While playing the forward-only vehicle, I found that at very steep angles on the spikeygate, and at very low velocities, the gate would not trigger. This seems like a niche event, however while learning the forward-only vehicle, I expect many users to pass through this gate in this trajectory often.
I suspect the case is that because of the steep angle and the way my trigger mechanism is designed to overcome clipping through the colliders at extreme velocities, the direction-check mechanism was timing out before the vehicle actually contacted the checkpoint trigger mesh, making the gate believe that the vehicle was not approaching from the correct direction.
As a result of this fix, There is a small possibility that if the player orbits the checkpoint and enters from the wrong side quickly enough, they may be able to trigger the checkpoint even though passing through the checkpoint backwards. While using the settings for thrust and rotation that are default, I don't think it should be possible to do, but in the event that a player turns the thrust performance up so high that they are able to scream around the gate in a few frames, then it will become possible to falsely trigger a checkpoint by first flying at it correctly, getting close, then changing velocity to miss and enter from the reverse.
This move, however, would not benefit the player as it relates to best laptimes, and even at high power levels it should be challenging to do meaning that accidental occurrences should be pretty rare. As I want to make the best experience possible for people trying to learn the forward-only vehicle from a very low skill level, it is critical that when the player does properly navigate a gate, no matter how slowly or steeply, the checkpoint does trigger allowing them to continue the navigational challenge of the course. Although "racing is racing" to some, for most the opportunity to navigate a competency course is far more valuable than improving times on the same course over and over again, as they do not plan to train as a sport. This kind of "learning but not mastering" is the target audience of my gameplay, so I will generally tend to make the necessary compromises in favor of this audience rather than the kind of compromises a tournament focused game might make, so for me the most important thing is that when the player is trying to do the intended kind of flying, it will work for them, even if it does mean that someone who is quite advanced is able to cheat a little bit in a niche scenario. My game is not about competition (despite the "racing" theme), and is more about having the opportunity to begin learning the relevant skills, as I perceive my game to genuinely be the only opportunity to do so ... in the world.