Bunches
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How do they stay up? They fall down into pits when Beethro steps off of them, so that means that there is nothing under them. So wouldn't he fall of? Your comments?

md5i
Level: Master Delver
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They're all held up bylong thin wooden poles (or poles made of legos?). The process of pushing off of the floor to move to another square destabalizes the pole enough that it breaks, dropping the trapdoor.

Well, at least it's a theory...

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coppro
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No, they're connected by little snap-off things like on a grid of plastic squares. You step off one, the backforce breaks it. Things that live in dungeons have learned to avoid knowcking them down, and Beethro (and therefore mimics) have not. Halph is too young to exert enough force to break them. Also, each tile contains an electromagnetic array that is broken when the tile hits wherever the bottom of the pit is. The presence of these arrays holds red doors open.

A flawlessly consistent explanation that also explains why mimics don't drop 'doors when they die.

Mattcrampy
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I always figured that it had something to do with weight. Each trapdoor is able to hold up a neighbour, and taking your weight off it drops the trapdoor, unless you know where to step so that it doesn't. Beethro never really learnt.

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coppro
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What about Halph?

eytanz
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What about trapdoors with no neighbors? How does the weight hypothesis expalain the way they stay up there in mid air?

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NiroZ
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i would say that it is a mechanism that, when pushed down hard enough, breaks a support. but this does not collapse the trap door, but when the weight is taken off, a clever use of springs mean that the door then collapses.

note that this reqires alot of weight(thus excluding tar, roaches, halph etc), and the heavier creatures have learnt to do a special stance that will not break the first support, due to evolution.

trick
Level: Legendary Smitemaster
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Trapdoors doesn't, in fact, exist. They are, along with red doors, just a figment of the Architect's imagination, projected into the mind of anyone entering the room they occupy. When stepping on such imaginary trapdoors, an unexperienced Smitemaster would notice the conspicious lack of anything to stand on, and the trapdoor would disappear beneath his feet, sending him to his death. Experienced Smitemasters like Beethro have, however, developed a defense mechanism: They don't look down. This is in fact enough to stop the brain from noticing the lack of trapdoor upon entering the square it supposedly occupies. The lack of any resistance upon leaving the square is however enough to make the illusion disappear, but by that time the Smitemaster is safely away from the square.

Monsters simply doesn't have the brain power to realize that something doesn't exist even if it doesn't right beneath their noses. Halph, being a child, doesn't see any reason why he should suddenly fall into the depths when the support he should be standing on never existed anyway. And Imperial people are too preoccupied with their jobs to notice anything out of the ordinary.

The imaginary noise that's heard when a trapdoor is removed is however enough to make all minds, regardless of brain power, preoccupation or naive stubbornness, subconsciously register when trapdoors disappear from the room. This is also the reason why red doors have the same influence on everyone.

- Gerry

Stefan
Level: Smitemaster

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These threads may be of interest:
trapdoors
Mimics and Trapdoors: Game Logic

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0.099³

Swivel
Level: Master Delver

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File: therage.PNG (72.6 KB)
Downloaded 63 times.
License: Public Domain

Stefan, you... you..

I was going to post those exact same two links! THEY'RE IN MY TABS RIGHT NOW AND I WAS GOING TO COPY THEM!

I'M GOING CRAZY! NO ONE CAN HELP ME!

coppro
Level: Smitemaster
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Ah, but you see, trapdoors cannot be held from below as seen here:

Chaco
Level: Smitemaster
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However, trapdoors are not blue. Even in AE, where they were several other colors, they were never blue.

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coppro
Level: Smitemaster
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*shuffleshuffleshuffle*

I can make them blue. Any architect can.

NiroZ
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coppro wrote:
Ah, but you see, trapdoors cannot be held from below as seen here:

may i ask why there are spikes UNDERNEATH the trapdoor? it does not make sense.

Maurog
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Let me tell you the sad, sad, tale of the Trap Doors...

Contrary to the common opinion, the Trap Doors are not really an inanimate room element, they were designed as monsters. Also, in their upright position they have the spikes on the top, hiding their soft vulnerable belly. The original plan was that they fly over the abyss and impale delvers and occasional wraithwings on their deadly spikes should they come close enough.

However, floating over the spooky darkness facing the Mothingness is too much for these gentle creatures. At some point all Trap Doors have decided that they are afraid of the Mothingness much more than of some theoretical delver than may or may not come. From that day on, they float upside down, spikes pointed at the unnamed horrors beneath, their bellies exposed.

Only when a delver steps on it, does the Trap Door remember its original design. The ancient instincts force it to impale the intruder on the spikes, but it cannot do so while he stands on it. As soon as he leaves, the poor Trap Door tries to switch to upright position and attack, but alas, it is too complex a maneuver to perform and keep yourself floating...

It is all very, very sad really...

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Bombadil
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Maurog wrote:
Let me tell you the sad, sad, tale of the Trap Doors...

That was very cool but it doesn't explain why when monsters step on them they don't fall (even ROCK GOLEMS!!), or why if you kill a mimic on a trapdoor it does not fall...

Briareos
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Bombadil wrote:
That was very cool but it doesn't explain why when monsters step on them they don't fall (even ROCK GOLEMS!!), or why if you kill a mimic on a trapdoor it does not fall...

Well, probably because they were made to only go after delvers, so they probably only get a bit annoyed if something that doesn't look like a delver steps on them.

And what's the point of them attacking if something else kills the would-be delver first?

np: Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit - Broken Wind Repair Kit (Secret Rhythms 2)

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Blondbeard
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That was a very sad and beutiful tale, Maurog. Poor trapdoors...

bradwall
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coppro wrote:
What about Halph?

Halph isn't as fat as Beethro. Maybe, if Beethro joined weight watchers, he could get through KDD's level 15 with ease.

Ezlo
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bradwall wrote:
Maybe, if Beethro joined weight watchers, he could get through KDD's level 15 with ease.

If Beethro lost weight it would be impossible! Didn't you notice all the red doors?

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Beef Row
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If you really want to know what a trapdoor is, ask any tar technician, mud manager (Or one day maybe a slime supervisor? The Empire's product line is always expanding, after all.) Trapdoors are the native stock from which all these creatures were grown.

Their native life cycle is as follows: A trap spore attaches to the wall above a pit (for proper ventilation), and expands thin sticky threads to connect to another neigboring support, which may be a wall or an adult trapdoor. Across this webbing of threads, a sticky goo forms, spreads, and hardens. This is an adult trapdoor. Contact with the acidic roach blood on a delver's boots triggers the next phase of their life-cycle: the adult body drops away, leaving a deposit of spores attached to the sticky threads that will form the next generation. This is why trapdoors have returned to a room whenever Beethro reenters it. If however a delver of mimic dies while on the trapdoor, the adult has a good meal, has a good (though non-sentient) laugh about it, and life goes on.

Now for the mud/tar connection: The Empire discovered a mutant form of trapdoor that failed to produce sticky threads. Because of this it formed a strange gloppy goo on the edges of pits that never really expanded much and tended to drop off at random intervals. It couldn't release its spores, couldn't spread over pits, and generally seemed doomed to extinction.

Through careful breeding in controlled enviorments using artificial roach blood and captive delvers, the Empire developed a strain of threadless trapdoor that didn't need ventilation from below and so could live on land. These trapdoors expanded to fill all available space, but could not reproduce on their own. The 'mud mother' or 'tar mother' is just the central vital organs of a mutant trapdoor.

PS: Even the Empire does not understand the function of Red Door, but through much experimentation, copied the technology so it would work with their mutant breeds of trapdoors, creating the Black Door, which is therefore also a Black Box. Tar Technicians speculate that these doors were created by a mysterious race lost in the depths of time, while Mud Managers hypothesize that Tar Technicians smell funny.

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Ezlo
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That's so good, I think it should become Canonical! Submit it to the site as a article!

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---

[Last edited by Ezlo at 03-20-2006 07:24 PM]

Beef Row
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Ezlo wrote:
That's so good, I think it should become Canonical! Submit it to the site as a article!

Since you didn't quote anyone, I have to check...you mean my post, or Maurog's?

If you mean mine, thanks! Else "umm, hi and stuff".

How do you submit an article and to who, anyway?

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Ezlo
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I mean you! And I don't know.

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Swivel
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To submit an article, you copy it to Contributions from Above and hope somebody up there likes you, or your content, or even both.

gamer_extreme_101
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Swivel wrote:
To submit an article, you copy it to Contributions from Above and hope somebody up* there likes you, or your content, or even both.

*down there.

I wouldn't mind putting this up, although it'd probably end up in the "Fun Stuff" section unless Erik approved it Canonicity. Still, it would make a nice article. Give'er a post would be my suggestion.

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AlefBet
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I'll tell you why trapdoors stay up until you step off them. It's because they're RED! Red, I tell you. That's the whole reason. Same reason serpents shorten in dead ends and brains just sit there.

Before you tell me that "red" has nothing to do with it, I want you to consider this: do you see any red brains wandering around or charging at Beethro? Show me a brain that does that, and I'll show you a blue brain.

If you're still not sure, there's also this to consider: This is Chewbacca . . . .

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Mattcrampy
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I'm curious to know how many people will get that, but nowadays there's a reasonably obvious explanation: he was stationed there. Wookies have their own planet.

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Blondbeard
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I belive pretty many will get it. This forum kind of seems like the right target

Banjooie
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Mattcrampy wrote:
I'm curious to know how many people will get that, but nowadays there's a reasonably obvious explanation: he was stationed there. Wookies have their own planet.

Mattcrampy, it is a FLAWLESS DEFENSE.

You can't beat it.

Shut up.