Ideas for security mechanisms.
| Author | Topic: Ideas for security mechanisms. |
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Warrior
Member # 126
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written Monday, June 28 2004 10:11
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Entering a dungeon and just running in and fighting the enemies right away can get a tad boring at times, and you can only use the old "guess the password" or "find the key" gimmicks so often. Here I intend that we share ideas for interesting security mechanisms that more intelligent enemies might have placed in their lairs and dungeons. I'll start off; This one is awfully simple, really. In a special pop-up decision-box dealie(like what happens when you walk up to a turnable wheel that opens gates, you get a choice between turning it and leaving it alone.) should pop up when you enter the room that has the control levers in it. Your Brave Adventurers would have to choose the correct sequence to pull the levers(or other things) from choices presented in the choice-box. It would probably be best that you give the player fair warning that a trap could be sprung on them if they choose the wrong sequence, like saying "There are suspicious little holes in the floor here" (the old spike shooting-up trap). It would be good if there were some way to find the proper sequence, as well, like how you can find maps and passwords and things off of people in some of the Avernum games. If they choose the wrong sequence anyway, you get to describe their grisly death by the trap, or you could simply have a bunch of enemies waltz in and attack, if you want to give the player a chance to escape. It's the sort of thing you COULD get right after a few reloads, so I guess it's not very good, but I'm sure that you all can think of better ones. -------------------- Fly beyond the ocean, over the mountains, past the moon and across the face of the sun, never to come home again. Posts: 161 | Registered: Monday, October 8 2001 07:00 |
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Shake Before Using
Member # 75
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written Monday, June 28 2004 13:12
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Instant death traps are typically de-recommended. Unless a place was built to be sealed off forever, traps are mostly designed to inconvenience the victim or alert guards - in an inhabited place, even if the inhabitants are an evil cult, the risk of accidental death would be too high. EDIT : This doesn't apply to hastily-constructed traps, which are usually intended to be death traps - but are also usually either manned or one-shot. Posts: 3234 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 4180
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written Monday, June 28 2004 13:20
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quote:Actually, that's A Good Thing(TM), IMO. There are players who get very frustrated with hard-to-solve puzzles. Having a builtin way to bypass the frustration (reloading) helps those players. That's one reason riddles tend to be a popular mechanism for sorta-kinda impeding player progress. They're multiple choice, and by process of elimination, you're guaranteed to get it right in a limited number of tries. :) That is, if you're blocking progress to a required area. If it's part of an optional quest, make it a hard puzzle and let the people who don't care to puzzle it out just miss out on the fun. :) Standard disclaimer: That's all just my own opinion, of course... -------------------- -spyderbytes Posts: 200 | Registered: Wednesday, March 31 2004 08:00 |
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The Establishment
Member # 6
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written Monday, June 28 2004 16:51
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The best innovative puzzles, in my opinion, fit logically into the dungeon. Puzzles for the sake of having a puzzle should be eliminated. -------------------- Your flower power is no match for my glower power! Posts: 3726 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3276
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written Monday, June 28 2004 17:15
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Well, I have a Laser Mine terrain script, but, it's a little, off. I still haven't figured out how to make it fire once each time the party moves instead of contuining to pummel them until they die :( Terrain Scripts with inovative ideas that fit with the dungueon are pretty good for stuff like that. That is once you learn to script them... Posts: 249 | Registered: Saturday, July 26 2003 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3276
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written Monday, June 28 2004 17:17
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Edit: Accidental double post. [ Thursday, July 01, 2004 07:04: Message edited by: GIFTSare2nice ] Posts: 249 | Registered: Saturday, July 26 2003 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 4531
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written Tuesday, June 29 2004 20:36
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Another realistic trap would be to have an entry room with locked/secret doors to hold any intruders up for a minute. Then, during that time the guards examine them and decide whether to manually trigger the collapsing floor/falling rocks/concealed spikes/whatever. This would reduce the change of accidentally getting the wromg guy. As for ways to get through the trap, besides the obvious ones (secret passages, passwords, keys), the characters could have to dress up in clothing and armor looted from other guards, or perhaps have a certain character with them in order to make the guard think they're friendly, or just fast-talk or bribe him into letting them through. Posts: 32 | Registered: Saturday, June 12 2004 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 154
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written Wednesday, June 30 2004 08:04
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Keys...keycards. :) It'd be like a portcullis, except it would require a keycard to open and close after you'd gone through it (like keys, but faster, more practical, and the re-locking behind you is automatic.) Another interesting mechanism would be say, a vault door that required two guards to be present at opposite ends of the outer room to insert two keycards simultaneously, thereby ensuring that noone can enter the vault alone (discouraging unauthorised theft). There's also airlocks. You could have the above mechanism, and inside the vault would be a passage, at the end being another door or something, followed by the treasure/etc. Inside the tube would be a key/keycard-operated lever of somesort. This would close the entrance and open the end-door, and vice-versa. That way, you could only get into the actual vault if you operated the lever while in the passage, and if an intruder entered the passage, you wouldn't operate the lever, and you'd have to die to get into the actual vault. And once you'd opened the end door, the entry door would be closed and prevent further intruders until you pulled the lever again to leave. Another mechanism could be, say, you had to flip a switch in a nearby room to open a door, or something. [ Wednesday, June 30, 2004 08:11: Message edited by: Grey-Eyed Stranger ] -------------------- Apparently still annoying. Posts: 612 | Registered: Saturday, October 13 2001 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 286
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written Wednesday, June 30 2004 23:25
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If anyone's played Half-Life, there's a bit in the introduction (the first chapter, before the disaster) where you're getting let into the experiment chamber thingy, and two scientists have to do retinal scans at the same time at opposite ends of the room to let you through. You could do a similar thing with keys or keycards; so to get through, you'd not only need the key/keycard, but you'd need to enlist the help of an NPC or glue the keycard into the slot. :D Or if the player is smart and has more than one PC, they could just go into combat mode and give each keycard to a different PC... :) -------------------- Z: "I just feel so insignificant." Psych: "You ARE. You're an ANT." --Antz Posts: 104 | Registered: Saturday, November 17 2001 08:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4202
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written Thursday, July 1 2004 00:19
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...but if the designer was evil the devices could not be activated in combat (like standard wheels used to open gates)... -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 | Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3276
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written Thursday, July 1 2004 07:09
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A good idea would be a rune that blocks the party, but the party can never get through because it is not relavent to the game. AND if they decide to cheat and use end combat to bypass that rune, you have a trap which teleports the party all over a big room while dragons pummel them, then show a message_dialog saying that "the only way you can get in here is to cheat, so, you cheaters will be punished!". Then put other traps that keep blasting them... Good punishment for players using that end combat to pass special encounters.... Posts: 249 | Registered: Saturday, July 26 2003 07:00 |
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BANNED
Member # 4
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written Thursday, July 1 2004 08:02
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Bandits II. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3022
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written Thursday, July 1 2004 11:45
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Hmm... I want to do a puzzle based on conway's game of life. (should be possible with the new scripts) Have the player make a glider gun, or something. :) But I wonder at how I can possibly justify it... Posts: 269 | Registered: Saturday, May 24 2003 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4202
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written Friday, July 2 2004 01:05
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quote:Use blocked spaces, they're foolproof. Unless of course you are intentionally trying to catch people trying to use that cheat. ;) -------------------- Creator of the 3D Blades of Avernum Editor for Mac. Get it at Ingenious Isaac's Illusion, my web page. Better yet, get Battle for Wesnoth, a wonderful free TBS game. Posts: 192 | Registered: Sunday, April 4 2004 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3276
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written Friday, July 2 2004 05:55
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quote:I AM intentionally trying to catch people using that cheat. That would be funny when the player passes the rune, gets the message that they cheated and will now die, and listen to them say "oh clap." Posts: 249 | Registered: Saturday, July 26 2003 07:00 |