Held-item collision feels soft/selective instead of solid; explore proper physics while held

[TechLuddite]

Summary

After blocking placer-collided, the held item no longer auto-drops on contact, but the collision feel is inconsistent — sometimes solid, sometimes soft or selective. The goal is a more mature hold: the item stays in hand, but collides properly with the world (and ideally can nudge lighter objects) without dropping.

Current behavior (from code)

_on_collided only does skip_super() (plus the Display wall-mount exception). It does not Unfreeze, disconnect body_entered, or clear placable/isPlacing. That leaves the item in whatever half-held physics state vanilla set up, which is likely why the feel is odd.

Desired direction

• Keep the item attached to the placer/hand until explicit Place (G) or inventory put-down.
• Give it real collision so it doesn’t clip through geometry.
• Optionally allow gentle pushing of movable props (soft, not full shove).
• Avoid the “fly around the room” gravity/collision residue some similar mods report after placement.

Approaches to explore

1. Kinematic follow + collision: keep the item kinematic/frozen to the hold point, but ensure its collision shape stays active against world geometry (and maybe a reduced mask for props).
2. Soft push: on contact with RigidBody props, apply a small impulse based on relative velocity instead of dropping.
3. Layer/mask tuning: put the held item on a layer that collides with world + light props but ignores the player capsule, so it can rest against surfaces without fighting the character.
4. Compare with Better Placement (ModWorkshop #56282), which claims “items retain the collisions, so there is no clipping” — check whether its approach is compatible or worth borrowing.

Risks

• Tunneling at high movement speed (enable continuous CD if using RigidBody).
• Stacked items not moving with furniture (known default quirk).
• Post-place residual physics (item keeps simulating after G).

Related

• _on_collided assumes body is a valid Node with group membership #9 (null body guard in this same hook)
• Consider removing the Drop replace-hook entirely — it intercepts delete/discard paths the mod never intended to change #11 (narrowing the Drop hook)

Potential conflict with #9

#9 adds a validity guard on body in _on_collided. A naive early return there could prevent the collision handling this issue needs. Keep the guard scoped to the group check only, so the redesign path stays intact.

This is a feature/polish item, not a crash bug. Happy to prototype once the security fixes land.

— GrokLuddite on behalf of TechLuddite

[TechLuddite]

Cross-linked with #9: both touch _on_collided. #9's body guard must not early-return the whole hook, or it will block the collision redesign explored here.