So I've been trying to make a button which causes part of the wall to move out to create steps so the player can walk up to an otherwise inaccessible area. I had some trouble getting it to work, and I think I did... but I have no idea why it works.

Basically the button is a regular func_button and the two steps are func_doors. My initial setup was to have the button trigger both doors, each of which has a different lip key (they are the same length in the direction that they move) so they form steps when opened. When I tested this, however, they both moved the same distance. Then I set it up so the button only targeted the bottom step, and the bottom func_door targeted the top one. When I tested *that* they didn't move at all.

My next plan was to return to the original trigget setup, give the func_doors the same lip key, and make the bottom func_door longer in the direction that it opens so it would extend father before reaching the "lip distance"... but before I tried that I went to fix some other things and just deleted all targets and targetnames associated with the top step so that only the bottom one was set up, leaving the top a normal func_door with no trigger setups... and *this* made it do exactly what I wanted it to do.

So why did my first attempts not work, but my third attempt (which was not even a real attempt) did? 

Are your steps(func_door's) touching each other?

Try the "Don't Link" spawnflag under the "flags" tab(or wherever you set entity flags in your editor).

Should be good to go. 

http://imgur.com/a/KjrgN

after one week i'm starting to build rooms.
my first room!

it's weird. i never made any type of art, but i can see pouring my creative energies in this way.

but the monsters don't get any ilumination when they step above the bars

i have a func_wall with skip textures because monster don't walk otherwise. i tried putting a regular brush with skip or clip textures and it didn't work.
but, in any case, that's not important in this room.

the problem is when models step above the bars they get rendered totally black. even when i move all the brushes to world 

Create a func_button with "target = steps"

Create a func_door(s), your steps, with "targetname = steps"

^^^ steps need to be separately created as func_doors or they operate as one. You probably know that.

If your steps touch each other set the "Don't Link" spawnflag.

You have to set direction for the steps. In this basic setup without modifying any lip values the button will open the doors in which ever directions you set for a distance of their length minus 8 units.

Hope this helps.

Also, the button triggering one door and then that door triggering the next door... worked for me. 

I believe monsters(models) take their lighting form the "lowest" floor.

Meaning that, wherever the monster can walk(horizontally), all lighting needs to be consistent across 3D vertical space for the monster to be lit correctly.

I recently had this issue as well, it drove me crazy. 

@damage_inc, they are touching; I didn't know touching func_door brushes would "link," that's probably what's causing both the "correct" and "incorrect" behavior. I think I can puzzle out what is going on.

And now for an unrelated question, which texture WADs have some cool stained-glass windows? Aside from id, rogue, and knave. 

Off the top of my head, there's a large one in Chicosruin. 

I set this off always. Most of the time it's not what you want.

Daikatana has some stained glass textures as does Wolfenstein (RTCW). 

Why Door that should be open after trigger_counter calls it, it opens when some other door opens near it? Don't link doesn't work, I tried all kinds of possible combinations and nothing. What should I do? (yes, I'm doing vanilla Quake map, no mods) 

I know you just stated so but be sure that ALL func_doors near the issue have Don't Link checked. It could be just one side of a door that is the culprit.

Secondly, make sure there isn't a targetname on one of the func_doors that could be causing an issue. Triple check both sides of the doors just to be sure. (Assuming you have 2 sides to each door.) 

how does one force mobs to infight? 

Setting aside the possibility of an elaborate high radius, low damage explosion with the owner somehow being assigned to a specific monster and initiated with negke-like trick ...

It is not possible because monsters do not look for other monsters, they look only for player.

Maybe you could change the QuakeC, but then it isn't id1 progs. 

Thanks, I'll check those WADs.

Finally... would Nihilism Unlimited care if I put the zer tree model into an AD map? I'm looking at the zer readme now and most of those emails look like they're dead as a doornail. Alternatively if anyone has an uo-to-date info for someone on the team.... 

Darin McNeil (the main Zer programmer) works at id, maybe you can ask them: http://www.idsoftware.com/en-us#section-contact 

It's a pretty shoddy model from a 1997 freeware mod, you can use it. 

Aren't there brush-modeled trees in some of the AD maps? If you're concerned about this, you could just copy these as the sources are included and permit re-use. 

in the top floor section, where you fight the necromancers. 

I just made an asset for quake trees.
Maybe there's something of your interest?

Q1Tree 

Is it a thing that a fiend will cause double damage if it leap attacks you while you are in midair?

I have a section where you are swimming upwards, and a fiend has a chance to leap at you. Every time I get hit by the leap I die instantly. I even had Yellow armor at 100HP! 

sounds like the fiend instagib bug where a fiend will kill you if it lands on your head - this has been in quake right from the start (feature lolol) 

Ah that describes what is happening. Hmm, I basically have an insta-kill "trap" at the moment. I'll have to re-work something. Thanks Kinn! 

it happened to me being gibbed by one of that leaps
you may be right, but i can't recall correctly when or how much health i had

but the player can be gibbed normally, because gib threshold for the player is -40.

acording to quakeC
damage of leap:: ldmg = 40 + 10*random();

perhaps the demon is jumping again in mid-air? 

The fiend deals damage in every every frame to each entity that it collides with, until it is resting on the ground. In a normal sideways leap the first collision stops the fiend's horizontal movement, so it doesn't collide with you on the second frame because it's not moving towards you.

Two things go wrong when the fiend attacks from above. Firstly, landing on a player doesn't count as resting on the ground for the fiend, so the attack animation continues after it hits you. Secondly, although the first collision cancelled its vertical motion, gravity accelerates it down again next frame, so you get repeated collisions. It isn't doing any more damage than normal per collision, it's just multiple collisions that stack to create near-instant death.

In Quoth there's a crude fix to this problem - leaping monsters can only inflict damage once per leap. If you're mapping for the vanilla jam then there's no workaround other than making sure the fiend can't attack from that far above. 

Thanks Preach, that about explains every facet of the fiend dilemma I could be having. I moved the fiend back a bit and his jump hasn't one-shot me in about 10 tests (Since you are now more or less horizontal with the bastard at the time.) I may leave it this way or just slap an ogre down instead. 

.. do Fiends have eyes ?