New Dungeon Setup

[*b*]

ZQuest's current dungeons are beginning to piss me off. The limitations on both Interior and NES Dungeon DMap types make it so you can only have a dungeon with no rooms, or a dungeon with rooms only (By that, I mean the entire dungeon is either one long corridor, or has one-screen rooms seperated by doors)

So, here's what I'm thinking. A new DMap type, obviously, but one with the following features:

- PERMANENT secrets. Neither Interior or NES Dungeon types have permanent secrets, and in some cases, this is a very annoying thing
- Door Detection. When Link passes between screens where a door has been placed (By the Doors menu, obviously), ZQuest will detect that and make him move forward two tiles when he enters the following screen. Otherwise, Link's screen transition will be the same as normal. Or...
- Auto-Walk. To allow for more freeform doors, maybe a side-warp-like system where you select which edge, or edges of the screen triggers this. When Link moves to the next screen via that edge, the next screen will make Link move forward two tiles

To accompany this, there are a couple other things that would make dungeon making a lot easier as well:

- Auto-Complete Door Combo Sets. Clicking the graphic of the door you want to set will take you to the combo selection page as usual, but instead of having to set each tile, you only select the upper-left corner, and ZQuest will assign the appropriate combos to that door
- Door Placement Flags. Sort of like the 'item appears here' flag, there would be one for each direction. Placing the marker at the edge of the screen will make ZQuest center the door over that marker. Maybe for convenience sake, the marker will be the size of the door you're placing (2x2 or 3x2 tiles)

I know it's asking a lot, but as it is, there are so many restrictions on how dungeons are set up, they don't make use of a few features that they really should, like layers. And with bigger Link tiles, layers are pretty much a must have for making accurate dungeons. (Come on, a 16x16 hole in the wall can't fit a LttP Link). Dungeons are like the one thing nobody has bothered to mess with, and they're outdated

[The_Amaster]

Me likey me likey. This actually walks the line for me between "Implementable feature" and "too complex until after 2.5". I'd love to see all of these.

[beefster09]

OOOH I thought of something that would also make doors a lot easier. It works kind of like relational/dungeon carving modes, only it's with doors. Actually it's like a cross between alias mode and dungeon carving mode.

And actually some things are already possible due to the DMap options in B16+

[*b*]

Well, the main thing that would make dungeons better, for me at least, is the permanent secrets. I'm fine with using secret combos to make bigger bombed walls and other stuff in dungeons. Honestly, I've never been clear as to why that works as it does

[CJC]

Well, the 'Walks into rooms' thing could be pulled off with the use of an invisible raft, raft flags on the door paths, and port combos as the foot of all your open doors...


Seems like a waste of the raft, though. Maybe they could jig up a system that works like that, but without the raft... like 'Door' combos (Which start and stop the auto-movement) and 'Door Path' combos (Which guide the movement, like the raft flag.)

That setup could even be used to recreate the pipes like the ones seen in ALttp's Turtle Rock level.



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Auto-Complete Door Combo sets would be a huge asset, but only if you're using the door menu. What would be even better is the option to 'place' doors from that menu on the screen, instead of toggling them like before.

For example, instead of setting 'shutter' to the right wall, you would highlight the right shutter door (By clicking, double click changes combos) and then place the cluster of tiles like a normal combo. The door would open as a normal shutter does (Thus saving secret flags), and would give you the option of freeform placement.
Of course, for the sake of backwards compatibility there would need to be a 'Doorlock' checkbox which snaps these to their pre-coded positions on the grid.
Other benefits of this would be the ability to easily place shutters in the middle of a room, again saving extra flags.

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...I thought we already had permenant secrets. Isn't it a screen flag? I haven't opened the program in a while, so I'm not sure. If not, then it's a good idea. Even if it 'is' there, having a dmap type that already contains that parameter would save a little time.

[*b*]

...I thought we already had permenant secrets. Isn't it a screen flag? I haven't opened the program in a while, so I'm not sure. If not, then it's a good idea. Even if it 'is' there, having a dmap type that already contains that parameter would save a little time.

We do have that option, however it dosen't work. I tested it out, so unless it's a bug (which I never considered), it simply dosen't work with dungeons

[The_Amaster]

Yeah, that one has to be a bug, cause for like 3 betas, the "Treat as Cave Rom" screen flag worked fine.