For the first time I'm attempting to make a more elaborate trap than the usual array of stone fall and cage traps.
I've opted for a small maze that any goblins/orcs get forced into by raising a bridge spanning a pit in my non-siege entrance. Somewhere along the maze, the attackers are supposed to trigger a pressure plate, which causes the maze to seal up with floodgates (or are doors still impervious to water pressure?), and causes a flood gate holding back water to open up, drowning whoever's trapped in the maze.
Afterwards I have a lever which causes the maze to drain out into a large chamber where I expect the water to evaporate (there is a distinct lack of chasms/pits on this site).
I'm having a little trouble getting all the triggering logic straight, though. Here's a picture of the situation:
The hallway marked 'Water Source' would be filled up with water at all times. When the goblins or orcs trigger the yellow pressure plates, the floodgates at the Entrance and Exit should close, and the floodgate at the water source opens up in order to flood the chambers.
The two hallways encircled in green are signal inverters. (The chairs are parts of a bridge above a channel, which raises to the south; blame the tileset).
If I'm not mistaken (which I might be; it is saturday night and I have had a beer or two), what I need to do is link up the yellow pressure plates to the bridges of the signal inverters as well as the bottom-left floodgate (so it opens up and floods the area).
The pressure plates inside the inverter are water-triggered and will in non-siege situations be flooded with water, sending the ON signal to the floodgates at the entrance and exit, keeping them open for enemies to stumble into the maze.
However: I believe the pressure plates will immediately send the OFF signal when the entity that triggered it steps away from the pressure plate. This would cause the floodgates and bridges to open/close for only a split second, which is not quite enough time to kill even the most water intolerant bug, let alone a big bad orc.
So what I'm wondering:
- Is there something I'm missing in this design that will cause it to fail no matter what?
- Do I have to fill my entire maze with pressure plates? As you can see, there are some downward stairs at the bottom-right side of the maze. At the level below, there's another detour for enemies to take, as well as the (lever triggered) water drain. So filling it all up with pressure plates would take ages
- Or is there a simpler solution?
One thing I can imagine is having the pressure plates in the center open up a floodgate, which then lets water onto another pressure plate, which will as such stay triggered and will as such keep sending the ON signal to the floodgates that need it, but I'm hoping there's a faster way (even though that really isn't that complex to make).