Hucklebarry on 29/5/2026 at 18:55
Sorry for the annoying questions, I'm coming up short finding thorough tutorials and AI is laughably terrible at piecing the complex dromed history together:
I'm trying to do a silly thing that is small, but now I really want to figure it out. I'm using dead rats as keys to a certain chest. In theory it's similar to how Murus worked in Thief Gold but I also can't find good tutorials on that setup, so I went a different direction.
Every time you successfully unlock the chest, it is destroyed and another spawns. (6 in total). You are meant to find rats around the level, kill them, and turn in their corpse for a reward. After the last chest, you get an extra item. The keys have to stack because I don't know what order people will find them in and the chests are in a set order of teleportation. (I tried masterkey and it didn't work presumably because its a chest and not a door).
Part of the side quest is finding the rats, so the key must be destroyed upon use to prevent someone from using the same key for all the rewards.
If the player unlocks the correct chest once and then clears the inventory and opens the chest, All of this works shockingly well save the reason I'm asking here:
1. If you click an unlocked door with a rat, it will consume the rat. Also, if you click the correct unlocked chest again before opening it, it will relock it and consume the rat. Both are unwanted behaviors.
2. I found a fix that will prevent rats from being consumed by unlocked doors, but this breaks how they are consumed and the entire stack will disappear (or none will be consumed).
A. This is further complicated by keys not clearing after opening a lock, which might be tempting to click the unlocked lock again, rather than just click to open the chest.
My fear is the player will lose "keys" accidentally making it impossible to get all of the rewards.
As most of Dromed and scripting is over my head, I'm really looking for solid tutorials if they still exist.
Thanks for your time and for being a part of community that still exists after all these years!
Edit: it might also help to know that the video shows picking up dead rat keys, but they are actually spawned as the corpse, so you have to kill the living rat to get them, which complicates making changes to concrete items
[video=youtube;qX6yWD33JWk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX6yWD33JWk[/video]
john9818a on 30/5/2026 at 23:12
I'm not sure how you have things set up in dromed, but adding Game -> Damage model -> Slay result and set it to Normal, the key will disappear as soon as the key is used once.
I remember vaguely another FM author had the same exact problem but I don't remember which FM it was. :o I do remember the player had to collect coins and use them in certain places. Unfortunately they would be consumed if used on anything that was frobbable.
How are your keys set up?
Hucklebarry on 1/6/2026 at 03:06
Quote Posted by john9818a
I'm not sure how you have things set up in dromed, but adding Game -> Damage model -> Slay result and set it to Normal, the key will disappear as soon as the key is used once.
I remember vaguely another FM author had the same exact problem but I don't remember which FM it was. :o I do remember the player had to collect coins and use them in certain places. Unfortunately they would be consumed if used on anything that was frobbable.
How are your keys set up?
I've followed so much garbage from AI answers I can't remember all the things I've tried, but the current, and most usable setup I've been able to find is to use ammo and stack counts. Slay is set to no effect. If I remember correctly, turning that to normal treats the whole stack as 1. I tried separating the keys, but Master key doesn't seem to work on chests (or I'm doing something wrong) and I can't predict the order players will turn them in without master key working.
john9818a on 1/6/2026 at 11:26
In my last FM Alterna Crystallis 2 I set mine up so that the player had to use each mask on specific objects so it was really simple to implement. It's not a big problem if the player has to carry a number of keys as long as the number isn't excessive and they player can use them at any time.
Whenever you have a stack of keys you're basically carrying one object so any deletion will delete the object of keys along with the stack count.
If the chests are to remain in the mission, you can make each one FrobInert as soon as they are unlocked. That would prevent the player from relocking the chests.
Hucklebarry on 1/6/2026 at 19:09
Quote Posted by john9818a
In my last FM Alterna Crystallis 2 I set mine up so that the player had to use each mask on specific objects so it was really simple to implement. It's not a big problem if the player has to carry a number of keys as long as the number isn't excessive and they player can use them at any time.
Whenever you have a stack of keys you're basically carrying one object so any deletion will delete the object of keys along with the stack count.
If the chests are to remain in the mission, you can make each one FrobInert as soon as they are unlocked. That would prevent the player from relocking the chests.
Thanks! I'll replay your mission and check it out. I think what you are saying is to use 6 different chests, where only one key unlocks a specific one? That was my original thought, but since this is more of a sidequest, I was hoping to reduce backtracking. I was also thinking of including a mild 4th wall breaking note that mentions not to use the "keys" on anything except where they belong, but that is not ideal.
Hucklebarry on 2/6/2026 at 17:37
Quote Posted by john9818a
In my last FM Alterna Crystallis 2 I set mine up so that the player had to use each mask on specific objects so it was really simple to implement.
wow. I thought I had played everything up to a point, but apparently I missed this one. Well done. I'm only a couple of hours in on your first in this series so I haven't found the "objects" yet :p Several things occurred to me about my mission while playing yours:
1. Good, I didn't put too much loot in after all.
2. Good, I thought I had too many secrets, apparently not.
3. I thought my mission was a bit big, now I realize its extraordinarily tiny.
4. I thought my mission was turning out ok... now I think it may be garbage :p
Thanks for all the effort you put into that, it's been very enjoyable.
john9818a on 3/6/2026 at 04:01
Thank you! Honestly I put more time into making my missions than I should. I used Source & Receptrons with the masks and each mask has a unique stim. That is how each one can be used on only one object. I think my map in that mission is less that 1/4 of the maximum total area. :)
Is it possible for you to upload your mis file somewhere so that I can take a look at your issue with keys disappearing?
Hucklebarry on 3/6/2026 at 13:04
Hey, thanks for offering to take a look. I chase rabbits in design, so you might need the gamesys or other files. I've added each separately so you can only download what you want: mission, gamesys, or full mission in its current state which is a bit of a mess.
(
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hb1c6fZ08prNpandDpqEwtdGgtXQvRzw?usp=sharing)
The keys are in a large blueroom, I usually just drag them over for testing. The chest is 'A Footlocker (2407)'. There is a rat near the chest that paths the hallway that circles around by the chest. When you kill the rat its corpse is destroyed and a key corpse is spawned in its place. When you open the chest you should receive 100 gold and see an effect indicating the rat is consumed. Another locked chest replaces it to simulate that more rats can be delivered. Unfortunately, you have to open the lid after the unlock. This could cause another rat in the stack to be consumed by locking the chest back, if you don't clear the key in inventory first. Then they can be consumed using on non-locked doors. If you use all 6 keys successfully, the chest fully opens and a large explosive is rewarded that can be used elsewhere but isn't required.
Thanks again!
R Soul on 3/6/2026 at 22:01
A few things for tidying up:
It doesn't look like the TrigDoorOpen script is doing anything. TrigClose is a new one. Where does that come from?
Where does the script NVClearInv come from? From the name it should be obvious but no mention of it in the documentation nor in a text search of the .osm. Was this from a custom build (e.g. from one specific FM)?
john9818a on 3/6/2026 at 23:31
Ok so far I've removed the NVClearInv script and associated Design Note from the RatKey -8211, and I added the Game -> Damage Model -> Slay result to Normal. Now the rat key works only on the footlocker. I tested it on a nearby door and it did not disappear. I think NV's script was allowing the object (rat key) to be consumed when it was applied to anything frobbable.
Robin is correct about the TrigDoorOpen script. The Container script that is already on the foot locker sends a TurnOn when the foot locker is opened. I believe it does not send a TurnOff when the foot locker is closed again. I too am not familiar with the TrigClose script.
I'll keep looking as long as I can find another rat. :) So far I found only one. I still think it would be better to have six different rat keys with different KeySrc parameters so that the keys don't combine in inventory. This way, once a key is used on it's respective foot locker, the key will disappear and the other keys won't work on the wrong foot lockers & thus disappear at the wrong time.
