New Floor Item (Hold monster)

copperman · Post by **copperman** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 12:56 pm

A hold/block/damage monster floor item.

The hold monster would be useful for stopping monsters from roaming areas until necessary i.e. when a party enters the level for the first time. Or to trap monsters. OpBy should only include MONSTER and MONSTER_X (where X is any included monster). Should be acted on by relays, triggers or counters.

The block monster is more for ease of defining roaming areas, rather than using elaborate teleporter set-ups.

Damage monster is pretty self-explanatory. It could be used to replace the missing "allowed monsters on level" feature of DM/CSB, i.e. dropping the Deth Knights correctly in ROS doesn't necessarily kill them. With a Damage 100% monster_dethknight at beneath the lower pit this solution could be reinstated.

Possible implementation.

Code: Select all

refxxxxxx-x X Y L STATE=(ACTIVE/INACTIVE) OPBY=(MONSTER_X) ACTION=(BLOCK/HOLD/DAMAGE) OPTIONS=(DAMAGE%,DIRECTION:NORTH/SOUTH/EAST/WEST)

Post by **Gambit37** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:07 pm

You can kind of do what you suggest with damage tile already, but obviously these also affect the party, so your suggestion is a good one.

As you say, you can also do monster blocks using teleporters. If you want monster blocks that you can later deactivate, that's no different from using teleporters to do the same job. Are there other benefits to having this feature?

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:15 pm

i suggested a monster and object invisible 'wall' some time ago that could be toggles as a false wall can be
teleporters don't cut it in certain situations- for example, stop a monster standing on a certain square in the centre of a room, the teleporter will move them to one space no matter the direction they come from, and you have the whole teleportation nudge on the destination square

also, you could control a special monster's movement with them, without having to worry about a wandering monster gettign caught up in the mechanics too

and surely a trigger activating and deactivating the damage tile operated only by a death knight is completely possible? infact how water elementals are dispated in the cistern in CSB just now?

Post by **Gambit37** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:18 pm

I didn't think of activating/deactivating damage tiles! I'll test it out.

copperman · Post by **copperman** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:23 pm

If you block with my fictitious floor item you could for example stop 4 different monster types from moving over the centre tile in a crossroads with a single defenition rather than 4.

XXOXX
XXOXX
OO8OO
XXOXX
XXOXX

Or stop 2 monsters types from encroaching on each other.

XXXXX
XO8OX
XO8OX
XO8OX
XXXXX

I guess this is effectively creating a special teleport which moves a monster to the tile it came from. Maybe including OPBY=(PARTY) in the block would also make for a simpler way to prohibit the party from entering an area.

Post by **Gambit37** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 1:41 pm

I tried the activate/deactivate thing. It doesn't work if you put two triggers on the same tile as the damager, because the second one never gets triggered as the creature has already been killed.

It's fine if you do it with one trigger and two relays though.

EDIT: No it's not -- the second relay doesn't get triggered either. So I wouldn't recommend using this method because it leaves the damage tile active which will kill the party. Better to teleport the creature somewhere else and kill it remotely in a secure 1x1 room, then teleport back anything it drops.

copperman · Post by **copperman** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:02 pm

My reasoning for this suggestion was the inability to apply OPBY=(MONSTER_X) to a damage floor item with GG's editor, never having "learned" the ins and outs of the RTC txt format (via notepad etc.). . The block and hold are for flexability and to simplify the logic of achieving the desired results.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:12 pm

Did you try the close effect first with a delay before the open?
So it's 'close this tile in a second, open this tile now, dead monster, damage tile is closed again'

copperman · Post by **copperman** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:21 pm

@beowuff. Sure it's possible to setup ellaborate catchall trigger and relay systems to do this but why not extent the RTC format just a little, (I'm sure this particular thing isn't too hard). An extention to the damage tile adding OPBY would work for this particular instance but a single "MONSTER" floor tile would be great for flexible monster managment.

Post by **Gambit37** » Sat Jan 31, 2004 2:22 pm

Interesting idea -- tried it and it works! Nice bit of logic there! Only problem is that you get the death cloud which looks silly, so I still think teleporters are the way to go for this, especially elementals down grates...