Neat things the puzzle creator can do
So, I know of a few neat tricks a map maker can do using the puzzle creator alone, and I was wondering if there were any others people knew about. I'm sure the things I know about are probably pretty obvious to most people, so I'd love to see some more obscure tricks.
-Turning a one-time activation (i.e., laser target or hitting a box button up in the air using a funnel) into a permanent activation: Connect the one-time "target" to a cube dropper outside of where the player can go, and put a cube button directly under the dropper connected to whatever you want permanently activated. I think most people already know about this one. It's kind to the player to put this connection behind a window so the player can still see how things are connected.
-Making an "or" circuit: The default mode of the game is "and", meaning you have to activate all of the things connected to an item in order to turn that item on. But you can connect up to four laser shooters at a single relay, all on the floor because for some reason this doesn't work if the relay is on the wall, and have any of up to four objects all activate the same thing. Of course, you can get more than four if you use more than one "or" circuit this way. I didn't come up with this; I saw it in a map someone else had made and thought it was neat, and then started using it.
-The perpetual laser: This one's pretty simple. Require the player to use a laser cube and portals to activate a laser target, which then activates a laser shooter that hits the laser cube, freeing up the player's portals but requiring him to leave behind the cube in order to keep the target going.
-The self-activating funnel: This is like the perpetual laser, but for a funnel and possibly non-laser cube, or a sphere. It's much trickier to accomplish from what I can tell. Basically, have a repulsing funnel that hits a portalable wall, and then have another such funnel behind a 90-degree angled panel that starts deployed on a floor or wall opposite a wall- or ceiling-mounted cube/sphere button. The player has to hit the cube/sphere button using portals, and then, with this, you can make them leave the cube behind but have their portals freed up. You need two cube dropper-cube button parts outside of where the player can move to, but one of them should have one extra tile of space between the dropper and button, in which you place a 90-degree angled panel, which does not start deployed. When the funnel pushes the cube or sphere onto the button, it activates the dropper above the angled panel. The button that cube hits will activate the other dropper; the cube that dropper drops onto should activate both angled panels. The one blocking the funnel will fold in, while the other opens up, preventing the first cube dropper from resetting the second one. I've found through testing that this tends to fidget a little bit, but I haven't seen it not work.
Yah, whoever has BEEMOD can use non tricky logic gates though.
Well, I don't, and using BEEMOD isn't what this topic is about. And I'm guessing at least some of these tricks wouldn't be replaced, although I don't actually know. Certainly the perpetual laser is interesting enough to keep around even if it can be replaced by something else.
Yeah, this is more about tricks you can do to make things behave in interesting ways in maps, especially those made with the official editor thing. I don't think all of them are completely irrelevant to use in hammer or BEEMOD maps or whatever, since some just look neat and make interesting things for the player to figure out/have fun with. The perpetual laser that requires a player to leave exactly one cube behind (or actually maybe any number one wants), for example, probably doesn't have an easy analogue done purely through more customizable triggers. Though I could certainly be wrong about that, because I've never used those more advanced tools.
I remember once seeing a trick involving two cube droppers which allowed a single pedestal button to toggle a funnel between forward and reverse, in the same map as the 'or' circuit trick actually, but I don't remember how it was accomplished.
Flipflop - on/off button, could be made with a cube dropper connected to a floor button on the floor below it and another button or something that will be the activator. Put 3 light bridges between the floor button and the dropper, the top and bottom bridge off and the middle one on, and all connected to the activator.
I've often been annoyed at how inaccurately a cube tends to fall from a hard light bridge when it's turned off..but in a one-tile-square tall area that would probably work fine.
Lest I forget, there's also the "Not" Circuit. It can be either a laser pointed at a target, or a funnel with a pre-placed cube and ceiling- or wall-mounted cube button, out of reach of the player in all cases. The funnel/laser is initially activated (or set to forward in the funnel's case), and it is connected to an object in the chamber, so that activating the object will turn it off (or reverse the polarity). That way, whatever the target or cube button is connected to will only activate if the thing connected to the laser or funnel isn't on.
Lest I forget, there's also the "Not" Circuit. It can be either a laser pointed at a target, or a funnel with a pre-placed cube and ceiling- or wall-mounted cube button, out of reach of the player in all cases. The funnel/laser is initially activated (or set to forward in the funnel's case), and it is connected to an object in the chamber, so that activating the object will turn it off (or reverse the polarity). That way, whatever the target or cube button is connected to will only activate if the thing connected to the laser or funnel isn't on.
Or, just make the object being activated start activated, unless you're using a cube dropper.
That only works if the object has just one connection, or if all the connections are supposed to be off. If you want some things connected to the same object to be on and others to be off in order for it to activate, then that's what the not circuit is for.
A NOT gate is activated when the activator is off. What you mentioned was a XOR gate, where specific activators are on and some are off. XOR gates can use NOT gates to function.