handle picking up ammo for guns you don't own? i assume you'd be able to manually pick up ammo?

You cant currently have ammo from multiple different types in reserve unless you have a wep with that ammo type and I don't plan to support that (as it causes generell issues with ammo availability, weapon swape tradeoffs, etc).
What i want to do is only to change it so that when you drop your wep you also drop the matching ammo boxes if possible instead of storing the ammo in the gun.

I was however thinking about other changes to ammo management in #1751 , but those are beyond the scope of this PR.

[wgetJane]

oh that's much simpler than i imagined you were gonna implement it

imo it'll feel a little odd to drop a bunch of ammo boxes when trying to drop a weapon, maybe keep it to 1 ammo box at most even if it'll have a ton of ammo inside

you'd also need to delay their drop or offset their initial pos so they dont immediately collide with each other in the air

[MrXonte]

oh that's much simpler than i imagined you were gonna implement it

yea for now its just a small little change. Bigger changes to all ammo management are on my todo in the future.

imo it'll feel a little odd to drop a bunch of ammo boxes when trying to drop a weapon, maybe keep it to 1 ammo box at most even if it'll have a ton of ammo inside

given the current rules you would at most drop 2 boxes since that's the max reserve which should be ok i think? Tons of boxes would be super weird, I agree.
Nevermind for pistol ammo its 3 boxes, for anything else 2. WHY

you'd also need to delay their drop or offset their initial pos so they dont immediately collide with each other in the air

true! Probably calling the default ammo drop function with a small delay.

[MrXonte]

So ive been busy and also tackled #1751 . Here just a short list of what ive done:
Added ammo target ID, inkluding showing how much is left in a box (toggleable per client)
Added ammo box size scaling with ammo left (toggleable per client)

Changed reserve ammo to be a global parameter that has nothing todo with an entities AmmoMax. Theoretically now allows for other ammo entities for the same ammo type without breaking. Supports old custom ammo that uses AmmoMax out of the box.
Added F1 menu ammo management tab. Allows settings reserve max, box ammo, spawnable (if not, replace with random ammo spawn)

[MrXonte]

@TimGoll @saibotk can you review?

[saibotk]

Sorry, we are quite busy with work!
You can rest assured that im quite diligent in tracking my open Todos & mentions, i'll come around to this whenever my time allows for it.

@mexikoedi would you mind checking this out and help us with testing this independently? Id love to have you try this out as one of the most active people :)

[mexikoedi]

I tested it and it works without errors.
The spare ammo and the ammo in the boxes works as it's described here.
The F1 menu settings also do what they should (for example I limited the spare ammo and the ammo in the boxes for the smg type).

But I also found some stuff which could be adjusted.

1. I would remove the TargetID for the ammo boxes because it conflicts with the [TTT2] Weapon Statistics [FEATURE] addon. This one shows the the names of the ammo boxes for spectators and also for the players. If I use the addon while testing the changes of this pull request the TargetID doesn't work for the spectators anymore. Maybe remove it or you could add the ammo count to the addon instead (if needed).

2. I would remove the model scaling of the ammo boxes. It looks weird and also causes issues like ammo boxes flying above the ground. See:

3. I would adjust the text in the F1 menu. Is the type (for example item_ammo_pistol_ttt) really needed if the title says 9MM AMMO? And the description of the AMMO SETTINGS section could be written a bit simpler. It's a bit difficult to read (the second sentence). See:

[MrXonte]

1. I would remove the TargetID for the ammo boxes because it conflicts with the [TTT2] Weapon Statistics [FEATURE] addon. This one shows the the names of the ammo boxes for spectators and also for the players. If I use the addon while testing the changes of this pull request the TargetID doesn't work for the spectators anymore. Maybe remove it or you could add the ammo count to the addon instead (if needed).

Sure, no problem!

2. I would remove the model scaling of the ammo boxes. It looks weird and also causes issues like ammo boxes flying above the ground. See:

Yeah, that's because I'm only scaling the visuals on the client side, not touching the server-side physics. It could be fixed by turning it into a server-side convar instead, but that would lose client-side control over this feature. Which do you think is the best approach?

3. I would adjust the text in the F1 menu. Is the type (for example item_ammo_pistol_ttt) really needed if the title says 9MM AMMO? And the description of the AMMO SETTINGS section could be written a bit simpler. It's a bit difficult to read (the second sentence). See:

It allows you to have multiple ammo entities for the same ammo type. So you could have a big and a small 9mm box if you wanted to. Very niche feature, but I thought it would be nice to have. Can be removed though.

[mexikoedi]

1. I would remove the TargetID for the ammo boxes because it conflicts with the [TTT2] Weapon Statistics [FEATURE] addon. This one shows the the names of the ammo boxes for spectators and also for the players. If I use the addon while testing the changes of this pull request the TargetID doesn't work for the spectators anymore. Maybe remove it or you could add the ammo count to the addon instead (if needed).

Sure, no problem!

2. I would remove the model scaling of the ammo boxes. It looks weird and also causes issues like ammo boxes flying above the ground. See:

Yeah, that's because I'm only scaling the visuals on the client side, not touching the server-side physics. It could be fixed by turning it into a server-side convar instead, but that would lose client-side control over this feature. Which do you think is the best approach?

3. I would adjust the text in the F1 menu. Is the type (for example item_ammo_pistol_ttt) really needed if the title says 9MM AMMO? And the description of the AMMO SETTINGS section could be written a bit simpler. It's a bit difficult to read (the second sentence). See:

It allows you to have multiple ammo entities for the same ammo type. So you could have a big and a small 9mm box if you wanted to. Very niche feature, but I thought it would be nice to have. Can be removed though.

2. I think it's ok to turn it server-side.
   But note that I didn't test it with addons like that one: JersonGaming's Model/Real RNG Ammo Boxes addon which is used in many collections (it's also in the [OFFICIAL] TTT2 Basics - Graphics collection).
   The addon will most likely still work but it would be great if you could test it thoroughly so it doesn't conflict with addons like that one.

3. Ah ok. That's up to you. You can remove that or adjust the text.

[saibotk]

I think we should remove the model scaling part for now and can then iterate on that in a follow up PR instead. I like the other changes though. And thx @mexikoedi for helping us out here

[MrXonte]

Finally found the time to do everything that was requested.

no more box model scaling
The F1 menu now hides box entity name if there is only one entity, and shows them only when there is multiple. So much nicer and cleaner menu in most cases, only if someone has multiple ammo boxes for the same ammo type installed will it show up and matter.

[MrXonte]

@saibotk it is ready

[saibotk]

Nice! @MrXonte can you add some screenshots to the PR description?

[MrXonte]

Nice! @MrXonte can you add some screenshots to the PR description?

updated the original PR message with the actual final state and a screenshot of the F1 menu. Also screenshot here as well