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1) Contents

What is key-trapping?

Jails r sux

Dummy Doors

Dummy Doors - alternate designs
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Key-trapping

What is it?

The objective is to trap the key in a room, thus forcing the raiders to get a new one

This is done by methods such as:
   - Clan jails: If the key ends up here, it is (theoretically) stuck here.
   - Air-sector rooms: Raider corpses, mob corpses, and items will float down, hopefully into jail
   - Dummy doors: Forcing raiders to bring the key in to test the door

Jails

I gotta start by admitting a personal dislike for these things.

In theory:
   - Raiders are supposed to be the ones ending up in here.
   - The jail door is never supposed to be unlocked

In practice... guess what? :P
   - The key holder usually safely avoids this place
   - Defenders are the ones landing up here
   - And they yell to be let out, so the clan opens the door
   - And the raiders get the key out.

So I'm looking forward to the day I can title this section "A Historical Perspective"

Dummy doors

What is it?

A little-known and little-used technique, at least amongst the clans I've seen.
   - My personal favourite ('cept I couldn't get it imped ):
   - The main drawback is the large number of room vnums required

Let's raid the clan above:
   1) Having killed the guards in the clan above, raiders need to choose 3 exits.
   2) We send 3 markers in each direction, while the key-holder waits in the guard room
   3) These 3 markers report a single locked door as the only way out.
   4) Hunt doesn't help, since they all lead to the same place.
   5) The key holder is thus FORCED to bring the key into 1 of the 3 rooms at random.
   6) If the key doesn't work, all of them have to suicide out, and wait for the guards to repop.
   7) Even after repop, they have eliminated only 1 room (if they left a marker in the wrong room).

The average number of tries to get the right door is [(x+1)/2], where x is the number of rooms

And you can add your usual jail as shown in the next picture - just make it identical to Rooms 1-3

By the way, when I say dummy key, I don't mean the one in help clanupgrades.
   - My dummy key actually works, just that the raiders can't get it)
   - It could be loaded at the end of the maze (by which time it's useless), or in the clanhall(may not be legal though))

Now you may be asking... what is the difference between Room 2&3, and a normal jail?
   - The main difference is that the dummy rooms are effectively un-openable.
   - Secondly, they do NOT lead out of the clan.
   - This of course, is going to create even more problems for allied-defenders who end up here
   - The solution? See the next section.

Dummy doors - alternate designs

©1999 - Winnie

The first difference I want you to notice is the extra portals in this design (Part 1)
   - As you should know, you cannot be intimidated into a portal, so this is defender-friendly.
   - Therefore in the main guard room, there is only 1 exit, and that is into the jail.
   - To proceed to the next stage, you HAVE to do so actively (i.e. enter a portal)
   - Good points: Defender friendly, and requires raiders to kill the guards before entering portals.
   - Bad point: Less random(after the 1st successful navigation), as portals do NOT repop randomly.
   - Bad point 2: Portals cost much more than random exits.

The other variant this maze shows are the doors in Room 2 & 3.
   - These doors lead back into the SAME room. (Yes, this is Lasher-Approved®, I checked :)
   - This means you will NEVER EVER get out of the room, even with the key, except via suicide.
   - This is useful when a dummy key is not feasible, for whatever reason.
   - Disadvantage? VERY defender unfriendly. (A clan member will have to go in and suicide out to do a defender's CR.)
   - The other disadvantage, is the raiders may be able to use HUNT, as the rooms as now unequal.

Note that these 2 are INDEPENDENT of each other - you can use one without the other.
   - But if you DO use the doors leading back to themselves, you'll probably want the portals...
      ...unless you want unhappy, intimidated defenders. :)


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