Examples of surprising traps?

[Memfis]

It seems that the majority of traps in Doom WADs can't even really be called traps anymore, since usually a modern experienced player already knows full well that he is stepping on a landmine. The most obvious ones have to be keys and other important items that trigger some doors nearby. Also a long corridor in a map otherwise devoid of corridors is a pretty obvious indicator. Empty areas tend to be suspicious too: why did the author even make it if nothing's going to happen? There must be something in there...

What are some traps that truly caught you by surprise, hopefully in a good way?

[Liberation]

Normally when I enter a decent sized room, which once being committed too, starts to open up in non obvious ways sending enemies in your direction.

Something I have started to include in my levels, but I do normal try and have two entrances so you can set the trap off in different ways so to speak.

[jmickle66666666]

I remember being surprised by a trap that looked like a teleporter, but opened monster closets all around me. Exit switches that drop the floor into a new area full of monsters still manage to surprise me too

[baja blast rd.]

Instapop cybers get me. The downside of this sort of trap is that it involves using an instapop cyber.

[Liberation]

jmickle66666666 said:

Exit switches that drop the floor into a new area full of monsters still manage to surprise me too

That's a good one!

[NaturalTvventy]

Whenever I grab a keycard nothing happens, I'm shocked.

[nxGangrel]

When large and multiple monster closets open... And there are no monsters.

[rehelekretep]

i always like maze-like corridors with static monsters that can spot you through the various gaps/corners in the structure. coupled with low-light and revenants waking up, these make me shit a brick!

any kind-of obvious arena trap or lock-in is of course a trap by definition but you can normally see them coming. therefore i am also in favour of the obvious trap turning out to spawn/trigger nothing at all. the most perfect would be a delayed one, so you could have the relief of nothing happening, with the instant surprise just afterwards but i cant recall anything ive played that does that at the moment.

[rehelekretep]

nxGangrel said:

When large and multiple monster closets open... And there are no monsters.

i think another good one is when the closets open but the monsters instantly hit teleport lines when they move towards you, and disappear. you know there out in the map somewhere, angry and waiting to get you :o :x

[scifista42]

Crates that seemingly only hide item pickups behind them, but actually also hide monsters inside them.

[Killer5]

At the end of av24. There is a cyb that just appears on the exit teleporter after hitting the switch to lower it.. never saw that one coming =x.

In Toilet Of The Gods map03 there is a switch you press in the rsk area that releases a bunch of viles into the center of the map without any warning. Did not realize what was happening until it was already too late.

In Bloody Rust map02 there is a rev that appears right behind you as you open the rsk door.. smacked me pretty good my first time.

Lots of others but I would be here all day!

[Ribbiks]

scifista42 said:

Crates that seemingly only hide item pickups behind them, but actually also hide monsters inside them.

I found this trap particularly hysterical on my first playthrough:

[scifista42]

^ Which wad and map is that?

[baja blast rd.]

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/elysion

Probably my favorite DD map.

[MortisCausaDonatio]

Exit doors that shut down when you reach it.

[Fuzzball]

Lights going off can be quiet a surprise combined with noise and a change of scenery, can put you in somewhat of a "dazed" state with monsters swarming at you.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

I remember a particularly evil trap where I walked into a room and empty monster closets opened and I was like "wtf!?" and then realized the trap was actually a crusher and I had very little time to get out of the way at that point.

[Tracer]

Psychophobia. A monsterless room that when you walk toward a handsome ammo cache on the other side turns the whole room into a crusher.

[Ichor]

rehelekretep said:

i think another good one is when the closets open but the monsters instantly hit teleport lines when they move towards you, and disappear. you know there out in the map somewhere, angry and waiting to get you :o :x

I did that once. I put in a secret which revealed a couple of spectres, which teleported away to different parts of the dark maze.

And that disappearing floor switch in Gibbet was interesting at first, but the novelty of that wears off quick.

Map 7 of Memento Mori 2. That...ONE...DOOR!

And speaking of instapop, how about when that megasphere suddenly poofs when you get close to it?

[Havoc Crow]

The door in av19 which, when pressed, doesn't open but instead opens up the wall behind you.

[Grazza]

A classic idea from awad (map09): have an IoS set-up, where instead of a Romero head, there's a voodoo doll. Though you might consider that more trolling than trapping.

I recall being very surprised in Hacx when what looked like statues turned into monsters (thanks to some dehacked work). The same idea occurs in Wheel of Time.

But in general, any set-up where you expect a certain thing to happen and something totally different happens (several examples already mentioned in this thread).

[Voros]

Entering a small room with a object of interest, say blue key. Picking it up, the walls rise up all around you, revealing a massive room full of monsters all around you. It's one of those "I'm fucked" moments. The sheer scale of this arena surprises me. Going Down has a map similar to this.

TNT's map30 surprised me at first. The platforms on the lava instakilling the player was something I had never expected.

[kmxexii]

TQMAP02

teleport secret takes you to a mancubus booth seen earlier in the map with tons of ammo and goodies. There is a return teleporter... but it teleports you into a bunch of barrels in the room you came from. Lethal if you didn't blow them up beforehand.

[mgr_inz_rafal]

My all-time favourite:

You walk down the corridor and a part of the floor lowers and takes you down to the room filled with chaingunners.

Usually, when the lift goes back it takes some of the chaingunners up and the player is again surprised after lowering the floor to exit the trap room :)

[TMD]

The red light district in Bangkok

[EffinghamHuffnagel]

I've seen this one a couple of times over the years, but I don't remember where. An empty central hallway. At one end is the exit. You have to run up and down it dozens of times to get around the map. Without incident. But if you walk down it carrying 'the exit key', only then do the walls open up and monsters attack. Basically, anything that operates normally until a specific condition is met. Closets open, floor covered in random nukage, crushers start, sky changes; always surprising.

Edit: Should have mentioned: no scripting. All standard linedef actions.

[Roofi]

HR2's map 04 has a double fake exit , this is very surprising. Alien Vendetta's map 16 has a very surprising trap where a lot of revenants suddendly appear in a dark room. In HR's map 17 , when you grab a berserk a lot of pinkies suddendly appear around you.

[vdgg]

Roofi said:

HR2's map 04 has a double fake exit , this is very surprising. Alien Vendetta's map 16 has a very surprising trap where a lot of revenants suddendly appear in a dark room. In HR's map 17 , when you grab a berserk a lot of pinkies suddendly appear around you.

LOL HR MAP17 berserk is an anti-example of a good, surprising trap!!! See http://visionsofdoom.us/rev_hr.html or SuitePee's playthrough comment...

Let's see examples from memory where I was repeatdly overwhelmed and killed...

Doom E1M5, spiral staircases going down, walls with spectres lower... the ancient times when spectres were almost invinvible to me
2002ADO E2M6 room with 4 switches and 4 monster teleporters can be deadly in an non-obvious way
Caverns of Darkness MAP02 had a 30 second door, through which you could see a released arch-vile reviving everything around. See but not shoot or get shot. You wait and wait and wait for the battle which looks more and more hopeless every second
Strain MAP17 I liked how you explore deeper and deeper the main corridor, knowing there would be another trap, but not knowing how, from which side it would be revealed
Troopers playground on MAP03 I think you pressed use on the door and everything except the door opened.

[joe-ilya]

I really liked the trap at the exit room in Speed Of Doom MAP10, I expected it, but not like that.