We decided to blast into the new year with rolling explosions. This is good news for people who aren't fans of the HL2 blasts, which since Beta 1.X/2 have been rather large to make up for the fact that they don't linger. They may need a few tweaks in the next couple weeks for performance concerns; we need to get all the testers together and spamming to ensure there is no problem with FPS tanking or bandwidth spiking, but the WIP is looking kinda cool.
Gameplay concern: fire through walls.
In Goldeneye 007, blasts penerated all BSP, which lead to some really cheesy gameplay problems. As we have it coded now, the fire effect can penetrate easily. Fire damage will apply if the wall is thin enough that the explosion center(s) roll through it. Thus, doors and windows will not protect you, but a medium wall that leaks just a little of the fire graphic will be safe. This happens when a blast is against the far size of the wall and the blast point cannot see you through the wall but the fire graphic penetrates. With thin walls, the blast can jump through the wall and toast your muffins. Overall this should allow explosives to function as they did in GE007, without allowing too much cheese.