Locked Doors

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Revision as of 06:52, 23 January 2012 by Saabie (Talk | contribs) (multiple directions)

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Many adventure games use locked doors to keep the player out of certain area's until they have completed earlier parts of the game and obtained the key from where it was hidden, or were given it by another character as a reward for completing a quest.

A locked door blocks the path between two locations, so it must exist as a static object in both of them.

You could place a separate door object at each location, but then it would be difficult to synchronise them so they are both open, closed or locked at the same time.

Fortunately ADRIFT provides a better way. You can place a single static object in several locations by using a location group.

Open the "Groups" folder, right-click on it and select "Add Group" to open the New Group dialog.

In this example i am creating a door between a hallway and a study, so i enter an appropriate description, ensure the group type is set to "Locations", and click on the boxes next to those two rooms to tick them:

NewGroup.JPG

Press "OK" to save the group, and then add a new object to your "Objects" folder.

This will be the key that unlocks the door. Give it a name and a description then switch to the properties tab and make it a dynamic object so that the player can pick it up and carry it around.

BrassKey.jpg

Put the key somewhere the player can find it by setting its "Location of Object" and "At Location" properties.

Create another new object. This will be our actual door object, so give it a name (wooden door, red door, study door) and a description.

StudyDoor.jpg

Select the Properties tab:

  • Set the "Location of Object" to "Location Group" using the dropdown list.
  • Set the "At Location Group" property to the location group you created above.
  • select the following properties for your door:
    • "Object can be opened and closed" (Selecting this allows you to select the next two dependant properties).
    • "Object can be locked" (This adds Locked to the Open Status selections, and the Key for lock property).
  • Change Open status to locked.
  • Select your key object from the "Key for lock" dropdown.

LockedObjectProperties.jpg

  • Edit one of your door's locations and select the Directions tab.
  • Add the link to the second location to the direction that leads to the other side of the door, if its not already set.
  • Click the IconNewRestriction.jpgnew restriction button to create the object restriction:

RestrictionDoorLocked.jpg

  • In the text box of the description is written a message to be displayed if someone tries to go through the locked door when it is not open.

IconWarning.png This message wont actually be displayed in the game until the next version of ADRIFT is released.

DirectionsTabWithRestriction.jpg

  • Depending on your settings this restriction may be copied to the second location automatically, or you may be asked if you want to. If not, then duplicate the restriction in the second location for the opposite direction.
  • The door will now block movement in both directions, until it is unlocked using the key.
  • If there are multiple directions leading through the door, such as "north" and "in", then you need to add the same restriction to all of them.

Describing the two sides of the door differently

If you want the two sides of a door to have different descriptions then you can create Alternate Descriptions using restrictions on which of the two locations the player is in.

  • Right-click the description text box of the door object and select "Add Alternate Description"
  • In the new text box tab, type the extra details that only apply to one side of the door. (This will be displayed following the Default Description)

DoorAltDesc.jpg


  • Click on the IconNewRestriction.jpg button to add the following restriction:

RestrictionPlayerLocation.jpg

This will cause the description of the brass knocker to only be appended to the description of the door when the player is in the front yard.

  • You can also add an extra description to the other side of the door by creating another alternate description and giving it the restriction that the player must be in the other room.
  • If the two sides of the door are completely different, then just change the compositing option of the alternate description from "append this to previous" to "start description with:" using the drop-down list to the right of the restriction. Then write the description for the other side of the door on the "Default Description" tab.

CompositionOptions.jpg

Latched Doors

Construction.gif

When a game requires the player to periodically return to a home base it will often provide a short-cut to a later area that only becomes available after the player has completed that area.

One way to do this is to have a door that can only be opened from one side.