Secret Passageway Entrance.

The secret passageway in Lord Dalkstan's room is entered via a trapdoor opened by a switch. The switch also lowers a portcullis at the same time to stop any hostile creatures from following. The initial trapdoor was thought up and implemented by Garrotte - so credit must go to him for helping. This is the first I have looked at how he made it work, so there may be errors.

Step A - The switch or button

First you must choose either a switch or button. In Thief 2 I used the premade torch switch. In Thief 1 I altered a book to act as a button. To set up such a book you need to give the book a StdButton script (standard button):

Go to properties->add->s->scripts

and enter StdButton in the "Script 1" field.

Step B - The portcullis.

The portcullis is a standard portcullis with frob info, dimensions and translation altered. It is set within a thin air brush so its top is barely visible. If there were no airbrush it would suddenly come into view when half-way into its "open" position.

There are two ways to make the portcullis unfrobbable. The first is to give it the metaproperty "FrobInert".

    Select properties->add->MetaProperty->FrobInert.

This method seems to be somewhat unstable under optimising and I have noticed it undo itself on a few occasions.

Alternatively you can set all frob info to none.

    Select properties->add->inventory->frobino.

    And untick all options in the drop-down menus.

This method does appear to be more stable, but at times setting frobinfo this way seems to generate a group of "An Object"s at 0,0,0 - something which is cured by saving, exiting DromEd and reloading your mission.

Dimensions are set in the usual way:

    Via the left-hand boxes

    And the model->dimensions settings.

The last stage in preparing the portcullis is setting its translation.

    Double click on door->translating in the properties window.

    and alter the fields within to suit your mission.

  • Closed Position: The portcullis's closed position. 0 is the point at which the portcullis is placed within the level.
  • Open Position: This is where the portcullis opens to. The amount is in feet. If it were a rotating door, the amount would be in degrees.
  • Base Speed: The speed at which the portcullis opens and closes. Set it to your liking.
  • Axis: The axis along which the door will move. In this case we wish it to move downwards, so choose the z-axis.
  • Status: The position the door starts in.
  • Hard Limits?: This - I think - determines whether or not the door is affected by gravity whilst moving, causing it to travel slightly beyond the predetermined points.
  • Blocks Vision: Determines whether or not light passes through. In this case it does not.
  • Blocks Sound %: The percentage of sound that is muffled by the portcullis.
  • Push Mass: The mass which the portcullis can push out of its way.

Once you are happy with the settings, you need to link your switch/button to it with a Control Device.

    Select the button/switch and choose "links" (bottom left)

    Select add

    and apply the following settings:

    • Flavor: Control Device
    • From: Switch/button
    • To: Portcullis
Test to see if it works in game mode, fine-tune the settings and save.

Step C - The trapdoor.

The trapdoor is a modified secret door that is teleported away when the switch/button is used. There are several alterations to make.

First set it to be unfrobbable using one of the methods above. Also set the dimensions to match your requirements.

Now we need to determine whether it needs to be rotated at all after it is teleported. If you are moving it to a "blue room" or a large area of solid, this step is not needed. If however, you need to place it in a tight area this may help.

    Select properties->add->Tweq->lockstate.

    And set the target angle to the angle you require.

Now place your TeleportTrap to where you wish the door to be moved and set up the following links using the above method:

  • Flavor: Control Device
  • From: Switch/button
  • To: TeleportTrap

  • Flavor: Control Device
  • From: TeleportTrap
  • To: Trapdoor

Go back into game mode, test, make any alterations you wish and save.

Step C - Making the trapdoor look (and sound) the part.

The secret door starts out with a big "0" on it. This is a texture which can be replaced with a texture of your choice. To do this:

    Find the name of the texture you wish to apply by pressing ALT+G, selecting the texture and noting its full path in the middle of the white bar at the bottom.

    Select add->properties->shape->TextRepl0 (replace texture 0)

    and enter the path you noted in the box

Your door should now have the correct texture, but it may be too bright/dark and stand out. You can either hide it with appropriate lighting, alter the amount of "self illumination", or a combination of both to reduce its visibilty. The lighting is down to the individual mission design. The self-illumination is altered by:

    selecting properties->add->renderer->self illumination

    And setting it to an amount (0=none, 1=maximun) which fits your mission.

Once you are happy with the way the door blends in, you need to set it to the appropriate material type so it doesn't sound out of place when you walk on it. A stone floor that sounds like wood is a big giveaway.

    Select add->properties->MetaProperty->materials.

    And choose the correct material type from the cascading menus.

You should now have a fully functional, properly disguised, secret entrance.

Go to Index/ Tutorials