Lens of Truth

[Joe123]

The Lens of Truth seems to not display secrets on layers. Is this intentional? If not, how do I sort it out?

And what does the 'Show Lens Hints' rule actually do?

Because at the moment the Lens of Truth just seems to be not very useful as I was intending to use it. It shows up secret combos underneath layers where I have layer 1 on the top, and doesn't change what secret flags I've put on layer 3.

This is for 2.10.

[Pineconn]

No, it doesn't show secrets on layers, unfortunately. I'm not sure if it's a bug.

The rule displays an icon on a flag when you use the LoT. For instance, if you have a bomb flag placed, the LoT will display the picture of a bomb on top of it.

[Gleeok]

Wait a minute! isn't there a flag for this! I believe its like 80ish somethingorother and it's called lens marker flag or something....sorry, I forgot it's name. It's a flag that doesn't do anything but shows a secret when you use the lens. Couldn't you just place one of those on layer 0?

[Joe123]

Yeah, it's flag 14, the 'Lens Marker Flag'. It make that tile flash when you use the lens of truth on it - which doen't help everything else ever looking stupid because the secrets on layers don't show up.
Is this a bug that's fixed in 2.10.2?

[Gleeok]

I don't know that it's a bug or not. I've never needed to put secrets on layers before. I didn't even think untill now that you could. sorry, this wasn't much help.

[Joe123]

You can put flags 16-32 on layers to have secrets on layer 0 change them. What I had going is walk-though walls via layer 3, so I had the doors on layer 0 and a wall over the top that you can walk beneath. I wanted to have flag 16 on all of the combos on layer 3, so that when you use the lens there, it removes that layer, and you can see the door. Just didn't work though. Maybe I'll use the amulet instead.

[Pineconn]

The most effective way of using the Lens of Truth is like this:

Make a room with all spikes. Make a new combo that looks like those exact spikes but does no damage, and make a path from one door to the next with this combo. Place either flag 14 on the path, or flag 16 -- if flag 16, which I do, make sure you make the secret combo look like a normal floor combo. When you use the Lens of Truth, you will be able to get across the spikes without harming yourself.

[Joe123]

Thanks
And I'm sure I could devise lots of effective ways of using it, but the problem is it looks rubbish in other places if you use it there. Like I have a screen where the whistle triggers a secret. Whistle secrets aren't permament, so I put a permanent trigger as one of the flags. I put it underneath layer 1, where there's a normal tile. When you use the lens of truth, you can see what tile the trigger is. Looks very unslightly. I could fix it by making a single combo I know, but there are quite a lot of instances like that. And also I'd like it to work in the way I was explaining earlier. Walk-through walls are one of the most appropriate things it could be used for in my opinion.

[Gleeok]

Yes, secret combos.:redface: that's how i use them, and they look a bit more sightly compared to the lens marker flag. I completely spaced that. I misunderstood what you were trying to do.
This is also interesting but I can't seem to figure out how to make it work.

In a guy room, you use the lens and the current message string is replaced by another string! Any idea's?

[Pineconn]

No way. That is very interesting indeed, but I really don't think that it is possible.

[Gleeok]

Yeah, what I had in mind was the first string being a clue that makes no sense, and when you use the lens you get another cryptic mesage to decode the first. Combine that with an entire "mystery dungeon" and the result will make you want to pull your teeth out with an icepick.;)
This probably needs the layers thing to work though.

[Joe123]

Wow, that's a really good idea. You could just place the words down as combos, but if you had to do it all on layer 0 it would be very time consuming. You could also have him in a house with two rooms. The first room would just be a passageway, but when you look at it with the lens of truth, there's something that you would trigger to make him change what string hes saying.

[Gleeok]

Wow, that's a really good idea. You could just place the words down as combos, but if you had to do it all on layer 0 it would be very time consuming. You could also have him in a house with two rooms. The first room would just be a passageway, but when you look at it with the lens of truth, there's something that you would trigger to make him change what string hes saying.

Yes..that gives me a similar idea! Not quite as mysterious, but way, way less time consuming. good find.

My recent revision was to enter a guy room, then have insta-warp to an identical mockup room where I placed an exact replica of the string using combos on layer 0, then used flags 16 - 32 as secret message combos, and finally a scrolling warp to exit...

...well thats when I punched myself in the nuts because there is no f#cking way i'm gonna go through all that.

Thanks Joe. ;P

[Joe123]

Sounds good to me, what's wrong with it? too time consuming?

[DarkDragon]

You could also script something using the new Screen->Message() command.

[Pineconn]

Yeah, I figured that you could have put the string on combos, but I knew that you couldn't do it with only a string and a guy. Putting the string on combos wouldn't look right since it wouldn't appear like a normal string.

And I don't know beans about scripting. ;)