Laser tripwire (DX)

Red and blue laser tripwires

Laser tripwires are triggering mechanisms in Deus Ex. They are generally used as traps in game environments.

Overview

Laser tripwires are triggered when the player touches their laser beam. There are two varieties of laser tripwire:

• Red tripwires – Red tripwires generally trigger an alarm when activated, similar to security cameras. In some instances, red tripwires will activate a turret, causing the turret to fire upon the player.
• Blue tripwires - Blue tripwires are generally tied to security measure other than alarms and turrets. In most cases, blue tripwires deploy security robots to attack the player. During the first visit to Battery Park, the blue tripwires trigger explosives in the subway station.

Internally, emitters for red tripwires are implemented by the object class LaserTrigger, while emitters for blue tripwires are implemented by the object class BeamTrigger. The beam effect is implemented by the LaserEmitter object class, which implements both red and blue beams.

Game mechanics

Thermoptic camo is the sole means available for rendering the player undetectable by laser tripwires. Neither the Cloak nor the Radar Transparency augmentations allow the user to pass through laser tripwires undetected.

Some tripwires are triggerable only by the player, and not by other world objects. The beams of these tripwires can be obstructed with objects such as crates, or gas clouds from a pepper gun or fire extinguisher, allowing the player to pass through without touching the beam. However, other tripwires are set to detect all objects. These tripwires cannot be bypassed by obstructing their laser beams with objects, since doing so will trigger the tripwire. In general, there is no way of knowing in advance whether a laser tripwire is triggerable only by the player or by all objects.

Laser tripwires can be destroyed by destroying their emitters. Laser emitters have a minimum damage threshold of 50, and will take damage only from the "shot" and "exploded" damage types. Unlike other security devices, laser emitters are immune to sabot damage. Destroying the laser emitter will not cause the laser tripwire to trigger.

Emitters are affected by EMP damage. When an emitter is hit by EMP damage, it enters a "confused state" for 10 seconds. While in the "confused" state, the emitter will not trigger; however, it will still randomly emit a (non-interactive) beam for short durations.

See also

• Laser tripwire, for laser tripwires in other games.