[ODE] Avatar control vs gravity

[Megan Fox]

By floating your body above the ground via forces, you avoid this and
other problems.  Your character is able to walk over broken ground
without much trouble, etc.

(see mailing list archives for how you might do this, I've posted my
method, others have posted theirs, etc)

It does, of course, tend to isolate your character from the simulation
(won't slide down slopes, won't automatically stick to moving objects
if player is standing on them, etc), but for me, precise player
control is much more important.

-Megan Fox

> I'm still working on moving avatars and NPCs around, and now I've run into an
> interesting problem.
> 
> If I set a frictionless contact between the avatar and the ground, motion seems
> to work very well. However, when the object begins to head downhill, gravity
> kicks in, and the object starts sliding down the hill.  Conversely, when going
> uphill, the object has trouble going any speed at all.
> 
> Is there an easy way around all this, or am I going to have to counteract
> gravity at every step?  If I set a high friction contact, the gravity isn't a
> problem, but I can't accelerate the NPC enough to make it usable.