Sealing areas

[Depili]

If there are areas where you can get into only once you need to also think about what items the player might actually leave there, so he can't really have access to any critical items before such a area or the player might find himself stuck later because the thing he needs has been left in that area.

[JohnWordsworth]

I agree with Depili - you have to be super careful not to allow the user to block their way forward in the game.

My personal opinion, is that I don't really like these sort of "one try to get in" areas unless you are choosing between two very distinct paths, but then... am I really going to play a game/mod twice just to see all of the content? Not likely. And so, do you really want me to only see a certain percentage of what you have made?

You could, however, have areas like this which give you one attempt to get in. BUT if you fail to get in, you can come back later with a Skeleton Key or some other device that will let you open this area up. The punishment for not getting in first time is that you have to basically wait until much later to get in here, but I personally feel that it should always be possible.

[QuintinStone]

Whats peoples opinions on putting areas into a map where you have one chance to get in. for example a secret that if you miss you cannot come back and get as i know this is never done in the main game.

It's kind of like the various gold locks you find in the game. There are a limited number of gold keys in the game and I think there are more locks than keys (at least I didn't find enough). So you have to decide which gold locks to open, based on your party classes and needs.

The "Cache" dungeon near the tower has like 4 cells with goodies in them. Naturally I saved and reloaded, trying every door to see which had the best stuff.