Lesson 11

By: Deathbliss

Deathbliss

Comprehensive Movers and Triggers:

- Part 2 -

Ok let's keep exploring TRIGGERS. This lesson will take off from the last one. To start open up the last save of the map you have been working on with me (from lesson 10). Now we need a new room, so build a cube 512Hx512Wx512B. Place it somewhere convenient and away from all the other rooms by 6 dark gray units (with the grid resized to 2). Here's where I put mine: Find a texture you like and SUBTRACT it into the world. I am using those from ANCIENT as usual, for the floor I'm using FLOOR2J1, for the ceiling ACEILIN 1, and for the walls BRIXG2A. After you have added it, and if you are following me you need to build another cube 128Hx48Wx96B and place it even with both the floor of the Pool Room and the Secret Room. If the two floors are not aligned be sure to adjust the Secret Room's floor until it matches the Pool Room's floor. Be sure to REBUILD and SAVE if you move anything. Then SUBTRACT this new cube once it fits between them and then position it like so: If you are exploring your own way all you need to do is to make a hallway that fits in between the two rooms. It should be at least 128H and 32W to accommodate the player's size. The goal here is to make this a secret, so once your hallway is in place create a cube 128Hx48Wx16B for a door. Place the RED BRUSH in an open space - the Secret Room is the best choice here. If you are using a different size hallway what you need for a door is something the exact same dimensions - but thinner. Texture as you like and ADD this door to the world, RESET the RED BRUSH (ALL POSITIONING or SCALE), and then make the RED BRUSH big enough to surround our door. Once that is done INTERSECT it and drag the RED BRUSH into position. ADD MOVER there and set the KEYFRAMES. I decided I wanted a 3 position door and I figured it out! Under MOVER PROPERTIES find MOVER in the list. Here are some things to note:

1. BDAMAGEDTRIGGERED means you have to shoot at the MOVER (causing damage) to activate it.
2. TRIGGERONCEONLY is just that - the MOVER only operates once.
3. BUMP EVENT determines if it operates something when touched. If you set this to TRUE you would then need to set the BUMP TYPE.
4. DAMAGE THRESHOLD determines the beating it will succumb to before operating.
5. DELAY TIME means just that. Do whatever you have to to operate it but it wont work until the timer has finished counting.
6. ENCROACH DAMAGE - how much this sucker hurts when it's in contact with you.
7. KEY NUM - use this setting to determine where the MOVER'S base point will be.
8. MOVER ENCROACH TYPE and MOVER GLIDE TYPE give you settings for the MOVERS operations.
9. NUM KEYS - VERY IMPORTANT!!! If you want the MOVER to have more than 2 settings increase this accordingly. It's set so that you have an OPEN and CLOSED position, for me to get the secret door to work right I needed to set this to 3 so that it could move back and to the side.
10. PLAYER BUMP EVENT works with #3 in this list. The EVENT here is the TAG of the object that the BUMP EVENT activates.
11. STAY OPEN TIME is just that - how long with this door stay open?

If I have excluded any settings it is because I am not sure of them myself just yet. I will however continue to tell you what I learn as I learn it. Ok, well you now how to do a switch for now. I'll leave the settings up to you and maybe we can trade maps around and test each other. Here's the assignment - make this secret door operate in a special way and don't tell the person who will test it. For example you may want the door to be shot at for it to open, or you may want a switch hidden somewhere open the door. Whatever you want, mine will be available for download as usual on the main page of UnrealED Exordium.

Now as we near the end of this lesson we should cover the DISPATCHER. Open up your CLASSES BROWSER and find TRIGGERS in the list. Locate TRIGGER and do not expand. Place a TRIGGER just after the door into the Secret Room. Now find DISPATCHER and place one just inside to hallway going to the Secret Room so when you (or the player) enters the door and before entering the Secret Room they'll set off a series of events. Open up the DISPATCHER PROPERTIES and under event place a unique name that will also be the TAG of the first TRIGGER. Open up DISPATCHER PROPERTIES/DISPATCHER and take a look. Under OUT EVENTS you start at 0 and work your way up. Now open up the INVENTORY list and under PICKUP find TRANSLATOR. Place this just beyond the DISPATCHER. Go back to TRIGGERS and place a TRANSLATOR EVENT just after the TRANSLATOR. Open up TRANSLATOR PROPERTIES\EVENTS then under TRANSLATOR EVENT find MESSAGE. Type a brief message in the box. Now open up the EVENTS menu. Under EVENT place DISPATCHER and under TAG place the same thing you'll put under DISPATCHER PROPERTIES/DISPATCHER/OUT EVENTS. There are 7 of these OUT EVENTS and if you wanted to do more you'd just make the last OUT EVENT connect to another DISPATCHER. The OUT DELAYS correspond to the OUT EVENTS so if you wanted the DISPATCHER to delay an EVENT you'd just place the amount of time under the number of the EVENT in that list. Now just inside the room place a SPECIAL EVENT TRIGGER and set its EVENT also to the DISPATCHER and for it's TAG think up a creative name. Still in the CLASSES BROWSER open up KEYPOINT and find EARTHQUAKE in that list. Place an EARTHQUAKE just after the SPECIAL EVENT. Make the EARTHQUAKE'S EVENT be the same as the TAG of the SPECIAL EVENT and it's TAG as something unique - like eq. You could then place eq in the DISPATCHER'S OUT EVENT list. Getting the idea? Oh - here's a pic: I'll leave you to your own creative devices at this point. These last two lessons may be enhanced later. For now you are getting the idea. The basic rule of thumb is this:

1. TRIGGER A's EVENT name needs to be the same as TRIGGER B's TAG name.
2. TRIGGER B's TAG name needs to be the same as TRIGGER A's EVENT name.
3. TRIGGER A is now activated by TRIGGER B.

You can now link other types of TRIGGERS to the DISPATCHER. Some will need SPECIAL EVENTS to operate, some won't. You can add a MUSIC EVENT TRIGGER to change the music in the level, or a TRIGGERED DEATH for a trap or misleading switch that will kill the player. Explore and if you have any questions feel free to e-mail me. If something isn't working try it first without a DISPATCHER, then check out it's PROPERTIES/OBJECT list and make sure everything is correct there. MOVERS can be operated various ways, and they should be pretty self explanatory. I may go more into depth later or maybe even add another lesson to this series. For now I'm taking a break for a while. Soon we will enter Prototype Mode and I hope to see you there.