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Caravel Forum : DROD Boards : Architecture : An ordinary hold (a different experience)
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Curzon
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icon An ordinary hold (0)  
Technically this no DROD hold.
I have made a hold for MobileDROD (playable on an emulator):
http://mypage.bluewin.ch/adensamer/mobile/mobileDRODEmulator.html

The aim of the hold is an introduction to DROD with some simple puzzles and a final level of slightly more difficult puzzles.

I have already posted this in the development forum, but I wanted to reach all the people out there, who are constantly testing (and commenting) holds of unexperienced architects.

Are the levels/rooms:
- too simple/hard?
- too varying in difficulty?
- bad designed?

(Note: This is not DROD, but a very similar clone for mobiles with some adjustments for the smaller screen size (breed counter = 20, wraithwing distance = 4, invisisbility radius = 4, ..). Progress in the hold cannot be saved in the emulator, but in the game menu->change level the first 6 out of 7 levels can be played directly. For more info see http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=9356&page=2)


04-30-2006 at 02:30 PM
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Kevin_P86
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icon Re: An ordinary hold (+1)  
I played most of the first level I think - I couldn't find any more rooms yet the blue door was still up.

My main problem is the screen is way too small, and the play is quite inconvenient due to not having a numpad and therefore having to use my mouse to play. However, that is to be expected.

Also, maybe it's just me, but I found the buttons to swing your sword reversed - I also found myself pressing the wrong one.

The room with the invisibility potion seemed much more challenging than the others that I played - from what I could tell it required backswiping, which does not belong on level 1 imo.

Otherwise, quite good!

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04-30-2006 at 06:37 PM
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Curzon
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icon Re: An ordinary hold (0)  
I experienced the screensize problem as well (that's why it is less tested, than I would want it to be).
No Numpad? You are using a notebook then? I can emulate a numpad on mine, maybe that is possible for yours (or i could simply add some other keys). About the wrong swinging: I can't really do anything about that, as the emulator software is quite complex and I am still surprised that I managed to change the keys in the first place.
Even if you do not have a numpad, you have q and w keys, so you could swing the sword (correctly) with these.

You are probably right about the room with the invisiblity potion.

I check what the problem with the blue door was.
04-30-2006 at 07:25 PM
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Doom
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icon Re: An ordinary hold (+1)  
A couple things about several rooms:

L2: 2N - You might want to add a checkpoint in this room. Maybe somewhere else too, I didn't pay much attention to this, but I don't remember seeing too many in the first few levels.
L2: 1S1W - The exit at the south end seems to lead nowhere.
L4: 1S2W - The doors are placed so that you don't need to open the middle one.
L4: 1S, 2S - The entrances are off by one tile. (pretty minor)
L5: 2N - Too hard compared to any other rooms in the hold, in my opinion. Also, I don't know what happened, but after clearing this room, I couldn't exit. The exit was just blocked. Restoring to previous room and returning fixed it. But after I re-cleared the room, the exit was once again just like a wall...

Generally, the difficulty curve could be a lot smoother. You've got many advanced room concepts from levels 20+ in KDD very early in the hold. If you're intending this hold to be suitable for all kinds of players (the difficulty in the beginning suggests me so), you could maybe add some more levels and lower the difficulty increment rate. Or just lower the difficulty in several places.
04-30-2006 at 08:39 PM
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Curzon
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icon Re: An ordinary hold (0)  
I uploaded a second emulator, which has more the looks of an I-Pod than a cell phone, but with doubled screen size.

The link is
http://mypage.bluewin.ch/adensamer/mobile/mobileDRODEmulatorLarge.html

The blue door problem is solved (there was a testing room far to the north, which I had forgotten about...).

L4: 1S, 2S - The entrances are off by one tile

I thought I found all of these (there were at least 10).

You are probably right about the difficulty curve. That was one of my main concerns, but I am already exhausted by creating "merely" 80 rooms. :?

04-30-2006 at 11:19 PM
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