Cover That Follows the Shape

What: Everything a character can hide behind has a patch of floor around it. Step into the patch and cover is on offer. That is a separate question from whether anyone can see them: it is only about whether there is cover to take here at all, and it works the same for a tall wall the character presses their back against and a low one they crouch behind. Those patches started as rectangles. Every object got a rough box drawn around it, and standing anywhere inside the box put cover on offer, whether or not the thing was between the character and the room. That worked for a straight wall and failed for anything else, in both directions at once. A player could take cover standing on open floor beside something, and be refused it in the spot they would obviously crouch. The patch follows the real outline of the object now, whatever shape it is. Two objects standing near each other never merge into one, so the gap between them stays a gap. Full-height cover works from the corners instead: deepest directly behind the wall, narrowing to nothing at the edge where the character comes into view. How much that cover then protects the character is the other question, and it changed in the same stretch. It used to be an estimate based on rough angles, least accurate at the corners, which is exactly where cover decisions get made. It checks whether the shooter can actually see them now. Something crossing the line for a fraction of a second no longer flickers that protection on and off.

Why: Cover that works in one spot and not the spot beside it, for no visible reason, is cover players stop trusting.