practical uses of single-use linedef types

[40oz]

There are some linedef types where using them once seems appropriate, such as a door opening, a bridge raising, a floor lowering, a door shutting behind you, even the fragile one use teleports get some mileage.

But what about Lift Lower Wait Raise, or Door Open Wait Close, or W1 Crusher Stop? Outside of lame one-shot secret/optional areas, I can't seem to think of any legitimate uses for something like that. And there's a WR crusher stop line action that makes the W1 action seem faulty and redundant in comparison.

You are however, not limited to the number of linedefs you want to activate the things. So you could for example, have a control room where there's one or two or three or n number of switches that all open the same door, but you only get that many chances, which puts the caution on the player, but is still kinda dumb if you can't crack the puzzle and deplete all your uses, especially since the common practice is to hit every switch to see what they do.

Are there any maps in the IWADs or in notable PWADs where these actions are put to good use?

[baja blast rd.]

You could use them in service of "semi one-shots" -- i.e., areas of the map are accessible early on via shortcuts when they'll be of prime use, and then later on by more conventional means.

[scifista42]

40oz said:

But what about Lift Lower Wait Raise, or Door Open Wait Close, or W1 Crusher Stop?

The first 2 actions can be used to open a monster closet with monsters who will only then (but immediately and guaranteedly) see the player and wake up, ambush him or possibly teleport somewhere else, or maybe cause some kind of chain reaction with barrels (if you can force the monsters to shoot and blow up barrels) or step on conveyor belts (in Boom), but the closet will eventually close again, which might be desired sometimes (I can imagine either aesthetical or gameplay purposes, but admittedly, most of them wouldn't be critical for the game to function). Also what rdwpa said (as premature shortcuts).

The latter action (W1 Crusher Stop) can be employed if you throw the player into a crusher maze/trap and give him exactly 1 chance to make his situation easier by stopping the crushers in the right moment to pass under them safely. If he screws up, triggers the crusher-stopping action in the wrong moment and the crushers will halt in a low position, too low for him to pass and escape the area, he will need to go back and activate some (conveniently presented) WR Crusher Start action to make all crushers move again, therefore making it possible to progress, but now with an inevitable risk of moving crushers.

[yakfak]

40oz said:

you could for example, have a control room where there's one or two or three or n number of switches that all open the same door, but you only get that many chances, which puts the caution on the player, but is still kinda dumb if you can't crack the puzzle and deplete all your uses, especially since the common practice is to hit every switch to see what they do.

One of the things you can do as a level designer is to deliberately attack common practices >:) ahem

W1 lift lower could be cool for shortcuts, IE, you trigger a linedef which calls a lift down containing a specter... if you're fast enough to dispatch or evade the specter and reach the lift, you can get to a certain room earlier than you would in a sedate playthrough of the stage? perhaps that's what you'd call a "lame" one-shot secret but it looks like replayability to me

[Ribbiks]

40oz said:

lame one-shot secret/optional areas

I too, don't quite understand why these get such a bad rap. Is it really a traumatizing and distasteful experience to miss optional areas/items/whatever?

an alternative usage for W1 lifts, how about monster closets that close themselves? e.g. height <=0 sectors containing monsters, they lower, monsters come out, they won't close if monsters are blocking, but will eventually raise back up. wouldn't work in cl2, but ohwell.

[Da Werecat]

Ribbiks said:

Is it really a traumatizing and distasteful experience to miss optional areas/items/whatever?

It is traumatizing.

But it shouldn't be.