I might just be an idiot but couldnt you just make a 'scale version' of the player as say a golf ball size box or something, give it a transparent texture and use its size to define the collision detection, using the entity cam commands, linke the players cam to the invisible tiny entity, map all the commands to work from the entities point of view and lock the now hidden player in place somewhere.
Obviously this changes the way you would code the game as an entity is now the player, but anything you need the player to have you can give them as you will always know where the player is as you locked them down there. so have any items the player collects be duplicated, as Im sure entities can collect items in v1.20.18
and script it so when they do one spawns on the player too, that way you can still use all the plrhasweapon=x etc commands
its complex but it should give you the effect you want. Kinda confused as to why no one has suggested it to you before now so maybe its just a pipedream I cooked up as I went through the complete fpi syntax pdf for like the thousandth time but I dont see any immediate reasons that it shouldnt work
smoke em if you got em
