What methods can you use to prevent players escaping a battle?

[Havok]

Let's say you want to force the player to fight a group of enemies instead of letting the player run past them then if it was indoors you could just raise a barrier of some sort. What barriers could you use or what other methods could be used for an indoors or outdoors fight to prevent the player leaving the fight?

Edited August 28 by Havok

[Johnny B. Getgoode]

There's the classic Floor_Raise or similar specials. That would be the most direct method. But if the area is outdoors and I'm feeling particularly evil I set the BLOCKF_CREATURES flag on all lines in or out of the outdoor area, and then remove it when the battle is over. Yes, this results in an invisible wall, effectively, but it has it's uses. When was the last time you saw a door in a forest, canyon, or valley? 

 

Not to abuse invisible walls or anything of the sort, but they can be useful. I'm not against them completely.

[yakfak]

tell them not to in the text file

[Stabbey]

Standard methods are your doors which close for 30 seconds, doors which have a key-lock on the inside and the key is in the room, floors which are just 25 units below the step, floors which slowly lower, a suddenly appearing pit or moat which keeps players from being able to reach the doors out, entering the room via going down stairs, and the stairs sink into the ground (this can also work if the stairs are going up and are flush to a wall by raising the stairs floor), that sort of thing.

 

Use your imagination. Play more wads.

 

10 minutes ago, Johnny B. Getgoode said:

There's the classic Floor_Raise or similar specials. That would be the most direct method. But if the area is outdoors and I'm feeling particularly evil I set the BLOCKF_CREATURES flag on all lines in or out of the outdoor area, and then remove it when the battle is over. Yes, this results in an invisible wall, effectively, but it has it's uses. When was the last time you saw a door in a forest, canyon, or valley? 

 

Not to abuse invisible walls or anything of the sort, but they can be useful. I'm not against them completely.

 

I think that's a bad idea because the player would have no visual feedback on where those boundaries are until running into them, and that will lead to unexpected damage taken.

 

[Havok]

Very good suggestions so far from everyone. Thanks

[Johnny B. Getgoode]

10 minutes ago, yakfak said:

tell them not to in the text file

 

That text file won't stop me because I can't read!

 

1 minute ago, Stabbey said:

 

I think that's a bad idea because the player would have no visual feedback on where those boundaries are until running into them, and that will lead to unexpected damage taken.

 

 

Generally, yes, I agree. One is better off using a Raise or Lower special 99% of the time to block off areas. But if the level was designed well enough and the player is given some sort of feedback as to the wall being there (perhaps an actor?) then it can be done. IDK, it just might be awkward doing the normal specials in outdoor area, is all.

[Deadwing]

One way into the battlefield (ex: dropdown, teleport, lifts) + difficult way to get out (ex: switches required to leave, timed things, enemies as barries)

Edited August 28 by Deadwing

[Roebloz]

I don't think its generally a good idea or feasible to completely block a player from progressing without killing all the enemies, other than for boss fights and the like; Ideally, you'd want to make it hard to ignore the monsters, but not impossible; Just make it really really hard.

[Maximum Matt]

Random teleporter linedef to a strobe-lit fireblu room right in front of a cyberdemon's nutsack

[Laocoön]

Baron(s) in front of the door or in front of the switches you need to press to get out. Lock them in place with monster blocking linedefs.

[Gifty]

My absolute favorite method is to place teleports on the edges of a trap or arena, so that monsters who are left wandering for too long will eventually be transplanted somewhere else. If done well this has an excellent effect; the monster is a more consistent threat without effecting player freedom, and if they're teleported to an even more central map location, the decision of where or when to fight them becomes a real tactical choice; do I kill every monster that springs out of this trap, or avoid them and potentially let them reappear somewhere that's even harder to avoid?

[Havok]

6 minutes ago, Gifty said:

My absolute favorite method is to place teleports on the edges of a trap or arena, so that monsters who are left wandering for too long will eventually be transplanted somewhere else. 

 

How does that prevent the player from leaving a fight?

[Gifty]

Facepalm. Don't post first thing in the morning, kids

 

In that case, a really long elevator or inconvenient button-based contraption is my favorite. I don't like being actively blocked from escaping but it should be tricky to do so.

[Johnny B. Getgoode]

Just now, Gifty said:

Facepalm. Don't post first thing in the morning, kids

Happens to the best of us, my friend.

[Fonze]

Preface: all art is subjective, these are just my opinionated thoughts and not anything close to objective.

 

There several ways to do it, but the biggest thing to keep in mind is to think outside of the box and to not repeat the same thing too much. Lock-ins can be good, but also can get grating after a while.

 

That said, you can use height, timers, doors, or switches as a means to hard lock players in, as people have mentioned. Timers are prolly the worst of the bunch, because players can and likely will beat the timer, and then be forced to wait to leave... (see opening fight of THT19... smh lol). You can also use a particular enemy or crowd of enemies to meat-block the exit or the switch to leave as more of a soft lock-in, or a small platforming puzzle. Sometimes the softer locks can be more malleable to players' playstyles too. I like platforming puzzles to leave arenas because they're not impossible to do without clearing the enemies, but the average player is definitely prodded to clear most enemies out for safety and maybe inf height reasons ;p Also, they utilize the environment in a more involved way, which is always more flashy than a door opening, and can be tailored from something low-key lkle just going up some stairs to a ledge, to elevator puzzles, to everything in-between.

 

Also, small mention for acid-pit escapes and using health/armor as a barrier to exit 🥰

 

Gifty's post may not directly answer the question, but is a good tip for general use, and tackles the player freedom side of lock-ins. You def don't want to lock players in too much, and to that end, you can even recycle those mobs into the next arena/etc.

 

Also Roebloz has a good point. Ideally, you generally want to make it improbable/hard to avoid monsters, not impossible.

[Gez]

Have all the textures outside of the arena display the message "You cheated not only the game, but yourself. You didn't grow. You didn't improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It's sad that you don't know the difference." until the end of the battle. That'll teach them.

[Havok]

9 minutes ago, Fonze said:

Preface: all art is subjective, these are just my opinionated thoughts and not anything close to objective.

 

There several ways to do it, but the biggest thing to keep in mind is to think outside of the box and to not repeat the same thing too much. Lock-ins can be good, but also can get grating after a while.

 

That said, you can use height, timers, doors, or switches as a means to hard lock players in, as people have mentioned. Timers are prolly the worst of the bunch, because players can and likely will beat the timer, and then be forced to wait to leave... (see opening fight of THT19... smh lol). You can also use a particular enemy or crowd of enemies to meat-block the exit or the switch to leave as more of a soft lock-in, or a small platforming puzzle. Sometimes the softer locks can be more malleable to players' playstyles too. I like platforming puzzles to leave arenas because they're not impossible to do without clearing the enemies, but the average player is definitely prodded to clear most enemies out for safety and maybe inf height reasons 

 

Thanks, good suggestions. What does this mean "inf height reasons"?

[Fonze]

2 minutes ago, Havok said:

 

Thanks, good suggestions. What does this mean "inf height reasons"?

 

Infinite height reasons. In some ports monsters are infinitely tall and can block players moving even if the monster is far above/below the player.

[DiavoJinx]

Good ideas here, I like 'em!

 

I'll just add one room I recently made in a short collection of maps I'm working on:

You open the door to a room from the back & side, and immediately face just a few easy Imps.  The door doesn't function from the inside, so once it closes, it's effectively just a fancy wall.

The room isn't huge; it has pillars along both sides as well as rows of pews, with an altar on the far end with a big throne seat & 2 short pillars next to it.

There are a couple of Cacodemons, Lost Souls, and a Spectre inside the room... they are all set to Deaf and not visible and not triggered until you actually step into the room a little bit.  This works as a surprise lock-in fight, since you don't expect the door to lock and don't expect a fight.

To leave this room, there's a "hidden" (just from sight) switch on the back of the throne on the far end of the room.  That switch slowly rotates (UDMF) a bookcase on the side of the room near where you entered.

 

Can a speedrunner with knowledge of the switch location run in, hit the switch, and dance around until they can squeeze through the start of the rotating bookcase? Sure! Ummm... good luck. ;-)

For normal players, it acts as basically a locked room to force dealing with the fight. =)

 

UPDATE:

Actually the door doesn't lock on the inside, it acts like a normal door. The room you enter from is a tiny square room, and before that a smallish room.  So I guess one could backtrack as an option.

Edited August 28 by DiavoJinx

[JJBoren]

If you are mapping in a format that allows scripting, then there are numerous ways of accomplishing things. In one of my maps, player is locked in a room and the bars blocking player's exit are slowly lowering. Now, if the player manages to kill almost all of the monsters before the bars have lowered, the bars will be lowered instantly so that players doesn't have to twiddle with their thumbs in an empty room.

In a more classical formats, simple things like dropping the player into a room from a ledge work well. Using something like a Baron as a door can also work.

[Majin]

1-way drops

doors that close after entering arena

entice them into staying in the arena through items and weapons

make it impactable/ impossible to beat the battle outside the arena

 

[Heigou]

1 way drops/switches to open the room that take memorization/reflex well maintaining the fight to encourage possibly just completing it before hand. Also timed door lowering/teleporter lowering works. Or teleporting in a wave behind the player. All can be done fairly or unfairly. Personally i enjoy the latter. It means the player can leave the room but you can potentially make them work for it.