Starting off with low health

I'm just wondering if its possible to start a map with low health. Only my 7th map, I would like the player to start with ideally as low health as possible (1%). Is there any way I can do this without having to trick them into semi-dying with the "end level when < 10% health" trigger? Since my game is pretty realistic... I would prefer to avoid that.

Any "MAPINFO" triggers?

I only know how to use XWE, and DoomBuilder (and Deepsea).
Thanks in advance.


** If there is another method, can you please post it anyways?

Make the game spawn the player in a area of exploding barrels that he must destroy to begin the level.

Or have a Vodoo doll.

If this is for ZDoom, then there are ways to affect the player's health thru scripting (dont ask me what, i know i've seen it done

I think you can also do it with Dehacked.

A map in a series?

In that case, and if it's not the ifirst level played, you can use the sector type used at the end of Knee Deep in the Dead in the previous level. The player takes damage and level ends when health is under 10 (and at least 1).

DeHackEd applies to every level in the set (so it should be okay for a single level), and scripting should allow you to do it easily, if you want to limit your level to an advanced engine. A voodoo doll that gets hurt by barrels at the beginning could work, but you see the player get hurt, and he would likely have to move first, unless the barrels are destroyed by a hidden monster that tries to attack the player from somewhere.

myk said:

DeHackEd applies to every level in the set (so it should be okay for a single level), and scripting should allow you to do it easily, if you want to limit your level to an advanced engine. A voodoo doll that gets hurt by barrels at the beginning could work, but you see the player get hurt, and he would likely have to move first, unless the barrels are destroyed by a hidden monster that tries to attack the player from somewhere.

Well, if it's a Boom-compatible map (which would still allow it to run in the vast majority of popular source ports) a voodoo doll/conveyor belt setup could be done.

I was thinking getting a berserk at the beginning (forcing it) and then on a seperate sector outside the map, have a 1st-P doll get nailed by a barrel that is activated by a crusher on the main map.


Also, I've done scripting in high school (well I could have taken it in university but had no electives), so I know some scripting, but I'm not sure about the magnitude of this. Would it be easy (in DeHacked)?

With DeHackEd it's very easy, as all you do is edit the "initial health" in the miscellaneous section. All players will then start play with the new value, instead of 100.

I may be mistaken, but wouldn't changing the initial health of the player start thing affect the starting health of every map and not just a particular map?

Yes, and he only wants low health on ONE map

Voodoo dolls for Boom and scripts for Zdoom (and probably the others like EDGE, Eternity, Legacy etc) are the way to go. Voodoo dolls don't work in Legacy, mind, so add a note in your text file.

You could also make a 'barrel like' object which has frame 404 as it's sighting frame, and put it right near the player so it will explode when the level starts. Just ensure you put a load of health at the end of the previous level

What program would I look for to script low health?

Depends on the port you wish to use.

Everyone can do likely do it.

Vermil said:

Depends on the port you wish to use.

Everyone can do likely do it.

Can it work with ZDoom? Do you mean port for running doom?

Can someone who knows ZDoom scripting just tell this guy what to do already?