Need The Pros Help (i'm looking at you TDE)

[Fender357]

Hey guys. I want to do something, but I don't know how to do it yet. So I need your help. Basicly this is what I want to make.

An Elevator that...

When its trigger button is pressed, falls from its resting position at the top of the elevator shaft, killing anyone in the elevator shaft.

Then... Have it raise itself back up to is starting point and set itself ready to drop again.

I also think I need help with having it so that, the person who presses the button is show as the person who kills the people squashed by the elevator.

So...pros....show me how to do this.... also I understand triggers a bit(i've can make an env_tesla spark when you go through a target and whatnot, but I don't know much past that),I just understand that the triggers and stuff for this will be a bunch more complicated than that. And I don't know what to do.

 

[poseyjmac]

where does the trigger button reside? in the elevator, or outside?

 

[Fender357]

Ah, good question. Its outside the elevator at a stationary point. Basicly like a room above the elevator shaft (but to be technical the elevator shaft is in part of the room, its like a 4th floor, with all 3 floors below it open to get into the elevator shaft.....bah...i'm bad at descriptions...i'll put up pictures in the next post)

But yeah, button not on elevator.....but in room by elevator......



And after thinking about it.... I let out a large DUH..... this is just like the car trap in hl2......but with an elevator...... so.... this isn't some groundbreakingly hard new thing.... Only really hard part i see is the whole kill logic thing... I have no idea how that works.

 

[Viperidae]

Well, depending on how realistic you want the elevator to be, it can get from relatively easy to pretty hard.

You can use something easy like a train or a door for the elevator, or you could make it suspended by ropes, which is much harder to do.

Tell us exactly what you want.

 

[Fender357]

Hehe, ok. I want a rope attached to it...but I don't want the ropes pulling it. I don't like the wobbly kind of physics you get out of doing that.

I DON'T want a working elevator. It's only movement is going to be falling down and going back up.

Also... I have a ladder in the shaft. I'm going to have the elevator shaped so that it fills the entire space of the elevator shaft, but I'll make it so it dosn't go through the ladder, but it will still kill anyone in there or on the ladder.

 

[Fender357]

Here are pics of the elevator.


http://img167.exs.cx/img167/9572/Elevator1.jpg

http://img167.exs.cx/img167/2380/Elevator2.jpg

http://img167.exs.cx/img167/3496/Elevator3.jpg

http://img167.exs.cx/img167/8457/Elevator4.jpg

http://img167.exs.cx/img167/3946/Elevator5.jpg

I've been working on this map for the map contest, but seeing as how its my first, I'm taking it slow and I obviously didn't finnish in time for the contest. Now I'm just taking my time with it and making sure everything works out ok. I fixed that problem I had a little wile ago with too many brushes. But I can't compile anymore because of the problems I'm having with my computer. If I leave it on too long it just shutts off and I can't get it to stay on for more than 5 minutes. And the compile seems like its going to take about a day to do. So I have to get the time together to compile it on my GF's pc.

And I also havn't show any pictures of this map before, if anyone wants I'll get together pictures of the rest of the map. Its an apartment complex next to my house.

 

[MI77]

If all you're after is something that goes down suddenly and rapidly when you hit a button, just make a door that is triggered by the button, moving down with a speed of 1000 or so and doing lots of damage if blocked... you could probably put a button _inside_ the lift that used the SetSpeed input to make it go down slowly...

Attaching ropes should be as easy as parenting the end node of the rope to the top of the 'door'.

Hope that's of some help....

 

[ray_MAN]

Do you mean like the trap cars in Ravenholm? The ones you would drop on zombies? No idea. :E

 

[PvtRyan]

I imagine you could best use a phys_constraint on the elevator and it's turned off (use Output > TurnOff) when you push the button. Then it's lifted up again to the same position after a certain delay, and the constraint is activated again (TurnOn). For the lifiting up part, I don't know what's the best way to do this in HL2, never had to use it.

 

[Fender357]

I'll have to toy around with the door thing. I don't know if that will come out as realistic as I'd like...or if it will actually be just right.

And as I said before. It isn't a funtioning elevator. You can't even get into it. Doors are closed. It'd be screwed up if someone jumped in as it was raising back up because they'd get trapped. Well....actually......

:naughty: I got some ideas now.

Yeah, I'll have to try this stuff out when I get home. Hey...whats the fastest way to compile a map that you can physicly play in? I know VVIS off. What about the other 2? What can I set those at? I just recently figured out that you can compile without certain things so you get a good readout of any problems in the log but you don't have to wait more than 5 minutes to see it.

 

[Viperidae]

BSP is a must, but lighting and vis arent necessary.

You'll most likely want to stick with a train, it will be easiest to manage the speeds with.

 

[Fender357]

I thought lighting and vis were the same thing? Do you mean Vis and RAD ? What is Rad anyway? Thanks though Viper. I'm going to start messing around with this right now.

 

[Fender357]

Ok...need help with this again. I've got it so that the elevator falls nice and all. Makes all the cool sound.. I even added an env_shake. But now.... how can I get it to go back up again and reset? If I make it so that the elevator dosn't stop at the bottom (or just start up again after a couple seconds, it will have the same sounds set to it and I don't want the wall scraping sounds going as it rises up. Can you guys help me figure this out?

 

[Viperidae]

Basically vis = makes the map lag less, rad = lighting and shadows.

For the elevator, if you want the sounds to be different, you can use ambient_generics instead of the default sounds with trains (or doors? don't know which one you used). So, when it's falling, it triggers the scraping sound (which loops) and when it stops it turns it off. When it rises back up, it triggers a different sound, like a motor, which you can stop when it reaches the top again.

 

[Fender357]

Basically vis = makes the map lag less, rad = lighting and shadows.

For the elevator, if you want the sounds to be different, you can use ambient_generics instead of the default sounds with trains (or doors? don't know which one you used). So, when it's falling, it triggers the scraping sound (which loops) and when it stops it turns it off. When it rises back up, it triggers a different sound, like a motor, which you can stop when it reaches the top again.

Ah ok, I'll try that out. Thank you much Viper.

 

[Fender357]

OK.....help again guys. I've got my elevator going pretty good now...I just have a problem with the speed. I have just the two path_tracks and it goes donw and up and stops at the top no problem now. All I need is for it to change its speed after it hits the bottom path_track. I've got it set to do that...but it dont! So whats up with that?