Opening a Portcullis

crimsonconcepts · May 2013

I have been working on this for a while, and seem to be having some issues with the open mechanic.

When I try and add a portcullis to a underground area and what I find is that if I just set it as a normal door then a character can go right up and open it. If I try and add a key requirement then things get a bit strange.

I have tried the Interact or the advanced conversation and neither of them seem to work properly. Here is what I am a seeing.

Added the portcullis and then added a key into another room. The character needs to go find the key to advance. When trying to open the gate he would get a note that says the gate is locked and needs a key.

If the character has a key then the portcullis sounds like it opens, but what I see is that it never moved. If I move the camera just right then what I see is the portcullis moved up into the ceiling and is overlaying the exactly over the original and I can see the bottom edge of the upper portcullis graphic flickers.

What this means is that the character cannot pass the gate.

It would be nice to see a 'Enabled/Disabled' function for a door. This would allow you to switch the function on and off and make fake doors, or locked doors without the need of anything fancy.

boydzinj · May 2013

Use subterfuge and tricks to fool the player.

Let me see if I understand the situation. You want the player to enter a room or area that is blocked by a door looking Portcullis. To enter this area, you want the player to have a key.

Here is how I would do it.

Story line

Dialogue
"Obtain a key to go thru Portcullis"
-A NPC tells you need to enter this new area. However, you need to get the key first.

Interact with object
"grab key"
-You need to slay a monster or find a room (or what ever) and interact with an object to get this 'KEY.'

At this point the player is free to open the door and move to the next quest (which in my silly mind is the boss)

Kill a creature
"Defeat the boss"
-It can be anything ... but we will defeat the boss.

However, the problem becomes you do not want the players to just ENTER this new area without first having the key. Yet you are having problems figuring out how to do it. Use some smoke and mirrors. Subterfuge and some roleplaying and here is how I would solve it.

Then create the original wall and the interact able door. If the player interacts with this Portcullis it opens and lets the player in. However, place a texture with a NON interact able or fake Portcullis in front of it by a few inches or so.

Set the textures of the fake wall and non interact able Portcullis to disappear when the "Grab Key from object" a key quest is completed. The fake texture will disappear allowing the player to interact with the real Portcullis and open it. Thus letting the player move onto the next quest.

I made a crude picture to help... i am at work... sorry.

coanunn · May 2013

You can do the same thing with an invisible wall that is removed on a dialog prompt, the dialog prompt requires the key. It's been described indepth by others who are far better at describing in that I am elsewhere on the forums. Hope that helps.

boydzinj · May 2013

I dont always use invisible walls because some objects that are interact able also have that sparkly glow. makes the player wonder... Why is the game not letting me in... versus just tricking the player it was because of your key. Unless the "obtain" a key quest is near the door - you wont notice the wall and door moved 2 inches. But that is just me... either way works.

brakkia · May 2013

I have had the same issue with a Large wooden door, it works fine as long is interaction is turned off, but as soon as you turn interaction on to require the key, the animation does not work. I had to use the false door, but I see the change when the door disappears, I assume this is a bug currently that they will hopefully fix in the future.

crimsonconcepts · May 2013

The problem actually appears to be technical/graphical.

The Portcullis seems to be a bit buggy. When it is used with the key, the gate sounds like it opens, and even takes the key, but the graphical part is still there. When looking at it, it always appears to show both the up state, and the down state at once.

I have tried another portcullis (one that actually says unopenable) and it is working fine.

crimsonconcepts · May 2013

Looks like I spoke to soon. The Portcullis was working, but now this one is doing the same as the other. I had it working fine until I told it to run the entire Quest from the start and at that point it broke and I can't get it working again.

zogvarnoka · May 2013

Could be a foundy bug and it works fine when published.. or not. Submit a bug report on it is my advice since you saw it working fine once before.

crimsonconcepts · May 2013

I have done a bit more testing, and it appears that as soon as you put the interactive option on the portcullis that is when it seems to break it. I used the concept that Boyzdzinj offered, and it works. I am not really happy with it, but it looks better then having the portcullis just disappearing when it is used.

Still not sure what happened when I did the full run, could be two different issues both related to the same object.

crimsonconcepts · May 2013

I have posted my Quest, NW-DGU6CYPV4, It appears pretty complete. I ran through it a few times and didn't see any real bugs, but I am sure someone else will find every one of them.

Emberbaths Planning
NW-DGU6CYPV4

crimsonconcepts · July 2013

Just so others know if they search and find this thread, There appears to be a bug with the Portcullis that if you make it Intractable, or in any way try and restrict use by an item, then it will not work properly. I hope this is fixed, because it would be nice to clean it up with only allowing use when they have the key, or something along these lines.

The solution for the time being is to set the invisible wall just in front of it, and then remove it when they find the key. Then they are able to use the portcullis without any special changes needed.

neverwinter1776 · July 2013

Yep, I concur. Broken the moment it's set to be interactable or you try to make it only usable with a requirement.
And as mentioned, the best solution is the invis wall.
But someone mentioned that this confuses the player and they don't know why they can't get in, cause it's all sparkly and stuff.

Simple solution.
Set the Invis wall to require an "Item"/key, This way when the player goes to the invis wall it IS interactable and it will Fail with a system message. i.e. You do not have a key!
When you do get a key the invis wall disappears (on component complete -- interacting with whatever you get the key from)

now for some reason, that doesn't work.... for some reason, sometimes the system glitches out when you Actually GET the required item.

Set the Invis wall to FAIL. I always have a "FAIL item in my maps. Just create an item that will never get dropped.
This way when the player goes to the invis wall it IS interactable and it will Fail with a system message. i.e. You do not have a key!
When you do get a key the invis wall disappears (on component complete -- interacting with whatever you get the key from)

glantorx · July 2013

I just use an invisible wall and name it locked and fill in needs x key, then remove when key used, then open normally.

krisrmurray · July 2013

There is an easier way to do this. I do this in my adventure (see sig). When using the default door option for connected rooms in my dungeon select the portcullis costume. Under the "Appear When" box, you make it appear when the objective after getting the key is active and can disappear when that objective is complete.

The appear when doesn't seem to mean "the door appears" and when it has not appeared it is invisible. Before the door "appears" it looks like just a door that the user cannot interact with to open. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

neverwinter1776 · July 2013

that defeats the purpose of interacting with the door though. It is one solution. but to have the portcullis to be able to show off the animation and such, you need to interact with it, and if it's "linked" to other things it breaks

krisrmurray · July 2013

Check out my adventure and you'll see that the animations for the doors are still there.

Opening a Portcullis

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