The launcher is, in fact, working; I asked someone on Discord to playtest it for me and it worked fine for them (they sent me a video); maybe try verifying the inegrity of your game files? You could also try disabling all your addons and trying it vanilla...

Either way, it's good that there's an existing alternative now in case other people have the issue; I'm still really not sure what could be going wrong, but at this point, I'm confident it's not a problem with the map. Thank you for your fix :)

BTW here's a link to that guy's message on Discord:

https://discord.com/channels/366265752874909706/719340264543748137/1171611701167267950

I've also tested the map with and without all of my addons disabled, and it worked both times.

Consider this: The way the launcher works is literally a bunch of trigger_catapults (who are now set to launch literally anything that touches them) pointed toward a single entity who I have set as a launch target... I didn't have to code anything new or invent some bizarre solution, these are building blocks that come with the base game.

If they aren't working for you, it certainly can't be because of the map (which I'm especially sure of considering IRIS' issue seems to have been resolved after restarting their computer/gmod, and that kind stranger on Discord tested it, not to mention that it also works for me); try playing a different map with trigger_catapults in it to see if they also don't work, that should help you in troubleshooting your issue.

I also want to express how sorry I feel that you're having the problem at all; I do my best to ensure my map is is proper working order before I launch it, and it's really frustrating me that anyone has had an issue with an element of the map that's existed without issues for so long. I will keep in touch with you until we squash the bug :)

Thanks, I appreciate it :D

No problem; by the way, IRIS has reported that the launcher is still broken for them. I gotta admit, I'm stumped...

The boost pads still launch stuff as intended, so I wonder why these don't work.

Update: Some more people tested it and they're having the same issue; they get launched on foot, but not in the vehicle. I'm gonna delete the whole mechanism and rebuild it from scratch because this is kind of driving me insane - Again, THANK YOU for covering my big naked ass with your fix!!!

No problem lmao, I figured the system as-is would need to be rebuilt anyways

You're not gonna believe this, but I fixed it. So there's this ramp the player jumps off of over a big hole, but it's identical to the launcher's trigger_catapults I had in place originally (in fact, I copied it directly from the launcher), so I assumed it wouldn't be working either all this time.

I was on a Discord call with a kind playtester yesterday. I happened to request he play the rest of the track, and I noticed the ramp mysteriously worked for him, even though the launcher still didn't (despite the fact that they were identical). You see where I'm going with this: I deleted the original launcher's triggers and pasted in the ramp's. It worked perfectly.

As human beings, we seek rational explanations to anything and everything. The hammer editor, however, is beyond human comprehension and, for the sake of humanity, should not be questioned (lest our alien overlords descend upon us and wreak havoc); thus, the reason that the original trigger_catapults weren't working will always and forever remain a mystery. Again, I thank you for providing a fix to the problem in the meantime :)

No probs, man. I kinda figured something broke along the way lmao

Just to be sure, you did make sure it works for you, right?

Yeah, I tested it, works just like it should! Although some Simphys vehicles get launched a little further than they should... maybe adjust that invisible catch geometry hey?