Portal

A Portal (also known as a Gate or Entrance) is an entry point for any creatures "enabled" by a map and in the Creature Pool. It is a 3x3 room that is found in most maps and cannot be built, sold, or destroyed.
Typically, undead constructs like Skeletons, Ghosts, and Vampires have to be home-grown, but there are a few maps that allow them to emerge through the Portal.
==Dungeon Keeper==
The Portal allows creatures to enter the dungeon from their native underworld domains, and will do so continually, as long as it remains claimed, subject to certain restrictions. Scripts attached to the map files in the game will define the substantial rules governing a Portal's behavior:
;Enabled Creatures
:A creature needs to be enabled for a player on that map, in order for the player's Portal(s) to attract it. Some maps grant advantages or ramp up the difficulty by denying creatures to one or more players.
;Rooms
:A dungeon needs the room tiles demanded by a creature to entice it to pass through the dungeon's Portal.
;Lair Space
:The moment a creature is unable to find a Lair, the dungeon's portal ceases to generate new creatures until the situation changes. This event fires the announcement by the Mentor, "Your creatures need a bigger lair."
;Creature Pool
:There need to be instances of the creature left in the Creature Pool. The pool for most creatures is comfortably large— often 20 to 40— but tricky maps may sometimes put a severe limit on a certain type of creature; i.e., a pool of 4 Bile Demons, generating a mad scramble for them. When a creature enters through the portal or is scavenged directly from the pool, the Pool decrements by one. When a creature is killed, sacrificed, or tossed back through the Portal, the Pool increments by one.
;Creature Limit
:The map script defines a maximum number of minions, not including Imps, that may be on a Keeper's side. While this limit can be freely breached by converting and scavenging enemy forces, nothing comes in directly through the Portal for as long as the creature limit is met.
;Frequency
:The map script sets a number of Turns each portal is going to delay before sending in a creature. In the game files and this wiki, the value is known as the "Portal Speed," and the higher its value, the slower the portal. A map's defined Portal Speed usually lies somewhere between 250, which is every 13 seconds or so, and 800, quite a long wait. Each portal runs on its own clock; a player in control of two portals will attract creatures at double the rate.
;Random Chance
:All types of creatures meeting the above requirements have an equal chance of occurring through the Portal, when its generator clock fires. In particular, room sizes do not appear to weigh the odds in favor of certain minions in DK1.
===Example===
Let us say there are 10 Warlocks, 10 Dark Mistresses, and 10 Ghosts in the creature pool. Any match between multiple Keepers will involve a scramble to attract the biggest share of them. The Portal Speed defines how many turns to delay between making checks and sending in a creature, and is the same for all owned Portals on a map. Let us say the Portal Speed is 400. Then every 400 Turns, or ~20 seconds,At 20 frames per second. a Portal for each Keeper rolls a creature.
A player with just a Lair and Library has a 100% chance of rolling a Warlock, as long as:
#The map enabled Warlocks for that player
#The map has not enabled Beetles for that player (or there are none in the pool), or the player has fewer than nine tiles of Lair
#The map has not enabled Flies for that player, or there are none in the pool.
#9+ tiles of Library
#Zero tiles of Torture Chamber, or Ghosts and Mistresses not enabled for the player
#Lair either has space or has just filled; i.e., "Your creatures need a bigger lair" message not yet sent
#Player's Creature Limit not yet reached
#There is at least one Warlock left in the Creature Pool
Ghosts are not usually attracted through the Portal. However, if the map's script enables it for a player, that's what actually matters. Ghosts are attracted by 1+ tiles of Torture Chamber. If the player meets all the requirements for Warlocks and for Ghosts, each has a 50-50 chance of emerging. If the Torture Room is 9+ tiles, Mistresses can be attracted; each creature then has a 1-in-3 chance.
The player can force the odds to 50% Ghosts + 50% Mistresses by building a 9+ tile Torture Chamber and selling off his Library.
===Creature Pool and Portal===
Creatures killed by virtually any means, including combat, the Torture Chamber, Temple, and Prison, get returned or added to the Creature Pool. The creature pool can therefore go higher than it began, and acquire creatures it didn't even have. Any such new additions would still have to be enabled by the map script, for them to wander back in through the Portal.
E.g., a Samurai could be tortured to death and added to the creature pool, and even though he has no room requirements, he probably isn't enabled for any players. But, another Samurai could scavenge him out of the Pool.
The creature pool is reduced by exactly two means: ingress through the Portal and Scavenging directly from the Pool (rather than targets on the map). Scavenging from the Pool is effectively a way of reviving fallen creatures, albeit at Level 1.
===Gallery===
Early Portal Dungeon Keeper.png|The Portal as it appeared in a 1996 build
Dungeon Keeper Portal trans.png|Center portal in Blaise End... a tempting trap.
===Trivia===
*Before the revamp in 1996, the function of the Portal was split between the Summoning Chamber and another room called an entrance. This entrance was for your creatures' use, but heroes could find it.
==Dungeon Keeper 2==
Portals allow 15 creatures through the first one claimed, with an additional 5 creatures for each claimed afterwards.
In Dungeon Keeper 2, the number of Lair tiles in a dungeon affects the number of creatures that will come through a Portal. If you don’t have a Lair, only one creature will come through the Portal.
==== Gallery ====
File:Dungeon Keeper 2 Portal Troll Entrance.gif|A Troll entering a portal.
==Dungeon Keeper Online==
in Dungeon Keeper Online, the Creature Portal behaves similarly to the previous games' Portals.
==Notes==
==References==