[590] Booby trap

At the beginning I want to say that I'm not the author of this trap. But when I've seen it I liked the idea that stood behind it so much that I decided to post it here.
All credits go to the unknown author vllxxe and vampo who has showed me it today.

So here's the basic version of so called booby trap (don't ask me why I named it booby trap even though it has nothing to the real booby trap, I think I just like as a non-native speaker how does this expression "booby trap" sounds :p ):

Spoiler

Cost:
8x = 80 stones
6x = 18 stones
(2x = 20 stones)
= 98 stones (118 stones)
6x = 180 wood

The idea that stands behind this trap is to imprison enemy knight or archer and force him to drink poison or... die by collapsing doors on himself. I liked it very much, it's cheap, simple and seems to be pretty expandable. It also serves as entry for your team. The only drawback I perceived so far in this trap is that it's one-way only as well for your team-mates and as for enemies.

Now, I'd like to proceed and present to you expanded versions of this trap accompaying with bomb-tests. This time, if you can say so, I'm the author these traps. I've just adopted and expanded the basic idea to be more effective. And I guess I succed.

Version 1:

Spoiler

Cost:
17x = 170 stones
8x = 18 stones
(2x = 20 stones)
= 198 (218 stones)
6x = 180 wood

This version is apparently much more stronger than previous which could be easily destroyed with one bomb. I tried to make some bomb-tests over this version in Sandbox mode and here are the effects. The red X stands for where the bomb was originally placed.

Bomb-test 1

Spoiler

Bomb-test 2

Spoiler

But since I have done these tests in Sandbox mode I thought that it's not very reliable because I can't check the damage it does to the knight while bomb explodes. So I decided to invite for exclusive test (:p ) a friend o'mine link6155.

Here's the version of booby trap made on flat map that's going to be tested by link6155

Version 2

Spoiler

Cost:
34x = 340 stones
8x = 16 stones
(2x ) = 20 stones
= 366 stones (386 stones)
6x = 180 wood
1x (jump-pad) = 20 wood
= 200 wood

Bomb-test courtesy by link6155

Spoiler

...and. Yeah! It works! He has been killed while trying to bomb it (yes, he used shield but the damage of collapse just squashed him)!

So, to summarize. I think it's a good trap. Because if it wasn't then I wouldn't share it with you. But why is it good? If it's correctly placed then it's gonna work well. It (apparently?) doesn't cost much. The one version I've presented above (ver 1) you can build without going back to the tent for resources if you place it on a cliff.
Also, it seems that this trap is going always to take at least one casualty. It might look to be for single use only. But it isn't. And that's in my opinion its best feature - you can always arm it easily and more important quickly - you just need to chop some wood and place the doors again and voilà!

The spike thing seems to be optional. I'm not sure whether they're necessary or not. And whether they're correctly placed.

Oh, I have just discovered that this backwall around the doors on the fourth screenshot is completely useless and in a fact I suppose it won't allow doors to collapse. My bad.

Now I'm ready for your critique !

EDIT:

So I was just playing few mins ago on Action! Unlimited and I wanted this trap to go through the baptism of fire. I'm glad it passed the exam. It really worked well as a front-tower-trap. The knights that got stuck had no idea about the doors that are going to collapse on them. They tried few times until they found out what is it all about. Even bomb didn't help them -> doors eventually collapsed and they died under it. Until builder came to disarm it, it was deadly .

Although the most problematic thing for me was arming it as soon as it was possible. If I didn't make it for a time, then enemy had straight forward way to the next tower. Also I forgot to mention that I used Strathos front-tower design as basis of it during the play and as I said it really worked well.

All credits, glory and hail goes to unknown author vllxxe and vampo for showing me it!

 

i'm gonna post some of my versions in here after i read the full OP. i'll just edit them into this post, i just wanted to get it on here that the original author is vllxxe and that i gave him premium for designing this. no contest or anything, i just saw him being a really awesome front line builder that actually helped his knights and built fast defenses like this one when there weren't any knights to assist. he got many kills and few deaths as builder and pushed hard. i think he is new and i haven't seen him on the forums yet, but i think he is a promising and potentially very competitive builder.

 

you do realise that this way, you defy the purpose of your own trap?
if you place background walls next to the doors, they wont drop.

 

tl;dr

Thank you for expressing your priceless opinion on this trap and reading my post.

 

my bad.
I stopped reading after I saw the pictures and the text that went with them.
now that I read it, I understand it better. sorry.
still... did they really fall for it? :D

 

Looks very good, useful trap, im definitely gonna use it, i love quick front line towers.
And if you got resources you can upgrade it to a full tower, higher and stronger.

 

I though this was a booby trap

 

The first version =if a knight jumps up into the tower he'll be trapped, and the only to get out is to slash the doors, but they aren't supported by walls, so they'll collapse and kill the traped knight(s).
Second version traps the knights completely, so they can't get out.

 

nevermind in fact I thought it was a boob trap that's why I clicked lol

 

alright, i finally got around to cropping my screens. i've made other improvements than these in live games, but i still think these are pretty good examples of ways to expand this trap that i am growing increasingly fond of. at first i only liked it with the idea of using it against noobs. the more i employ it, the more i see frustration in even the more skilled knights. if reinforced properly, it is easy to repair and defend.

the traps biggest weaknesses are pretty easy to compensate and correct for:

1. weak to bombs
2. teamates open doors instead of letting the trap work it's magic
3. friendly builders don't understand the design and accidentally disengage it (this is really the biggest problem because you can't fix other players)

below is the bare minimum for this trap to function. this version is obviously very easy to break, but considering that the half that breaks is only 30 some stone and 20 wood, even this very weak defense can end up being cost effective. it goes up very quickly, and if you don't want knights slashjumping it, you can put one more stone above the front overhang before you place the single stone behind, like in all the rest of the shot in this post.


below is a reinforced version that is much harder to destroy. two very precise bombs will take out the very inexpensive front end. imho the bombs are wasted in this way as the front goes back up so quickly. the spike on the front gets a lot of use at hurried knights miscalculating the height, or trying to dig in and 5-block-jump. the 3 high stone back helps hurdle your team over the collapsible part instead of opening it and either letting the trapped knight out or making the collapse do no damage (open doors don't crush).


below is the same version as above, but i've chopped the tree down to hide the spike which makes it significantly more effective and placed an example spike inside that i like to put when there are no friendly knights out front. this is to damage the knights as they become trapped, which helps if there are too many in there at once, sometimes the collapse won't kill them all the way. this spike can occasionally damage teamates, so monitor it and take it away when they need to get through.


lastly this one has an extra tier in the trap which makes it harder to throw bombs through altogether, without getting trapped. it also makes it stronger to bombs. it can still be taken out with 2, but neither are resting points, so they have to be very precise and the thrower is likely to still be crushed. the team bridges help get players over the collapsible part and the front tower (although more expensive than my other designs) is much harder to get over and will frequently lure the more clever knights that are too smart to go inside. those ladders are intentional and the tree is again used to conceal a trap that you can hide in the upper teambridges to drop on enemies that try to climb the ladders. knights will usually only fall for this once or twice unless they have a builder with them. builders will sometimes fall for it over and over and over, hoping they can place that ladder to support the door from dropping.


-edit-
oh yeah and one thing i found since i took these pics, this works really well at the top of a cliff face, since it's already an overhang and frequently only one or two knights will make it up due to shield laddering. also keeps it a safer distance from bombs. with the right backwall placement, it can also be a great entrance to a faustpit.
</br>--- merged: Jan 14, 2013 2:22 AM ---</br>
so i've been playing with this more and found that filling the entrance with teambridges helps the resistance to bombs, because if enemies are near when they go off, the bridges won't take damage, just the stone. i've also used this as an entrance to a faust pit, which makes it much more expensive, but if you've got the time to do it, i think it's worth it. you can also put a guro grinder in the entryway to get a kill or two before the even get in. not sure if the grinder is worth it, though, i've found that knights tend to bomb first if there are spikes. if you're red, you can also make the front spike team friendly. here's what it looks like all put together:

 

It's a great trap I use it all the time now. Bombs are the only thing that really mess it up though.

 

yeah, if you reinforce the backside like in the last picture or with a traditional 3-wide tower, it's a lot more durable.

 

I love it.

 

very good idea Kalist and nice trap

 

It is, obviously, very easy to bomb jump over, and an experienced knight could bomb jump over it or collapse the top part with 2 or 3 bombs. It's also a bit expensive resource-wise(340 stone would take a while to obtain also), but overall it's a pretty good tower. I'll probably use this a lot. C:

 

naw, this is a very practical design. i use it all the time. it is practical for a lot of reasons. when it's early in the game, knights don't have bombs, so that "easy to collapse front" is not so "easy to collapse" by the time they get bombs, you've probably killed 1 or 2 knights with the trap, re-armed it, and added on to the back. you can attach the front end to the back with backwall to support it even when someone bombs the front or triggers the trap. easy to bomb jump, sure, but if you're crying about 340 stone being too much, you're not getting a tower that isn't easy to bomb jump and difficult to collapse. in my not so humble opinion, there are few designs that are as efficient in public servers and most of them are super boring.

allllso, i've been burrowing the entrance to this tower sometimes and the increased difficulty to collapse (almost impossible if you're monitoring it) makes this thing super formidable.

 

Fair enough, you have a point there. It's a pretty good trap and tower overall I guess.