Secret doors [poll]

Do you like it when secret doors are inset (like in the screenshot below) or would you rather they be flush?



After making a bug report about the secret doors in the new Gothic Mansion all being misaligned, I was told that it was intentional. Personally, I think that when they're inset it looks bad and spoils the "secret door" aspect.

 

Kinda obvious if you can see a door that it's not secret.

 

Every 'secret' door is like this, and it is unfortunate! Plus, watching my cursor turn green just because it moves over a 'secret' door doesn't make it very secret either. I would prefer I could not tell a secret door was there (assuming good craftsmanship, or magic), and I think Reveal Hidden should show the doors some way.. and give a d&d-esque Find Hidden Doors skill in Subterfuge. If they can begin by fixing one house, I guess that's a step in the right direction!

 

Not a great "secret" door is it then? More like a badly hung door?

 

I think the only home without really obvious secret doors is the Lord Marshal. At least one of those is hard to spot.

 

The knight benefactor, knight founder, baron frigate and obsidian town tower are all really good implementations that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

I didn't know the knights had been fixed. I forgot about the Obsidian town.

Since I'll never be able to own the Frigate, I try not to look at them too much so I didn't know. No sense in killing my self with envy.

 

Yeah, most of the secret stuff in SotA is pretty easy to detect. What ever happened to being able to use a shovel to dig in any random spot in the game?

 

Portalarium brand super secret door? I almost submitted this to the bug forum because the baseboard is missing, but this is normal?

 

I totally agree secret doors could be more subtle for sure.

 

Just for comparison, here are some examples of what I consider well implemented secret doors:

 

The baseboard is missing across the bottom of the secret door on that first screenshot, similar to the one I posted.

 

There's no baseboard on the whole wall, so it's OK to me.

 

Yes, but look at every other section of wall in that screenshot you posted and you will see a baseboard along the bottom. It really stands out to me, especially with the misaligned boards at the top of the "secret" door.

 

Well you need to have a chance to find secret doors. If you truely don't see them at all and don't have a clue where to look for them or that you have to look for them it will be darn frusttrating for any player when you are stuck and don't find your way to complete that quest. So yes, it may look obvious when you know where to look, but it will be very difficult to create a more "natural" look for secret doors on the computer.

 

Your cursor turns green when over any door, even the secret ones.

[edit] Actually, that's not entirely true. There's a secret door in Britanny castle that requires more deliberate searching.

 

I agree with @Nadomir, I want to have a chance to find them while exploring the dark caverns and dungeons of Novia. Also, in my haunted mansion, I hope people will check out the scene I set up inside one of the secret rooms If it takes too much effort people won't bother looking :3

 

Eventually I'm sure all "secret" doors will be mapped and known, especially the ones in player houses since all houses are the same. Therefore it would be nice if the ones in houses were of higher quality and design and actually appeared to be secret. I think this topic is mainly about the artwork in player housing.

As for dungeons, it might be more interesting to have a Detect Hidden skill that would be necessary to use secret doors of varying difficulties. Otherwise, once all secret doors are mapped and known, there's not much point to them anymore.

What would be really cool is if there were a few procedurally generated dungeons that would be different every time they were entered.

 

Just to clarify, this is about secret doors in player houses, not secret doors in dungeons. It's all about the aesthetic, as they are completely obvious as soon as your cursor (or reticle) is over them.

 

Houses are way to known to be super secret , but they should not be as obvious as shown in the duke's house ... sure I'm a little bias but man no baseboard Boo , LOL