A quick question

[mammajamma]

I'm screwing around in Doom Builder at the moment, and I want four imps to spawn when the player grabs a shotgun. How do I make it happen?

The map is vanilla.

[Stupid Bunny]

You can't technically spawn imps out of nowhere in vanilla Doom, nor can you make things happen as a direct result of picking up weapons. However, what you can do is draw in a linedef over or in front of the shotgun that the player will have to cross to get it. Put in four external sectors far from the level, which will contain the imps. KEY: merge these four sectors with any other sector in the level, in particular one where the player has already fired their weapon in. If you don't do this then the imps won't hear you and won't ever wake up or start moving. Set the linedef to open doors in front of the imps, and set the linedefs on those doors to teleport the imps into wherever you put the teleport destination(s). This way, when you pick up the weapon, the imps will teleport in from their boxes, which is basically like spawning them.

I hope this was helpful...I'd post screenshots but I'm too lazy to :P

[mammajamma]

Sounds a bit confusing. Anything more specific?

[Stupid Bunny]

Sorry, it's more confusing because of my phrasing than anything else.

What you basically want to do is just teleport the imps in from far away. The method I described (or tried describing) is just one of the better ones for doing this without taking up space within the level, and is used in most maps. As I say, there's no way to spawn imps directly, nor can you make anything happen by picking up a shotgun; there needs to be a linedef action of some kind. Use whatever method you see fit of teleporting the imps in.

[darkreaver]

This is indeed somewhat confusing in the beginning, but with some trial and error, you will get it; it`s actually really easy, just tedious at times (with high high teleporting monster count/lots of sectors).

Just follow the steps already given in this thread; but also make SURE the imps aren`t flagged as deaf! Also, make SURE the player fires a weapon in the sector you joined the sectors containing the imps with, or else they wont teleport in; resulting in 1) no surprise/trap when grabbing the weapon, and 2) 100& kills is impossible.

edit: and also, just to be safe here, you know what we mean with "join sectors"? In sectors mode, select two (or more) sectors, go to the sectors menu and click "join sectors". Be a bit careful with this though, I believe all the joined sectors share the same floor/ceiling height when joined (not QUITE sure though).

edit2: Hmm, now I noticed StupidBunny said "merge sectors" and not "join sectors" so I got a bit confused myself :P I use join sectors, but maybe merge is better? I dunno, and joining works fine for me

[Stupid Bunny]

No, JOIN is what you want. I just misspoke. :P

Also, when you're joining sectors, remember that the first sector you select to be joined will be the one that all the other ones become like, so select the one already in the map first, rather than one of the external sectors. As darkreaver said, all joined sectors have the same properties.

[mammajamma]

Thanks for the help, but I'm still having trouble with the matter. Could anybody provide an example wad?

[Shanoa]

Test map

The external sector (the one with 4 imps) is joined to the main sector where you play, in order to wake the imps up you need to create an instance where you'll fire your weapon or as shown in the map a zombieman. Make sure to create the external sector far enough from your main just so you won't hear the imp waking up, which would kill the surprise effect.

In the external sectors (the imp one) i added a wall just to block the imps from crossing the linedef which would teleport them. Around the shotgun i added a sectors which once you walk over the linedef, will lower the wall blocking the 4 imps, allowing them to teleport by surprise behind you. Make sure that each linedef with the teleport actions are really close to the imp just so your ambush works better.

I don't know if you get all that but someone with better english would be able to explain better.

[vdgg]

Hm, in the test map, if I shoot first, grab the shotgun later, everything works fine. But if I pick up the SG first (say, in order to kill the trooper faster), then shoot, only one imp teleports in. Perhaps WR linedefs would be a better idea than W1, as explained in a very recent thread.

[Shanoa]

Hmm i forgot to test that in the map itself, maybe i should move the linedefs closer to the imps. Tried moving them closer and get the SG first? Otherwise your suggestion might as well works too if not better.

I do remember Jodwin explained about ambush in another topic.

[Chopkinsca]

vdgg said:

Hm, in the test map, if I shoot first, grab the shotgun later, everything works fine. But if I pick up the SG first (say, in order to kill the trooper faster), then shoot, only one imp teleports in. Perhaps WR linedefs would be a better idea than W1, as explained in a very recent thread.

That's because the imps need to be 'woken up' from hearing the player's attack before they can move and cross the teleport line. This in itself is a whole different topic.

[mammajamma]

I checked out the test map and it was more complex than I thought. Well, at least I know what to do in the future. Thanks for the help.

[magicsofa]

As far as I know the only difference between joining and merging sectors is that joining preserves all lines while merging will delete lines that are only adjacent to the sectors being joined and nothing else (void or otherwise). With totally separate sectors I think it has the same effect - and yes, they must always have the same heights because they are the same sector!

Here's a couple of tips on teleporting monsters in:

- You can wake up your teleport monsters anytime before you want to use them. So you could have them right at the beginning, and then as you go through the level open up the teleporters.

- Remember that monsters always walk towards you, so the teleporter should be between you and the monsters. Otherwise they might just keep walking into the wall.

- You can place multiple teleporters for the monsters to use and they will come through more quickly. This can also be used to surround the player or send monsters to different rooms. However, a teleporter may reference only one destination sector and only one destination thing will be used (I think the last one placed on the map). To make multiple destinations you need unique tags for each sector.

- You cannot be telefragged but you can block the monsters from teleporting by standing where the destination thing is.