Too complicated for a title (to do with triggers)

Wow. I can't even begin to think how I'm going to explain this. I've been playing around with it for an hour and I'm almost there, but now I need something that Hammer may not have, but I'll ask you guys before I try to think of something else.

Ok this is the scenario:

I'm making a fun little map for 2-3 players, and this morning while I was riding my bike, I got a splendid little idea. I wanted to make spawn points where a player may choose to play with a selection of weapons. I'm planning to balance it out. Say, a shotgun and a 357 in one booth, an RPG and a crossbow in another etc. Now I made this by making a door which closes instantly as you enter the booth with weapons, so that those weapons are the only ones you may choose. After you leave the booth, the trigger reopens the door for the next person that spawns.

All the explanations aside, I'm going to try and get down to exactly what my problem is. If I use a trigger_once, it cannot be reset, so if I trigger the door once to close, it cannot be done again. If I use a trigger multiple, the door will open and close according to my triggers, but having looked around the properties of the trigger, there is only a "delay before reset". Now I'm wondering if it is possible to have another trigger which triggers the trigger to reset, so that when I leave the area it can be reset, rather than automatically resetting itself after a given time, making it possible to wait inside.

If this stuff didn't make any sense, I can fully understand, my brain almost melted before I figured out how to word this.. ok ok, let me try to simplify it down to the exact problem I need fixed: What I want is a trigger that resets another trigger. Can that be done?

Thanks gents.

That was a good boiling-down for a question, I must commend. For the record, I don't map for the original Half-Life engine, but through several of the entities you've already named, it should be as simple as the placement of them that makes the difference.

Ok, so the weapons are either sitting on the floor, or hanging on the wall, or on some kind of table waiting to be picked up. In order to make this work (while although my ignorance of the goldsource engine is probably overlooking a more elegant solution), I'd imagine, it might be as easy as placing a thin door-sized trigger volume (trigger_multiple) that will trigger the doors to close once the player hits it. So, you'd want to place it ever so slightly within the booth, so that it is exactly (or at least) one more unit away (within the booth) from the door than the player is wide. That is, the width (or depth) of the player volume as represented in Hammer, will give you a space amount needed to make sure the player is all the way in the booth before it tries to close on them.

Second part: The second trigger volume (which shouldn't touch the first) should be located on the floor or whatever surface the guns occupy only immediately around the guns. So, you can be sure that touching the volume=picking a gun up. Doing so opens the booth door, and resets the first trigger for the next player.

Does that make sense? There are a few discrepancies, but I figure it best be left to someone who knows the goldsource engine better to clarify or give another option.

But that's me just trying to be helpful without making too many false statements

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Heh, yeah that's exactly what I did, but the problem lies with the resetting. I can't set the same trigger to do two things. If there's a way to set it to do two things, I'd have the problem solved.

And also with a trigger multiple, it seems like it can only be reset with a time delay, so just staying in the booth would make it reset within some time frame and reopen the door. So you see my problem. It would be good if I could set the door to reset a trigger once it has been opened/closed. Can that be done I wonder?

Well again, I'm not familiar with the Goldsource engine, but in Source, you have the ability to enable/disable a brush-entity like trigger_multiple. And and entity like that could disable itself with the !self command for target field on trigger, and be enabled by another trigger/entity.

If that's possible, you're set. Otherwise, all the player is doing is running in to grab a weapon, if the booth is as small as a telephone booth, then I'd imagine a 1-2 second reset timer, wouldn't be an issue, because it's so cramped, by the time the player grabbed a weapon, they're ready to run out. They wouldn't be allowed to use the booth as a safe point.

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

Oh you've just given me an alternate idea that could work if I don't solve this. I could add another trigger that releases deadly gas or whatever before the weapons respawn, which would force the player to go out..

I'll play around with the triggers a tad more, then I'll move on to this idea.

Thanks for the help Riven

Sounds great, albeit a bit forceful, what with the deadly gas and all...

But if that's an incentive to leave the booth, then you have a winner I imagine! -Even if that winner, would otherwise kill players

Let us know if ya find your answer!

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

As far as i remember, there is an option for func_door which says "door stays open" or similar. If i remember correctly, you can still trigger doors with that option. So the easiest solution would be to put a trigger triggering said door into the spawn zone and another one at the exit of the booth.

Have you tried a Trigger_multiple targeting a game_player_equip to give the player weapons then mabye a trigger teleport afterwards to clear out the player?
You could make it one-way with a func_push.

Game_Player_Equips can be customized to give a specific set of weapons/ammo.
You can set one up like a Multi_manager except with the different weapons/ammo instead of targetnames.
Then you just trigger it with a "trigger" entity and it gives its loadout to the player that triggered it.
And yes, this does work with the newer versions of Half-life as I have played around with these recently.

Good luck on a solution

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Now remember kids. Asking questions is a good way to get censored by the government.

Thanks for all the assistance guys. Hmm I've figured out the best solution to be a door that opens, and then a fire that blows from the ceiling, before the weapons re-spawn, that way nobody can be in there while it's re-spawning, and time delays work perfectly.

...Only problem I found was, I'm very rusty with the entities, and have no idea where to start looking for a fire, with the sound and all. I thought there'd be an env_fire but there isn't. I might start a new thread officially asking for help making fire.

In any case, problem mostly solved. Thanks for all the suggestions gents!

you guys really need to play Gollums maps. He will teach you a few things about entity trickery. He actally needed the Spirit update to be invented to even complete his last Masterpiece.

A true Master that Gollum.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Just a quick thought: wouldn't trigger_relay do the trick?

Orpheus said:
you guys really need to play Gollums maps. He will teach you a few things about entity trickery. He actally needed the Spirit update to be invented to even complete his last Masterpiece.

A true Master that Gollum.

The map/mod that's nearly impossible to find hosted? Yeah, everyone should get right on that

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Crono said:
The map/mod that's nearly impossible to find hosted? Yeah, everyone should get right on that

That doesn't preclude the genuine quality of his creativity. True level editors don't need to have them played often but they do need appreciation.

I agree however, getting a server to host would dampen the distribution a bit. Still, Gollum was/is a Master at the trade.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

I've seen this done before. The map name is called "Danger Room", and the bsp is simply danger.bsp. I might have a copy rattling around somewhere if you want it for an example.

Here is a link to a screen shot.

Danger Room Display Case
Warning: Banners and popups

The way the map worked was that it stripped players of all of their weapons when they spawned and they would spawn into an "Observation Deck". In the observation area were four buttons, each with it's own display case (pictured above). Clicking the button would activate a teleport that would send the player into the arena and use the player_equip entity to give them the weapons they could see in the case. This eliminated the need to wait for items to respawn.

I can't remember for certain it the teleport and equip were simultanious, or if the player was sent through a "teletube" where the equipping would occur before being spit out into the arena. I think it was instantanious.

D-Gen

Edit: I tried to link the picture directly but "access denied!" and I'm not in a place where I can upload it my self. Changed screenshot to link.