Gamemode Hidden Door / Button - Rules
#1
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Title of Suggestion: Hidden Door / Button - Rules

Description
Currently there are no concrete and written down rules for hidden rooms and how to access them besides "keypads must have cover" (which makes them unhideable).

However, the requirement for cover on a button is not necessary (quote from an admin, not necessarily written in rules). This allows buttons to be hidden for things like secret doors. (like a bookshelf that 'rotates' or 'slides away' (fading door) to reveal a hidden vault)

However there's no clarification whatsoever on how hidden a button can be, or even if it can be hidden (though at least 1 admin has quoted that hidden buttons (not keypads) are ok.

Had a situation today where my base was raided and an admin reviewed my hidden door / hidden button at the raider's request and started saying rules like "it must be in the same room at least", "must be only so well hidden" which is fine, but there's nothing written down about these rules in the current server rules which is a problem with enforcing those rules.

For context, here's the hidden door in the above situation:


https://imgur.com/a/uqLdzCR
(the bookshelf is the hidden door)
(the hidden button is under the table)


Personally I think hidden rooms / buttons should be allowed to stay with some balancing.
Some rules suggestions:
  • "Hidden doors must be opened by buttons only (no keypads) and must stay open when pressed, rather than forcing raiders to hold down the button."
  • "Hidden buttons must be a button prop, not something unrealistic like using a couch pillow as a button"
  • "Hidden buttons must be in the same room as the hidden door" (debatable, I think it's better to set it to a certain range)
  • "Hidden doors must be realistic - i.e. a bookshelf covering a hole in a wall, not magically fading away an entire brick wall"
  • "If a hidden door leads to a prop block admin call, the owner of the door may privately disclose the location of the hidden button to an admin without necessarily exposing it to the raiders. The admin will then pause the raid and review whether or not the hidden door setup breaks the rules or is unbalanced and then advise / give the location to raiders if it breaks the rules." This is primarily to protect hidden door owners from people threatening to call an admin for prop block because they can't find the button. They shouldn't be forced to give IC information on a valid hidden door because of threatening to call a sit.
  • "Hidden doors must follow regular fading door rules such as not being placed too close to a map door or another fading door, only having 2 fading doors before being able to reach a given location"
  • This one I will leave up for debate: Should hidden buttons have the "raiders cannot be forced to crouch/jump to navigate your base" rule applied to them?
  • "When basing, hidden rooms cannot be used in the same base as other defensive structures (such as bullet proof cover props, firing positions) (keypad doors might be exempt from that)"
  • Alternatively, hidden rooms could be banned altogether instead?


I think hidden rooms have some potential for some more interesting, clandestine bases like Corleone's setting up a freestanding shop outside city as a front for their hidden weed farm. It also adds another layer to aggressive RP and prompts more in-depth police / criminal raid searches. It makes sense that some criminals would want to lay low having something like an innocent looking shop or apartment as a front rather than having a visibly fortified base defended with heavy armor and heavy weapons whilst also having a chance of successful defense / not losing their contra if they do get raided, if the raiders do not find anything amiss / find the secret door.

Why?
If you're going to enforce this kind of thing it should be written in the rules for clarification because at the moment there are no hidden door/button rules, so it's pretty much a toss up whether the admin will approve / disapprove of a hidden button placement. One might see the hidden table button https://imgur.com/a/uqLdzCR and approve, another might disapprove later, and so on.

It doesn't really do well to have admins in situations like the one I mentioned above simply coming up with conditions on the spot like 'it should at least be in the same room', because other admins might not think of this in similar situations for example which makes rule enforcement inconsistent at best. Important things like base rules need to be consistent in this regard.

The rules around hidden rooms / buttons need to be standardized and written down to avoid misunderstandings, avoid situations where one admin approves yesterday and another disapproves today, etc.
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#2
I don't think hidden doors were ever a problem. If a raider doesn't know it exists and misses it during a raid, then more luck to you. If they find it, all it takes is one molotov or breach and the door is gone with all the props around it.

If the raider in your example knew about it being a door but couldn't find the button, he was just butthurt and called admins. It's kind of metagaming to some degree if you think about it. FL is not a singleplayer RPG like Skyrim where you loot a cave, find secret puzzle with guaranteed opening chance and getting loot inside. He could have scoped out the place, find out where button is by observing you through windows, planning on taking some breaches and so on in the first place. During raid he could have realized he doesn't know how to open it, so plan another raid in near future, or camp near your base to catch you off guard while you're moving stuff inside, ...

Maybe I'm overthinking everything, but in the past it was either obvious that part of the house is blocked off in a sketchy way (good example are V4B1 villas) in pre-existing buildings, or hidden compartments would just be burned and blown away in free-standing buildings around the map.
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