Multiple stops on rising floor

[Aaronjw]

I have a cool idea for a map, but I'm not sure if it's possible, or how to execute it if it is. The problem is this: I want to have a rising floor, but have it so that it makes multiple stops on its way up to the top of a tower. So, you press a switch, it brings you up to the first floor, and then you press a different switch to get to the next floor, and so on. Is this possible?

I'm using Doom Builder 2, FYI. If this thread should be in the DB2 forums, please move it.

[Doom_user]

Multiple levels in Squadron 417 have exactly what you're describing. I can't remember the map numbers though.

[pavera]

Yeah just use S1 Floor Raise to Next Higher Floor.

[Aaronjw]

Awesome, thanks a ton. I'm fairly new at mapping, so hopefully this will end up as a good map, rather than looking like something from 1994 :p

[LogicDeLuxe]

This was done plenty of times I think.
In the Masterlevels for Doom II, TEETH.WAD is an excellent example of this.

You can even play nice tricks of this kind with stairs. Take a look at Eternal Doom III map 25.

[pavera]

Aaronjw said:

Awesome, thanks a ton. I'm fairly new at mapping, so hopefully this will end up as a good map, rather than looking like something from 1994 :p

Just take your time on it and don't get discouraged when someone tells you it sucks. Each of your failures is a building block to success. No I don't teach elementary school kids.

[Aaronjw]

Here's another related question: How do I make a switch on a very tall wall look like just one switch, rather than a bunch of switches running up the entire wall?

[pavera]

Create a sector where you want it to be, raise the floor of that sector all the way up to where you want the switch to be, and choose the lower texture. Then lower the ceiling and make the upper texture the switch texture you desire.

[esselfortium]

Build a smaller sector indented into your wall, something like 4 or 8 units deep into the wall and the same size as your switch (or whatever size you want), with the switch inside it.

Note, though, that the floor height of this switch sector will then be one of the higher floors that your floor will raise to and stop. In order to prevent that, your best bet is probably just to make your lift have 8 units or so of non-lift space around it (i.e. a non-moving border around your lift sector, separating it from the solid walls and switches, with its floor set at the lift's lowest height).

[Aaronjw]

Ok, I'm rethinking my approach. Instead of flipping a different switch to go up to the next stop, I'm going to try this: you start out in an outdoors area, you go through a passage, and into the tower. When you step into the main room of the tower, crossing a linedef triggers the floor to raise to the next floor. Then you will go into the room off of that floor, and when you step across a different linedef, a door closes behind you. You then find a switch inside the room, hit that, and the door opens. You step back through the door, and the floor raises to the next floor, and you repeat the process.

I'm having one problem with this so far, but I forsee more coming. That's not now though, so I'll just ask this question ATM: I'm fine stepping into the main room for the first time. The floor raises to the next floor, and I walk through. But as soon as I step through into the smaller room, the floor in the main room raises, and boom, you're stuck.

I hope you can visualize what I'm saying. If not, and you don't have anything better to do, I'll be glad to email you the wad and you can have a look at it yourself.

[ArmouredBlood]

You could try flipping the linedef so that it's facing into the door and is triggered by someone coming out of the door, but I think that only works on teleports. Another way is to make the lift wide enough you can have a second door open directly onto the lift that will be the way you get out of the closed-door area and use the lift edge to start the lift again. If you don't have as much space, you could have 2 bars, 1 down initially and the other up initially like this;

---- _ ][ '' _ -----

The open one closes down as you get through, then when you press a switch on the other side you open the other one, which when you cross the lift edge of will raise the lift.

Of course both options are kind of screwed if the player has to step back immediately, so using switch boxes is more reliable, but can be a bit gimmicky ...

[Super Jamie]

I can't recall the name of the PWAD, but this was done in a fairly good map with the idea of a reactor core.

You start at the top, and hit a switch with S1 Lower Floor to Next Lower. When the lift stops, you have to take a dark passage with Spectres to find another switch, which opens a door in the core. You then go back to the core and there's a Baron and switch in the newly-opened door. Flick the uncovered switch to go down to the next level.

You end up doing this 3 or 4 times. It worked really well.

[DuckReconMajor]

You talking about Cycloid's "React"?

[Super Jamie]

That's the one! I remember being surprised looking at it in an editor when I spotted the little radiation symbol in the middle of the reactor/uterus.



The lighting in those tunnels is awesome too.

[Use]

Why does that look like the female reproductive system?

Super Jamie said:

reactor/uterus

Heh

[Aaronjw]

Cool, I'll take a look at that.

[Aaronjw]

Ok, I have another related question (I hope I'm not being a pain in the rear end here). I'm going to try having a teleport in each room off of the tower, each leading back into the main room. So I have a new sector in the main room for a different texture. But when the floor raises, it leaves the other sector behind. How do I keep the other sector level (or maybe a bit higher, for effect) with the floor that is raising?
Here's a picture. I've pointed out what I want to move with the floor.

[stewboy]

Make sure that the other sector is touching the sectors with the required floor level. If you need to, create another, entirely separate sector outside the map, merge the two together, and make sure that this sector is also touching the correct floor levels.
The problem with this sector having a slightly higher floor, is that it would mess up the movement of the original sector - unless they aren't touching.

[Aaronjw]

stewboy said:

Make sure that the other sector is touching the sectors with the required floor level. If you need to, create another, entirely separate sector outside the map, merge the two together, and make sure that this sector is also touching the correct floor levels.
The problem with this sector having a slightly higher floor, is that it would mess up the movement of the original sector - unless they aren't touching.

I don't think I understand what you're saying.

[ArmouredBlood]

Aaronjw said:

:Quoted stuff: I don't think I understand what you're saying.

He means all the sectors that are rising need to be in contact with the destination levels. If you plop a teleporter down right in the middle of the lift that part isn't going to rise unless you get some fancy stuff going on. Of course you could just use the lift sector's tag with a teleport thing to put the player back in but if you absolutely needed that teleporter to be a different sector there are a few ways to go about it.

One is like he said, to make dummy sectors linked in a way that they'll go up right. So here we go with dummy sectors; you chose a sector, say the lift one. You now make a sector waaaay outside the map that you know you won't eventually map to. You select all those linedefs, click the sidedef tab, then type the number of the lift sector into the front sidedef number. Bingo, you now have a dummy sector that shares the number and properties of the original. Now the interesting part is that you can add more sectors around this dummy sector that affect the behavior of the original sector, in this example with where the lifts will stop. If the lift sector itself is bounded by only one sector, it will only lift to that height. But add in some sectors around the dummy sector with different heights, and now you make more stops for it.
Visually something like this;


Another way is to simply cut through the outer lift sector and make the sector touch the levels you want it to rise to, which is what I'd suggest you do but if you want multiple teleport spawns you might want to do the dummy sector method instead.
And you'll get something like this;


I'm obviously a visual thinker :P And don't worry about asking questions, the doom editing section would be useless without people asking questions.

EDIT: Ah, didn't see you wanted the actual teleport PLATFORM in there. I haven't actually tried putting a raised sector into a lift before, but I don't think it's going to work well. You don't really need the teleport platform there though, as it's kind of understood teleports are strange like that.

[Aaronjw]

Thanks so much for that. I've been trying over the past day to use the dummy sector method, but I can't seem to figure it out. I'm not understanding some of what you're saying, though.

One is like he said, to make dummy sectors linked in a way that they'll go up right. So here we go with dummy sectors; you chose a sector, say the lift one. You now make a sector waaaay outside the map that you know you won't eventually map to. You select all those linedefs, click the sidedef tab, then type the number of the lift sector into the front sidedef number. Bingo, you now have a dummy sector that shares the number and properties of the original. Now the interesting part is that you can add more sectors around this dummy sector that affect the behavior of the original sector, in this example with where the lifts will stop. If the lift sector itself is bounded by only one sector, it will only lift to that height. But add in some sectors around the dummy sector with different heights, and now you make more stops for it.

Which linedefs are you referring to when you say "all those"?
And (this is a silly question, I'm sure), how do I find the number of the lift sector?

EDIT-- I just realized I might not have been clear on which parts of the pentagram in the center of the tower need to raise. The white stone parts need to raise, and the red portal square needs to raise. The pools of blood around it should stay all the way down at their original height.
Also, all the white parts in the center are one sector, with the receiving portal another sector in the middle of that.
So basically, after you finish each extension of the tower, you transport back to the center, and walk across one of the white bridges over the blood and back to the larger sector.

Hope this makes things clearer.

[Torn]

Use3D said:

Why does that look like the female reproductive system?

Heh wow, you are right. It has a distant similiar look to that. :P

[ArmouredBlood]

You know I saved that test wad just in case you weren't clear on something ;D.
http://wadhost.fathax.com/files/AB.dsectortest.zip

Which linedefs are you referring to when you say "all those"?

The dummy sectors. You COULD try changing the original's, but doing that can sometimes cause weird things to happen.

And (this is a silly question, I'm sure), how do I find the number of the lift sector?

It's not really that silly, just not that intuitive. If you're using doom builder just put your mouse over the sector in sectors mode and the number of the sector will be the very first bit of data in the bottom left corner. I can't tell you how to find it in anything else though ...

@ the edit: That's what I assumed you were looking for here. Check my test map and it'll probably become clear. Be warned I haven't gotten quite ALL the HoM out and you need to noclip to see how the other way works the same ...

Also I'd suggest just getting rid of the teleport platform, I tried messing around with it in the test and I didn't have much hopes for it. You COULD get it to work with zdoom in hexen format style platforms, but it's better not to bother.

[stewboy]

ArmouredBlood said:

You select all those linedefs, click the sidedef tab, then type the number of the lift sector into the front sidedef number. Bingo, you now have a dummy sector that shares the number and properties of the original.

Or, you could simply select the original sector, select the dummy sector as well, and use Doom Builder's 'Merge Sectors' button (in the row of buttons in DB1, don't know about DB2)

[ArmouredBlood]

stewboy said:

Or, you could simply select the original sector, select the dummy sector as well, and use Doom Builder's 'Merge Sectors' button (in the row of buttons in DB1, don't know about DB2)

I keep forgetting about that >.<

[Aaronjw]

Thanks so much for all the help and patience, guys. I finally got it working! Now for the rest of the map...