Dungeon Master Forum

Hey guys,

I'm not sure if these are known facts, but it doesn't say anything about it on the DM map notes, so I wanted to mention it:
There are two hidden "barriers" that creatures cannot pass on Level 11.
At 11,26,26 and 11,44,45, creatures that are coming from north will hit a hidden barrier and not be able to continue south.

It's the same sort of barrier that we can find at 12,37,41 (creatures, including Lord Chaos, cannot move west from here), but I think this barrier is well known among players.

I think most people are aware of them.
I remember in my first ever play through, the one at 26,26 came in handy for beating the two knights in the northwest, as my characters were very weak.

So did I.
The barrier the Knights cannot pass comes handy and you better not open a wall nearby that would give another way to the knights to get at you.

Yes, figured these out by myself on my first playthrough. Really helpful!

Actually such barriers are on many levels. Some in places where I do not see a reason.
Remember the three puzzle rooms on the first skeleton level where you can get three Iron keys? One of the rooms has a pit and a portcullis. Outside of the room there's a barrier preventing monsters from entering the room. I always wondered why FTL put that one in, because I don't see a tactical need for it.

Perhaps it's one of the devices built in to protect players who don't regularly save their games.
Some players may initially deal with skeletons by luring them away to an area where they no longer pose a problem. Perhaps the barrier is there to prevent a skeleton from closing the portcullis.

Leslie wrote:One of the rooms has a pit and a portcullis. Outside of the room there's a barrier preventing monsters from entering the room.

This room ---level 5 (19,31) --- has baffled me for some time.
It seems that the problem is to place an object on the floor (20,33)
across from the pit at (20,32). I have always solved this by activating
the teleporter at (19,32) and then placing an object on the floor
in the teleporter.

But it appears that the simpler solution is to throw an object across
the pit. Or one might teleport themselves to (20,33) and place
an object on the floor.

So, my question is "Why all the complicated mechanics of the teleporter,
the switch to control the teleporter, and the switch to control the pit".
Is it because someone might throw a very valuable object across the pit
and a clever way of retrieving it was necessary?

Is the monster block at the entrance to this room an attempt to prevent
a skeleton from entering the room so that the player could cause the
skeleton to be telported onto the pad at (20,33)? That makes no sense
to me because such a solution is quite clever and should be allowed.

I find this room to be rather 'puzzling'.

To me Paul it seems consistent with the idea that the designers set out to create a game that would appeal both to players who prefer to be able to crash through games killing everything in sight, and players who are really into problem solving.

The former would be satisfied with opening the portcullis via either of the solutions you mention (for clarification, throwing an object across the pit requires the player to quickly step twice to the right so that the object lands on an "Open" floor plate AFTER the player has stepped on the "Close" floor plate).

Similarly the problem posed by the floor plate at 19,31 on Level 1 is easily solved. Stepping on it will close the door opened by pressing the button at 20,31 - therefore just walk around the floor plate?

But a player into problem solving might look for a reason for that button to be green, and might wonder if there's something more going on than simple repetition of the problem at 03,29 on Level 1.

And if the designers did indeed build in problems intended to be solved by a player learning from experience, isn't that scenario with the portcullis on Level 5 just a tad reminiscent of the second and third "Time is of the essence" problems on Level 2 (22,16 and 22,13) - both requiring swift action after a button is pressed, and the third requiring the player to quickly step back after pressing a button?

From memory, if the player first presses the button in front of the portcullis on Level 5 to activate the transporter, and then presses the button a second time to deactivate the transporter, there is a splt-second delay before the transporter disappears - enough time to quickly step back and be transported onto the floor plate beyond the pit. A green button then closes the pit if I recall correctly.

Fwiw I personally am certain that the designers intended us to leave every green button pressed in - which would make the pair of green buttons encountered later on Level 5 at 09,20 and 13,20 a puzzle, instead of being pointless?