Broken Door

Okay, I have a switch that activates a door. The switch is setup up in such a way so it's hidden from view, and not revealed until later in the map. However a player that knows the switch is there can still manage to hit it, before it supposed to be hit. One of those stupid Doom engine things that that lets you hit switches even though they're covered up.
So, I need to break the switch so it won't activate the door until I want it to. What is the best way to do this?? Preferably using a 'lower floor' special, but I can adapt if I need some other specials.

help teh skunkie :P

well, see it as a speedrunning trick :P.
Doom2 had alot of these, doom had a few.
Just keep it man, :).

ACS maybe? Or, just make it farther back in the wall if that is where it is.

No ACS, this is for vanilla. I see it as a bug so it's not gonna stay. Even if I recess the switch it can still be struck from the sides. (it's built into a pedistal with a false face that lowers and reveals the swtich). Fucking annoying.

You could make it a switch that needs to be shot, rather than pressed.

If the switch is in a wall, it's easy. Cover it up with a remote door that's 2 units thick, and it shouldn't be pressable until the door is raised.

If not, then the only thing I can suggest is put a sector all the way round the switch, and make sure it's thicker than 16 units. (as that's half the player's length/width - greater than 16 units means you shouldn't be able to reach it)

You could place an invisible lowering sector in front of it and to the sides which lowers at the same time as it's revealed. A principle I've used a lot in CCmap29.
Or you could make the actual linedef with the tag just a fraction of the switch face. You could also combine the two methods.

All are good ideas.
The simplest is just to move the switch deeper in the wall, say 32 or more deep.

Or you can also put some bars in front of the switch that are operated remotely, that don't allow the player to get close enough to the switch to operate it.

Or, leave it for a speed running trick.

magikal said:

Or you could make the actual linedef with the tag just a fraction of the switch face. You could also combine the two methods.

My original design made the switch only 32 pixels wide, I split the linedef up knowing that the switch could be pressed from the sides. Didn't work. The false face was originally 16 pixels deep. I had to make it 48 pixels deep before the switch couldn't be pressed from the front! Rediculous. I have the same style switch working on a void with no problems. Unfortunately a void won't work in this situation.

So far I think blocking the whole sector off with another invisible sector is the best solution. How could I do that? A self referencing sector with no textures on it? I'll try some experiments. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Use3D said:

So far I think blocking the whole sector off with another invisible sector is the best solution. How could I do that? A self referencing sector with no textures on it? I'll try some experiments. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Yep it works well. Just make a sector with both sides the same reference to itself and use a lower floor tag. Think of it in the same way as the invisible sectors rising/lower as per a 3D bridge.

Or you could send it to me to take a look. :)

Perhaps I'm missing something, but what if you moved the switch back farther?

Try this:

Make the switch repeatable, and then have a dummy sector connected to the door that's ceiling is 4 units above the door. This will make the switch essentially do nothing. Try it, it won't open the door. Later in the level, make a switch that raises the dummy sector to the height of the area adjacent to the room the door is actually in (probably 64 or 128). The switch will then "start working."

EDIT: I can make an example if you want me to, when I get home that is.

The only problem I see with that is the switch will 'activate' every time you press it, meaning it will change to the activated switch texture. People may get frustrated while looking around for whatever that switch triggered, but in reality nothing happened.

He said it's hidden from view. He only wants to prevent people from hitting it prematurely (speedrunners).

Nanami said:

Try this:

Make the switch repeatable, and then have a dummy sector connected to the door that's ceiling is 4 units above the door. This will make the switch essentially do nothing. Try it, it won't open the door. Later in the level, make a switch that raises the dummy sector to the height of the area adjacent to the room the door is actually in (probably 64 or 128). The switch will then "start working."

EDIT: I can make an example if you want me to, when I get home that is.

I do that. That was going to be my next suggestion, in fact. Only I make the dummy sector have an identical floor/ceiling height. The door kind of looks funky when you press the switch (seems to go down into the floor, although that's not what actually happens), so in the case of my wad I just made the door upper unpegged so that wouldn't happen. Of course, that only works if the door isn't supposed to be an obvious one; otherwise that just plain looks bad.

The situation (can't copy it all into another wad because I use several new textures) is this: at one point in the level you meet this remote door (sector A), behind which are stairs (bottom stair is sector B). There's another camoflagued (sp?) door (sector C) and a dummy sector behind, which initially has a floor/ceiling of 0 (sector D). When you come back out of the first door you can get a key. You use that key on a different remote door, and the linedefs of that door (not being used as a door) are:
Ceiling: W1 down to floor + 8 (tagged to sector B)
Ceiling: W1 up to highest ceiling (tagged to sector D)

You return later to the door (sector A), and press the switch. But now sector C opens to reveal some Mancubi, while sector A remains closed (at least after rising 8 units).

Heh, it would be funny if after all this, the map allows some other speedrunning trick that enables the player to exit in two seconds. :)

Grazza said:

Heh, it would be funny if after all this, the map allows some other speedrunning trick that enables the player to exit in two seconds. :)

Not in MY level! Nanami, I knew it would work something like that. I think that may be the final solution.

I'm home now, I can make you a demo wad if you wish.