Dummy Sectors and Things in Deathmatch

I've been wondering, since most people play Deathmatch with -NoMonsters.

How would you make a dummy Sector that uses dummy Things? Like, for example, one of those simultaneous effects dummy sectors that cause a crusher to blow up a barrel which pushes a Voodoo doll forward over two linedefs.


Obviously only Deathmatch starts are used, so using a Voodoo doll is out of the question, and monsters can't even activate (most) linedefs, so even if you were playing with monsters on, it still wouldn't work.

And then there are Commander Keens. For some reason they seem to be considered as monsters and so disappear in -NoMonsters mode. Surely this would make Level 32: Grosse uncompletable on Vanilla Doom/Boom in Deathmatch?


Do you have any ways round these?

Single player/co-op maps aren't expected to be properly playable in deathmatch; they're merely expected to be possible. Generally, as long as there is an accessible exit (see MAP07 of Doom 2) and no traps that permanently block off parts of the map (which is also required for co-op, but deathmatch players may approach traps from the wrong direction, which sometimes requires special treatment), that's all you need.

The Icon of Sin deserves special mention, as the spawn shooter appears and will spawn monsters even in nomonsters mode, but Romero's head does not appear in nomonsters mode, which is problematic to say the least (a shame because typical IoS arenas are unusually well-suited for DM). The most basic solution is to place a closed door in front of the boss shooter (to prevent it from seeing or hearing the players) and an alternate exit, as well as unavoidable triggers near the single-player start (inaccessible in deathmatch), that remove those features in single player and co-op.

Joe667 said:

And then there are Commander Keens. For some reason they seem to be considered as monsters and so disappear in -NoMonsters mode. Surely this would make Level 32: Grosse uncompletable on Vanilla Doom/Boom?
Do you have any ways round these?

Some of the more advanced source ports will automatically operate tags 666 when the -nomonsters flag is present to make the level completable.
Other source ports leave the commander keens in place - one such port is the Excellent Doom Retro - there may be others.
But you're correct, to be vanilla compatible will require very carefully crafted maps.

jeff-d said:

But you're correct, to be vanilla compatible will require very carefully crafted maps.

Yes. If you really wanted to have a map fully cross-compatible with SP/coop/DM/nomonsters, you'll have to avoid some design choices, as simple as that.

You can trick it by having a start area inaccessible from outside (in DM) and having walkover linedefs in it which will properly unfold the map for singleplayer / coop purposes. In DM, these linedefs would never be triggered, and therefore some areas might stay locked in DM, as you wish.

Or you can just create a separate DM arena for your level, possibly based on the normal map version but with DM-friendly exit and features.