Falling bridge crashes game

I'm attempting to build a collapsing bridge, and I'm having some issues. When it's supposed to fall, some pieces don't fall below the blood river, and some crash the game (It says "P_PlayerInSpecialSector: unknown special 27242") should you go back and step on them. Can anyone try this out and help me figure out why? I'm editing with DOOM Builder 2 and testing with DOOM95 (Yeah, yeah, keep the criticisms in your head) Here's what I've got http://www.mediafire.com/download/7m7gv45cnl3t2fh/Haunted+Mansion.wad . To get to the bridge, just take a left once you enter the building, it'll be the only unlocked door, and just follow the trail and you'll find it. (I recommend checking the "No Monsters" box)

Problems like that with the vanilla (and closely derived) game engines usually result when the target sector of a lower-and-change or raise-and-change line action cannot be found/doesn't exist, so the game reads from garbage memory. For example if the line action looks for the target sector by using the lowest numbered side surrounding the sector, but that side has no sector on the backside, or is only surrounded by sectors with the same properties.

I'd need to know exactly what line types you're trying to use to narrow it down any further than that.

Not all parts of the bridge are adjacent to the river, which is required for these actions to work. The solution is to create "control sectors" outside of the map, and join the bridge sectors and blood sectors to them, so that they are adjacent. Like this:

|                           |  +-------+---+
|                           |  |       | 1 |
|                           |  |       +---+
| shore                     |  |       | 2 |
|                           |  |       +---+
|                           |  |       | 3 |
+-------+---+---+---+-------+  |       +---+
|       | 1 | 2 | 3 |       |  |       | 4 |
|       +---+---+---+       |  |       +---+
| blood | 4 | 5 | 6 | blood |  | blood | 5 |
|       +---+---+---+       |  |       +---+
|       | 7 | 8 | 9 |       |  |       | 6 |
+-------+---+---+---+-------+  |       +---+
|             ^             |  |       | 7 |
|             |             |  |       +---+
| shore       |             |  |       | 8 |
|             |             |  |       +---+
|             |             |  |       | 9 |
|             |             |  +-------+---+
              |                          ^
              |                          |
               ----------------------------- Numbers indicate joined sectors
                                             (Blood sectors need not be joined,
                                             but must be at the same floor height)

Oh, okay, I get it. Thank you guys so much, and if you liked it, I do plan on releasing the wad here on the forums, when it's done, of course. (Although, by your explanation, it would always happen, which makes me wonder why it only happens sometimes...)

LanHikariDS said:

Although, by your explanation, it would always happen, which makes me wonder why it only happens sometimes...

It depends on the order in which the sectors are lowered. If the outer sectors are completely lowered first, the inner sectors will then be surrounded by blood and will be able to drop correctly.

I just added a stabilizer as you said, and merged each sector that wasn't adjacent to the perimeter of the bridge to a respective control. They now all drop straight down, but the game still crashed when I jumped down... (P_PlayerInSpecialSector: unknown special 89)any ideas?

LanHikariDS said:

They now all drop straight down, but the game still crashed when I jumped down... (P_PlayerInSpecialSector: unknown special 89)any ideas?

Nope, no idea. If a sector lowers at all, it must have found a valid target sector and therefore can't change to an invalid special type. The blood sector does have a valid damage type, right?

Yes. Damage -20 or 10%, type 16. Plus, even before I added the stabilizer, the floor would lower (not always all the way), sometimes I would see it still had FLAT5 as a texture instead of BLOOD1. Typically, stepping on that would crash, but not always... I'm not sure about this time, as I dove straight down and crashed.
EDIT: Just played with it some. When it lowers, some sectors retain their properties at blood level, then lower when stepped on. Others retain their texture, and cause a crash. There seems be no rhyme or reason deciding what crashes them. One sector retained it's properties after dropping both times. the first time, It changed to BLOOD1 (Had IDDQD on, don't know if it damaged). On my second try,, it did the same thing, but crashed the game when stepped on. It was one of the ones on the edge, too...

Maybe you've accidentally tagged one of the blood sectors? That would cause it to try to lower, fail since there are no lower sectors, and change to an invalid special type as a result. It will then transfer this invalid type to any sectors that are subsequently lowered into it. Other than that, I can't imagine what you've done wrong.

Nope. All 13 Controls only show 1 other sector when highlighted, and they're all bridge pseudo-gibs. I'ma see if it crashes ZDOOM... It doesn't. OH! I wasn't sure if I needed a control for sector 133, which is connected to the blood by a vertices. Do I need one, or is it still adjacent to the blood? Also, how come the Cacodemon in alerted when crossing the bridge? I know there's that little opening, but it faces the other way, and is flagged 'Deaf'.

LanHikariDS said:

OH! I wasn't sure if I needed a control for sector 133, which is connected to the blood by a vertices. Do I need one, or is it still adjacent to the blood?

Sectors that only share a vertex are not adjacent. Sectors are only adjacent if there is a two-sided linedef with one side in each sector.

LanHikariDS said:

Also, how come the Cacodemon in alerted when crossing the bridge? I know there's that little opening, but it faces the other way, and is flagged 'Deaf'.

The "deaf" flag is a misnomer. Monsters cannot be made deaf, and the only way to prevent monsters from hearing the player to prevent sound from reaching them, either by physical barriers or by sound-blocking lines.

What is commonly called the "deaf" flag is more properly referred to as the "ambush" flag, Monsters with this flag set will still be alerted by sounds, but will not begin chasing the player immediately, instead they'll remain where they are and wait for the player to come to them. Ambushing monsters alerted this way are able to detect the player from any direction, because they heard him coming.

Ah, alright, thanks. I've only one more question currently need answered to perfect my map.
EDIT: It still does it! DX

Sorry for the late reply; I missed your edit and I don't check my PMs too often. Are you still having a problem? If so, post your WAD. I can't tell what you're doing wrong without it.

I said "Screw it" and just made it fall without changing type. However, I've a new issue: I have a Blue Door that used to work fine, but for whatever reason, it no just acts like a Type-0 Wall... (That link should still work. I use Mediafire Desktop, and save right to the MediaFire folder, so that link'll always be up-to-date with my progress)

LanHikariDS said:

I have a Blue Door that used to work fine, but for whatever reason, it no just acts like a Type-0 Wall...

There's a scrolling wall directly in front of it. You can't activate doors or switches if there's another special line in front of it, because the game tries to activate that special instead, even if it's not a type that can be activated. To fix it without getting rid of the scrolling wall, recess the door deeper, so that the scrolling wall is completely behind the player when he tries to open the door.

Foxpup said:

There's a scrolling wall directly in front of it. You can't activate doors or switches if there's another special line in front of it, because the game tries to activate that special instead, even if it's not a type that can be activated. To fix it without getting rid of the scrolling wall, recess the door deeper, so that the scrolling wall is completely behind the player when he tries to open the door.

That makes sense, as I /did/ add the scrolling effect after testing the door. I'll try that and see what happens.
EDIT: Got it working!