Simple Question about Level Editing?

[Guest Charon v9]

I have what I feel is probably a simple question, but I'm not really sure. I'm relatively new to doing any doom editing. Anyway, I want to know how to create a wall/door that is only triggered/opened when a certain group of monsters has been eliminated.

Example: I walk in a room and there is a Baron of Hell. I kill the Baron of Hell and a door opens.

I thought this might be done with tags, but none of the editors I've used allow you to tag monsters(WadAuthor, DETH). Am I overlooking a feature in these programs, or just going about this all the wrong way?

Thanks. =)

Charon
http://www.interactivedeath.net

[blod]

As I know such feature isn't common for the original Doom (except of map07). You need a doom port like ZDoom/EDGE. Look at scripting tutorials at http://zdoom.notgod.com/zdhtech/

[ReX]

I believe what Blod says is correct, i.e., this effect cannot be achieved with the original DooM/DooM2.exe. The exception to this of course is Map07, Dead Simple, in which the walls around the courtyard come down when all the Mancubuses are dead, and the steps to the exit switch go up when all the spiders are dead. Come to think of it, a similar effect is seen at the end of E1M8, Phobos Anomaly, when the 2 Barons are dead. But in these maps, the effect is "hard-coded" into the .exe file, and I don't believe that you can replicate it.

What you want to achieve can be done in ZDooM, and other source ports as well. In ZDooM, assign an ACS (script) special to the monster that you wish to trigger the action. Write the script (i.e., door opens, floor raises, etc.) for the script number that is assigned to the monster. If you want the action to be triggered only when several enemies are dead, then you have to do it via a "thingcount", which checks that all enemies are dead before performing the action.

Being new to editing, you may not be familiar with editing under the various ports. However, if you wish to incorporate tricks such as the one you described, your best bet is to learn the features of these ports. Good luck.

[Guest Charon v9]

Yes, those are the two levels I was thinking of actually. I've used an engine similar to this in the past called GCS(Game Creation System). I could of course trick GCS into such feats as making walls move and such when you killed an enemy by making the enemy a wall panel. The wall panel would always face the player and looked like a badguy, after a certain amount of "damage" it would switch to a death animation and the damage would trigger something such as the walls moving. It was interesting, but had its drawbacks(such as the monster couldn't move). hehe.

Anyway. =) Thanks for the info and I'll definately check into scripting for other ports.

[Guest CyberSquirrel]

Actually, you can duplicate the way the walls slid down in map 07. The trick is to set the trigger number of the sector you want to move to 666. I spent a while mucking around with this, and managed to get it working in a WAD. I can't remember, but I think you can do 1 or 2 different effects and I think 667 works as a trigger number as well. Anyway, have a play with it and E-Mail me or post back once you've figured how it works properly.

[Enjay]

ReX said:

There's another couple of options in zdoom too.

(I realise this may confuse someone new to editing, but it will give you a clue what to look at in the zdoom docs)

You can make any level behave like map07 or E1M8 (or even another couple of sector move types) and have the monsters to make the actions happen be the barons, cyberdemons or spider mater minds as well by adding a few lines to the MAPINFO lump in your PWAD.

If you just want the death of a single monster to trigger something, you don't have to do it via a script (though that can be useful). You can set a thing to have any one of a number of special actions, such as open doors, spawn items, make floors move, ceilings move etc etc. In fact, virtually anything you can achieve by a single script command. If you have a copy of DeePsea, go into the thing editor and look at the possible specials that can be allocated. Don't know where (if) other editors list the options. Remember, this is just for Zdoom.

[X-DOOM]

You can with ZDoom create a Thing Count script with ACS that open the WallDoor as you said.

like int ThingCount; ....

[Biffy]

You can do exactly what you said about the Baron, with tags.
Well, it's not called a tag, it's called a "special". But, you have to edit wads in zdoom / Hexen format, not doom2 format. As soon as you get the zdoom.wcf file for WadAuthor, and set your game config to zdoom, put a monster in the map and go to the properties menu...you'll see a box to set the monster's special.
The special can be to activate a script or other things.

I expect DeePsea has all the needed controls as well.