General String Tweakery

Hey there, y'all. We, I say we, I mean I, have a few interesting issues that maybe you lovely forum people can help us with. And by us I mean me.

First, is there a way to change the 'springiness' of the joints? As it is, we have about, say, 30 links to a string, and then the player connected to the end. When the strings follow the player, the very first joint pulls away from the top link, making a big and obvious gap.



here.

Also I was wondering if you could put forward any ideas regarding giving the PLAYER more control of the strings. As it is, with the player joined to the end (not shown in this) the strings will pull the player around and off the ground if it's not a certain length.

You know what? Screw it. Fakes it all with raycasting. Thanks anyway.

Instead, how could I simulate 'swinging'? Moving the player along a curve..I have the radius, from the raycast to the player, but to get that player to move a certain distance along the circle..?