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For Builders Creating a Hidden Wall Door
Creating a Hidden Wall Door
Intended Audience: 
By Robert Babiak
This tutorial is based on the original Hidden Trap Door tutorial that used an existing floor trap door item already in the game.
We received many requests for an upright version of the trap door, so BioWare artists Tobyn Manthorpe and Jono Lee have created a new doorway placeable that can be added to your modules. This tutorial uses that new upright doorway to create a hidden wall door.
Summary
Before Detection
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No dungeon is complete without those tricky secret doors that lead to untold
riches... or a horrible squishy death. Mighty BioWare programmer, Robert Babiak, has
created a system that will allow the devious DM to include secret wall doors in
their campaign.
The wall door will remain hidden and invisible until discovered by PCs that
are proficient with the Search skill. |
After Detection |
Basically, a hidden wall door will remain invisible until a PC succeeds on a
skill check. When the PC succeeds on this check, the wall door will become
visible and useable. The location of the wall door is specified by the use of an
invisible object. There is also a Blueprint of the wall door placable object that is
created by the triggering invisible object to provide the door. |
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Importing the Hidden Wall Door Into the Toolset
- Download the Hidden_wall_door.erf (14 KB). Save it to a location where you can find it.
- Download the nwn_plc_doorway.hak (151 KB). Save it to the 'hak' directory where you have installed Neverwinter Nights. (The default location is C: \NeverwinterNights \NWN \hak)
Note: In order to play a module using this Hak Pak, Players will also need to download it and place it in their 'hak' directory.
- Open the toolset, and open or create a module.
- Under the 'Edit' menu select 'module properties', then select the 'Advanced' tab. In the 'HAK File' drop-down select 'nwn_plc_doorway'.
Note: This is how Hak Paks are added to a module. Remember that if you use a Hak Pak in your module, Players must place the same Hak Pak in their 'hak' directory to play the module.
- Under the File menu select the 'import' option. Browse to where the Hidden_wall_door.erf is saved.
- Select OK. Read the Comments if you wish.
- Look in the placable pallet for the two blueprints on the 'Custom' tab.
- Under Miscellaneous Interior you will find Hidden Wall Door and Hidden Wall Door Trigger
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Using the Hidden Wall Door In Your Module
The use of the hidden wall door is based on three things:
- The radius in which the PC can attempt to find this door,
- The DC (difficulty rating) to locate the door based on the PC's Search
skill.
- The TAG of the hidden door trigger. This is used to locate the Waypoint
that the player should be moved to.
9. Open your module in the Toolset.
10. On the placeable's pallet select custom and locate the Hidden Wall Door Trigger.
11. Select it, and paint this object onto your map.
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12. Right-Click the trigger and select the Properties.
13. Select the Tag field and enter a tag for this hidden door. Name it
something meaningful, in this case I will name it 'Basement'.
14. Next select the Reflex Save field, which is used to control the distance at
which a PC can search for this door. Set it to the distance you want the PC to
be able to find this door. In my example I am going to set it to 15 meters. 10
meters is the size of one tile so 15 meters will be a tile and a half.
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15. Now select the Will Save field, which is used to control the DC of finding this door. Set this value to what you wish. In my example, I am going to make it a moderately difficult door to find and set it to a 20. An easy door to find is a DC 15 and a very hard door is a DC 30. An untrained check is based on a D20 roll so anything over 20 will be VERY hard to find. It should be noted that the way this door is written it will be doing a check every heartbeat on the trigger (approximately every 2 seconds) so a player standing around may find it possible with sufficient time.
16. Select OK to close the properties dialog .
17. From the Waypoints pallet select a generic Waypoint and place it where
the hidden door trigger is. This is not needed for functionality but it lets you
find it again easier. This is because the trigger is based off an invisible
object and therefore does not display in the toolset unless it is selected.
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18. Now place a waypoint where you want your wall door to go to.
19. Right click on this Waypoint and select the properties.
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20. Select the Tag field and enter DST_ and the tag from your hidden door
trigger as you entered it in Step 13. In my example, I will enter DST_Basement.
Note: this is case sensitive.
21.Select OK to close this dialog.
22. Now save and load your module.
23. Load your friendly neighborhood Rogue and go stand near your hidden door.
When it is found it will fade in and you will be able to open it. It will now
act as a regular door.
Viewing the Code
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If you are interested in viewing the 2 scripts used to create the Hidden Door functionality, you will find them listed under 'Scripts' directory in the Toolset. Right-click and select 'Edit' on either the 'detectwalldoor' script, or the 'trapdoor' script. Both scripts are well commented and should be easy to understand.
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Comments from Robert B. about the Hidden Door
"This is an extension of the original Hidden Trap Door. The major change for this version was to create a blueprint that had the trap door using the doorway placable and incorporating some of the feedback I have received on the forms.
There are too many people to list here, but I would like thank all the people that posted in the Trap Door thread. The positive comments made the effort worth while, and the negative comments and suggestions for improvements made the trap door better. Those suggestions have been incorporated into this version.
The primary scripting differences between the trap door and the wall door are the name of the blueprint that is created on detection, and an optimization to make the heartbeat stop checking PC when the last PC checked is outside the search radius.
The wall door uses the same OnUse script as the trap door."
