3 Easy Questions (map editing)

1. In my map, monster's will hear gunfire across the level and open all doors, rushing the player at the start. I realize making them deaf helps, but is there another way, so that they hear when you walk into their room/vicinity, as deafness can cause problems when a monster doesn't see you as intended.

2. Secrets. How do I properly give credit to a player for stumbling upon a secret area? I tried (in Doom Builder) going to the properties of a linedef that the player walks over and checking off 'Secret' but that doesn't seem to help.

3. I can't think of the 3rd question right now... I'll edit it in later :p

RottingZombie said:

1. In my map, monster's will hear gunfire across the level and open all doors, rushing the player at the start. I realize making them deaf helps, but is there another way, so that they hear when you walk into their room/vicinity, as deafness can cause problems when a monster doesn't see you as intended.

2. Secrets. How do I properly give credit to a player for stumbling upon a secret area? I tried (in Doom Builder) going to the properties of a linedef that the player walks over and checking off 'Secret' but that doesn't seem to help.

3. I can't think of the 3rd question right now... I'll edit it in later :p

1. Use 'block sound' linedef attribute. You have to use two of them for it to work.

2. Sector special 9 gives the player secret credit.

3. okay

1. "block sound" line flags

2. sector special 9

3. You garbage monkey.

Edit: skunk quit being faster than me. :P

1. An easy way is to "lock" the monsters in their starting rooms, by klicking the "Block Monster" attribute to every line that monsters could possibly pass (e.g. in front of the doors). This way, monsters will roam in just one room, instead of rushing up to you as soon as you fire your gun.
Another method is to klick the "Block Sound" attribute of lines, so you can make a room "deaf" to noises from outside - at least in theory. It never worked properly in my levels, so I set about 70-80% of all monsters deaf and confine the rest.

2. This is easy. Secret Discovery Credit is a sector special, not a line special. Just look it up in the sector specials list and assign it to a sector you want the secret to be in. As soon as the player enters the sector, the secret is given.
By the way: The "Secret" attribute of a LINE means, that the line looks solid on the player`s map, despite of it being a door or window.

Awesome. Didm't even look in sector specials for the secret thing :p I just saw it in line properties and thought that was it. Thank's.

An easy way is to "lock" the monsters in their starting rooms, by klicking the "Block Monster" attribute to every line that monsters could possibly pass (e.g. in front of the doors). This way, monsters will roam in just one room, instead of rushing up to you as soon as you fire your gun.

That's a good idea, and it'll work for some sections of my level. Due to the nature of my map though, probably not much since I'd like the monsters to give chase if the player retreats.

I did experiment with the block sound flag but it didn't SEEM to work. Should I tag all lines in the room or just openings to other sectors?

The "Secret" attribute of a LINE means, that the line looks solid on the player`s map, despite of it being a door or window.

Thanks I was wondering how to do that!

1.) Deaf monsters.
2.) Already been said.
3.) Heh.

You should also look up how to make a good "reject" map, where you generate a table of sectors that the engine can throw away when trying to determine which monsters can hear and see you. Say if you're in sector 0, then the game can throw away any data from sectors 20-99 because you know they definitely can't be seen from there. It helps your map run faster, even on machines that you'd think would have no framerate problems.

When you block sound make sure you make every line that makes up a certain sector "block sound" and not just the 2-sided lines. Do this to every sector that has a height of 1 or over connecting you and the monster. I do this and never have a problem.

Will try those tips, TY :)

Numbermind said:

You should also look up how to make a good "reject" map, where you generate a table of sectors that the engine can throw away when trying to determine which monsters can hear and see you. Say if you're in sector 0, then the game can throw away any data from sectors 20-99 because you know they definitely can't be seen from there. It helps your map run faster, even on machines that you'd think would have no framerate problems.

Reject doesn't have any effect on hearing - only on sight. And even then the gain in speed is minimal. Only on huge maps you might gain 1 or 2% - but you'd have to wait hours to build it. All a reject map does to day is inflating the size of the resulting ZIP file.