The commander, the doors and the question.

Kobra

<div class="IPBDescription">Power over doors and entities.</div>Im working on a map and im a bit curious about a few things.
Mostly is about one issue, the commander.
Im curious, in the story topic i've read stories in which the commander helps players activates elevators and opens up doors. What im wonderign about is if the commander can open up any door/elevator use any buttons ect, that's withing his usable range? or do you simply set which entities the commander can effects?

Im currently working on a map where i am to add alot of interctivity into the level, ie buttons that needs to be pressed in one room to open the door in another ect. Allowing the players to interact more with enviroment itself.

All this however will not be possible if the commander can do everything for them. Of course i want the commander to have a large influence over the map but i want to make the players use their brains a bit as well.

coil

The commander can toggle any door/button the marines can; if he can touch the button/door, he can activate it.

Two ways around this:
1) Make the door require two marines to hit two buttons at the same time.
2) Put a trigger_presence (I think that's what it's called) in front of the button - if there's no one standing there, it won't open.

gutterclutch

But don't you think it'd be cool for the marines to arrange themselves at the end of a corridor and then say COMMANDER DOOR AHEAD and the commander opens it, clearing the way for a barrage of hot lead to cut into some aliens?

RhoadsToNowhere

Yes, gutterclutch.  That was a lot of the intention for allowing the commander to operate doors.  (It's also cool when you're running away and you scream to your commander to lower the elevator in front of you so you can escape.)  However, there may be gameplay reasons why the mapper would force marines to go and activate something themselves, which is what coil mentioned.  But keep in mind that this does not have to be done for every door, elevator, switch, etc. on the map.  It's only a possibility.  <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

Kobra

Good answers but still wont help me with my issue.
One of my bigger ideas for my map was to have a few different paths for the marines, paths of 3 that starts fromt he marine spawn and takes seperate directions through the map. each path will have it's own level of difficulty. The idea is to use a random entity for the doors and only have one of these 3 doors open in the begining, forcing the marines to take the route that has been randomly selected for them. Eventually all the 3 paths will merge near an control station, at this control station an marine have the oppertunity to decide which one of the other doors to open or close, but only one door can be opened at once and if you open up one of the doors the others will close themself, having only one path open at all times. Further more, at this station an marine also have the means of wieving parts of the map throu placed cameras.
The idea is to give the players some more tactical oppertunities while not stealing away the function of the commander. This, what you could call a "secondary command central", will be poorly defended and easy to take over, it will all act to add some variation and interactivity to the level and for the players as this is all an optional thing. however, the team that has the control over this control station will have a slight upperhand of the map.

Good and all as it might sound, none of these things will work if the commander could just select and open up any door he wishes, it kind of trash the main idea for the map.

it might be possible to as Coil mentioned, have two mariens press 2 buttons at the same time but that does'nt sound all that adaptable to my situation, and besides, i'd want it so that one brave (or foolish) can use this control room.

It's not really ment to be a vital part of the map but still a big add to the gameplay in general.

coil

Use a trigger_presence; sounds like the easiest way to do what you want.  Merkaba's NS_Hera has a weldable door that's linked to a vent; if the door is open, the vent is closed, and vice versa - so it's perfectly possible to do what you're talking about.  Perhaps you could set it up like this one area I remember from Jedi Knight 2 - one control panel opened one of three doors in a room - every time you pushed it, the next door in the sequence would open.

I'm not sure camera functionality is doable, but if you know how then more power to ya.  (:

Kobra

Sounds good Coil, but still is there a way to prevent the commander from opening the doors in the first place?
It's just those 3+ doors i want to be only interactible by those buttons and not the commander.

TychoCelchuuu

the trigger_presence (i think im new at this). The commander doesnt count as being there, to cause a presence, right?

coil

I'm not sure if that takes care of itself, Kobra, or if special measures need to be taken... it *may* take care of itself, since you'd be applying a multimanager to the situation and everything.  You'd have to ask someone with more experience; most of mine is just theoretical.

Kobra

You might be right. Other then that i guess i'd just have to try it and se if it works or not.

Im going to put up the layout for the map when im finished polishing it, so ya all can get a more accurate picture of what im talking about.