9 replies to this topic

[Exate]

A long time ago back in my 1.90 days, I think C-Dawg mentioned in chat how to make more than one lock block. I wasn't interested at all, and didn't bother to listen. I'm currently in sumemr school, but the last ten minutes of class I use to plan out levels for SDR. And currently, I've been mapping out level 4. I planned a key hunt after getting the magic boomerang (4 keys total), and I thought of four lock blocks in a room at once. It only took me a few seconds to think of what to do. And surprisingly enough, it worked! I dunno if C does it like this, but here's what I told Nick in chat:

<PolygonX8> Anyways, it's easy.
<PolygonX8> I put four lock blocks on the screen.
<PolygonX8> And started myself with four keys.
<PolygonX8> It just uses a bit of combos.
<PolygonX8> L1 -> ground
<PolygonX8> The next block:
<PolygonX8> L2 -> L1 -> ground
<PolygonX8> The next:
<PolygonX8> L2 -> L2 -> L1 -> ground
<PolygonX8> The last:
<PolygonX8> L2 -> L2 -> L2 -> L1 -> ground
<PolygonX8> L2 is lock block 2, L1 is a lock block.
<PolygonX8> It keeps triggering them.
<PolygonX8> So they switch to the lock blocks in the combo page.

And for those that need a picture example, I got one.
Red = lock 1
Yellow = lock 2
Green = lock 3
Purple = lock 4


There you go. Take note that they must be in an order for this. I've never even seen this used before, so hopefully it'll have a use to many. If you have any questions, just ask!

-=OFF TOPIC=-
http://www.purezc.co...=ST&f=7&t=12906

[ShadowTiger]

.. Oh, I get it. So the main concept here, is that there's only one lockblock "active" on the screen at a time to unlock, so there's still something that you can trigger on each screen. It's wonderful. I love it.


So Cool. It's things like this that make ZQuest so addictive. Learning new things. ^_^ And figuring out how to do what you can't do from what you can.

[lord_jamitossi]

Hmm... Interesting. Well found.

I suppose the only real draw-back is that they all must be in order, so that you don't use a lock in lock #3 and have #1 open.

A quick idea, could this sort of thing work to have a single lock block that needs four keys? Like, if you were to design a sort of lock that rotates a bit with each key, and then after all four are in it would open. And if you wanted you could have lock block 2 combos amidst the screen too, I suppose.

Oooh, you've just given me a great idea. Thanks a lot.

[Radien]

I tried this once, but... either I didn't do it exactly as you said, or there's a problem with this method.

The problem I ran into was that anything beyond the first lock block would reset when returning to the screen. You could conceivably place a trigger that changes all the lock block combos to "unlocked" combos once you walk across a certain portion of the screen, but that means you'd have to force the player to do exactly that without fail. If the player somehow quit or left during the middle of it, it would reset.

X8, have you actually tested this yet? Try unlocking only some of the locks and see if they reset when you leave the screen and come back.

[Exate]

Ah yes, Radien has found a flaw. I tested it, but I never thought of leaving the screen. No matter. I will find a way around this. In fact, I just thought of one this second.

Triggers won't work. Because they reset as well with tiered secrets. The solution? The one solution that fixes almost everything... pits. The ground should be a pure lock block 2. The dungeon ground should be layered over thus preventing having to use many combos for a pit tile. The lock block 2 ground will flip to a pit warping you to the next room with the loss of one lock block. This way, it'll save. Leaving and walking back in will have you warp through the rooms and see the blocks disappearing. Strange, yes, but it's flawless.

I thought of some other method when entering the room, but it'd look very weird.

In any case, with multiple screens, it should work.

Now... I just thought of something off the top of my head. A way for two lock blocks per room that can be opened in any order. Block 1 quickly combo cycles between a "nothing" tile and a lock block. The second block is the same, but in reverse order, causing them to alternate. Now if ZC is quick as how I think it is, it'll open one block, and the other will remain.

Ah heck... I'll test it right quick.

...interesting...
It ate all my keys instead! I just ran up to it, and all four keys drained out. *tries to give it two frames per block*
Ah, same result. Well, so much for that idea.

Aside, this technique here can work correctly if pits are applied to the rooms warping you between a few screens.

[ShadowTiger]

Yeah, that'll work juuust fine. I recall one quest where it did that, and it really did work perfectly. Sometimes, it's just best to use identical screen for a lot of your tricks. :\

[Theryan]

I get it... but I don't think I'll use that in my quest.

[linkdude81]

This could definately be useful in the future. Of course, I'll have to get that far in a quest first, and by then I'll have forgotton about this.

[Shoelace]

Yes, I use this trick also (As it is used in "The Hero of Dreams"). However, I kept it to two key locks, because of the flaw. The only thing is that if you open two locks with two keys, and then left the screen again, you can accidently use another key, on the same lock.

So the way I fixed that is after I used a permament trigger that is revealed after the second lock. Which would keep the second one locked. Anyways, if you want I can explain it a lot better I can. But I am in a little rush to post this.

[Radien]

Ah yes, Radien has found a flaw. I tested it, but I never thought of leaving the screen. No matter. I will find a way around this. In fact, I just thought of one this second.

Don't get too caught up in overachieving... the trigger method may still work well enough to have two lock blocks per screen, even if it can't handle four. Just make sure that you have to open one of them first before advancing to the other one. The first one could be treated normally, but then make it such that you can't open the second one without subsequently walking over some trigger perm. combos.

I could go into detail, but it'd be a pain to describe, and I'm sure you can figure this out on your own. It's no harder than what you've already done. It just involves having "lock block twins" turn into "trigger perm." combos.

Anyway, I could use some of these techniques I suppose, but... really... it's just so much easier to alter the dungeon design slightly. After all, having locked doors far away from eachother is not usually bad dungeon design. I'll probably have occasion to use it once or twice, though. Eventually.